Following the skirmish near Searcy, the Union Army of the Southwest would temporarily ground to a halt. With no good base of supplies, especially food, in northern Arkansas, Curtis would need the US Navy, patrolling most of the Mississippi River, to enable a successful drive on Little Rock. This following supply run would be quite the adventure, full of controversial actions from both sides.
Foraging War
His
momentum halted after the Battle of Searcy Landing, Curtis ordered his generals
Steele, Carr, and Osterhaus, to send out scouting and foraging expeditions to
ascertain enemy strength and improve their supply situation. These foraging and
scouting forays exposed the Army of the Southwest to a newly popular form of
warfare in Arkansas: that of the guerilla. The history of the 9th
Illinois Cavalry (in Steele’s Division), lists several such encounters. On one
May day a private E.J. Jenkins “was foully murdered” by a party of bushwhackers,
who had secreted themselves in a corn-crib at Cotton Plant. Another Illinoisan
rushed ahead to avenge his partner, but was killed himself. Jenkins did not
actually die immediately, but lingered on another day with five bullet wounds.[1]
Curtis and his generals discussed the recent surge of guerilla attacks. Osterhaus’ Third Division had gotten the worst of them, and the German-American was outraged by the treatment of Federal prisoners. The guerillas often beat and mutilated them before killing them. Curtis was similarly outraged and gave Osterhaus and his men permission to forego mercy. “…Such villains” are “not to be taken as prisoners.”[2]
On
May 20 Lieutenant Azra F. Brown of the 9th Illinois Cavalry led 75
men to a plantation near Village Creek. There was supposed to be bacon there.
They found it and Brown chose to rest at the plantation for the night. Then a
Unionist civilian came at night, warning Brown that there were 500 guerillas
nearby “who would make it lively for him if he did not get away before
morning.” Brown woke up his men and loaded the bacon on a wagon driven by a
black. It happened to be raining heavily at this time as well. Before they set
out they learned that a man, P.W. Pringle, was missing. Brown moved his men
out, leaving a handful to look for Pringle. Brown’s column was crossing a swamp
when guerillas opened fire on them. The panicking black drove the wagon into a
stump, forcing the Illinoisans to abandon the food. Pringle’s body was found on
an island in the swamp. The 9th’s regimental history informed, “These
cowardly attacks, and needless murders by the miscreants, so incensed Colonel
Brackett and his officers, that a determined effort to punish them was made.”[3]
On
May 26 the 9th Illinois Cavalry went on a reconnaissance towards Des
Arc. On the 27th 5 companies under Lieutenant-Colonel Sickles ran
into Rebels at the Cache River Bridge. The Confederates had torn down part of
the bridge, which the Illinoisans needed to continue their reconnaissance. The
ensuing skirmish was a Federal victory netting two Confederate prisoners. Sickles
continued on to the telegraph station at Cotton Plant. He and his men learned
that the station had been “broken up, and has been for four weeks past. All of
the records are carried away, together with the instruments and wire.”[4]
On
May 27 Curtis admitted that under present conditions the Army of the Southwest
could not march on Little Rock. Reluctant to lose all his gains, he ordered
Carr and Osterhaus to launch another series of raids and foraging expeditions.
The results raised the spirits of his men, as the Confederates were pushed
miles back, much of their food in Federal hands.[5]
Following are a few encounters with the Confederates.
Brigadier-General
Eugene Carr of the Second Division sent out most of his cavalry and “a regiment
and a half of infantry.” A detachment of this force under Colonel Porter went
for a bridge on the Bayou Des Arc. They drove back Confederate pickets only to
find the bridge burned down and the water impassable. Skirmishers from the 9th
Iowa bumped into a trio of mounted Rebels. The horsemen “wheeled and put off at
full speed.” The Iowans fired “and the center one was seen to make a lurch in
his saddle and support himself by his horse’s neck.” The wounded man dropped
his cap and a pocket book with money and letters.[6]
Another
detachment under Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis, defending a forage train, ran into
guerillas at Big Indian Creek. The Federals killed and wounded a few of the
guerillas. Their cost was two wounded, one so severely that Lewis had to leave
him behind. Considering how some men had been treated by guerilla captors, this
was not a good situation.[7]
At West Point Hassendeubel of Osterhaus’ Division found his bridge over the
Little Red River intact, as well as boats. With these he was able to cross the
river and drive back Confederate pickets. The Federals captured a Lieutenant
Hale. After this his men seized a mill.[8]
On
May 29 the 150 men of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry under Major Bowen
captured a picket and learned of a camp at Kickapoo Bottom. The camp was in a
swamp. They dismounted and carefully surrounded the camp, carbines and
revolvers out and ready. This was around 9 PM, and it was dark. The guerillas
caught sight of them first, firing on the cavalrymen. The Iowans responded and
the guerillas scattered. They killed 3 and took 33 prisoner, and acquired a
sizeable cache of weapons including “30 or 40 bowie-knives.” The 3rd
Iowa’s losses were 1 killed and 2 wounded. Unfortunately they had no wagons to
carry everything. They spent the night at Kickapoo Bottom and then got ready to
leave when guerillas reappeared in the woods. The Iowans used a pair of
howitzers to shell them while others picked off 2 Rebels with their carbines.
They disengaged with one more casualty, a man’s molasses-filled canteen.[9]
Many
of the units these Federals met were sent by Hindman to give the impression of
a larger Confederate force. He also had spies and Secessionist civilians spread
stories of a massive army near Little Rock. These rumors caused the Federals to
advance hesitantly.[10]
The Federal movements started to yield little foraging and Carr advised against
sending any more such expeditions. He further complained that many of his men
committed “great excesses on their part, going into the private apartments of
ladies and opening trunks and drawers, and ransacking everything and taking
away what they wanted. If these excesses are permitted we cannot wonder at
guerilla warfare.”[11]
The
gathering Confederate force near Little Rock was certainly aware and furious at
Curtis’ foraging parties, who they considered to be raiders. “They have taken
all the breadstuffs in the immediate neighborhood, and at some places they
destroyed almost everything and carried off the most of the Negroes.” One Texan
soldier lamented that the Federals “reduced some families to poverty and almost
starvation.”[12]
On
June 7 Confederates struck the 3rd Illinois Cavalry pickets at
Fairview. The close-quarters fighting was to the Illinoisans’ disadvantage.
Most did not have revolvers on them, meaning they could only fire off their
carbines and then run away. This skirmish, combined with “Want of food and
forage,” convinced Carr to withdraw his division toward the White River.[13]
Curtis
believed that before he made his final move on Little Rock, he needed to
establish contact with the Mississippi and White Rivers so he could supply his
army. At the moment the Union’s supply base was a whopping 250 miles north at
St. Louis. This was hardly an efficient supply route for an actively
campaigning army. The rivers were necessary because Arkansas’ only functioning
railroad, the Memphis & Little Rock, was in fact two parts. These parts
were separated by a 36 mile wide series of swamplands. All that connected the
railheads was a stagecoach route. Unable to use this railroad for supplies,
Curtis would need to rendezvous with the Navy, which at this point of the war
already patrolled most of the Mississippi River.[14]
His superior, Halleck, took steps to organize such a supply run. Intelligence
ascertained the bulk of the enemy was south of the Arkansas River, possibly
planning to consolidate at Little Rock. They determined that the White River
would be the “safest line” on which to move, as transports guarded by gunboats
could come in there.[15]
The White River
Run
 |
| Augustus Kilty |
On June 13 Commander Augustus Kilty led a fleet out of recently captured city of Memphis to supply Curtis. This fleet included the ironclad gunboats Mound City and St. Louis, the wooden gunboats Lexington and Conestoga, the tug Tiger, and three transports. The transports carried the supplies, as well as the 46th Indiana under Colonel Graham N. Fitch. On the way to the White River, the Tiger captured the steamer Clara Dobson. On the 16th the Tiger scouted ahead at St. Charles. That night a raft came down the river against the transport White Cloud, “nearly wrecking both.” The history that mentions this failed to explain what exactly was dangerous about the raft (perhaps it was set on fire).[16]
On June 17 Colonel Graham Fitch’s 46th Indiana espied two Confederate batteries on a bluff at St. Charles. St. Charles was situated at a bluff on a bend of the White River, meaning it could carry supplies south and also that a battery could easily deter river traffic. Aware of this, General Hindman had earlier sent soldiers on the C.S.S. Ponchartrain to go there and plant two naval guns on the bluffs. The Confederates dumped pilings into the river to create an obstruction. On June 16, just when Kilty’s fleet was five miles off, Captain Joseph Fry a former US naval officer, arrived and took command. His first action was to scuttle the gunboat Maurepas and two transports to further block the waterway. His hope was that the obstructions would halt the US Navy right under the naval guns, as well as four further guns taken from the Maurepas. Around the guns were 114 sailors and soldiers the latter from the 29th Arkansas.[17]
Fitch landed his regiment 2 and a half miles below the artillery and drove in the pickets with his skirmishers. At the same time the gunboats Mound City and St. Louis steamed up the river. Thanks to the woods around the guns, they could not find the Confederates until they fired on the Indianans. With a location, they bombarded the batteries. They failed to cause any damage, while enemy shells panged ineffectually off their armored sides. Captain Kilty then ordered all gunners to focus on the first of the 32-punder naval cannons. About 30 minutes in “a 64-pounder rifled shot” from the Confederate battery penetrated “the larboard fore-quarter of the Mound City. Historian Edward Bearss called it “the most destructive single shot” of the war. It killed one gunner before striking the steam drum, “disabling, by scalding, most of her crew.”[18]
Captain
Fry called on the Mound City, spewing
vapor, to surrender. The sailors did not and jumped into the river, where enemy
sharpshooters “commenced murdering those who were struggling in the water, and
also firing upon those in our boats sent to pick them up.” Technically this was
not a war crime since the sailors had not officially surrendered. A Captain
A.M. Williams on the Confederate side had ordered the shooting to prevent their
escape. Fry, according to the statement of the gunner who fired the fatal shot
to the Mound City, was too far away
overseeing the rest of his artillery to give such an order. However, the
shooting was seen as an atrocity because the men, most already scalded, were so
helpless.[19]
Captain John V. Johnston, commander of the other ironclad, St. Louis, took Mound City’s place on the river, shelling the batteries. In a newspaper interview later on with the St. Louis Globe, he came to Fry’s defense. He pointed out that without any sign of surrender or truce, there was no reason for the Confederate gunners to stop firing. He further stated that the men killed in the water were struck by grape and canister, not bullets. The artillerists had trouble lowering their barrels to hit the St. Louis, and as a result frequently overshot and struck the mass of scalded men.[20]
Back
on land the 46th Indiana passed through the main town of St. Charles
and advanced double-quick on the batteries. They came upon one piece and
overtook it before it could be withdraw. After this they charged on the battery
scattering the infantry and taking the guns. Fitch reported that his men shot
down many of the gunners, possibly retaliation for firing upon the rescue
attempts on the river. Among the 20 or so prisoners was Captain Fry, who had
been wounded in the shoulder. The Federals placed him in a boat and ferried him
to the Conestoga. Four of the
captured guns would go to Memphis, and the others were thrown into the White
River. The Indianans killed at least 8 Confederates and captured 30. The 46th
Indiana only suffered a few light injuries, while over 100 scalded sailors
would be out of action for a while. They were placed on the deck of one of the transports,
wrapped in cotton and oil to protect their burned skin. After many agonizing
days, more would succumb of their heated injuries and die. Overall the Union
suffered 107 killed and 70 wounded the Confederates 6 killed and 20 captured.
Though a Federal victory, the cost in blood had been much higher on their side.[21]
The violence did not end at St. Charles. Guerillas from Monroe County liked to fire on Federal boats from the woods. One such attack occurred on the 22nd. Rebel son shore focused on the White Cloud. The Indiana infantry onboard threw up breastworks “made of cracker boxes, mattresses, hay, etc.” Though the fight lasted hours, only 3 Federals died. Four companies of the 46th Indiana, escorted by two gunboats, entered Monroe County “to put a stop to such barbarous warfare.” They took a few suspects prisoners, including Confederate surgeon Moore, and seized a store of ammunition. The Indianans also posted copies of a notice, demanding that the residents of Monroe County stop the guerilla attacks or they would be held responsible. They Federals threatened that if the attacks did not stop, “an expedition will be sent against you to seize and destroy your personal property.” The fleet found the water too low and temporarily withdrew to St. Charles until conditions were more favorable.[22]
 |
| After the war Joseph Fry offered his services to the Cuban rebels. He was captured and executed by the Spanish authorities on November 7, 1873. Becoming a martyr for the cause of Cuban independence helped him to erase the stain of the controversial aspects of the Battle of St. Charles. |
Diverted March
The
Army of the Southwest continued south. Just as before, they experienced
constant run-ins with guerillas and detachments of mounted Confederates. Colonel
Albert Brackett of the 9th Illinois Cavalry organized foraging
expeditions for corn and bacon. 4 companies of his regiment attended 36 wagons.
The destination was the Waddell Farm in Jackson County. Confederates attacked
the wagons and drove it to a halt half a mile from the farm. Major Humphrey,
commander of the cavalry detachment, felt overwhelmed and sent a message to
Brackett for reinforcements. Brackett acted quickly, leading 2 companies and a
pair of howitzers. Upon arrival he deployed the howitzers in the road organized
4 companies in a cotton field. When the howitzers opened up, the 4 companies,
mounted and wielding sabers, charged the enemy and scattered them. Brackett
ordered his howitzers to fire a few extra shots into Waddell’s Farm in case
opponents were inside, then had his men gather corn and bacon. Brackett
estimated 28 Confederate dead, wounded, and captured. His losses were 1 taken to
enemy captivity and 12 wounded.[23]
On
June 18th a guerilla force under Captain Jones struck the 5th
Illinois Cavalry near Smithville. He had about 100 men and specifically
targeted a foraging party which had collected cattle. A local woman warned the
foragers that they were being pursued and they hurried towards camp. Major
Seley forwarded reinforcements and made a mounted charge. Jones’ attack was a
failure, with himself and at least 11 other Rebels taken prisoner. The
Illinoisans suffered 3 killed and 5 wounded.[24]
Elsewhere near Knight’s Cove, 40 men from the 5th Missouri Cavalry
searched for guerillas and found some while traversing “a very steep, rocky,
and narrow road.” Guerillas fired at them from behind large rocks, sending
three bullets into a private. The Missourians tried to get to the ambushers,
but the guerillas easily escaped thanks to the rough terrain.[25]
Amidst these scrapes, Curtis shifted his army east towards Clarendon, a town on
the White River. There he hoped to rendezvous with Kilty’s fleet, and once he
got his supplies he could make his final push on Little Rock.
General
Hindman assumed that Curtis was retreating because he had shifted his force
towards the White River instead of Little Rock. On June 24 the Confederate
commander ordered General Albert Rust, commander of 5,000 mostly mounted men,
to head to Jacksonport, cross the White River, and get in front of Curtis. In
order to delay Curtis, Rust sent George W. Sweet’s 15th Texas
Cavalry towards Batesville into the Union rear. This surprise attack resulted
in fairly high Federal casualties and the capture of many wagons. Sweet beat a
hasty retreat with the wagons when a Union cavalry brigade approached from the
north. Rust, meanwhile, found it impossible to cross the river near Jacksonport
and Hindman redirected him to Des Arc. There he could cross the White River and
get to Cache River.[26]
On the same day Hindman ordered units further north under Missourian General
James McBride to “fall upon the rear of the enemy.” A few days later McBride
received word of a supply train and prepared an ambush. When the Federals
failed to show up he led a mounted force to search the area. They bumped into
Federal cavalry and were scattered after a very short exchange of fire.[27]
 |
| Albert Rust, an Arkansan, had led the 3rd Arkansas Infantry in Robert E. Lee's famed Army of Northern Virginia before coming west to defend his home state. |
Curtis’ men, having marched a long time, were feeling the effects of the campaign. One trooper of the 9th Illinois Cavalry reminisced, “Sad, indeed, was it for the sick and wounded men, who gasped and panted in the hot weather, there being no cool shade and cool water for them, the whole country fairly seething.” The promise of food and other goods at Clarendon motivated the sun-struck men to keep on.[28] The next day the 3rd Iowa Cavalry and a company of the 33rd Illinois beat off an attack with two killed.[29]
On
June 27 Confederate guerillas under Colonel Matlock ambushed a returning
foraging party (composed of cavalry and infantry) at Stewart’s Plantation. They
had lain in wait along “an eminence covered with canebrake and timber, with a
slough between them and” the Federals. Their fire killed and wounded a few men
and horses of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry (Colonel Bussey’s report states 4
killed and 4 wounded. The Iowans fired back and got the train moving. A
battalion of the 9th Illinois, sent by General Steele, came to the
rescue, though the Confederates likewise received more men. The cavalrymen
found themselves outranged, as they were mostly armed “with pistols and a few
carbines.” The Confederates had rifles and shotguns.[30]
Colonel
Brackett “sent my companies forward one after another amid a continuous blaze
of fire from the enemy.” Brackett was in
the midst of the fight, and a spent ball struck him to inflict a light wound.
Another officer, Captain E.R. Knight, got it worse. A bullet punctured his
lungs, and he was expected to die (he survived). Because they were short on
carbines, a wounded man, unable to use his at the moment generously offered his
gun to a Jesse Hawes. Hawes gratefully went further up to use his new piece. This
shootout lasted for half an hour. The men from the 9th Illinois
tried several times to break the Confederate line along the slough (or swamp),
but the guerillas were too well protected by the underbrush. Brackett gave up
and ordered his men back into a cornfield, so the enemy would have to expose
themselves to continue the battle. This worked and the Federal train and escort
moved off without any further trouble.[31]
Losses
were fairly high. 4 officers were wounded. Overall the 9th Illinois
suffered 1 killed and 28 wounded. With the 3rd Iowa this made up 5
killed and 32 wounded. The losses of the guerillas could not be determined
aside from 5 dead bodies found on the field and one prisoner.[32]
On
July 1 the Army of the Southwest began its march to Augusta. From there it
would go to Clarendon and meet up with the supplies. The going was rough.
Curtis’ 10,000 men kept running into obstructions in the forest. The 33rd
Illinois was the first to see one, crawling through the felled trees and
driving off the pickets. Their regimental history declared, “These blockades
were of frequent occurrence, but were of no great hindrance to our progress, as
our me would cut through an obstruction in an hour, which had taken the enemy
days to make.” Considering that the distance to Augusta was less than 30 miles
and it took three days to get there, this statement is possibly braggadocio.
When the Army of the Southwest got there, it was just in time for July 4. They
took some time to listen to a reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Curtis was also able to hastily assemble a new regiment of Unionist Arkansans.[33]
On
July 6 a detachment of the 3rd Iowa Cavalry encountered another
obstacle of felled trees near Bayou Cache on the road between Augusta and
Clarendon. 12 men moved into the forest and ended up in the rear of 18
guerillas. They opened fire, killing 7 of the Rebels and sending the rest
running.[34]
They did not know it yet, cut the Federals tramping through Arkansas were a day
off from the largest battle of the campaign.
Sources
9th
Illinois Cavalry Regiment. History of the
Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry Volunteers. Chicago: Donohue &
Henneberry, 1888.
“Action at Hill’s Plantation.” https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/action-at-hills-plantation-511/ accessed November 10, 2022.
Banasik,
Michael E. Confederate Tales of the War
in the Trans-Mississippi Part Two: 1862. Camp Pope Bookshop, 2011.
Bringhurst,
Thomas H. History of the Forty-Sixth
Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: September, 1861 – September, 1865.
Logansport: Wilson, Humphreys & Co, 1888.
Gallaway, B. P. The Ragged Rebel: A Common Soldier in W.H.
Parsons’ Texas Cavalry, 1861-1865. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988.
Hanna, Harvey.
“The Battle of Cotton Plant, Arkansas: 7 July, 1862.” https://www.academia.edu/467854/The_Battle_of_Cotton_Plant.
Hanna, Harvey.
“The Battle of St. Charles, Arkansas: 17 June, 1862.” https://www.scribd.com/document/35200860/The-Battle-of-St-Charles, 2010.
Shea. William L. & Hess, Earl J. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. University of North Carolina Press. 1992.
United States. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Vol. XIII. Washington D.C. 1898.
Walker, Jeanie
Mort. Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban
Martyr. Hartford: J.B. Burr Publishing Co., 1877.
Way, Virgil
Gilman. History of the Thirty-Third
Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. Gibson City: The
Regimental Association, 1902.
[1] 9th
Illinois Cavalry Regiment, History of the
Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry Volunteers, (Chicago: Donohue &
Henneberry, 1888), 29; Shea, Pea Ridge,
298-299.
[2] OR XIII, 87; Shea, Pea Ridge, 298-299.
[3] 9th Illinois, Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, 29-30.
[4] OR XIII, 83.
[5] Shea, Pea Ridge, 300.
[6] OR XIII, 84.
[7] OR XIII, 86.
[8] OR XIII, 84-85.
[9] OR XIII, 88-89.
[10] OR XIII, 34.
[11] OR XIII, 85-86.
[12] B. P Gallaway, The Ragged Rebel: A Common Soldier in W.H.
Parsons’ Texas Cavalry, 1861-1865, (Austin: University of Texas Press,
1988), 40.
[13] OR XIII, 102-103.
[14] “Action at
Hill’s Plantation,” https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/action-at-hills-plantation-511/; Harvey Hanna,
“The Battle of St. Charles, Arkansas: 17 June, 1862.” https://www.scribd.com/document/35200860/The-Battle-of-St-Charles, (2010), 2-4.
[15] OR XIII, 116.
[16] Hanna, “Battle of St. Charles,”
4-5; Thomas H. Bringhurst, History of the
Forty-Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: September, 1861 –
September, 1865, (Logansport: Wilson, Humphreys & Co, 1888), 34.
[17] OR XIII,103; Hanna, “Battle of
St. Charles,” 3-5.
[18] OR XIII, 103-105; Hanna, “Battle
of St. Charles,” 7; Bearss quoted in Hanna, “Battle of St. Charles,” 1.
[19] OR XIII, 104-105; Hanna, “Battle
of St. Charles,” 8; Jeanie Mort Walker, Life
of Capt. Joseph Fry, the Cuban Martyr, (Hartford: J.B. Burr Publishing Co.,
1877), 159-163.
[20] Walker, Life of Capt. Joseph Fry, 159-160.
[21] OR XIII,
103-104; Hanna, “Battle of St. Charles,” 8-9; Bringhurst, Forty-Sixth Regiment Indiana, 35.
[22] OR XIII, 106; Bringhurst, Forty-Sixth Regiment Indiana, 36.
[23] OR XIII, 122-123.
[24] OR XIII, 126.
[25] OR XIII, 128-129.
[26] OR XIII, 36.
[27] Banasik, Tales of the War, 90-92.
[28] “A Soldier’s Account of the
March of General Curtis’ Column” from Chicago
Times, August 7, 1886 in 9th Illinois, Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, 47.
[29] Virgil Gilman
Way, History of the Thirty-Third Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, (Gibson City: The Regimental
Association, 1902), 27.
[30] OR XIII, 133-135; “A Soldier’s
Account of the March of General Curtis’ Column” from Chicago Times, August 7, 1886 in 9th Illinois, Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry, 48.
[31] OR XIII, 133-134; 9th
Illinois, Ninth Regiment Illinois Cavalry,
40-41.
[32] OR XIII, 134.
[33] Harvey, “Battle of Cotton
Plant,” 9; Way, Thirty-Third Regiment
Illinois, 27; “A Soldier’s Account of the March of General Curtis’ Column”
from Chicago Times, August 7, 1886 in
9th Illinois, Ninth Regiment
Illinois Cavalry, 48.
[34] OR XIII, 138.
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