Part II - The Battle of Prairie Grove
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Today the John Morrow House where Hindman met with his subordinates the night before the battle has been relocated to Prairie Grove State Park and stands on the battlefield the meeting generated. In addition to serving as Hindman's headquarters it also served as a hospital following the battle.
The action leading up to the battle had its origin earlier in the year when Confederate forces under Earl Van Dorn failed to eject Curtis in the Pea Ridge Campaign, following which the armies of both sides were withdrawn from the hills and mountains around Fayetteville east to what were thought to be more important theaters along or even across the Mississippi River. Into this vacuum stepped the diminutive figure of Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman, a native of Helena, Arkansas along the big river. Hindman put all his considerable energy into raising a new army of Arkansas conscripts and providing for them all an army could require from the depleted resources of the state.
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Commanders at Prairie Grove included, from right to left Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Himdman; Union Brig. Gen. Francis J. Herron; and Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt. Blunt's impetuous pursuit of Confederate raiders instigated Hindman's attack and Herron's subsequent forced march to reinforce Blunt. In a written order to his troops issued before the battle Hindman had stated,
Don't stop with your wounded comrade. The surgeons and infantry corps will take care of him. Do you go forward to avenge him.
Don't break ranks to plunder. If we whip the enemy all he has will be ours. If not, the spoils will be of no benefit to us. Plunderers and stragglers will be put to death upon the spot. File-closers are especially charged with this duty. The cavalry in your rear will likewise attend to it.
Remember that the enemy you engage have no feelings of mercy or kindness towards you. His ranks are composed of Pin Indians (full-blood Unionists)
, free-Negroes, Southern Tories, Kansas jayhawkers, and hired Dutch cut-throats.
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Hindman seized the opportunity offered by Blunt's pursuit of Marmaduke to march north from Ft. Smith on the Arkansas River near the border of Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in an attempt to crush the smaller Federal force before it could be joined by Herron marching from his camps on Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Missouri. When he realized Herron was already drawing near he called a meeting of his commanders to propose sidestepping Blunt in order to "chaw up Herron for breakfast, and then turn and gobble up Blunt for dinner." Leaving fires burning and a single regiment to deceive Blunt, Hindman's force led by Jo Shelby's cavalry marched the night of December 6 between the converging federals and took up a position on the ridge above which overlooked the crossing of the Illinois River by the Wire Road and awaited Herron's arrival.
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The map above shows the positions of the combined forces near the end of the day-long battle. Hindman's Arkansas and Missouri Confederates are represented by the west-to-east red lines near the bottom; Marmaduke's largely dismounted cavalry which had led the advance are at the extreme right with Missourians under generals D. M. Frost and Mosby M. Parsons and Arkansas conscripts under James Fagan and Francis Shoup extended the line to the left along the ridge facing north. Herron's outnumbered force crossed the Illinois River and slowly deployed facing Hindman's right. Blunt's force only arrived around 2:00 in the afternoon well after the battle had been going on for several hours, extending the Union line to the right of Herron.
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Hindman made the mistake of allowing Herron to deploy in his own time and fashion, which he did rather slowly and ponderously, all the while expecting to be joined by Blunt. In this he was taking a great risk because there was no agreement nor communications between the two Federal commanders who were essentially operating independently of each other. Following a long artillery duel, the outnumbered Herron attacked Hindman's confederates along the ridge upon which stood Prairie Grove Church and actually penetrated the line at the Borden House above. The Confederates rallied in the space behind the house seen below and counterattacked onto the plain before being shattered and driven back by Union artillery.
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Subordinate Confederate leaders at Prairie Grove included, from left-to-right above, Brig. Gen. James Fagan commanding an Arkansas unit; West Pointer Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke commanding all of Hindman's cavalry and responsible for the defense of the right flank; and Missouri Col. Joseph "Jo" Shelby, a veteran of the guerrilla war known as
Bleeding Kansas in the 1850's.
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In the afternoon Blunt's small army began to appear after making a forced march of its own to the battlefield from Cane Hill ten miles away. After waiting impatiently for Hindman to attack him there, when Blunt heard the opening guns at Prairie Grove he realized he had been fooled but quickly recovered and marched to the sound of the guns. Meanwhile, Herron continued to attack Hindman along the ridge, holding him in place until Blunt's arrival turned the battle in the Federals' favor. The addition of Blunt's force made the battle at Prairie Grove the third-largest in the Trans-Mississippi during the war, with some 9,000 Confederates under Hindman facing Blunt and Herron's 15,000 once they were combined.
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In another painting by Andy Thomas, Hindman's Arkansans attack through a cut hayfield in a vain attempt to disrupt Blunt as he deployed. The haystacks into which some of the wounded had crawled for shelter from the chill December night before some were accidently set on fire also played a part in the horrible aftermath of the battle, as recounted by Jay Monaghan in his
Civil war on the Western Border:
"The worst scene of horror was around the charred haystacks. Here the smell of burning flesh had attracted hogs during the night. They had rooted through the black ashes, dragging out, fighting over, and devouring morsels of human bodies - intestines, heads, arms, and even hearts."
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Hindman had been hindered throughout the battle by the recalcitrant behavior of his Arkansas conscripts, possibly one reason he had decided to stand on the defensive before Herron in the first place. According again to Monaghan,
"Salvage crews picked up unshot bullets by the hatful. The conscripts had bitten them from the cartridges and fired only blank loads against their nation's flag. In their pockets searchers found the propaganda leaflets Hindman had distributed." Nightfall brought an end to the battle which Hindman claimed as a victory because he continued to hold his position on the ridge. However, he realized that the union of the Federal forces meant he no longer had any hope of winning an actual victory on the battlefield. That night he began his retreat which was to prove far more disastrous to the Confederate cause in Arkansas than the battle itself had been when his army began to melt away on the return through the mountains to Van Buren. Battle losses included 339 dead and 1,630 wounded for both sides combined but desertion wrecked the Confederates in western Arkansas leading soon to the loss of Fort Smith.
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Today the scene of conflict is a pretty Arkansas State Park located on the southwest fringe of the sprawling Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro area. In addition to the well-preserved battlefield a virtual village of period structures like the 1834 John Latta House, known as
The Lord's Vinyard," and its outbuildings seen above have been brought here, as well as the Hindman Hall Museum which interprets the battle through exhibits of artifacts and a diorama. A driving tour follows the course of the action and a series of trails allow access to Confederate positions along the ridge.