Controversy in the Confederacy
The controversies during the battle of Prairie Grove mainly had to do with the leaders on both sides of the conflict. By far the most controversial figure of the Confederacy during and directly after the battle of Prairie Grove was Major General Thomas C. Hindman. Hindman was not a favorite of anyone in the war, CSA and USA alike. He was disliked especially by Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America. Examination of Hindman’s correspondence with his troops as well as Union General James Blunt proves he was at the center of the controversy surrounding Prairie Grove for the confederacy.
Hindman led the campaign at Prairie Grove Against Herron and Blunt, attacking Blunts troops first. However, once the fighting started he remained mostly hands off of the action and communication. This caused chaos in his troops and allowed Blunt to essentially get the upper hand in a situation where he should have been driven back.
Through Hindman’s communication with his troops and General Blunt directly following the battle, he attempted to claim victory over the Union many times. In his address to his troops following the battle on December 7th, he compliments his troops on their courage, and tells them “you engaged an abolition army largely outnumbering you”.1 This is simply untrue, as there were 11,500 Confederate troops and only 8,000 Union troops.2 Whether the numbers had been miscalculated by Hindman and his staff or Hindman was simply lying to support his goal of claiming victory at Prairie Grove remains a question. He goes on to insinuate the battle was a confederate victory to his troops by saying “let us now vigorously prepare for other battles and still more glorious achievements”.3 If he is referring to the battle of Prairie grove as a ‘glorious achievement’, then he was truly out of the loop that day. The battle was considered a tactical draw and a strategic Union victory because the Confederates retreated and lost control of a large portion of Arkansas.
Hindman continued his charade outside of his own troops, writing to Blunt asking for a truce so his men could bury their dead “upon the field they won, according to your own admission”. 4 Blunt responded to this statement by writing to Hindman that it is “considered here a very good joke”.5 Through the exchanges between Blunt and Hindman in the days following the battle it is clear that the conflict did not stay on the battlefield.
Hindman tried many tactics to portray the Confederates as the clear winners of the battle, including inflating the numbers of Union troops and attempting to manipulate Union Generals into believing he pulled out a win. While there is speculation surrounding which side truly won, the reality is that it was a tactical draw and there was no clear dramatic victory as Hindman tried to make it seem.
Ultimately, the result of the battle of Prairie Grove and its controversies were detrimental for the CSA campaign in the west. The Confederates did not achieve their goal of reaching the Missouri River and instead had to retreat back to the Arkansas Valley.6 This was detrimental to the confederate cause because they desperately needed control of northwest Arkansas in order to keep their footing in the west as well as to take Missouri. After the Battle of Prairie Grove, these goals were quashed and ultimately led to a very different outcome than confederates had hoped in 1863.
1 “Address of Major General Thomas Carmichael Hindman, C.S. Army, to the Troops following the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas” December 7, 1862, Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Part 1, 54.
2 Shea, William L. Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (The University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 261.
3 “Address of Major General Thomas Carmichael Hindman, C.S. Army, to the Troops following the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas” December 7, 1862, Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Part 1, 54.
4 “Letter From Hindman to Blunt” December 10, 1862, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XXII, Part 1, 80.
5 “Letter From Blunt to Hindman” December 11, 1862, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XXII, Part 1, 80.
6 Shea, William L. Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (The University of North Carolina Press, 2013), 265.
Emerson Rondy