The photograph at right shows the entrance to the Battlefield Trail at Prairie Grove Battlefield, a state park in the picturesque community of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
One of the key features of the park, the one mile paved trail loops around the ridge where the Confederate right flank was posted during the December 7, 1862, battle. This was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
The Battle of Prairie Grove took place when Confederate General Thomas C. Hindman pushed north across the Boston Mountains, hoping to catch the divided Union Army of the Frontier by surprise. He wound up battling both wings of the Northern army at Prairie Grove, where the Confederates were able to use a strong position to beat back repeated attacks by the Federal forces. By sundown on December 7th, tens of thousands of men had spent the day slaughtering each other on the now hallowed ground at Prairie Grove.
I'll be posting more on the Prairie Grove Battlefield over the next few days, but in the meantime please visit my Prairie Grove site at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasPG1 for photographs, official reports and an in depth account of the Battle of Prairie Grove.
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