Union Arms and Supply
The Union Army had the arms advantage over the Confederacy. The Union had a good variety of weaponry for the Battle of Prairie Grove. The Springfield Model 1861 Rifle-Musket was the Union’s firearm of choice and the most widely used weapon for the Union throughout the entirety of the war. These weapons used elongated balls for ammunition.
Colonel John C. Black’s 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment were armed with five-shot Colt revolving rifles. This was the only repeating weapon for both armies at Prairie Grove. 1. Lieutenant Elias S. Stover and his 2nd Kansas Cavalry Battery were equipped with two 12-pounder Mountain Howitzers. Captain John W. Rabb’s Second Indiana Battery consisted of four 6-pounder James rifles and two 6-pounder guns. 2. Many Union Cavalrymen were equipped with pistols, and the Spencer Carbine. The Spencer Carbine had a magazine that could hold seven metallic rimfire cartridges, using a compressed spring in the magazine. 3.
As far as supplies went,
Each man only carried a blanket, three days worth of food rations and forty rounds of ammunition 4. Things did not start off very well for the Union with regards to supply. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bloomfield Leake described his situation within his regiment: The men had had no new shoes since the first pair that they were issued in Iowa, which by this time were so worn out that many soldiers opted to walk with their bare feet upon the ground 5. There was an effort to transfer thousands of men and a ton of supplies from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Scott, which was one hundred miles south of Kansas City. This effort was complicated by an acute scarcity of weapons. However, by the time this was completed, Blunt was confident with three full Regiments of Kansas Infantry waiting for weapons which were on the way at this point, “I only regret that I am losing too much valuable time.” Blunt wrote. 6. In the Boston Mountains, Herron was forced to take the field with fewer than a thousand horsemen. 7. Although supplies were initially somewhat of a struggle, The Union set up camp at Rhea’s Mill, five miles northwest of Prairie Grove. This was a crucial part of the Union effort at Prairie Grove, as Rhea’s Mill was able to produce 25,000 pounds of flour a day for the army. Access to Rhea’s Mill allowed the Union to get well protected trains of up to two hundred wagons to continuously get supplies to Rhea’s Mill from Fort Scott, Kansas. Stores and trains were also available through Rhea’s Mill. Union control Rhea’s Mill could have been the deciding factor in the Union victory during the Prairie Grove campaign as trains and stores could help bring supplies to the army and improve their conditions. Lieutenant Colonel James G. Blunt knew the importance of keeping the Mill under control, he told Brigadier General Frederick Salomon to be on guard against the Confederate’s closing in Cavalry and if attacked to defend the stores and trains at Rhea’s Mill “to the last extremity.” 8. Union control of Rhea’s Mill gave the Union troops an influx of supplies, even resulting in “extra chicken fixins” for Christmas dinner, wrote an Ohio artilleryman at Rhea’s Mill. Rhea’s Mill was a vital pipeline for the Union effort, on Thanksgiving Day troops left Flint Creek and headed south on the Line Road. These troops consisted of six Cavalry Regiments, four Infantry Regiments, and eight batteries. They were followed close behind by a half-dozen ambulances stocked with medical supplies as well as ammunition. In late December, 1862, Herron would return to Rhea’s Mill and Prairie Grove, Herron brought with him; the Infantry, Artillery, and a train of fifty confiscated or captured wagons. These wagons were loaded with ammunition, corn, sugar, and bedding that was meant for hospitals in Fayetteville, which came off of steamboats. Herron also had a herd of four hundred to five hundred horses, mules, and cattle, these followed the train. 9. This gave the Union even more supplies and put them in good shape to have continued success in the war. Another important supply line was Wire Road, this road acted as the main transportation artery of Southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. Wire Road ran from Springfield Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas. 10. First Lieutenant Joseph Foust’s after action report from Prairie Grove states the his men fired 562 rounds of shot, shell, and canister while leaving the battle with only two men killed, six wounded, eight horses killed and eleven wounded. 11. Supply was important in the battle especially when a light artillery uses 562 rounds.
1 William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 184.
2 William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 41.
3 Smithsonian Institute, “Spencer Carbine” (National Museum of American History.
4 William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 93.
5 William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 134.
6. William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 22.
7. William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 55.
8. William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 207.
9. William, Shea, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 279.
10. Earl, Hess, Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove : A Battlefield Guide, with a Section on Wire Road (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 229.
11. Lieutenant Joseph, Foust, Prairie Grove, AR After Action Report (Official Records), 1862.