The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 2

If you have not read the first half, look here.

Below are two images from reenactments of the battle. I doubt they recreate the massacre for family audiences.

Final Push

On the Union left Companies C and I, 1^st Kansas Colored, saw about a hundred men in blue coats pass along their front. They assumed they were from the 2^nd Kansas Cavalry as well as sharpshooters from the 18^th Iowa. They were soon corrected when hundreds of Confederate cavalry appeared alongside them Cabell had ordered Crawford, who to this point had only skirmished, to move all of his available men forward. Gibbons “immediately ordered the men to fire, which was kept up for a few minutes only, but with such effect as to check the enemy’s advance.” Among the men commended in Gibbons’ report was First Sergeant Berry, a black officer who urged his men to think of freedom and hold their place.[1]

Gibbons ordered his men 60 yards back. They fired a volley, but made another withdrawal when they saw the rest of the regiment in retreat. Crawford’s Confederates “moved rapidly and steadily forward, firing volley upon volley” at the black troops. Gibbons attempted to mount his horse. He tripped on his saber halfway up and the horse “became scared and dragged me about 5 yards.” His infantry left him behind and he was left alone against the on-rush of screaming Rebels. “I need not say I mounted quick and rode away quicker.”[2]

The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 1

 

On April 18, 1864, the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment faced its worst day. A foraging expedition turned into a desperate battle, and the battle concluded with their heaviest losses. While many of the former slaves and their white officers fell in combat, the worst came after the battle had been lost. The wounded were targeted for a racial and revenge-motivated killing spree at the hands of the victors. The Battle of Poison Spring was not the largest battle of General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition in Arkansas, but it gained an infamous place in Civil War history. Arkansas citizens in the area did not call it a battle, but the Poison Spring Massacre. It helped usher in 1864 as perhaps the cruelest year of the Civil War.

The Northern Hook

The Camden Expedition was in fact part of the Red River Campaign. Major-General Henry W. Halleck, Chief-of-Staff of the Army, was determined to see the conquest of Texas and its cotton bundles. General Ulysses Grant, recently promoted to Lieutenant-General over all Federal forces, had wanted Major-General Nathaniel Banks (one of several notoriously incompetent political generals), to descend upon Mobile, Alabama, one of the last functioning major ports in the South. Halleck, however, won his case for Banks to advance on Texas instead. There were legitimate military objectives. Texas, largely untouched beyond its Gulf coastline, contained vast amounts of cattle and other supplies that it could still slip east past the Union-occupied Mississippi River. Also, the Lincoln Administration still feared that the French, waging their war in Mexico just to the south, might still potentially form an alliance with the Confederacy. A large Federal presence in Texas could dissuade this. More controversially there were political and economic motives as well. Lincoln hoped to install a pro-Union government in conquered Texan territory that would of course in turn hold pro-Lincoln voters. Above all the Federals coveted Texas’ vast amounts of cotton. Since Texas had a land border with Mexico, it could bypass the Union naval blockade and send cotton directly to French and Mexican middlemen.

Price's Northern Offensive (August-September, 1861), Part III: The Fall of Lexington

 

Dave Gallon's Battle of the Hemp Bales

No Relief

September 19 saw a return to sporadic shooting. One reason for the lowered intensity of the fighting was an intercepted Federal message. From it Price learned of Sturgis’ relief column, only a few miles away. He sent Parsons and Jackson’s divisions north to block him. While they moved out, Price shifted his men around, trying to find the most advantageous position from which to launch another assault. Guardsmen with squirrel rifles perched themselves on tree limbs. These sharpshooters had a good view of the Federals in their trenches and caused “many hasty and shallow burials.” When the battle was over, one of these poorly dug graves resulted in a protruding foot.[1]

The situation grew ever more desperate for the defenders. Throughout the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th no reinforcements appeared to relieve them. Water was running low and many of the wounded were suffering the agony of thirst. On every day the two sides engaged in shootouts, which the defenders had to fight “without water, their parched lips cracking, their tongues swollen, and the blood running down their chins when they bit their cartridges and the saltpeter entered their blistered lips”. Fortunately there were brief rainfalls. As their water sources were gradually cut off, the defenders spread their blankets on the ground to collect the rainwater. Once the blankets were saturated, they “wrung them in their camp-dishes.” Bevier recalled how the Federals would send out a woman to collect water for them. Though the State Guardsmen were “rough and uncouth” and given to hurling “profane language” at the female, they  could not bring themselves to shoot her, and any attempt to stop her physically resulted in fire from the Federal works.[2]

Price's Northern Offensive (August-September, 1861), Part II: The Siege of Lexington

The Fight of September 13

The Missouri State Guard was in sight of Lexington. Price wasted little time in attempting to seize the town. He deployed his infantry and artillery and gunned for a bridge which would quickly take his force into the town. When the Rebels crossed the bridge, Mulligan sent out two companies of the 13^th Missouri as well as company K of the 23^rd Illinois. The two sides confronted each other within the cornfields of farmer Isaac Hockaday, the Federals behind hemp bales and the State Guardsmen behind a fence. Hockaday had gone out to look for his neighbor so they could organize an evacuation. Instead he found himself cut off from his family as his corn field turned into a fire zone. Later reflecting on the chaos around his and his neighbors’ homes, and the ensuing destruction to their property, he wrote sadly, “I feel as if we had better lost all of our negroes than suffered as we have already…” Price withdrew from the indecisive skirmish. The Federals took advantage of this break in action to burn the bridge. With more of his army pulling up, Price changed the direction of his attack. He wheeled his army to come from the west on Independence Road.[1]

Price’s new avenue of attack scattered some cavalry pickets. Six companies of Federal infantry exited the town to meet the Guardsmen, hiding in hedges and cornfields on the east side of the road. At the head of Price’s force were horse soldiers. The Federals held their fire until they were just about 150 yards away. Then they revealed themselves. The sudden deluge of fire frightened the horses and the cavalry had to spur away. This gave the infantry problems. The horses ran over a couple unfortunates and others had to run to get out of the way. This also meant they went into battle with a distinct air of confusion, not helped by the well-concealed Federals in the cornfield. After getting behind the infantry, the cavalrymen got off their unreliable mounts and returned to the front to fight it out on foot.[2]

Price's Northern Offensive (August-September, 1861), Part I: The Roads to Lexington

 

When noon struck on August 10, 1861, the hills and fields around Wilson’s Creek were covered with the dead, dying, and maimed. The Confederate Army, along with the allied Missouri State Guard, had won the second major battle of the Civil War. Earlier that year Missouri had voted to stay in the Union, but only as a neutral bystander in the emerging conflict. Unconditional Unionists and Secessionists alike had other plans, trying to seize control of Missouri’s arsenals. The pro-Confederate governor, Claiborne Jackson reorganized the militia into the Missouri State Guard and placed it under the command of former governor, state senator, and Mexican War veteran Sterling Price. The State Guard was ostensibly meant to protect Missouri’s armed neutrality and after the start of hostilities to protect the state from Federal intervention without necessarily joining the Confederacy. As a result many of the men in its ranks favored their home state over the idea of a Confederate nation and some even switched sides when they felt that it was better for Missouri to stay in the Union.

Sterling Price, command of the State Guard. Before
the war he was a prominent politicians who served
in both Missouri and the US House of Representatives
as well as governor of Missouri from 1853 to 1857.

The Missouri State Guard consisted on nine divisions, each representing one of nine military districts. These were not proper divisions, being all over the place in size. Most were brigade-sized, save for the Eighth Division which included thousands of Bushwhackers and other participants as well as victims of Bleeding Kansas. Between the lack of Federal funding, inconsistent Confederate support, and fast-moving events, the State Guard was chronically short on supplies, logistics, and time for drill and discipline.