General Schofield Resumes Command
(Page 166) The expedition of Generals Blunt and Herron to Van Buren accomplished all that it was proposed it should accomplish; it had captured and destroyed the steamboats which were being used to transport supplies up the river from Little Rock for the use of the Confederate army operating in that region; it had captured and destroyed large quantities of supplies which had not yet been issued to the army; it had pushed the Confederate forces from the south side as well as the north side of the Arkansas River out of that section, and with the loss of their river transportation and supplies, made it impossible for them to re organize as a fighting force for some time to come. It had shown what a well-equipped army inured to hard service could do under great difficulties. General Hindman had stated to his army that the Federal forces would not dare to cross the mountains to attack him at Van Buren or in that vicinity; if it should make such a rash attempt he would see to it that not one escaped, and yet the Federal forces in two columns crossed the mountains and swiftly fell upon his forces north of the river and captured their camp and train and sent them in demoralized flight south ward.
After the return of the troops from the expedition to Van Buren to Rhea’s Mills and Prairie Grove, General Schofield, who had been absent on account of illness for more than a month, returned and as stated, resumed command of the Army of the Frontier about the first of January, and as there were no organized forces of the enemy in Western Arkansas or Indiana Territory north of the Arkansas River, new operations were to be planned and new dispositions of the forces to be made.
It was the consensus of opinion of the military commanders of the Department, that it would not be advisable for the Federal forces to attempt to occupy the country south of the Boston Mountains and along the Arkansas (Page 167) River until Little Rock should be captured by the Union forces and the Arkansas River opened to navigation to Fort Smith to bring up supplies by boats for the army.
The Federal wounded had been removed from Prairie Grove to Fayetteville for better hospital accommodations, and on resuming command General Schofield directed that the First Division retire to Elm Springs, twenty-two miles north, and that the Second and Third Divisions move to Fayetteville, at which places he held a grand review of the troops on the 6th and 7th of January, and immediately thereafter made new dispositions to meet new situations, for it was not expected that the enemy would remain in active very long, but would reorganize for a campaign in some other direction with their large mounted force.
When at Van Buren General Blunt received information that practically all of General Hindman’s cavalry under General Marmaduke was at Clarksville, about fifty miles below Van Buren and might attempt a movement north and pass into Missouri and attack the Federal supply line be tween Springfield and Rolla, or even attack Springfield, which was the base, of operations for the troops of the Department of Missouri operating in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas.
Active operations having closed in that section after the expedition to Van Buren returned, General Blunt left the army at Elm Springs and returned to Kansas to look after the affairs of his Department, which would require some new adjustment before opening the campaign for the new year.
Immediately after the grand review General Schofield reorganized the Army of the Frontier. He placed Colonel William Weer in command of the First Division, and General Herron in command of the Second and Third Divisions, and distributed the troops in Northwest Arkansas and South west Missouri to the best advantage in establishing the tranquility of the country. (Page 168)
He considered it desirable to establish a post at Fayetteville, to be held by the First Arkansas and Tenth Illinois Cavalry, as a rallying point for the Union people of Western Arkansas, and to organize an infantry regiment from them, a step that had already been taken by Colonel James M. Johnson and Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Searle, and only needed encouragement from the Federal authorities to recruit a full regiment.
The troops of General Herron’s division moved in a northeast direction, and while the troops of the First Di vision were preparing to move, General Schofield received dispatches from General E. B. Brown commanding at Spring field, that General Marmaduke was marching on that place with two or three thousand men with artillery, and asking for immediate re-enforcements. Colonel Weer was there fore directed to move at once with the principal part of his command to re-enforce General Brown at Springfield; but he arrived too late. Marmaduke had arrived and made the attack, and was driven off with some loss and turned east ward and destroyed a blockhouse near Marshfield, and was finally defeated at Hartville with the loss of several of his best officers, Colonel Emmett McDonald among them, and retired into northeast Arkansas to recuperate and prepare for further operations.
Tags: Arkansas, Army of the Frontier, General Herron, General Schofield, Indiana Territory, Missouri, Van Buren
Source: The Union Indian Brigade in the Civil War, By Wiley Britton, published 1922, Franklin Hudson Publishing Co., Kansas City, Missouri.
