You make a good point about the location of Prairie Springs. I had always questioned the location of Brushy Mountain because of it's location relative to Honey Springs and Fort Gibson. For Cooper to retreat to the Brushy Mountain location he would have basically been paralleling Blunt's forces. I also believe that if there was a Confederate camp that close to Fort Gibson Blunt would have made an effort to attack it rather than Honey Springs first. Not doing so would have left an unknown sized Confederate force between Blunt's forces and Fort Gibson. If we use a map of the region we see that within 20 miles of Fort Gibson there are only a limited amount of high ground. Also, the very name of Prairie Springs doesn't indicate high ground. I'm going to say that it is most likely on one of the plains between Honey Springs and Webbers Falls. There must have been a historic road between these two points since there was apparently a lot of traffic between these two points but I have never seen any indication of it beyond what is in the Honey Springs OR's. I think we should begin searching for a relatively flat area (good for military camps) within 20 miles somewhere between Honey Springs and Webbers Falls that has or had a flowing spring. Remember, the coffee tastes better if you build the latrines downstream.

Mike Manning
Chief Ranger
National Park Service
Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Tennessee