#223 PRAIRIE GROVE (Part the Second)

The Civil War & Reconstruction

Richard Youngdahl

History

4.8 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In which we continue to set the stage for Prairie Grove- by looking at the Battle of Cane Hill (Arkansas), which took place on November 28, 1862.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode
0:29.9	233 of our Civil War podcast. My name is Rich and I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast.
0:37.6	With the last episode we started to set the stage for the Battle of Prairie Grove. With this
0:43.9	show we're going to pick up right where we left off, which was with Union Brigadier General James
0:49.3	Blunt about to take his Kansas division and March South to Cain Hill where he intended to follow upon
0:56.3	foraging Confederate cavalry led by Brigadier General James Marmadout. The commander of the
1:02.7	Federal's Army of the Frontier, John Schofield, was sidelined by illness, so Blunt dispatched a
1:09.7	courier to the telegraph station at Elkhorn Tavern, North of Fayetteville, with an urgent message
1:16.4	from Major General Samuel Curtis, who from his headquarters in St. Louis, was in charge of all
1:22.3	Union forces in the Transmississippi. As y'all know, doubt recall, Elkhorn Tavern was the site of
1:29.0	the Battle of Peer Ridge. Yep, and the telegraph line coming down from Missouri only went that far
1:35.7	and not all the way to Fayetteville. At any rate, Blunt informed Curtis of his decision to launch an
1:42.2	attack saying, I shall move on Marmadout tomorrow morning, leaving my transportation at this point
1:48.5	with a small guard. She'll strike him the next morning unless he runs. Hope to destroy him before
1:54.8	he can be reinforced by Hindman. Curtis immediately wired Brigadier General Francis Haron to notify him
2:02.2	that Blunt was about to attack the rebels at Cain Hill. Remember, Haron was command of the two
2:08.1	so-called Missouri divisions of the Army of the Frontier, which were resting and refitting its
2:13.1	Springfield. Exactly. Anyway, Haron replied that he'd hold his divisions ready to return to
2:20.2	Arkansas at a moment's notice to support Blunt and the Kansas Division. This rapid exchange of
2:27.0	messages among the Union commanders in Arkansas and Missouri is a good example of the critical
2:33.7	importance of the telegraph line that linked Elkhorn Tavern Springfield and St. Louis. It's a small
2:42.0	but revealing demonstration of the impact of industrial technology on traditional methods of warfare.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Richard Youngdahl, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Richard Youngdahl and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.