Battle of Prairie Grove
The Battle of Prairie Grove was a battle of the American Civil War fought on December 7, 1862. While tactically indecisive, the battle secured the Union control of northwestern Arkansas.
A division of Union troops in the Army of the Frontier, commanded by James G. Blunt, was posted in northwestern Arkansas after winning the Battle of Cane Hill on November 28. The First Corps, Trans-Mississippi Army, commanded by Thomas C. Hindman moved towards Blunt's division in order to attack while it was isolated. However, Blunt was reinforced by two divisions commanded by Francis J. Herron, leading Hindman to take a defensive position on some high ground known as Prairie Grove. Herron attempted to assault Hindman's lines twice, but both attacks were beaten off with heavy casualties. Hindman responded to the repulse of each of Herron's attacks with unsuccessful counterattacks of his own. Later in the day, Blunt arrived and attacked Hindman's flank. Eventually, both sides disengaged and the fighting reached an inconclusive result. However, the unavailability of reinforcements forced Hindman's army to retreat from the field, giving the Union army a strategic victory and control of northwestern Arkansas.
Union forces reported suffering 1,251 casualties ; Confederate forces reported 1,317 casualties. Confederate forces suffered from severe demoralization, and many conscripts deserted. The Confederates had to leave many of their dead on the field, in piles and surrounded with makeshift barriers to keep feral pigs from eating the corpses. Today, most of the battlefield is preserved within Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.
Background
In March 1862, a Confederate army under the command of Earl Van Dorn engaged a Union army led by Samuel Ryan Curtis at the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas. Curtis' army soundly defeated Van Dorn's. After being defeated at Pea Ridge, Van Dorn and a substantial portion of his army were reassigned across the Mississippi River, effectively ending Confederate control of the region.Following Pea Ridge, Curtis drove further into Arkansas and planned to attack Memphis, but was ordered by Henry Halleck to send half of his force to Cape Girardeau for transfer to Tennessee. Curtis complied and was forced to abandon his plan, instead heading towards Little Rock. After a defeat in a small action near Searcy, Curtis decided that his supply line was vulnerable, and fell back, eventually reaching Helena.
In September, Curtis was assigned to command the Department of the Missouri, replacing its previous commander, John M. Schofield. Curtis later formed the Army of the Frontier and appointed Schofield to command the new army on October 12. However, on November 20, Schofield was forced to give up command of the army due to medical issues, and command passed to Brigadier General James G. Blunt. At the time of Schofield's relinquishment of command, Blunt's division was in Arkansas, while the rest of the Army of the Frontier was stationed near Wilson's Creek in Missouri, where a battle had been fought the year before.
The Confederate commander in the region, Thomas C. Hindman, had previously commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department, but his firm control of the region led to protests from prominent Arkansas civilians, leading Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, to relieve Hindman of command and replace him with Theophilus Holmes. On August 21, Holmes tasked Hindman with producing an organized army from the Confederate units in the Arkansas region and moving to regain control of Missouri for the Confederacy.
In October, Blunt's force made an incursion into Arkansas, and Hindman sent 2,000 men under Marmaduke's command to intercept Blunt and prevent him from joining the main Union force near Springfield, Missouri. Marmaduke gathered at Cane Hill, a ridge near the Boston Mountains. In response, Blunt marched his troops in two days, meeting Marmaduke's force near Canehill. In the ensuing Battle of Cane Hill, which took place on November 28, Blunt's 5,000 men defeated Marmaduke's 2,000 in a nine-hour battle.
Opposing forces
Union
At the beginning of the Prairie Grove campaign, the Union Army of the Frontier was commanded by Schofield. Schofield's army was divided into three divisions, commanded by Blunt, James Totten, and Herron. Blunt's division was known as the "Kansas Division", as many of the soldiers in the division were from Kansas. The division also contained sizable numbers of African American and Native American soldiers, which made Blunt's division unique among Union units in 1862. Totten's and Herron's divisions were both known as "Missouri Division", and contained men from Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The division also contained a regiment of Arkansas cavalrymen who had remained loyal to the Union despite the secession of Arkansas.Confederate
The Confederate army present at Prairie Grove was the First Corps, Trans-Mississippi Army, commanded by Hindman. Hindman's command was formed of four divisions: one of cavalry, two of infantry, and a mixed reserve division. The cavalry division consisted of men from Arkansas, Texas, and Confederate Missouri, and was commanded by Marmaduke. Marmaduke's division was poorly armed. Of the army's two infantry divisions, one was commanded by Daniel M. Frost and the other by Francis Shoup. Shoup's division consisted of Arkansas infantrymen, while Frost's division was mostly Missourians, although some Arkansas troops were included. The reserve division was commanded by John S. Roane, and was poorly equipped, organized, and led. Of Hindman and his division commanders, all had previous military experience. In particular, Hindman, Frost, and Roane had all seen action in the Mexican War.Maneuvering to battle
Hindman's offensive
After the Battle of Cane Hill, Hindman decided to send his entire army towards Cane Hill in order to assault Blunt. If all went according to Hindman's plan, he would be able to assault Blunt's position from both the front and along both flanks. At this time, Union forces menaced the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. On November 11, the Confederate government ordered Holmes to send 10,000 troops to reinforce Vicksburg. Holmes replied that two-thirds of his troops were in northwest Arkansas to oppose a Federal threat. Even so, he ordered Hindman to bring his troops to Little Rock. Holmes tried to dissuade Hindman from his plan to attack Blunt and the two generals engaged in an argument over the telegraph. Hindman had a forceful personality and won the argument with Holmes. By December 1, Hindman had gathered between 11,000 and 12,000 troops near Van Buren. The Confederate infantry and artillery moved out of their camps on December 3.Blunt's intelligence services alerted him to Hindman's preparations by the evening of December 2; a courier immediately set out for the telegraph station at Elkhorn Tavern. The messages included a situation report for Curtis in St Louis and an urgent request for Totten to send reinforcements. Blunt prepared to defend himself by posting William Weer's 2nd Brigade and William F. Cloud's 3rd Brigade on high ground south of Newburg with elements of Frederick Salomon's 1st Brigade watching Hogeye Road. A cavalry outpost was set up on Cove Creek Road to watch for Hindman's advance. Every morning from December 3 to 6, Blunt had his troops on the alert, with wagons packed and ready to move quickly.
On November 27, Curtis ordered Totten back to St Louis to be a witness at a court-martial. The unpopular Totten's departure pleased his soldiers and Daniel Huston Jr. assumed command of the 2nd Division. Within a few hours of receiving Blunt's telegraphed call for help, on the morning of December 4, Herron started the 2nd and 3rd divisions on "an epic of human endurance". From the afternoon of December 3 to the morning of December 7, Huston's and Herron's divisions marched respectively. Herron's two divisions averaged per day over rough roads in intensely cold weather with short stops to eat and sleep. In the early hours of December 6, Herron received a message from Blunt asking for cavalry. Herron promptly dispatched Dudley Wickersham with a 1,600-man provisional cavalry brigade which reached Blunt at 9:00pm that same day after a march.
Hindman's new plan
On December 5, Joseph O. Shelby's 1,200-man Confederate cavalry brigade began pressing back the 400 troopers of the 2nd Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment that guarded the Cove Creek Road. Blunt knew that if Hindman continued to use Cove Creek Road, it would be easy for him to cut off the Confederate retreat route. Blunt assumed correctly that Hindman intended to turn to the west and approach Newburg. However, Hindman's plan would change. The bad weather slowed down the march of Hindman's soldiers, so he postponed his planned attack until December 7. He believed that the nearest Union forces were near Springfield, but what he did not know was that Blunt anticipated the Confederate offensive and that Union reinforcements were approaching.On December 6, near mid-day, the 2nd Kansas Cavalry abandoned its blocking position on Cove Creek Road and withdrew northwest toward Newburg. That afternoon, James C. Monroe's Confederate cavalry brigade, supported by other units, skirmished with the 2nd Kansas Cavalry on Reed's Mountain. By nightfall Monroe's troopers occupied that terrain feature on the road to Newburg. That evening, Hindman and his commanders received startling intelligence that Herron's two divisions would reach Blunt the following day. Hindman realized that attacking Blunt at Newburg would simply push him back toward Herron's reinforcements. The Confederate commander knew that marching back to Van Buren would demoralize his soldiers, so he changed his plan. Hindman's new plan called for the army to march north on Cove Creek Road to Prairie Grove. At that location he would first crush Herron's force, then swing around and smash Blunt. The risk was that Hindman might be caught between the two Union forces if Blunt found out what was happening. At 4:00am on December 7, the Confederate army began to march north along Cove Creek Road. Shelby's cavalry brigade was in the lead.