General Blunt Preparing for Battle
When it came to the Battle of Prairie Grove, strategies were created, used, re-written about a thousand times. Although CSA had their tactics. The USA had better, faster, and more creative tactics when it came to winning the battle. Of course, General James Blunt was the brains behind the operations. However, when it came to help and what he needed, who he needed, at the exact time, General Blunt did have help from his supporting unions. Days before the battle, Blunt was already playing mind games with the CSA. James Blunt had eyes and ears everywhere. Therefore, he knew exactly what to be prepared for just in case, so anything couldn’t catch the USA on a surprise attack. The thing was that Blunt didn’t want to be the victim of a surprise attack, he aimed to be the one suprising.
Days before the Battle of Prairie Grove, the battle hadn't begun yet, but the fight was already in action. Before the month of the battle arrived, midway through 1862, the Union Army already had secured the bulk of the state of Missouri against the rebels. 1 Due to Blunt’s intelligence services, he had knowledge of Hindman’s battle preparations by December 2nd. 2 With that being said, Blunt had one foot forward by knowing what Hindman could have and possibly was sending the USA unions way. Another tactics Blunt had underneath his belt was having a cavalry outpost set up on Cove Creek Road watching for any Hindman advance. That post was covered every morning from December 3rd to 6th. 2 Blunt had his troops on alert, with wagons packed and ready to move quickly, just in case they saw that Hindman and his team were coming their way.
As stated before General Blunt had eyes and ears everywhere. Through those eyes and ears, Blunt was notified that Hindman had more men and cannon than him. After hearing that, Blunt sent out word to his supporting unions for more reinforcements. As a recult of that message, within three days of sending that message Blunt had 6,000 new men that covered over 100 miles to get to General Blunt and his team. 1 General Blunt wasn’t the only one that had eyes and ears in the sky. Hindman thought he had the one up on Blunt at first. Blunt commanding the Union forces said himself, he had in the engagement only seven thousand men. Hindman knew when had it in the bag because Hindman admitted his own force in the engagement to have been twenty-eight thousand. 3 Therefore, when Hindman was informed that Blunt updated his number in men, he began to feel threatened and was forced to form a new plan. Tactics and strategies were nothing to Blunt. He knew winning this battle you had to have a strong mind, that is willing to do any and everything.
1 Andy, Thomas, Battle Of Prairie Grove, Community & Conflict The Impact of the Civil War in the Ozarks, 2012.
2 Battle of Prairie Grove, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, 2023.
3 Samuel Jones, The Battle of Prairie Grove Dec. 7, 1862, (HathiTrust, 2011), #3
Written By: Shaniya Hardwick