Day Seven: Prairie Grove Battlefield

Day Seven: Prairie Grove Battlefield

We headed out of southern Arkansas today along the western edge of the state on our way to Prairie Grove, the site of a turning point battle during the Civil War’s western campaign.  

We certainly can’t call it a Civil War Harley Tour if we don’t visit at least one battlefield and I provide a bit of a history lesson, now can we?

The battle of Prairie Grove took place on December 7, 1862 when the Confederate Army under Major General Thomas Hindman clashed with two divisions of the Union Frontier Army, led by Brigadier Generals James G. Blunt and Thomas Herron.

The Confederates assembled on the ridge overlooking the Illinois River and fought back two charges by Herron’s troops in a bloody barrage of ammunitions. Blunt arrived with reinforcements and the savage fighting continued until dark when the Confederates retreated under cover of night.

The heaviest fighting took place around the home of William Morton and in his orchard, corn and wheat fields. The family, and some of their neighbors, hid in the Morton basement while the battle raged on around them. Strategically, it was a Union win, but casualties were considerable on both sides, with nearly 2,700 men killed, wounded or missing.

The Battle of Prairie Grove took its name from the one room log building that General Hindman used as his headquarters. After the battle, both sides used the structure as a hospital. This was the last major battle in Arkansas, and the state stayed under Federal control for the duration of the war.  The town of Prairie Grove was established in 1888, taking its name from the battle.

The park was established in 1908 by the Daughters of the Confederacy, and was originally used for Confederate soldier reunions. Today, over 800 acres of the original 3,600 are preserved, making the Prairie Grove Battlefield one of the most intact in the country.

We also visited the National and Confederate cemeteries in Fayetteville. I am always so moved by the sheer number of small white headstones, lined in perfect formation, a living legacy to the tragedy we inflicted upon ourselves as a young nation. Anyone who served in our country’s military has the option to be buried in a National Cemetery, and the interments in the Fayetteville National Cemetery are no exception. There are headstones for those who served in the Civil War, both World Wars, the Spanish American War, Korea, Vietnam and the more recent Gulf war conflicts as well.  For the most part, each stone identifies the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine by name.

I am so much more saddened by the anonymity of the Confederate cemeteries. They are primarily afterthoughts, burial grounds organized by caring associations formed to provide a proper resting place for their soldiers. Since many of the bodies were exhumed from where they fell and were originally buried, the stones are usually anonymous, simple markers that only silently remind that that at one time, this was someone’s husband, son, brother or father.

In the middle of the cemetery is a large confederate soldier, standing sentry over the rows of headstones, fanning out from the memorial in four directions, representing the soldiers from Louisiana, Missouri, Texas and Arkansas.

Most of the soldiers buried in Fayetteville fell in the battles of Pea Ridge or Prairie Grove. Some fell in the Battle of Fayetteville or other small area skirmishes, but many died from sickness of disease during the winters of 1861 and 1862.

I don’t have any relatives buried in any of these cemeteries, but I always feel a need to stop by and offer a moment of silence for the fallen, regardless of which side they fought on.