Posted on 12/10/2022 6:05:19 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
BATTLEFIELD, NEAR FAYETTEVILLE, ARK., Tuesday, Dec. 8.
Gen. HERRON's forces, en route to reinforce Gen. BLENT, met the enemy yesterday on Crawford's Prairie, ten miles south of Fayetteville, Ark., and won a decisive victory.
The enemy were 24,000 strong, divided into four divisions, under Gens. PARSONS, MARMADUKE, FROST and RAINS, all under Gen. HINDMAN, and embraced the flower of the Trans-Mississippi army, well supplied with eighteen pieces of artillery. The enemy ranked Gen. BLUNT's positions at Cane Hill, and made a sudden attack on Gen. HERRON, to prevent him uniting with Gen. BLUNT.
Gen. HERRON's force consisted of the Ninety-fourth and Thirty-first Illinois, Nineteenth and Twentieth Iowa, Twenty-sixth Indiana, Twentieth Wisconsin, a battalion or two of cavalry, in all 6,500 or 7,000 men, and 24 pieces of artillery.
The battle raged from 10 A.M. until dark, and was desperately fought throughout. Our artillery drove the rebels from two strong positions, and kept their overwhelming numbers at bay. The Twentieth Wisconsin captured a rebel battery of four heavy guns, but were forced to abandon them under a murderous fire. The Nineteenth Iowa also took the same battery and fought most desperately, but were also obliged to yield it. Almost every regiment distinguished itself.
About 4 o'clock. Gen. BLUNT arrived from Cane Hill with 5000 men and a strong force of artillery, and attacked the rebels in the rear. The rebels made desperate efforts to capture his batteries, but were repulsed with terrible slaughter. We held the whole field at dark, and before 9 o'clock that night the entire rebel force were in full retreat over Boston Mountain.
Our loss in killed and wounded was six hundred. The rebel loss was fifteen hundred, by their own admission. Several of the rebel field officers were killed,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Good News from Arkansas: Another Battle and Another Victory – 2
From the Army of the Frontier: How the Army is Divided and Officered – 2-3
From the Army of the Potomac: Depredations of the Rebel Cavalry Under White – 3-4
Important from the Southwest: Rapid Movements of the National Forces Under Gen. Grant – 4
News from Washington: Important Matters Under Discussion in Congress – 4-5
Gen. Blunt Again Victorious – 5
Prairie grove battlefield park is beautiful. I was there last weekend when re-enactors were there. Lots of blue and grey uniforms, cannons and folks marching around with civil war rifles. They set up union and confederate encampments with canvas tents and lots of campfires.
If I'd know that I might've come. I love that park. I was at the Pea Ridge Park at the Centennial Years re-enactment (1964 if I remember correctly). It was a very large re-enactment. They shot off cannons and everything. Quite the spectacle.
The battle there lasted several days, beginning around now.
The first assaults will feature pontoon bridges and assault boats:
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