Old Fort Wayne OK004

supportedunresolved Blunt says he went ahead disguised as an escaped rebel and learned the pickets, camp and strength from a woman whose husband was in the Confederate camp; the pickets heard his approach and alarmed the town, and he found that only three companies had kept up with him. Cooper says he learned on the evening of the 21st of a Federal force moving from Bentonville but took it for a scout, and that the Federals had been informed of his position by persons about his camps.

Reported knowledge in opposing interested reports; no message chain inspected.

supportedunresolved Blunt says his men dropped asleep when halted on the night march and that pursuing horses gave out after 7 miles. Cooper says his Indian troops were barefoot and nearly naked, their ponies inefficient, that a train with 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of powder barely escaped, and that want of subsistence drove the brigade south after the retreat.

Condition statements from opposing interested reports; no supply return inspected.

supportedunresolved Blunt intended to surprise and attack at daybreak. Cooper says he had been ordered to invade Kansas, had set the 22nd for the march on Fort Scott, and was unwilling to withdraw unless compelled by a superior force.

Stated aims; not evaluated.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen and live results are Union victory. Blunt reports the complete rout of the enemy with the loss of all his artillery and a flight to Fort Gibson, 70 miles. Cooper says that but for the loss of the battery his troops would have had the advantage and the Federals had nothing to pride themselves on. NPS says overwhelming numbers forced the Confederates off the field after half an hour.

Retain the original result and engagement interval; later movements and campaign contribution are different measures. No new probabilities or individual causal credit.

disputedpost_outcome Frozen and live: 164 total (US 14; CS 150). Blunt's dispatch gives 4 killed and about 15 wounded and 30 prisoners; his report gives 1 killed and 9 wounded, 4 of them mortally, about 50 Confederate dead buried, and 150 killed and wounded reported by Confederate wounded found in houses. Cooper gives 6 killed and about 30 wounded, and the Federal loss as 75 to 100. The compiled Confederate return's component columns are garbled in OCR; its aggregate column can be read as 37 (1st Cherokee), 4 (2d Creek) and 22 (Howell's battery), which sum to 63 (a computation) and match the final 63 of the total line.

Original casualty returns were not inspected; preserve totals, categories, cutoffs and differences. No canonical reconciliation or casualty-based opening count; related actions must not be added without resolving population overlap. The frozen CS 150 equals the figure Blunt attributes to Confederate wounded in houses; that is an observation, not a reconciliation. The return's aggregate of 63 is a compiled-return reading of unstated authorship, distinct from Cooper's 6 killed and about 30 wounded and from the frozen CS 150; none is adopted.

supportedunresolved The frozen rows list Cooper (Colonel) and Blunt (Brigadier General); the live page styles Cooper Brigadier General, and his December report is signed as Brigadier-General. Blunt led the advance, opened with the Second Kansas and two howitzers, and credits Crawford's charge with taking the battery; he blames the main column's failure to move as ordered for the lost surprise. Cooper says he was ill and that Lieutenant-Colonel Buster was in command on the day of the battle, and that Watie had command during his illness when he wrote on October 25; he blames Rains's detachment of the Texas regiments, Sampson Folsom's disobedience and his own illness.

The listed Confederate commander was, by his own account, not directing the fight; Buster and Watie are not listed commanders. No listed commander receives automatic sole credit.

unknownunresolved

No inspected return establishes matched personnel at a common opening boundary. The frozen side-specific numerical strength bounds are blank (missing_numeric_strength). No figure in this pass is adopted as a simultaneous opening force.

disputedunresolved The frozen force field names Blunt's 1st Division, Army of the Frontier against the 1st Brigade without counts; the live field reads zero. Blunt's dispatch estimates the enemy at 4,000 to 7,000; his report gives 5,000 to 7,000 from scouts and near 7,000 from a local informant who said two Texas regiments had just joined, and says the Second Kansas with less than 600 men engaged a force more than ten times its number. Cooper says Rains had taken his four Texas regiments, that the Federal strength was at least 5,000 against his about 1,500, and at least three times his.

Detachment and brigade estimates on the same day, with a direct conflict over the Texas regiments' presence. None is adopted as a matched opening strength. The live zero is not measured absence.

supportedunresolved Blunt says the 30-mile night march ran through rough, wooded, hilly country to a prairie some 5 miles wide, and that the Confederate line faced him across a 200-yard pasture with two fences, near timber. NPS places the fight on Beatties Prairie near Old Fort Wayne.

Ground described by an interested report and a summary; no map verification. Phase unresolved.