Prairie D'Ane Battlefield

The Prairie D'Ane Battlefield is a landmark that is vastly unknown to the general public and typically not a part of Arkansas History, although it was the largest battle and served as the turning point of the Union's Camden Expedition. The battlefield has gone through a series of phases to be preserved for the public and future generations to access a portal of history to the Civil War in Arkansas. The National Register of Historic Places listed the Battle of Prairie D'Ane in 1974, the battlefield became a National Historic Landmark in 1994, and finally after significant fundraising and volunteer work, the Nevada County Depot Museum purchased and deeded 808 acres of the battlefield. The Depot Museum has declared to preserve the historic value and eventually adapt the battlefield site to have interpretive tours and living histories to bring tourism to Nevada county.

To understand the significance of preserving the Prairie D'Ane Battlefield, the battle itself must be discussed. To set the stage of the battle, Union General Frederick Steele departed from Little Rock on March 23rd, 1864 with the ultimate intention of moving through southern Arkansas to reach Shreveport, LA to join the forces of General Nathaniel Banks. General John M. Thayer departed from Fort Smith at the same time to link with Steele's forces around the city of Arkadelphia to aid in the journey through Southern Arkansas. After Steele would join General Banks's forces, the two would then invade eastern Texas to assist in bringing another Confederate state under Union control as a part of the Red River Campaign. This mission, that has become known as Steele's Camden Expedition, was practically doomed from the start due to Steele's poorly supplied troops and Thayer being delayed to meet Steele by 11 days. These circumstances directly led to what made the battle at Prairie D'Ane significant.

Thayer finally reached Steele and his forces near the city known today as Prescott on April 9th making their combined forces around 13,000. Confederate divisions of General Sterling Price and General John Sappington Marmaduke, reinforcements from the Camden garrison, and brigades of Texans and Choctaws totaled around 7,000 and were all stationed close at Prairie D' Ane. They were prepared to prevent Union forces's assumed intent of taking over Arkansas's capital of Washington at the time and stop their continuance of seized power down the Red River. However, Steele's plan was to actually head towards the city of Camden in hopes to find supplies to refuel his extremely hungry and understocked men. The original area of Prairie D'Ane was around 25 or 30 square miles and one soldier described its natural beauty as “like an oasis lies this beautiful prairie in the midst of dense forests and almost impassable swamps, a relief for the eye of the traveller, who for many days has hardly seen anything but rocks crowned by the dark pines or gloomy cypress swamps.” This peaceful and relatively unoccupied prairie was turned into a battleground for four days once the freshly combined forces of Steele and Thayer advanced on April 10th onto the prairie by the Old Military Road, which still exists today. The fighting lasted well into the night on the first day and the action was sporadic throughout the next three days. Eventually, Confederate troops retreated towards Washington in order to protect the capitol from a Union seize. Some of Steele's forces followed the Confederates as they retreated to make it seem that they were planning to attack at Washington, but the Union forces turned around to join the others back at the prairie to head for Camden the next morning. General Price realized that Union troops were no longer following them and figured out Steele's real intention of restocking at Camden, so Price returned to the prairie to attack the rear of Union troops as they withdrew. Ultimately, Confederate troops retreated again and the Battle of Prairie D'Ane is considered a Union Victory.

A Union soldier named Milton Chambers claimed that the "loss was very light for either side" which can explain why this battle is not as well known as others in Arkansas. However, the battle was a major turning point for Confederates to slow down the Red River Campaign and end Steele's intention to advance to Shreveport and ultimately help invade eastern Texas. Steele and his troops did not accomplish their mission of the expedition and were forced to restock at Camden and were actually driven out of the city to exactly where they started in Little Rock due to the threat of Confederate troops.

A Preservation Plan for Three Battles of the Camden Campaign. PDF file. June 28, 2010. http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/Preservation-Services/NevadaCountyPlan.pdf.

Atkinson, J. H. "The Action at Prairie De Ann." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19, no. 1 (1960): 40-50. Accessed November 26, 2020.

Christ, Mark K. ""War to the Knife": Union and Confederate Soldiers' Accounts of the Camden Expedition, 1864." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 73, no. 4 (2014): 381-413. Accessed November 26, 2020.

Nevada County Depot and Museum. Home Page, Depot Museum . Accessed November 26th 2020. http://depotmuseum.org/.

Prairie D'Ane, American Battlefield Trust. Accessed November 26th 2020. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/prairie-dane.