Hawthorn's account dovetails nicely with Fagan's and Brooks' reports in the SOR and, as Mr. Maul has pointed out in some detail, helps to fix Fagan's Brigade in both time and space.

That said, does the rather formal tone of Hawthorn's letter to his brother strike anyone as odd? Is that how any of us would write to a brother?

By the way, the survival of the Confederate Prairie Grove reports that appear in the SUPPLEMENT TO THE OFFICIAL RECORDS was due to the efforts of none other than Francis Herron. After the war, he collected both Union and Confederate reports, perhaps intending to write a history of the campaign. The originals are in the Francis J. Herron Papers in the NY Historical Society.