Gallery: Battle of Prairie Grove
1st Arkansas Cavalry Carbine
Francis Herron
James Blunt
William Teed Officer Sash
“Sunflower” Canteen
Ark. Conscription Broadside
Thomas Hindman
Late November 1862 found three Union divisions positioned in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri — two under Brigadier General Francis J. Herron were camped near Springfield, while the third, the “Kansas Division” led by Brigadier General James G. Blunt, was located more than 100 miles away at the village of Cane Hill, Arkansas.
Confederate Major General Thomas C. Hindman, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Army, saw an opportunity to snatch the strategic initiative from the Federals. He proposed to march his troops north from Van Buren and destroy Blunt’s isolated division. By the time Hindman’s men arrived within striking distance of Blunt’s force, however, conditions had changed. The Confederate commander learned that Blunt had sent an urgent message to his superiors asking for help, and that Herron had been ordered to bring his troops to Cane Hill as quickly as possible. Faced with fighting two enemy forces, Hindman revised his battle plan. He proposed to destroy each Union force in detail, first Herron, then Blunt.
Herron’s men made an incredible forced march of more than 100 miles in three and a half days, arriving at Prairie Grove, southwest of Fayetteville, on the morning of December 7.
There they found Hindman’s army in position on a ridge near Prairie Grove Church. Knowing that his orders were to reach Blunt at Cane Hill as soon as possible, Herron ordered two unsuccessful assaults on the Confederate position that afternoon, followed by rebel counterattacks; after brutal fighting, neither Hindman nor Herron were able to gain any appreciable advantage.
