The Borden House: Unexpected Realities of War

In the past week, Israel targeted high-ranking Iranian officials in their homes, destroying their residences in the process. Americans wake up every day with the belief they are safe from the realities and consequences of war. We are lucky enough to benefit significantly from our geography and military supremacy in the world. This experience was not always the case. Many 19th-century families and homes suffered from the ongoing engagements of Union and Confederate armies. Occasionally, their residence was placed between some of the heaviest fighting. Unfortunately, for one family at Prairie Grove, their home was a focal point of the battle.

The Borden family owned several acres of land to the northeast of Prairie Grove Church. It consisted of a wheatfield, a cottonfield, a barn, and an orchard. The orchard became infamous during the fighting as many Union soldiers fell there. Just to the west of the Borden family home were the Post Office, the Blacksmith, and a couple other family homes in the area. The Borden family home sat on a ridgeline that afforded a great vantage point, making it a highly defensible position. The Confederate position explains the failed Union attacks. James Blunt's attack was further to the west across the Morton and Roger's family homes.

Early on the morning of December 6th, Union soldiers broke into the Borden Family home, tearing up the house. They took their saddlebags. Caldonia Ann Borden, who was nine at the time of the incident, remembered her mother trying to keep them from taking it. The baby started screaming, and the mother had to go tend to her child, giving up the saddlebag to the Union soldier. Her father knew that a battle was about to take place there. So, before breakfast the next morning, he took the young Caldonia and the rest of his family west to a neighbor's house, carrying as much food as they could carry.

Wounded Union and Confederate soldiers alike began to seek refuge at their neighbor's home. They treated them all the way they could; however, one in particular had his leg hanging onto his body by only his skin, causing some family members to get sick. They listened to cannon and gunfire all day. They saw smoke in the distance near their family home. The next day, Mr. Borden walked about to his home to find it in ruins. Union soldiers burned to the ground and raided everything inside. They took all they could find, including their clothes. They killed the cattle, pigs, and chickens to eat. There was nothing left of their home as both sides departed Prairie Grove.

Fortunately, the kindness of their neighbors provided them with food and clothes. The Bordens scavenged the battlefield, taking blankets and canteens. They had to boil the blankets to kill any lice. But they used everything they found. The Borden's got hold of a mare that later came to help them on the farm. After the war, the Borden family rebuilt the home in about the same color and structure as the first. Yet, Caldonia never forgave the Union soldiers that ransacked her home. It is experiences like Caldonia's that Americans are so distanced from.

Above is a picture of the Borden family. In the front middle center is Archibald Borden who rebuilt the house after the war. In the back right corner is Caldonia Ann Borden who wrote extensively about the battle in her memoirs.

The earliest known photograph of the home taken in 1896.

Resource:

Arkansas State Staff, “The Borden House: Restoring a Battlefield Icon,” Arkansas State Parks, 18 June 2025, https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/articles/borden-house-restoring-battlefield-icon.