Customer Reviews

Embattled Arkansas: The Prairie Grove Campaign of 1862

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4 star:		(4)
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Michael Banasik writes in a style that is detailed but very readable. The gist of this book deals with events in the extreme of NW Ark / SW Mo between the Battle of Pea Ridge and Battle of Prairie Grove - the two decisive battles for NW Arkansas. As a native son & student of the local history, those facts I am confident dovetail well with the focus of this book. The author does an excellent job of detailing both sides of the conflict without revealing a bias towards either. The maps are excellent & large print makes even the footnotes highly readable. The smooth chronological flow keeps the reader from getting lost. I found few mistakes - Lindsley's Prairie appears to be misnamed Lindsey's, a minor fact - and I would hope for more information on the Pin Indian troops that literally switched sides during the Battle of Pea Ridge & were the terror of civilians thru the following years of the Civil War but this work is excellent and well worth the buy.

The extended title of Michael Banasik's Embattled Arkansas: The Prairie Grove Campaign of 1862 is misleading, but in a very good way. The author does not just cover the Prairie Grove Campaign, instead extending his coverage to the entire war in Trans-Mississippi Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory from just after the Battle of Pea Ridge through the end of 1862. And he covers this long neglected topic in great detail, supported by numerous maps and illustrations. Banasik makes clear in his forward that the book is mainly a military history, and he further states that the book is first and foremost a retelling of the military events that occurred in this area and time. He goes on to point out that the book is not meant to analyze these events so much as it is to describe them, saying "with few exceptions, [I] have left the speculation and analysis to others who might follow." In this and several other ways, Banasik's book reminds me of Ed Bearss' masterful 3-volume work The Vicksburg Campaign.

I read Banasik's rather large book in only several days. This is another set of campaigns with which I was only vaguely familiar before the battle, so the detailed discussion of events was much appreciated by this reader. I enjoyed the book and feel that I have a much better knowledge of the war in Arkansas and surrounding areas in 1862. The detailed orders of battle with unit strengths going down to the regimental level are a major plus. I have rarely seen better orders of battle, and wargamers will want this one if they plan to do any scenarios on Prairie Grove, Newtonia, or Cane Hill. Despite the large number of detailed maps, I felt the book could have contained a few more area maps depicting where certain forces were located. The absence of Cane Hill on several maps had me momentarily confused as well, though HPS Simulations' computer game Campaign Ozark (designed by fellow blogger Drew Wagenhoffer) cleared up that confusion quickly. I believe Drew based his map of the Prairie Grove / Cane Hill area at least partially on the maps in this book. Another oddity was the repeated use of the term "Feds" by the author to describe Northern troops. I kept thinking of Agents Mulder and Skully or a 1920's Chicago shootout, Al Capone style. This was a rather minor thing, and it didn't detract from the quality of the book. Despite the author's mention of little "speculation and analysis", I would have liked to have seen more discussion of the faults and qualities of the various commanders. With that said, this might have pushed the book into the "unprintable range" if the author wanted the book to be printed in one volume. Speaking of publishing, as far as I know only a hardback volume has ever been produced, making the book rather scarce and expensive. I managed to pick up my copy at the Shiloh National Battlefield Bookstore for its listed price of $40. This was several summers ago, so the book may no longer be available even there. I would recommend this book without reservation to anyone interested in the Trans-Mississippi Theater in particular or good Civil War campaign studies in general. If you can find it, that is.

Banasik obviously put a vast amount of effort into his work and it shows! It details the war around Arkansas for only the last nine months of 1862, but from a huge list of sources, he's gleaned nearly 500 pages of information. For some it may be a tedious read (the Prairie Grove Battle is almost second by second and comprises over a hundred pages), but for those of us with ancestors in the battle it was exciting to relive the moment by moment action. The Prairie Grove Battle hasn't been built up like the Eastern battles, but Herron's heroic march and then the amazing luck when Blunt arrived in the nick of time to relieve Herron and the fact that Arkansas was saved for the Union for another year places it as a small but relevant piece of history.

This is not a book for the casual Civil War history reader! I say that for both the price, the level of detail and the style of writing. This is not a page-turner with easy to read prose that makes the pages fly by. Nor is it drudgery where each page is an unending chore. This is a very detailed, well-researched account of the Civil War in Arkansas during 1862. I knew what the book was and found mine in a National Park bookstore, almost pulling my shoulder out grabbing it before someone else saw it. I think four stars is a reasonable rating. I give it five stars for information and coverage of the subject but three stars for readability.

My wife's great-great-great grand father was killed at the Battle of Prairie Grove and the detail Banasik provides goes well with what we have been able to put together. Her great (3x) uncle wrote a letter home to inform the family of his brother's death and that letter and this book go hand in hand in detail. If you want to know about Prairie Grove and Cane Hill, read this one.