Preserving and Protecting a Near Pristine Civil War Battlefield in Arkansas

Recipient: Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism

Award Amount: $ 230,000.00
Acreage: 27

On the frosty morning of December 7, 1862, a pivotal moment of the Civil War’s Western Theatre was unfolding. At Prairie Grove in Arkansas, Confederate Major General Thomas Hindman engaged US Brigadier General James Blunt’s forces for a fierce, day-long battle. After several hours of intense combat, Hindman was forced to retreat, allowing Blunt to establish Federal control of northwest Arkansas.

In addition to serving as physical reminders of the conflicts that have shaped our national story, protecting battlefields also safeguards the country’s natural resources and overlooked historical narratives. The rolling hills and pastures of the Prairie Grove Battlefield are a testament to this. Two decades before the Civil War, Prairie Grove’s serene natural landscape witnessed the horrors of the Trail of Tears, a series of forced migrations of thousands of American Indians, including the Cherokee, from their lands in the US Southeast to present-day Oklahoma. The Trail of Tears constitutes one of the nation’s most tragic events, and its remembrance, through the preservation of places like Prairie Grove, commemorates the survival of thousands of American Indians during extreme hardship and turmoil.

With the support of a Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism will protect 27 acres of rural land, adding to an existing 120-acre protected battlefield tract. This land acquisition will not only shield an important portion of the Prairie Grove Battlefield from rapid urban development, but also protect an integral part of the state’s natural landscape that has remained virtually unchanged since the time of the battle. This protected land will allow the local community to access an important part of their natural landscape and collective history.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grants: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, the newly authorized Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation grant programs. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.