Featured battle : Prarie Grove

Part of American Civil War

Date : 07 December 1862

Late in 1862, Maj Gen Thomas Hindman gathered a Southern conscript force of 20,000 Arkansans, Texans and Missourians and resolved to attack Schofield occupying Missouri. Having retired his soldiers to winter quarters, Schofield fell ill, leaving one of his divisions in Arkansas under Blunt, and his remaining two divisions at Springfield in Missouri under Herron. Hindman decided to attack them while separate, and moved against Blunt through the Boston Mountains. Blunt gather rumours indicating an imminent attack so called for help, and Herron's divisions rushed 110 miles in 3 days to assist. In the end Hindman flanked the single union division at Cane Hill and dug in at the hill top village of Prarie Grove on the Fayetteville pike. Herrons attacks and Hindman's counter attacks were successively repulsed for 5 hours, neither side giving ground till Blunts forces, having heard the battle behind them came to the relief and hit the Confederates in the flank although still making little ground. Darkness brought an end to the battle, and Hindman being outnumbered, retired.

Wellington and the Vitoria Campaign

Carole Dival
This book tells the story of a defeated, demoralized rabble turned round to become, in Wellington’s own opinion, ‘never a finer army’. The rebuild came through the restoration of discipline and morale largely by giving the troops rest, recuperation and logistic support in food and clothing. This was followed by intense training. Only then came the advance towards Vitoria. Wellington’s careful planning of the positioning of his army columns consistently wrong footing the French. Also his use of Portuguese and Spanish troops in a more integrated way strengthened his manoeuvres. Recording this could have resulted in a very dry book but the lively writing and the use of first-hand accounts from Allies and French troops makes it most readable and understandable.
The text is supported by five very good maps of the campaign and one map of the battlefield. The battlefield map has some faults in that it shows Soult as commanding the Army of the South and it does not show all the places named in the text. For a fluid battle like Vitoria three or four maps showing the development would have been welcome. There is also a nice set of illustrations including the major protagonists. Six very useful appendices showing strengths and casualties round up the information.
The value of this book is in the description of the whole campaign while the battle description gives a real flavour of a Peninsular battlefield. We recommend this very good read to a wide audience.

Pen & Sword Military, 2021