Scalpings at Massard Prairie

The 27th of this month will mark the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Massard Prairie, Arkansas.

The engagement took place when Confederate troops led by Gen. R.M. Gano swept down on the Union camp of Mefford's Battalion from the 6th Kansas Cavalry at Massard Prairie, a vast grassland on the outskirts of Fort Smith.

An overwhelming Southern victory, the battle was unique for a number of reasons. Among the most morbid, however, was the fact that it resulted in one of the few documented cases of scalping by Union soldiers during the Civil War.

After overrunning the Union camp and pursuing retreating Federals across miles of open prairie, the Confederate force withdrew quickly from the scene before Union reinforcements could reach the scene. Due to the speed with which they left the battlefield, Gano's men left a number of dead and seriously wounded soldiers behind.

According to 15-year-old James Robert Barnes, who witnessed the battle from the nearby home of his uncle, the Confederate dead were scalped by men in the Union force after the fight:

Someof the Federals with the artillery were Cherokee Indians, the White soldiers called the Cherokee "Pin Indians"...The Pin Indians cut a patch of scalp about the size of the palm of their hand off the top of the dead Rebels head, taking the scalp with them.

The bodies were then piled into a trench on the battlefield and buried.

This brief passage is the only known eyewitness account of scalpings carried out by Union troops in Arkansas. Confederate Native American soldiers were accused of scalping Union soldiers at the Battle of Pea Ridge. The Pea Ridge incident was widely publicized, but the Massard Prairie scalpings never entered the popular media of the time.

If you are interested in learning more about the Battle of Massard Prairie, please consider my new book: The Battle of Massard Prairie: The 1864 Confederate Attacks on Fort Smith, Arkansas. The book can be purchased online by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardbook. It is also available at the bookstore at Prairie Grove Battlefield Park in Northwest Arkansas.

Proceeds from each copy sold help fund the development of a driving tour at Cane Hill Battlefield in Washington County, Arkansas.

Pea Ridge, Part Three - "Shooting Wagons"

As we continue our series on the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, please remember that you can access a map of the battlefield by clicking here.

The photo here shows the view from Tour Stop 4 on the tour road at Pea Ridge National Military Park. This was Foster's Farm at the time of the battle and was the scene where the Union cavalry collided with McCulloch's oncoming Confederates shortly before the action at Leetown (described in our last post).

After forming his division along a tree line, Col. Osterhaus sent forward his cavalry and three field guns to confront the Confederates and unveil the situation. As the Union horsemen emerged into the fields of Foster's Farm, however, they were stunned to see the 8,000 men under Gen. McCulloch advancing on across the same fields. The Union cannon opened fire, but McCulloch sent Gen. McIntosh sweeping around from his right to charge the severely outnumbered Federals. As the Confederate cavalry came storming down on them, the Federals broke and ran after a short fight and Southern troops overran their supporting cannon. The Confederates continued to advance and the battle moved into the phase that we described in yesterday's posting on Leetown.

Among the Southern troops that fought here at Foster's Farm was the Indian Brigade under Brig. Gen. Albert Pike. Composed of warriors from the Indian Territory (today's Oklahoma), this Native American Confederate force was involved in capturing Union artillery, called "shooting wagons" by some of the warriors. They also successfully ambushed two companies of Iowa cavalry.

After the battle, Union troops discovered the scene of this ambush. Among the bodies littering the ground they reported that they found the remains of 8 men that had been scalped and another 17 that had been mutilated. The U.S. Congress launched an investigation into the incident and leveled the blame on Pike and his Native American warriors.

It should be noted that scalping and mutilation of dead enemies held ceremonial importance among some Native American tribes during the 18th century. It was a way of assuring that enemies would be much weaker in the next world. It is also worth noting that early white officials in the Southeast encouraged some of these practices, often allying themselves with specific tribes and rewarding war parties for every scalp they brought back.

Our series on the Battle of Pea Ridge will continue. Until then, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/pearidgeindex.