How We Know What We Know · Soldiers' Letters

Many resources provide information on the Civil War, including battle reports, diaries, letters, on-the-spot reporting, interviews with participants and others affected by the war, and their memoirs, which offer firsthand experiences. In one account of the battle of Honey Springs, Chaplain Evan Jones of the 1st Indian Home Guards, USA, wrote that the heaviest fighting took place at the edge of the timber near Big Elk Creek, where the Confederates had chosen a strong defensive position, but Gen. Blunt advanced on them with two brigades in a battle line stretching more than a mile, supported by two batteries of four guns each and four howitzers. He wrote that Chilly McIntosh's regiment did not fight but ran, D.N. McIntosh's fought briefly and then ran, Folsom's and Tandy Walker's Choctaws fought somewhat longer, Stand Watie's forces fought desperately for a while and then ran, and that the Texas and Arkansas troops fought better and showed considerable bravery, reforming several times before their lines were broken each time. He added that Honey Springs was Cooper's headquarters and that, as the Confederates fled, they set fire to their stores. In a Confederate account, Pvt. Edward Folsom of the 1st Choctaw and Chickasaw Mounted Rifles, CSA, recalled that Federal cavalry came against them with Black troops and fought across Elk Creek, that his company was on picket that morning, and that when he saw the enemy coming he reported back as the pickets stampeded, broke for the mountains, and escaped, though five of their pickets were captured. He then ran to where his colonel had formed the regiment, reported what had happened, and was sent back to act as rear guard.

Rentiesville, Oklahoma · United States