During the Dec. 7, 1862, Battle of Prairie Grove, the Borden House was the center of what one historian called one of the most intense firefights west of the Mississippi, as Union and Confederate troops fought around the house and orchard and suffered hundreds of casualties. The Borden family took refuge with other families in a cellar one mile west of here, and when they returned the next day, their home had been burned to the ground. The house now standing on the site was built around 1870. Prairie Grove was the last major battle in northwest Arkansas and helped seal the fate of Missouri and northern Arkansas. After the Confederate army left and never returned, Union troops and supplies were sent elsewhere, and bushwhackers and jayhawkers spread into the region, preying on civilians left helpless in the power vacuum. The Union army tried to root out these lawless bands with varying degrees of success, but the outlaws continued to reign throughout the Ozarks until after the Civil War ended in 1865.