Customer Reviews

Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Civil War America)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author takes on a difficult project -- that in telling the story of the Arkansas/Missouri conflict in the later part of 1862 culminating in the Battle of Prairie Grove. The difficulty stems from the paucity of writings and sources on the Confederate side, but the author does a masterful job in recreating what most likely took place.

For those readers unfamiliar with the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas (other than along the Mississippi River), the initial campaign was by the Union General Nathaniel Lyon that ended disastrously at Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861 (skipping over the actions by Missouri home guards and militia). The Federals regrouped and General Curtis led another expedition into Southwest Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas, defeating the Confederates at Pea Ridge on March 8, 1862. The Confederates then dispersed, with Van Dorn taking the bulk of the troops to Mississippi. At this point, the fortunes of the Confederates were at a very low ebb in the West, Missouri was lost, and the entire state of Arkansas was in danger of being occupied by Federal troops. That is where this book takes up its narrative.

General Hindman was sent to Little Rock to form an army, drive the Federals from Arkansas, and lead a campaign into Missouri. Unfortunately, Hindman was only one man, and he was not given any troops, supplies and support. Nonetheless, he re-energized the Confederates in Arkansas (many of those in Northern Arkansas were Unionists), and rapidly built an army out of almost nothing to hold an East-West line along the Arkansas River. The author puts Hindman in a rather favorable light, but is brutally honest with Hindman's superior, General Holmes. Hindman was faced with almost insurmountable difficulties, but managed to place a force in the field on the northern edge of the Boston Mountains to confront the Federals who could move south from Springfield, Missouri.

The author then presents the Union personnel rather thoroughly, introducing the readers to Generals Curtis, Schofield, Blunt, Totten and Herron. The Union "Frontier Army" had difficulties of its own, most notably in operating so far away from its supply bases in Missouri and the terrain difficulties presented by Northwestern Arkansas.

After several skirmishes and endless marching back and forth, Blunt took up a rather isolated position at Cane Hill, Arkansas, where Hindman determined that Blunt's Division invited a surprise attack. Accordingly, Hindman crossed the Boston Mountains, and prepared to attack Blunt when he received word that Herron's Division was rapidly moving south from Fayetteville to rescue Blunt. Hindman then changed his plan and decided to move due north to attack Herron along his route of march, then turn southwest and destroy Blunt. The point where he debouched to intercept Herron was at Prairie Grove.

The actually battle on December 7, 1862 was mishandled on both sides, and after suffering heavy casualties neither side was able to gain an advantage. However, the Confederates were nearly out of ammunition and extremely short of supplies, so Hindman had no choice but to withdraw back across the Boston Mountains to the Arkansas River. The battle therefore became a strategic Federal victory. Hindman eventually returned to Little Rock and was transferred to Bragg's Army, and the Federals eventually captured Little Rock. This ends the book's narrative, although Sterling Price later led another expedition into Missouri that ended in failure, and the Confederates were able to repulse Union General Steele in his attempt to move south from Little Rock and attack Shreveport, Louisiana in 1864. Nonetheless, Prairie Grove turned out to be the decisive battle that cost the Confederacy Missouri and Northern and Western Arkansas.

The author does a masterful job in depicting the battle and its unit actions, regiment by regiment, and artillery battery by battery. There was a great deal of heroism on both sides, and in many respects the battle was the classic and representative Civil War battle. The troops overcame great adversity to fight effectively, and although the Confederates withdrew, both sides felt they had won the battle as a tactical contest.

This is a scholarly work that is necessarily light on Confederate accounts since so few of the Confederate participants wrote reports or accounts (that survived) dealing with the campaign and battle. The author does the best he can to present the actions from both sides, and fully deserves his five stars. Approximately 8,000 Federal troops took part and they suffered sixteen percent casualties, the Confederates had about 11,500 men of which thirteen percent became casualties. The Federals were fairly well supplied, but the Confederates fought this campaign on a shoestring with not enough rifles to equip the entire army, no tents and few blankets to face the cold weather, and with many of the soldiers barefoot, hatless, and poorly dressed. Food was extremely scarce, and many of the Confederate soldiers fought the battle without having eaten anything for the previous two days.

In many respects this is a specialist's book as the Civil War west of the Mississippi generally receives little attention. The case can be made that had the Federals done nothing but defend Missouri, the outcome of the war would have been the same. But to the men of Missouri and Arkansas on both sides, and those of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas and the Indian Home Guards, this fight was vicious and personal. Union artillery was vastly superior to that of the Confederates, and that arm eventually saved the Union army from a serious defeat.

I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in the Civil War. It offers an excellent perspective of war in the West as contrasted to the large scale actions in the other theaters.

This study is a very welcomed addition to the other works on the war in Arkansas and the Trans-Mississippi. Shea tells the story of the Prairie Grove campaign in a manner that is easy to follow and understand. The chapters are of reasonable lenght which makes for easier reading too. Having a chapter on the raid on Van Buren rounds out the story quite well.
The maps are many and good but they could have been improved. I would have liked them to be larger to make them easier to see. For the maps that show the attacks of the actual battle it would have been nice for them to have been a little more detailed and there could have been a few more maps to help brake the action down into more segements. But the maps are very adaquate and useful.
I was disappointed that Shea did not use any of the artwork or drawings of the battle that have been made over the years. I know of several. I think using them would have added to the telling of the story.
For the order of battle at the end of the book I would have liked to have seen the casualities listed for each unit if they were known. These seems to be standard practice in most works on battles. I do not know why it wasn't done in this one. But the casualities are given in the narrative of the book, but having them all in one place would have been handy for reference.
My minor suggestions for improvements not withstanding, I throughly enjoying reading this book and learned much from it. I hope that works on the war in Arkansas of this type will continue to appear.

By 1862, the "regrettable tendency to concentrate on the East, slight the West and ignore the Trans-Mississippi" is well established. One author that counters this tendency is William L. Shea, "Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West" covered that critical campaign. This is the companion volume to that excellent history, covering the Prairie Grove Campaign in the winter of 1862. Each book is a complete standalone history of a campaign. However, reading both is an enjoyable rewarding learning experience that I recommend.
Prairie Grove is the last major battle on the Missouri Arkansas border. The Union "victory" ensures that Missouri is safe and converts Arkansas into no man's land. This small battle plays a major role in the direction of the war during 1863 and much of 1864. The size of this battle allows the reader to become friends with all of the major players and understand what diverse and colorful armies existed in the Trans-Mississippi. Indians, ruffians, red legs and bushwhackers mix with volunteer units under the command of Kansas Abolitionists, dynamic West Pointers, tired old men and backstabbers. The characters are larger than life and while almost unknown, great fun to read about.
This is a detailed history of the campaign. The first 90 pages, establish the situation, the characters and the hostile environment. The Boston Mountains and the Ozark Plateau are a primitive area presenting major logistical problems. Roads are few, poor and not able to bear the load an army places on them. Moving cross-country is difficult at best and almost impossible at worst. This forces the campaign into a structured environment with few options for either commander. The author excels at explaining the available options and detailing the difficulties the armies face. While doing this, he never loses sight of the civilian population, slave and free, living in the area. The ebb and flow of the armies has a dramatic impact on their lives. Slaves flock to the Union encampments following the army to freedom. Whites welcome their army, shun the other army but find either army is very hard on fences and storehouses. For most of the men in these armies, `Hard War" had started in the late 1850s. They were not reluctant to take what they needed from the "other side" and felt they had no choice if they took it from their side.
The area will be unknown to the majority of readers. Anticipating this, the book contains an excellent series of well-placed maps. I never had a problem understanding the marches and counter marches or in following them on the limited road net. In addition to the maps, illustrations are everywhere. All the major characters and photos of places, most taken just after the war, fill the book. This very nice touch personalizes the history giving names faces and images.
The battles at Crane Hill, Fort Smith, Old Fort Wayne and Prairie Grove are well done and detailed as Blunt, Herron, Curtis, Hindman and Holmes struggle for a Confederate return to Missouri. This is the third Confederate invasion of 1862 and the one we hear the least about. This is a "must have" book in every Civil War library, readable and enjoyable.

I am a reenactor who has
gone to northwest Arkansas to reenact the battle of Prairie Grove on the original ground. If you have any interest in that and in the War west of the Mississippi, read this book!

A few Januaries ago a friend and I made a road trip from Texas to Arkansas Post for a living history and educational event which the state museum there was having. One of the speakers was William L. Shea, the author of the excellent battle history Pea Ridge which recounts the March 1862 battle of that name, often called "the Gettysburg of the West". Dr. Shea remarked that he was working on a book which set the Arkansas Post campaign and the battle of Prairie Grove into the strategic context of the war in Arkansas. A few years have passed, and now that book is in print.

Fields of Blood begins after Pea Ridge, and after Van Dorn took his army east across the Mississippi to end up in the battle of Corinth. He left Confederate Arkansas undefended, and General Hindman created a new army from almost nothing (by conscription) in a few months. At the same time the Federal forces were limited by their supply line and by the fact that both sides had ravaged the countryside: They could not maintain a large force in northern Arkansas.

So the Federals strove to control Missouri and Indian Territory, and kept a tripwire force forward around Fayetteville. General Curtis, the victor of Pea Ridge, was now department commander in Missouri, and the senior Federal commander on the spot was Blunt. Hindman felt that he had to take offensive action and to return his Missouri Confederates to their home state, but his army was also limited by supplies, and in fact was often on the verge of starvation. Hindman's base was Fort Smith, near the limit of navigation of the Arkansas River .Both sides fenced back and forth between Fayetteville and the Boston Mountains, with their possible moves limited by the sparse road network. The book describes several smaller engagements.

Hindman had a plan to make forced marches to surprise and cut off the Federal division forward in Arkansas. However his earlier moves had provoked a call for help, with the result that two more small Federal divisions were on the road to Fayetteville. When Hindman put himself between Blunt and Blunt's two subordinates, they came together at Prairie Grove on December 7th, 1862.

The battle itself was a slugfest with several reversals of fortune. Hindman came close to defeating the Federal forces in detail, but went on the defensive in the woods on the high ground where we camped and reenacted. The first Federal division commander did not know what he was facing and attacked against odds, receiving a bloody repulse. The Confederates lacked command control and pursued, to be shot up by the US artillery. Meanwhile Blunt's division marched around the Confederates, coming from the southeast and attacking from the northeast. At the end of the day on December 7th, 1862, the confederate soldiers thought they had won since they had held their ground; but Hindman had expended his small supply of ammunition and could do nothing but ask for a truce and retreat.

After Prairie Grove, Blunt moved south to raid Van Buren, the river port for Hindman's base area. At the same time that Hindman was retreating east toward Little Rock. And on January 11th Arkansas Post was captured, laying the Arkansas River open to Federal forces if they should choose to move west from the Mississippi.

I believe we will reenact Prairie Grove again, and in that case I would like to arrive early and tour the area with this book in hand. The area of operations can be driven across in an hour now, and as far as I can see most of the bad 19th century roads are paved but follow the same paths. So as I began this review: Read Dr. Shea's book!

My great-great-grandfather, Private Charles M. Golden of the 20th Iowa Infantry, fought at Prairie Grove, so I have a family connection to this battle.

This book is written in the same easy-to-read style as Shea's masterful treatment of Pea Ridge. The reader is kept focused on the overall strategy and objectives of both armies while receiving ample detail of the tactical moves. The maps were similar to those in "Pea Ridge" - adequate detail without clutter.

The Trans-Mississippi has been neglected by Civil War historians for too many decades - a heartfelt "thank you" to Shea for presenting Pea Ridge and now Prairie Grove in a well-researched, well-written format. If you have any interest in the Civil War, buy this book ..... and then visit the Prairie Grove battlefield! With Shea's maps in hand, the walking and driving tours will be more meaningful.

Excellent follow-up to Mr.Shea's Pea Ridge campaign study. Very good on the different personalities and motivations of the senior officers. Well-written tactical narrative. Excellent maps at the strategic, operational, and tactical level. You will learn your northwest Arkansan geography and road networks, circa 1862, that's for sure. This very necessary knowledge (lacking in some military histories) helps explain the supply, communications, and troop movement difficulties of the rival armies in a part of America that in 1862 was just barely, if at all, removed from the frontier. Both Union and Confederate were forced to "forage" at the expense of the civilian population. The use of Cherokee soldiers from Indian Territory adds an interesting twist.

Aptly named Union General James Blunt (though no West Pointer) emerges as the best leader through sheer aggressiveness and determination. Another pugnacious politician turned warrior, Thomas Hindman, did his best for the South. That rebel general's clever flanking maneuver around Blunt threw his own army between two Federal forces that he hoped to defeat in detail. But once he gained strategic advantage, he stood on the tactical defense. The combat arm that seems to gather the most laurels is the Union artillery.

You will be reminded, if such is necessary, of the privation faced by these Civil War soldiers, both North and South. These guys went through Hell. Think three-day forced marches, in freezing rain, with little or nothing to eat. And then go straight into combat. The usual quality publication from UNC Chapel Hill: headbands, footbands, dramatic dust-jacket painting, nice yellow cloth, many good photos of participants and topography.

After the battle of Pea Ridge Arkansas, the Confederate commander, Earl van Dorn, took his army across the Mississippi. It was merged with other Confederate forces, and never served west of the Mississippi again. This left Arkansas defenseless, and when the Confederate authorities thought twice about this situation, they sent an able, energetic Arkansan, Thomas Hindman, across the river to create an army from scratch, and with it defend Arkansas or even better retake portions of Missouri, lost after Pea Ridge. Hindman duly created an army from Arkansas conscripts, militia units from Missouri, stray Texas cavalry units, and various other wanderers, and took the resulting army on a series of adventures in Northwestern Arkansas, campaigning against a portion of the army that had won the battle of Pea Ridge. The campaign culminated in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, on Dec. 7, 1862. This battle, though not decisive on the battlefield, doomed Confederate hopes in that portion of the state, and combined with the capture of Arkansas Post five weeks later essentially took the state out of the war.

William L. Shea is well-known to Civil War buffs and historians. His book on Pea Ridge (coauthored with Earl J. Hess) is considered the standard on the subject. Pea Ridge, of course, was in many ways the decisive battle of the war west of the Mississippi, but it didn't end the fighting, and this book looks to round out the author's account of the fighting on that side of the river. Shea does an excellent job of recounting the various maneuvers of the forces involved, though the early progress of their campaign can be confusing at times. Essentially, the area between the Union forces' base, on the old Pea Ridge battlefield, and the Confederate base on the Arkansas river, was "dead ground" where all supplies had to be brought in by wagon. The Union forces had difficulty doing this, and the Confederates found it nearly impossible. As a result, their campaign over this territory was a series of yo-yo-like advances and retreats, as armies outran their supplies and retreated to replenish them. When the Confederate General Hindman got suddenly aggressive and swiftly approached a portion of the Union army, while the rest was back at its base and in the process of being transferred elsewhere, the Union generals had to scramble to unite their forces and avoid annihilation. That they succeeded in doing so spelled the doom of the Confederacy in this region.

I really enjoyed this book, but I do have a few quibbles. I thought the maps more or less serviceable, but at times inadequate to illustrate the narrative in the text. At various points in the narrative I found myself flipping through the book from one map to another, looking to see where a place name mentioned in the text was, and occasionally I gave up without finding it. Also, once or twice the author fails to mention salient facts about one of the participants. It's not important to the story that you know who Thomas Ewing Jr.'s brother-in-law was (William T. Sherman) but it might add a little more color to the narrative, and that's always a good thing. These minor quibbles aside, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any Civil War buff looking for a good moderate-length battle study, or looking to research this battle, the campaign or participants, etc.

This is an excellent Civil War battle history. It contains the elements students of the civil war have come to expect from this type of history, including the accounts of participants and clear descriptions of the tactical operations preceding and during the battle. There are two additional aspects of the book that deserve mention, which one would hope will become standard features of Civil War writing, a non-prejudicial characterization of the men in command, and a sense for the contingency associated with Civil War battle.

The tendency for Civil War writing to unquestioningly pass along the stereotyped reputations of generals is lamentable as a form of hindsight that makes outcomes appear inevitable, which was clearly not the case if contemporary account are to be believed. The author's approach to Theophilus Holmes and James Blunt are two examples in "Fields of Blood" which are refreshingly free of anachronism. The portrait of Holmes is nuanced; while his well known limitations are presented, his overall military assessment of the strength and position of Confederate forces is shown to have been fundamentally correct. Blunt is shown to have been skilled amateur, possessing a number of the attributes for success in Civil War command, including aggressiveness, an opportunistic grasp of operations, and the ability to keep his nerve on the battlefield.

The contingencies associated with this battle are striking. Hindman made a late change in his operational plan. With an audacity worthy of Robert E. Lee himself, he determined to place his command between the two Federal forces with the goal of defeating them in detail, but leaving his line of communication vulnerable to one of them. Having successfully accomplished this, for reasons only known to him, he then assumed a defensive posture and withdrew from actually directing the battle, most un-Lee like. On the Federal side, both Blunt and Herron attacked without understanding that they were outnumbered by the Confederate forces in position against them. Would they have done so, and forced Hindman to retreat, if they had known the size of the Confederate force?

This is the best book ever written about the Battle of Prairie Grove. Its a must read for any Civil War Buff.

This battlefield has a family connection. My wife's third great grandfather, James Addison Gray (page 177) was killed here. Having lived in or near NW Arkansas for several years, we have traveled up and down the area and on both the major Civil War battlefields. I find this book to be detailed and very informative about the battle. This battle has finally received the attention it deserves. Dr. Shea's style is easy to read and his research impeccable. If you have an interest in the Civil War in Arkansas, you cannot do better than this one and his book on Pea Ridge. Both are outstanding.