Prairie Grove

DESCRIPTION: "Come ye gallant sons of I-o-way, come listen to my song... About the gallant charge at Prairie Grove, An' we an' Southern rebels on equal numbers strove." The singer describes a federal victory, the burial of the southern dead, and their widows' mourning
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randoph)
KEYWORDS: battle soldier death Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 7, 1862 - Battle of Prairie Grove
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 222, "Prairie Grove" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 205-207, "Prairie Grove" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 222)
High-OldOldFolkSongs, p. 31, "Battle of Prery Grove" (1 text)
Roud #4032
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Give the Dutch Room" (subject)
NOTES [1146 words]: The battle of Prairie Grove was one of the more confusing messes of the Civil War. It had little effect on the main war effort (though it contributed significantly to the Union conquest of Arkansas), and so is rarely mentioned in the histories.
McPherson, p. 668, gives this backdrop: "The transfer of Van Dorn's Confederate army [from Missouri/Arkansas] to Mississippi in the spring of 1862 had left northern Arkansas shorn of defenders. Samuel R. Curtis's small Union force began advancing toward Little Rock, slowed only by skittish militia and harassing guerillas. Into the Confederate breach stepped Thomas C. Hindman, a political general five feet tall who made up in energy what he lacked in size. Hindman enforced conscription with a will that created a 20,000-man army of lukewarm Arkansans, hardened Texans, and Missouri guerrillas. This force deflected the enemy campaign against Little Rock and went over to the offensive in the fall, driving the Federals north almost to Missouri."
The Federals managed to recover -- but they split their forces. Two Union divisions, under Herron, were located near Springfield, Missouri; another, under Blunt, was in an advanced position south of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Confederate general Hindman, observing this deployment, saw an opportunity to defeat the Unionists in detail. He took his force -- somewhat smaller than the combined Union forces but much stronger than Blunt alone -- and on Dec. 6 attacked Blunt.
Unknown to Hindman, Herron's force had been ordered forward a few days earlier. When Hindman learned that Herron was approaching, he tried to get between the two Union forces.
It didn't work. Herron managed to hold off Hindman until Blunt arrived. The Confederates -- many of them raw Arkansas troops who deserted at the beginning of the battle -- wound up abandoning the field. The battle was not a great Union success, but neither was it a great defeat. The Confederates retreated, and many of Hindman's conscripts deserted. In the aftermath, the Federals were able to occupy a large part of northern Arkansas. Herron received a promotion to Major General as a result -- being, at the time, the youngest Major General in the army (Warner, p. 228).
That seems to be typical of Hindman's history: Tucker, pp. 68-69, summarizes his career as follows:
"Thomas C. Hindman had been an enterprising soldier in the trans-Mississippi department, and his conduct in the later phases of the Chickamauga campaign was in sharp contrast with his lethargy in [a preliminary action at] McLemore's Cove. He had been an outstanding resident of Arkansas when the war broke and had played one of the leading roles with his stump speeches to take Arkansas out of the Union.
"Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he had been educated in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, had been cited for conspicuous bravery in the Mexican War, had served in the Mississippi legislature as a staunch Jefferson Davis man, then had moved across the Mississippi River to Helena, Arkansas. A lawyer and a gifted speaker, he was sent by the Helena district to Congress in 1856.... Like George Pickett, he wore his hair in long curling locks and was something of a dandy in his civilian dress with his pink gloves and rattan cane. He has small and tended to be tyrannical.
"After secession, Hindman raised a regiment, commanded a brigade at Shiloh, where he was wounded, and because of his good fighting there became a major general. In command of the Confederate army at Prairie Grove, Hindman was at first aggressive and appeared to be winning, but he lost the battle by suddenly taking a defensive position and awaiting attack, thereby allowing his opponent, Brigadier General James G. Blunt, to unite his forces on the field. Hindman has been called a 'man of genius,' a man who would have been a good Secretary of War but was unable to command an army or plan a battle. However, he was to prove at Chickamauga that he could strike hard under competent leadership."
Woodworth p. 69, describes him this way: "As colorful a man as one could hope to find in this or any other army, Thomas C. Hindman was a Tennessee native who had served with distinction in the Second Mississippi Regiment during the Mexican War before moving across the river to Helena, Arkansas, to carry his political career to further heights, including the U.S. Congress. He could be a man of selfless devotion, as when he and fellow Helena lawyer Pat Cleburne stayed in town to nurse the victims of a deadly epidemic. He could also be outrageously provoking -- rude, insulting, and imperious -- and he received a pretty much continuous stream of challenges to duels. He turned them down, but sometimes his enemies were too enraged to take no for an answer, as on the notable occasion when he and Cleburne were allies against several of them in a high-noon shoot-out on the streets of Helena. That one left them both badly wounded. Hindman also tended to take the direct solution to every problem, as when he scaled a convent wall to get himself a wife."
Woodworth comments on the same page that "His most notable service had been in Arkansas, where his ruthless drive and efficiency had built him a respectably large army for that theater of the war and then his bull-headed impulsiveness had led him to wreck it in the unauthorized battle of Prairie Grove." He had shoulder-length curling hair who wore pink gloves.
The information in the song isn't really enough to identify the regiment involved here, but since the song is addressed to the people of Iowa, it presumably involved one of the Iowa regiments at Prairie Grove: 18th and 20th Iowa Infantry (of Huston's Division), and the 1st Iowa Cavalry and 19th Iowa Infantry (of Herron's Division). The 19th had the much harder battle (and war), so it might be the best candidate. According to Fox, p. 433, the 19th at Prairie Grove suffered 45 killed, 145 wounded (27 of whom later died, based on Fox, p. 18), and 3 missing at that battle -- so it fought quite hard. That total represents about a seventh of all Union losses at the battle, which totaled 1251, according to Fox, p. 544. Its other big battle was at Morganza, Louisiana, September 20, 1863, where it suffered 10 killed, 23 wounded, and 210 missing, presumably captured (Fox, p. 442). This is a battle better known as Stirling's Plantation or Fordoche Bridge. Herron's Division was sent from the Mississippi up the Red River. A portion of this force, a not-quite-brigade under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Leake and including the 19th Iowa was sent on a detached mission. The Confederates were able to overwhelm this force, taking most of it captive including the largest part of the 19th Iowa. That was effectively the end of the war for it. In the course of the war, it had 92 men killed and 192 died of disease (Fox, p. 515)
This song is item dA38 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.3
File: R222

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