Chapter 12, Battle of Prairie Grove Summary

On Sunday, December 7, 1862, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, another battle begins with the boom of rebel cannon from a heavily wooded ridge called Prairie Grove. The Union army stations its men in open fields. Jeff still feels eager to start fighting, and he compulsively checks the priming on his rifle and the cap box in his belt. Jeff's first contact with propaganda comes when Sergeant Jim Pike asks Noah Babbitt to read the circular the Confederate General T.C. Hindman issues to each of his men. The circular urges the the soldiers to destroy the other side. Jeff feels stunned that the enemy speaks so gravely of the Union.

The rumbling and booming of the cannons come from all around them now. A squadron of Union cavalry ride out of the trees, and after finding...