Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Dripping Springs, Part Five


Our short series on the Battle of Dripping Springs, Arkansas concludes today. If you would like to read all five posts in order, just scroll down the page.
Once they abandoned their battle line at Dripping Springs on the morning of December 28, 1862, Lt. Col. R.P. Crump and his 1st Texas Partisan Rangers began to fall back down the Van Buren Road. They continued to skirmish as they went, halting at strategic points and turning to fire on the pursuing Federals. The exact locations of most of these short skirmishes have been lost, but they took place all along the route of the old Dripping Springs to Van Buren road.
Losses at Dripping Springs and in the subsequent skirmishes were light. The headstones of a few of Crump's men can be found in Van Buren. They were buried along side comrades who had fallen at Prairie Grove earlier in the month.
An important preliminary episode to the Battle of Van Buren, Arkansas, fought later the same day, the Battle of Dripping Springs remains one of the least known episodes of the Civil War in the Natural State. To read more, simply go to www.exploresouthernhistory.com and look for the link under the "Battlefields and Forts" heading in the left hand column.

No comments: