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The Battle of Prairie Grove: Setting the Stage
Both the Union and the Confederacy recognized
the importance of the Trans-Mississippi West. Each wanted to use the region as the basis for attacks and as a
source for supplies, including men, livestock, and agriculture. After Arkansas
seceded from the Union, Southern forces won the initial battles in this area. However, the
Union Army won important victories at the Battle of Pea Ridge and the Battle of Prairie Grove gaining control of that region
for the rest of the war.
On Dec. 7, 1862, Union forces from the Army of the Frontier and Confederates
from the newly formed Army of the Trans-Mississippi clashed on the open corn, wheat, and hay fields of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. The opposing forces had previously
fought several minor engagements in Missouri and Arkansas.
The battle opened with Confederate cavalry routing some Union cavalry a few miles south of the Prairie Grove Church.
The southerners lined up along the Prairie Grove ridge, stretching from the Borden House to the Morton House. There they repelled
two bloody attacks by Brig. Gen. Francis J. Herron's Federal troops who had just crossed the Illinois
River from the north. The Confederates counterattacked after each Union assault, only to be thrown back by the
Union cannons on the north side of the Borden cornfield, which devastated the rebel regiments as they came out of the woods
into the open farm fields in the valley. About 2:30 p.m., Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt's Federal troops arrived from Cane Hill
and attacked the Confederates on the western end of the ridge near the Morton House. This fighting continued until dark with
no advantage gained by either side. The South fell back during the night leaving the battlefield to the Union army. As a result,
the Confederates lost control of northwest Arkansas and never again attempting, with any
sizeable army, to seize northwest Arkansas or invade Missouri.
The Battle of Prairie Grove was practically forgotten,
even though it was one of the few Union victories in 1862. Larger and bloodier Civil War battles dominated conversations in
the North and South. However, the families in Prairie Grove would forever remember the images of December 7th and the days
that followed. Not only did they witness the horror of the battle as it raged across their property, but they endured the
subsequent harassment and raiding by Union troops and Confederate bushwhackers. (See Battle of Prairie Grove.)
Sources: National Park Service; Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Library of Congress; The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism
Recommended
Reading: Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove:
A Battlefield Guide, with a Section on Wire Road
(This Hallowed Ground: Guides to Civil War).
Description: Wilson’s Creek,
Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove were three of the most important battles fought west of the Mississippi
River during the Civil War. They influenced the course of the first half of the war in that
region by shaping Union military efforts while significantly contributing to Confederate defeat. Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove, the first book to provide a detailed
guide to these battlefields, takes the visitor step-by-step through the major sites of each engagement. Continued below...
With numerous maps and illustrations that enhance the
authors’ descriptions of what happened at each stop, the book also includes analytical accounts explaining tactical
problems associated with each battle as well as vignettes evoking for readers the personal experience of those who fought
there. An indispensable companion for the battlefield
visitor, this guide offers not only touring information and driving tours of sites associated with the campaigns that led
to the battles, but also a brief history of each battle and an overview of the larger strategy and tactics of the military
action in which these battles figured.
NEW!
Recommended Reading: Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Civil War
America)
(Hardcover). Description: On Sunday, December 7, 1862, two armies collided at an obscure Arkansas
hamlet named Prairie Grove in a desperate battle that effectively ended Confederate offensive operations west of the Mississippi River. In Fields of Blood, historian William L. Shea offers
a gripping narrative of the events surrounding Prairie Grove, one of the great unsung battles of the Civil War. Continued
below…
Shea provides
a colorful account of a grueling campaign that lasted five months and covered hundreds of miles of rugged Ozark terrain. In
a fascinating analysis of the personal, geographical, and strategic elements that led to the fateful clash in northwest Arkansas, he describes
a campaign notable for rapid marching, bold movements, hard fighting, and the most remarkable raid of the Civil War. After
months of intricate maneuvering punctuated by five battles in three states, armies led by Thomas C. Hindman and James G. Blunt
met one last time at Prairie Grove. The costly daylong struggle was a tactical draw but a key strategic victory for the Union,
as the Confederates never again seriously attempted to recover Missouri
or threaten Kansas.
Historians have long ignored the complex campaign that ended in such spectacular fashion at Prairie Grove, but it is at last
brought to life in these pages. From the Inside Flap: Shea offers a gripping narrative of the events surrounding Prairie Grove,
Arkansas, one of the great unsung battles of the Civil War that effectively ended Confederate offensive operations west of
the Mississippi River. Shea provides a colorful account of a grueling campaign that lasted five months and covered hundreds
of miles of rugged Ozark terrain. In a fascinating analysis of the personal, geographical, and strategic elements that led
to the fateful clash in northwest Arkansas,
he describes a campaign notable for rapid marching, bold movements, hard fighting, and the most remarkable raid of the Civil
War. About the Author: William L. Shea is professor of history at the University
of Arkansas at Monticello. He is coauthor
of several books, including Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West (UNC Press) and Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for
the Mississippi River.
Recommended
Reading: Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign
in the West. Description from Publishers Weekly: With its exhaustive research and lively
prose style, this military study is virtually a model work of its kind. Shea and Hess, who teach history at the University of Arkansas at Monticello
and Lincoln Memorial University
(Tenn.), respectively, convincingly argue that the 1862 campaign for Pea Ridge (Ark.) decisively changed the balance of power in the West, with the Union gaining effective control
of Missouri. Samuel Curtis, commander of the Federal Army
of the Southwest, understood the strategic requirements of his theater, according to the authors, and elicited the best performance
from his troops, even though they were beset by internal tensions. Continued below...
The Southern commander,
Earl van Dorn, the authors maintain, was a swashbuckler out of his depth--particularly in light of the administrative weaknesses
of the trans-Mississippi Confederacy. Their detailed analysis of the climactic battle impressively conveys the difficulties
of the improvised armies that groped for and grappled with each other in the Civil War West. From Library Journal:
The battle of Pea Ridge, fought in northwestern Arkansas in March 1862, was probably the most important trans-Mississippi battle of the
Civil War. It was unusual in the use of Indian troops and in the Confederates' numerical superiority, better supplies, and
inferior leadership. The battle ended any serious Confederate threat to Missouri and opened the Union's path into Arkansas. The book offers the rich tactical detail, maps, and order of battle that military scholars love but retains a very
readable style combined with liberal use of recollections of the troops and leaders involved… This is an important book for academic libraries and for public libraries in the region.
Recommended
Reading: Pea Ridge And Prairie Grove,
Or Incidents Of The War In Arkansas. Description: With the goal of sketching "at least some of the bright lights and
dark shadows of the war, " William Baxter authored his regional classic, Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, in 1864, before the
actual end of the Civil War. Primarily focusing on the civilians of the region, Baxter vividly describes their precarious
and vulnerable positions during the advances and retreats of armies as Confederate and Federal forces marched across their
homeland. In his account, Baxter describes skirmishes and cavalry charges outside his front door, the "firing" of his town's
buildings during a Confederate retreat, dashes between secessionist and Unionist neighbors, the feeding of hungry soldiers
and the forceful appropriation of his remaining food supply, and the sickening sight of the wounded emerging from the Prairie
Grove battlefield. Continued below…
Since its original
printing, this firsthand account has only been reprinted once, in 1957, and both editions are considered collectors' items
today. Of interest to Civil War scholars and general readers alike, Baxter's compelling social history is rendered even more
comprehensive by William Shea's introduction. Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove is a valuable personal account of the Civil War
in the Trans-Mississippi West which enables us to better comprehend the conflict as a whole and its devastating affect on
the general populace of the war-torn portions of the country.
Recommended Reading: Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers
and Their Image. Review: The Ozark region, located in northern Arkansas
and southern Missouri, has long been the domain of the folklorist
and the travel writer--a circumstance that has helped shroud its history in stereotype and misunderstanding. With Hill Folks,
Brooks Blevins offers the first in-depth historical treatment of the Arkansas Ozarks. He traces the region's history from
the early nineteenth century through the end of the twentieth century and, in the process, examines the creation and perpetuation
of conflicting images of the area, mostly by non-Ozarkers. Continued below…
Covering a wide range of Ozark
social life, Blevins examines the development of agriculture, the rise and fall of extractive industries, the settlement of
the countryside and the decline of rural communities, in- and out-migration, and the emergence of the tourist industry in
the region. His richly textured account demonstrates that the Arkansas Ozark region has never been as monolithic or homogenous
as its chroniclers have suggested. From the earliest days of white settlement, Blevins says, distinct subregions within the
area have followed their own unique patterns of historical and socioeconomic development. Hill Folks sketches a portrait of
a place far more nuanced than the timeless arcadia pictured on travel brochures or the backward and deliberately unprogressive
region depicted in stereotype.
Recommended
Reading: With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 (Histories of Arkansas).
Description: Thoughtfully written by Thomas A. DeBlack (Associate Professor of History, Arkansas Tech University), With Fire
And Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 provides a scholarly examination of just how the events of the Civil War and the Reconstruction
so heavily devastated the state of Arkansas, its population and its economy, that this southern state was never to fully regained
the level of prosperity it had enjoyed prior to the war. A candid and detailed retracing of crucial decisions, their interplay,
and their lasting legacy, With Fire And Sword is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and
Reconstruction Era reference collections and reading lists.
Recommended
Reading: The Flags Of Civil War Arkansas, by Glenn Dedmondt. Description: From the end of 1860 through the
spring of 1861, representatives from throughout Arkansas
gathered to discuss the option of secession. The question had been put to the legislators multiple times, but Unionist tendencies
prevailed in Arkansas, and the state was not among the first
to secede. On May 6, 1861, however, the representatives of the "Nary One" state met and decided that Arkansas belonged with her Southern brothers and voted 69 to 1 to dissolve their ties with
the federal government. Throughout the course of the Civil War, Arkansas
furnished sixty-five thousand men to serve in defense of the South, and each of the companies and regiments proudly bore a
banner to represent their cause. In this painstakingly researched study of Arkansas Civil War-era flags, the author presents
a stunning history of the Civil War in Arkansas as told
through the state's company, battle, and regiment flags. Included are the Bonnie Blue Flag, the First National Flag of the
Confederate States,
and dozens of Arkansas Infantry and Cavalry regiment and battalion flags, along with a concise text about the history of each
unit and flag itself.. Continued below…
From
the Back Cover: Praise for Glenn Dedmondt's
previous books: "A meticulously detailed resource offering very specific information for history and Civil War buffs, The
Flags of Civil War North Carolina, is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War studies and could very well
serve as a template for similar volumes." --The Midwest Book Review. "A good effort that serves to explain the flags these men fought for."
--Blue & Gray Magazine. "Colorful and well illustrated, and contains much information about each flag." --The Civil War
News.
On May 6, 1861,
representatives from Arkansas voted to dissolve their ties with the government in Washington, D.C., feeling that Arkansas
belonged with her Southern brothers. Arkansas furnished
65,000 men to serve in defense of the South, nearly its entire male population. The flags in this work are the symbols of
the sacrifices and strengths of these men from the Land of Opportunity. Despite the large number of companies outfitted in Arkansas, surprisingly few of their flags survive. As a result of detailed research into
archived newspapers and other contemporaneous accounts, the author provides here, for the first time, a nearly exhaustive
study of the flags and the men who proudly carried them. From the Bonnie Blue Flag, the unofficial state flag of secession
in Arkansas, to the First National flag of the Confederate
States and the numerous other company and regimental flags the men of Arkansas bore into battle, each banner is presented in full color,
accompanied by a history of its unit and creation. Other books in this series include The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated
History, The Flags of the Union: An Illustrated History, Flags of Louisiana, Flags of Tennessee, and Flags of Texas, all published
by Pelican.
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