Battle of Prairie Grove

Battle of Prairie Grove

Part of: Civil War

date	December 7, 1862
place	Washington County , Arkansas , USA
output	Union victory

Parties to the conflict
United States	Confederate States of America
Commander
James G. Blunt Francis J. Herron	Thomas C. Hindman
Troop strength
10,000	11,000
losses
1,251 killed, wounded and missing	1,317 (at least) killed, wounded and missing

The Battle of Prairie Grove took place in Washington County , northern Arkansas , on December 7, 1862 , during the Civil War . A Confederate force under General Hindman tried to defeat two spatially separated sections of the northern frontier army before they could unite. Hindman bypassed for this purpose the Division of General Blunt and faced the divisions General Herron on the hill Prairie Grove contrary. Herron took the offensive and wanted to fight his way to Blunt's division. In a series of attacks and counter-attacks, neither side could gain significant advantages, but Blunt, in turn, marched to Herron's support and reached the battlefield that afternoon. Even after that, neither side was able to drive the enemy from the battlefield, but Hindman's Confederates retreated south again during the night. The Battle of Prairie Grove was one of the most important battles in the theater of war west of the Mississippi . The Union's victory secured Northern Arkansas for itself and paved the way for the conquest of Little Rocks next summer.

prehistory

Confederate reorganization in Arkansas

In March 1862, Northern forces under Brigadier General Samuel Curtis defeated the Confederate States under Major General Earl Van Dorn in the Battle of Pea Ridge in northern Arkansas, thereby securing control of the border state of Missouri . At the same time, the Confederate position in Tennessee and Kentucky collapsed as a result of the defeats at Mill Springs , Fort Henry and Fort Donelson . The Confederate commander west of the Appalachians , General Albert Sidney Johnston , therefore concentrated his units at Corinth and ordered Van Dorn's troops to support the eastern side of the Mississippi.

Northern Arkansas was thereby militarily bared except for a few militia units . Curtis' Southwest Army took the offensive with the aim of conquering the capital, Little Rock . On May 3, his troops reached Batesville , about 90 miles north of Little Rock. However, its further advance slowed due to supply problems.

Thomas Carmichael Hindman took over the Confederate forces in Arkansas in 1862 and built up a new force capable of offensive operations.

On the Confederate side, Major General Thomas C. Hindman was appointed the new Department of the Trans-Mississippi Department of Defense on May 26th . Hindman arrived in Little Rock on May 31, 1862. In his entire military district he had only 9,000 men, including 3,000 Indians who had joined the southern states. Hindman was considered a colorful personality. He was 34 years old and had represented Arkansas in Congress before the war . He is described as "neat, lively, dandy", but above all as energetic. Despite the bad situation in Arkansas, he immediately turned his attention to the offensive and began to build a new army. In this way he obtained the transfer of some units from other theaters of war. At the same time, the governor of Arkansas tried in response to the withdrawal of Van Dorn's armed forces to set up his own units, which were only obliged to the member state and its defense and should not be under the Confederate army. Hindman threatened to transfer these troops into Confederate service under the Confederate Conscription Act, and the governor eventually relented. Hindman's goal was also that his defense area could be militarily self-sufficient. He therefore initiated the construction of factories that produced weapons, primers, but also leather, shoes and other war goods. At the beginning of July 1862 he had built an army that comprised 20,000 men and 46 guns. Through a series of deception (and thanks to Curtis' supply concerns) he managed to force Curtis to abandon his offensive against Little Rock. The Union general and his army withdrew first to Batesville and then eastwards towards Helena on the Mississippi, where they could be supplied by the river.

Hindman also took drastic measures to build it up. So on June 30th he declared martial law over Arkansas. To combat desertion , he ordered ten deserters to be sentenced and shot. He also required slave owners to provide their slaves for digging and confiscated and burned all the cotton that he feared might fall into the hands of Curtis' troops. Such measures did not make him popular with the population and especially with the local plant elite and he became politically vulnerable. In September 1862, President Jefferson Davis replaced him as commander of the Trans-Mississippi Military Area by Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes . Hindman, however, retained command of the Arkansas District and Indian Territory .

Hindman's first offensive

Curtis' forces in northern Arkansas weren't the only threat to the Confederates. At Fort Scott , Brigadier General James G. Blunt commanded a division that had just returned from an expedition into the Confederate-controlled Indian Territory. Blunt wanted to move back into Indian territory, but had to help out the local commander John McAllister Schofield due to strong Confederate guerrilla activity in neighboring Missouri .

General map of northwest Arkansas and adjacent areas at the time of the Civil War. The Battle of Prairie Grove took place southwest of Fayetteville.

Hindman meanwhile had his troops, now as “1. Trans-Mississippi Army Corps ”, collected at Fort Smith in Northern Arkansas. From there he marched into Missouri with the aim of advancing to the river of the same name. In early September he reached southwest Missouri and wanted to advance from there to Springfield . Shortly thereafter, however, he was ordered from Holmes to Little Rock. In his absence, command of his troops fell to Brigadier General James S. Rains .

On September 19, Curtis took command of the newly created superior defense area of ​​the Missouri , which included the states of Missouri , Arkansas , Kansas and the Indian Territory. Curtis concentrated three divisions against the Confederate invasion: From Springfield General Schofield led two divisions to the southeast and from Fort Scott Blunt's reorganized division was also ordered to South Missouri. Hindman had instructed Rains not to continue the offensive in his absence, but Rains sent his cavalry in a northeasterly direction towards Newtonia . On September 30, she met Frederick Salomon's brigade from Blunt's division and repulsed them. Blunt and Schofield, for their part, concentrated their troops in Newtonia and with combined forces they now defeated the Confederate cavalry. The combined force consisted of three divisions and was placed under Schofield's command as the Army of the Frontier . With around 11-14,000 men of effective strength, the Frontier Army succeeded in driving the Confederates out of Missouri. In late October, the Confederates withdrew behind the Boston Mountains and Schofield's forces occupied Fayetteville , northwest Arkansas.

Regrouping

Union General James G. Blunt. Blunt commanded a division of the Frontier Army and in the fall of 1862 took over command of the army on an interim basis. His division was the only one that stayed in Arkansas in November.

Hindman had meanwhile returned to his corps from Little Rock. In the weeks that followed, both sides maneuvered in northern Arkansas without being able to gain much advantage. Both sides had to contend with supply problems. Schofield and Blunt were a long way from their Springfield and Fort Scott supply depots, and Hindman's supplies were hampered by low tides in Arkansas . The mountainous region around the Boston Mountains also gave the armies little opportunity to eat in the country. At the beginning of September, the two armies marched away from each other: The Union troops withdrew to the northeast. Schofield with the two divisions Tottens and Herrons marched on Ozark, Missouri, while Blunt's division remained in northern Arkansas. In their retreat, Union forces used scorched earth tactics to make a future offensive logistically more difficult for the Confederates. Hindman, for his part, withdrew his army to the Arkansas Valley and from there to Fort Smith to replenish and regroup.

Both high commanders - Curtis in St. Louis and Holmes in Little Rock - were also pressured from Washington and Richmond at this time to support the strategically important campaign against Vicksburg . Curtis wanted to send two of Schofield's divisions to Helena in order to cooperate with Grant's troops on the other bank of the Mississippi. The Confederate government in turn urged Holmes to retake Helena for the Confederate or to send 10,000 men to Vicksburg. Hindman had since learned of Schofield's withdrawal and instead convinced his superior to let him attack Blunt's isolated division in northern Arkansas.

Hindman's second offensive

Francis J. Herron during the Civil War. The twenty-five-year-old Herron led two divisions of the Union Army in a forced march to Blunt's reinforcements.

Hindman's field army was around 11,500 strong and had 22 guns at that time. Blunt, with about 7,000 men and 20 guns, bivouacked twenty miles southwest of Fayetteville, while Schofield's other two divisions (about 6,000 men with 22 guns) were near Springfield, more than a hundred miles from Blunt. Schofield himself was sick. Blunt was nominally in command of the entire Frontier Army. The two divisions at Springfield were now under General Herron. Blunt, 36, was an aggressive leader. He had originally come to Kansas as a doctor, but had made a name for himself there as an abolitionist and radical Republican during the unrest of the 1850s . He did not care much about military ceremonies, but he was bold, determined, and popular with his men.

Hindman had sent a cavalry division under Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke to Cane Hill, southwest of Fayetteville, to gather supplies. When Blunt found out about this, he attacked Marmaduke on November 28 with 5,000 men. The Confederates withdrew, but Blunt's tactical offensive had further increased the distance between him and Herron's two divisions. Nevertheless, he decided to keep the position at Cane Hill and summoned Herron's divisions to him. He later admitted, however, that he had no idea where exactly those two divisions were at the time.

In fact, the Confederates were significantly closer to Blunt at this point than his possible reinforcements. Hindman's route was more difficult, however. In addition, Herron urged his two divisions on to a forced march. In freezing cold and on bad roads, the Northerners covered more than a hundred miles between December 3rd and 6th. At midnight on December 6th they reached Fayetteville, only twenty miles from Blunt. One officer involved later wrote that this was "the greatest march that any force carried out during the war of rebellion". On Blunt's orders, Herron has already sent a large part of his cavalry to him. These reinforcements - around 1,600 men - reached Blunt at his Boonsboro headquarters on the evening of December 6th .

Hindman had reached Blunt's position on the morning of December 6th. Here he learned of Herron's efforts and of Blunt's reinforcements. He feared that Blunt would retreat northeast to Herron in an attack on Cane Hill and therefore changed his plans: Instead of attacking Blunt, he only had a cavalry brigade watch him and took the bulk of his army - around 10,000 men - on another march head north to defeat Herron first and then focus on Blunt.

course

Associations involved

The troops used on the Union side were known as the Frontier Army and were subordinate to the Missouri Defense Area ( Department of the Missouri ), which was commanded by Major General Samuel R. Curtis. The Frontier Army was structured as follows:

division	brigade	Subordinate units
1st (Kansas) Division Brigadier General James G. Blunt	1st brigade    Brigadier General Frederick Salomon	Two regiments of infantry Three regiments of cavalry with assigned artillery batteries An artillery battery
	2nd brigade Colonel William Weer	Three regiments of infantry An artillery battery
	3rd brigade Colonel William F. Cloud	Two regiments of infantry A regiment of cavalry with an assigned artillery battery Two batteries of artillery
2nd (Missouri) Division Brigadier General James Totten , represented by Col. Daniel Huston, Jr.	1st brigade Colonel Daniel Huston Jr. Col. John G. Clark	A regiment of infantry A regiment of cavalry An artillery battery
	2nd brigade Colonel William M. Dye	Two regiments of infantry A regiment of cavalry An artillery battery
3rd (Missouri) Division Brigadier General Francis J. Herron	1st brigade Colonel Dudley Wickersham Lt. Col. Henry G. Bertram	A regiment of infantry Two regiments of cavalry with assigned artillery batteries A regiment of cavalry An artillery battery
	2nd brigade Colonel William W. Orme	Two regiments of infantry A regiment of cavalry An artillery battery
	Not divided into brigades	Two regiments of cavalry

Hindmann's command was referred to as I. Corps of the Trans-Mississippi Army and was subordinate to Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes' Department of the Trans-Mississippi . It was structured as follows:

division	brigade	Subordinate units
Shoup's Division Brigadier General Francis A. Shoup	Fagan's Brigade Brigadier General James F. Fagan	Four regiments of infantry A battalion of snipers An artillery battery
	McRaes Brigade Colonel Dandridge McRae	Four regiments of infantry An artillery battery
Frost's Division Brigadier General Daniel M. Frost	Parsons Brigade Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons	Five regiments of infantry A battalion of snipers An artillery battery
	Shavers Brigade Colonel Robert G. Shaver	Three regiments of infantry An artillery battery
	Roane's Brigade Brigadier General John S. Roane	A regiment of infantry Four regiments of cavalry Two batteries of artillery
Marmaduke's Division Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke	Shelby's brigade Colonel Joseph O. Shelby	Three regiments of cavalry A battalion of cavalry A group of irregulars An artillery battery
	Carrols / Monroes Brigade Colonel Charles A. Carroll Lt. Col. James C. Monroe	Two regiments of cavalry
	MacDonald's Brigade Colonel Emmett MacDonald	Two regiments of cavalry An artillery battery

Starting position and contact

Map of the battlefield. The map is drawn from the perspective of Herron's command, facing south. Above is the Confederate position along the north side of Prairie Grove, below the Illinois and the road to Fayetteville.

At dawn on December 7th, Blunt and two brigades had taken up a position on a ridge near Newburg , southeast of the road to Fayetteville. Two streets met at Newburg: Fayetteville Road stretched northeast, over which Herron's command marched in the direction of Blunt. The Van Buren Road, on which Hindman's command had arrived, led southeast. Hindman had Colonel Monroe's cavalry brigade, southeast of Blunt, on Van Buren Road. The majority of his army - Marmaduke's Cavalry Division and the Frosts and Shoups Infantry Divisions - was now to march north along the Cove Creek Road further east, to the point where Cove Creek Road joins Fayetteville Road. From there the Confederate Army was to pivot northeast and then march along Fayetteville Road towards Herron's column. The abandoned Monroes Brigade, meanwhile, had the task of skirmishing with Blunt in order to distract him from the march of the main column.

On the Union side, two more cavalry units of regimental strength were on their way to Blunt's position. They met Marmaduke's division in the morning hours of December 7th and were put to flight. The Union cavalry fled along Fayetteville Road towards Herron, who had continued his march. Herron tried to stop the cavalrymen from escaping and even shot one of the riders off his horse for this purpose.

Herron's infantry took up positions on the north side of the Illinois . On the other side of the river, Hindman posted his troops on a densely wooded hill called Prairie Grove. Between the Confederates on Prairie Grove and the Unionists on the north side of the Illinois was a flat prairie landscape (Crawford's Prairie) , which extended in north-south direction about 1200 meters. There were several farmhouses on the north side of Prairie Grove, and further south, at the junction of Fayetteville and Cover Creek Road, a church rose.

At the beginning of the fighting, both Herron and Hindman only had parts of their troops. At the beginning Herron only had his leading division with him, while the other was still on the march. Hindman had left an infantry division along Fayetteville Road, facing southwest, to block a possible advance by Blunt. He therefore only had Shoups infantry division and Marmaduke's cavalry. At around 11 a.m. these 4,800 men and 10 guns were in position on the north side of Prairie Grove.

Attacks and counter attacks

View from the battlefield to the east. The Boston Mountains can be seen in the background.

Herron was in a difficult position. On the one hand, he saw that the Confederate position on Prairie Grove was very strong, on the other hand, his mission was to get to Blunt in Cane Hill as soon as possible. Herron later stated that he knew he was facing a large part of Hindman's force, but he probably initially believed it was just a minor blockade attempt. He wanted to position his artillery, use it to silence the Confederate artillery, and then storm the Confederate position.

Herron's artillery was superior to that of Hindman in both quantity and quality. Herron was able to deploy 20 against the 10 Confederate artillery pieces. Half of Herron's guns consisted of modern rifled cannons, while Hindman could only muster older six-pounder cannons and twelve-pounder howitzers . In addition, the Union artillery had more ammunition available. The result was clear. While Union forces were able to put the Confederate batteries under precise fire, the Confederate response remained ineffective. Hindman ordered his batteries to stop firing at 2:00 p.m. to avoid wasting more ammunition. Union artillery continued to fire into Confederate positions on Prairie Grove. Although the losses among the forest-covered Confederates were small, many later recalled the concentrated fire of the Union artillery, which seemed "as thick as hail" to a participant in the battle.

The Borden House marked the contested center of the Confederate line.

After the Confederate artillery was driven back, Herron let his infantry advance at around 2:30 p.m. and marched across Crawford's Prairie to Prairie Grove. The fact that Herron responded so promptly to Blunt's orders and sent almost all of his cavalry south was in revenge for the Union. Herron lacked the means of education. He assumed that the Confederate's right wing ran near the Borden family farmhouse and launched his attack there. In fact, the Borden House was right in the middle of the Confederate line. Herron's plan to roll up the Confederate's right flank therefore failed. Thanks to the nature of the terrain, the 20th Wisconsin managed to overrun a Confederate battery west of the Borden House, but was then thrown back by a counter-attack by two regiments from General Fagan's brigade. The 19th Iowa east of the Borden House fared no better; it also faced two Arkansas regiments. In a firefight west of the Mississippi, which was one of the most intense during the Civil War, it was defeated and also had to back down. The sight of fleeing Union forces encouraged a few of the Arkansas regiments to launch an impromptu counterattack from Prairie Grove, which collapsed in the Union artillery's grape fire .

Herron sent two additional regiments into the attack, but they were also repulsed. Again the Confederates launched an uncoordinated counterattack, and again this was repulsed.

Blunt arrives

Meanwhile, Blunt had noticed the Confederate maneuver and had rushed to Herron's aid. There are various details about the time of its arrival. In his official report on the battle, he said he reached the battlefield at 1:45 p.m. Herron, on the other hand, gave two different times: In a report dated December 9, he wrote that Blunt had arrived at 4:00 p.m., a few days later he dated Blunt's arrival at 2:30 p.m. Historian William L. Shea believes the early times are implausible and puts Blunt's arrival at around 3:15 p.m., around the time the second Confederate counterattack failed. In any case, Blunt reached the battlefield on Herron's right and attacked. Hindman threw Parson's division at him, which stopped Blunt's attack. Again the Confederates took the initiative, and again they were stopped by the Union artillery.

At nightfall, despite five hours of bloody fighting, a tactical stalemate had arisen. Hindman's operational goal of defeating Herron before he could unite with Blunt, however, had been thwarted by the arrival of Blunt. Hindman's army was also unable to continue the fight due to a lack of ammunition and food in particular. Hindman gave the order to retreat that night. The Confederates covered the wheels of their guns with blankets so as not to make the Union troops aware of their movement through the noise. As the rearguard, Marmaduke's cavalry division remained on the battlefield. The next day, accompanied by Hindman, she too set off for Van Buren.

aftermath

The northern states put their losses at 175 dead, 813 wounded and 263 missing, a total of 1,251 men. The Confederate reports gave 164 dead, 817 wounded and 263 missing, but are likely to be less reliable and should be viewed as a lower limit. Hindman's army was demoralized by the withdrawal. Illness and desertions reduced their numbers to only around 5,000 men. Badly cared for and badly fed, they camped in the Arkansas Valley near Van Buren and Fort Smith. However, the energetic blunt did not let her relax there. Despite the concerns of his superior Schofield, he pursued the Confederate with 8,000 men at the end of December, crossed the Boston Mountains and attacked Van Buren on December 28th. Hindman retired to Little Rock.

Blunt and Herron were both promoted to major generals in March 1863, ranked November 29, 1862. Despite the victory at Prairie Grove, there was a dispute between General Schofield and his two subordinates Blunt and Herron after the battle. On the one hand, it was about the evaluation of the campaign and the role of the three participants, but also about political differences: Schofield was politically rather conservative and against the abolition of slavery , while Blunt and Herron belonged to the group of radical abolitionists . In the short term, the dispute was resolved by Schofield's transfer to the Cumberland Army . On May 13, 1863, however, he returned as the new commander of the Missouri Defense Division. Herron refused to serve under Schofield and was transferred to Ulysses S. Grant's Tennessee Army . General Curtis also had to resign due to political differences: As a former Congressman for the Republicans, he was at odds with both his subordinate Schofield and the Democratic governor of Missouri Hamilton R. Gamble and with Henry W. Halleck , the US commander in chief - Army. Lincoln was not dissatisfied militarily with Curtis, but replaced him with Schofield in May 1863 in order to end the political trench warfare (and, as he himself said, because he could remove a general but not a governor). Curtis, however, returned a year later as commander of the Kansas Defense Area back to the theater of war west of the Mississippi.

The Battle of Prairie Grove had several important implications. Hindman's army was now definitely in no condition to intervene in any way in the defense of Vicksburg. The defeat at Prairie Grove and the retreat behind the Arkansas meant the Confederates' permanent loss of northwest Arkansas and northern Indian territory. Although there were cavalry raids and guerrilla actions as far as Missouri in the future , the Confederates were never able to control the area militarily. The Prairie Grove campaign was also the last large-scale operational offensive in the southern states west of the Mississippi. From now on, they remained on the defensive and could at most tactically switch to counter attacks. After the surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson in the summer of 1863, the Trans-Mississippi Defense Area was cut off from the rest of the Confederation. A few weeks later the Confederates were ousted from Little Rock and Forth Smith by unionist offensives and, with the exception of partisans, withdrew to the southwestern part of the state.

Commemoration

The battlefield is now a state park in the state of Arkansas, the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park . In 1908 the United Daughters of the Confederacy had acquired parts of the former battlefield and started holding veterans' meetings. The park now covers almost 3.5 square kilometers and is also being developed archaeologically. A special feature of the park is the Hindman Hall visitor center , the only building named after a Confederate general on a battlefield during the Civil War. General Hindmans eldest son had 100,000 in his will dollars leave for the purpose of building a memorial on the Prairie Grove Battlefield his father. This money was used for the construction of the visitor center and explains its name. Every two years the park a large reenactment instead of the battle, a kind of adjustment, the largest of its kind in Arkansas.

• 

  Monument to the battle

• 

  Hindman Hall Visitor Center

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} James M. McPherson: The Atlas of the Civil War . 1st edition. Running Press Book Publishers, Philadelphia 2005, ISBN 0-7624-2356-0 , pp. 48 .
2. ↑ William L. Shea. 2012. The Aftermath of Prairie Grove: Union Letters from Fayetteville. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 71: 203-216, here p. 203
3. ↑ William L. Shea. 2012. The Aftermath of Prairie Grove: Union Letters from Fayetteville. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 71: 203-216, here p. 203
4. ↑ Steven E. Woodworth, Jefferson Davis and his Generals , pp. 70, 85 and 114f.
5. ^ Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , p. 348
6. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 133f.
7. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 134f.
8. ↑ Steven E. Woodworth, Jefferson Davis and his Generals , p. 122
9. ^ Foote, Fredericksburg to Meridian , p. 46, James M. McPherson. 2000. Die for Freedom , Augsburg: Weltbild, p. 657
10. ^ Foote, Fredericksburg to Meridian , p. 46; Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 134-136
11. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 136f., Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 5
12. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 136, 139f. Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 8f.
13. ^ Josephy Jr, The Civil War in the American West , pp. 357ff.
14. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 14f., P. 26
15. ↑ Official Records, Series 1, Volume 13, p. 653
16. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 142; Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 22-27
17. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 26-29; Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 142f.
18. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 143
19. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 45–47, chapter 4.
20. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 63f., Pp. 79-80
21. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 64f., Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 144
22. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , 144
23. ^ Foote, Fredericksburg to Meridian , pp. 47f.
24. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 18
25. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 90-93
26. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 145
27. ^ Foote, Fredericksburg to Meridian , pp. 48f., Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 128
28. ↑ cited in Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 128f.
29. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 125, p. 131
30. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 147
31. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 290f.
32. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 291–29.
33. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 127, pp. 138f
34. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 147
35. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 135-142
36. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 147
37. ^ Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , p. 365
38. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 146–146.
39. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 148ff., P. 152
40. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 155-158
41. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 160-162
42. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 148f.
43. ^ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 164
44. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 169-172, 174, 176-179
45. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 149
46. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 192f., P. 196
47. ↑ Official Records, Series 1, Volume 22, Part 1, p. 74
48. ↑ Official Records, Series 1, Volume 22, Part 1, p. 101
49. ↑ Official Records, Series 1, Volume 22, Part 1, p. 106
50. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 211, p. 322
51. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , p. 149
52. ↑ Shea, Fields of Blood , pp. 240f., Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 149f.
53. ^ Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , p. 366
54. ↑ William L. Shea. 2012. The Aftermath of Prairie Grove: Union Letters from Fayetteville. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 71: 203-216, here p. 203
55. ^ Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , p. 366
56. ↑ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 152f., Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , pp. 366f.
57. ↑ Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1964, pp. 38, p. 229
58. ^ Cutrer, Theater of a Separate War , pp. 156f., P. 476
59. ^ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 286
60. ↑ Lincoln to Schofield, May 27, 1863. In: Roy P. Basler (Ed.) The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , Volume 6 New Jersey 1953, p. 234
61. ^ John H. Eicher, David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands , Stanford University Press, 2001, p. 196
62. ^ Foote, Fredericksburg to Meridian , p. 51
63. ^ Josephy Jr., The Civil War in the American West , p. 367; Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 287
64. ↑ James M. McPherson. 2000. Die for freedom , Augsburg: Weltbild, p. 658
65. ^ Staff of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism: Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park in the Encyclopaedia of Arkansas , accessed December 27, 2019
66. ^ Shea, Fields of Blood , p. 285
67. ↑ Arkansasstateparks.com: Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park , accessed December 27, 2019

literature

• Thomas W. Cutrer. 2017. Theater of a Separate War - The Civil War West of the Mississippi River. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
• Shelby Foote . 1986. The Civil War - A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian . First vintage edition. New York: Vintage Books.
• Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. 1991. The Civil War in the American West New York: Alfred K. Knopf.
• United States War Department: The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1880-1901. Especially here
  • Series 1, Volume 22, Part 1
• William L. Shea. 2009. Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Web links

• Entry on the battle in the National Park Service database

This article was added to the list of excellent articles in this version on January 13, 2020 .