GENERAL PRICE did not reach Batesville until the 12th of September, 1864. He remained there one day and reached Pocahontas on the 16th. His command for the expedition into Missouri consisted of three divisions, led respectively by Fagan, Marmaduke and Shelby. General Fagan's division was composed entirely of Arkansas troops--the brigades of Gen. W. L. Cabell, Col. W. F. Slemons, Col. A. S. Dobbin, Col. T. H. McCray, and four pieces of artillery--aggregating about 4,000 men. General Marmaduke's division was composed of his old brigade, commanded by Brig.-Gen. John B. Clark, Jr., Freeman's brigade, and a four-gun bat-tery--in all about 3,000 men. General Clark was an infantry officer and unaccustomed to handling cavalry. Some time before, Gen. D. M. Frost's wife had passed through the lines with the consent of the Federals to visit her husband. She determined to return to her home by the way of Matamoras and Havana. General Frost got leave of absence to accompany her to Matamoras and place her on shipboard. But when she embarked he went along, and the Confederate army knew him no more. Colonel Clark was appointed brigadier-general in his place.

Clark's brigade included the Third Missouri cavalry, Col. Colton Greene; Fourth cavalry, Col. John Q. Burbridge; <cmh9b_180>Seventh cavalry and Davies' battalion, Col. Solomon G. Kitchen, Lieut.-Col. J. F. Davies; Eighth cavalry, Col. William L. Jeffers; Tenth cavalry, Col. Robert R. Lawther; Fourteenth battalion, Lieut.-Col. Robert C. Wood; Hynson's Texas battery, Capt. S.S. Harris' Missouri battery, Capt. J. T. Hogane's engineer company. Col. Thomas R. Freeman's brigade was composed of his regiment, that of Col. Edward T. Fristoe and the battalion of Lieut.-Col. Barney Ford.

General Shelby's division included his old brigade, under Col. David Shanks; the Fifth Missouri cavalry, Col. B. Frank Gordon; Eleventh cavalry, Col. Moses W. Smith; Twelfth cavalry, Col. David Shanks; Col. Benj. Elliott's cavalry command; Lieut.-Col. Alonzo W. Slayback's battalion; Capt. Richard A. Collins' battery: Col. Sidney D. Jackman's brigade, including Jackman's cavalry under Lieut.-Col. C. H. Nichols; Col. DeWitt C. Hunter's cavalry; Lieut.-Col. D. A. Williams' battalion; Lieut.-Col. John A. Schnable's battalion, section of Collins' battery, Lieut. Jacob D. Connor; and Col. Charles H. Tyler's brigade, including the cavalry commands of Cols. Caleb Perkins, John T. Coffee and James J. Searcy. The aggregate of Shelby's division was about 3,000 men. Altogether the army under command of General Price aggregated about 10,000 mounted men and twelve pieces of artillery.

General Price crossed the Missouri line on the 5th of October, moving in three columns, with Shelby on the left, Marmaduke on the right, and Fagan in the center. Price marched with the center column. Governor Reynolds marched with Shelby, and did service on his staff as volunteer aide-de-camp. Shelby struck the enemy first. A body of Federals leaving the little town of Doniphan, burned it. A detachment, sent in pursuit by Shelby, came up with them, and they never burned another. General Price's orders were that the army should march on an average fifteen miles a day, and the <cmh9b_181>different columns should form a junction at Fredericktown at a given time. Shelby had the exposed side--that toward the interior of the State--and took the liberty of going as he pleased. He captured Patterson and forty of Leper's band of marauders without firing a gun. He also reached Fredericktown two days ahead of time, and, finding neither .of the other columns there, took Mineral Point and tore up miles of railroad track between Potosi and Iron Mountain. When Fagan and Marmaduke reached Fredericktown Shelby was there, loaded with supplies, which he shared with the other less fortunate commands.

General Price took Ironton, that is to say, the Federals evacuated the town and Fort Curtis, September 27th, and retired to Fort Davidson at Pilot Knob. This was a strong, irregular fortification, surrounded by a deep and wide ditch, partially filled with water, and di,cult under any circumstances to cross. Price determined to assault the fort, though the opinions of his division commanders were opposed to it. Marmaduke's division was ordered up from the east of Fredericktown and he was ordered to attack the fort from Shepherd mountain, while Cabell attacked from the plain. Marmaduke was assured there was no ditch around the fort. Cabell made an attack upon the plain and was repulsed, because there was no way of getting into the fort after he reached it. Clark's brigade dismounted, advanced down the side of Shepherd mountain through a heavy growth of scrub-oak, and attacked, just after Cabell had failed, and failed as he had because the men could not cross the ditch. Some of them got so close to the fort as to be under the enemy's guns, and remained there till night.

That night General Ewing, who was in command of the garrison, blew up his magazines, left his dead and wounded behind, evacuated the fort and retreated in the direction of the southwest branch of the Pacific railroad.

No pursuit was attempted until nearly noon the next day, <cmh9b_182>and then with the start Ewing had it was futile. In the attack on the fort Maj. G. W. Bennett of Clark's brigade, a splendid officer and man, was killed; Col. J. C. Monroe of Cabell's brigade was wounded, as also were Lieut.-Col. John C. Bull and Major Thomas of Fagan's staff. The loss of Cabell's brigade was particularly heavy, he himself having his horse killed under him.

At Pilot Knob it became evident that General Price did not intend to try to take St. Louis--though he might have done so by a rapid march and a bold dash--for he moved northwestward in the direction of Jefferson City. In other words, it became evident that the expedition was a raid, and had no other object than to go to the Missouri river, scatter the Federal garrisons in the towns of the river counties and in those of the southwest, and return to southern Arkansas. He took such towns as Franklin, Herman, Union and Washington and their garrisons, if they had any, as he moved slowly up the Missouri river. Jefferson City he found so strongly fortified and garrisoned that he was content to drive in the outposts and pass around it. In forcing the passage of the Osage, October 6th, Col. David Shanks, commanding Shelby's old brigade, was so severely wounded that he had to be left behind, and Gen. M. Jeff Thompson was assigned to the command of the brigade.

Shelby was ordered to take the direct road from Jefferson City to Booneville, and by a forced march surprise and capture the town and its garrison. This he did, except that part of the garrison which escaped across the river on the steam ferryboat. General Price, with Fagan's and Marmaduke's divisions, marched southwest to Versailles, and then turned and marched northwest to Booneville. At California the road General Price was moving on joined the road Shelby had taken. Fagan's division with General Price was in front, Marmaduke's in rear. The ammunition train was between the two divisions. When Fagan passed through California, <cmh9b_183>no force was thrown out to hold the road by which Shelby had come from Jefferson City. The Federals in Jefferson City, finding the army withdrawn, concluded to follow Shelby, and, just as the ammunition train reached California, drove in the stragglers on the unguarded road. Marmaduke was riding at the head of his division with his escort company, and just behind him was his battery. He had barely time to unlimber his artillery before the Federals appeared. When the artillery opened upon them they naturally supposed it was supported and drew back to form a line of battle. The delay was fatal to them. By the time they were ready to charge, Clark's brigade was in line, and though the fight was hot for an hour, the ammunition train was saved and eventually the enemy repulsed.

In the towns and counties above Jefferson City the sentiments of the people were strongly Southern, and General Price's army was received with enthusiasm, especially by the women, who were not restrained in their words and acts by any suggestions of policy or expediency. Indeed, the Southern women of Missouri were as loyal and true to the cause and as brave and heroic in the support they gave it and its defenders, as the women of any part of the South. At the hazard of their lives they made their homes hospitals to care for the sick and the wounded, and when they were not safe in their houses hid and fed them in the woods and in caves, until they recovered or died; in the one case starting them to the army again and in the other giving them decent burial. This spirit of heroism and disregard of consequences was not confined to the country. They were as true in the towns as in the country. Nowhere were they more active and zealous and self-sacrificing than in St. Louis. No Southern soldier lacked for friends among the Southern women to feed him, to secrete him, to supply him with arms and money and whatever else he needed, to give him a horse and a guide, <cmh9b_184>and start him to the army--in that city crowded with Federal soldiers and alive with detectives and spies. Half the time Confederate commands in the West drew their medicines and lighter forms of ammunition from St. Louis through the aid of the Southern women there. As General Price's army passed through these western counties his soldiers were everywhere treated, not only hospitably, but royally by the women. Old and young they gathered on the roadside to see them pass and to speak kind words to them, and in their houses they were received and treated as honored guests.

General Price remained at Booneville three days, and then left to avoid being hemmed in between the LaMine and the Missouri rivers. The immediate cause of his leaving appeared to be that a heavy body of Federal cavalry got possession of the Tipton road, and were with difficulty dislodged for the passage of the troops. At Salt Fork, in Saline county, General Clark and his brigade of Marmaduke's division, reinforced by Colonel Jackman's brigade of Shelby's division, were detached in order to cross the river at Arrow Rock and capture the garrison at Glasgow, six or seven hundred strong, under command of Col. Chester Harding. The troops crossed on a steam ferryboat, and the boat was then run up to near Glasgow to be ready to recross them at that point after they had taken the town and captured the garrison. The Federals occupied a heavy earthwork and were in a position to have made a strong fight if they had been properly commanded. But Colonel Harding did not seem anxious to do more than make a show of resistance. That done, surrender followed as a matter of course. Jackman's brigade, which got in position before Clark's did, drove the enemy into their works without difficulty; and then, through the agency of the principal citizens of the town, came negotiations for surrender, which were soon consummated, apparently to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned. Shelby moved up on the opposite <cmh9b_185>side of the river, just before daylight, with a section of artillery, and before Clark had opened the fight disabled a steamboat loaded with clothing and army stores, and kept her under his guns until Harding surrendered. '

As soon as Clark's detachment joined the main body, General Price moved into Lafayette county, Lexington being his objective point. En route, on the Salt Fork road, Shelby's command met Gen. Jim Lane of Kansas, who had come down from Leavenworth in force to annihilate Price's army. There was no commander in the Federal army whom Shelby was more anxious to meet than Lane, and his officers and men were as anxious as he was. Gordon's, Hooper's, Crisp's and Elliott's regiments of the old brigade, and Jackman's brigade, joined in the charge and vied with each other in the fierceness of their assaults. Shelby led the charge in person, and it was a running fight almost from the first. Lane was driven through Lafayette county and Lexington, and did not consider himself safe until he reached Independence, in Jackson county. On the advance from Salt Fork, Gen. Jeff Thompson, with Shelby's brigade, made a detour to Sedalia to take in Col. John F. Philips and his command, who held the town. Thompson took the town, and Philips was so closely pressed that he left his pistols behind, which Thompson captured.

All this time danger was gathering fast around the army. General Rosecrans had come on the railroad to Sedalia with a strong force, and was advancing on Price from the east. Another heavy force had been concentrated at Leavenworth under command of General Curtis, and was advancing to meet him from the west. These two forces were rapidly approaching, with Price between them. Price, however, did not quicken his leisurely gait or appear in the least disturbed. At the crossing of the Little Blue, a few miles below Independence, October 21st, Marmaduke had a stubborn fight with a brigade of Colorado troops under command of General Ford. <cmh9b_186>The enemy attacked his advance just after it had crossed the stream, drove it back on the main body and charged and nearly captured his battery, which he had hastily got in position. Though beaten back the enemy formed and charged again, but Marmaduke had got another regiment over and repulsed them. Again they formed and for the third time charged the battery, but by that time Marmaduke had got all Clark's brigade over and repulsed them decisively. Shelby, who was behind Marmaduke, crossed the stream higher up and attempted to cut the enemy off, but failed on account of their rapid withdrawal. He fell in their rear and took up the pursuit, carrying on a rapid, running fight with them. In one of the sharp brushes, Capt. George Todd, one of Quantrell's captains, and a noted guerrilla fighter, who was up with the advance guard, was shot through the neck and died in a few minutes.

The guerrilla warfare in Missouri was more bitter and merciless than in any other State; but as far as Southern men who took part in it were concerned it was strictly a war of retaliation. In September, 1861, Jim Lane with a body of Kansas jayhawkers took and wantonly burned the town of Osceola in St. Clair county. Later in the fall of that year the butcher, McNeil, had ten prisoners, many of them non-combatants, shot because one Andrew Allsman, of whom they knew nothing, had disappeared from his home and could not be found. In November, 1861, Col. C. B. Jennison, of the First Kansas cavalry, issued a proclamation to the people of the border counties of Missouri, in which he said: "All who shall disregard these propositions (to surrender their arms and sign deeds of forfeiture of their property) shall be treated as traitors and slain wherever found. Their property shall be confiscated and their houses burned; and in no case will any one be spared, either in person or property, who refuses to accept these propositions." Indeed, the Federals boasted of their barbarity. On December 27th, 1861, <cmh9b_187>the St. Louis Democart stated that "Lieutenant Mack, sent out to Vienna with twenty Kansas ranges, returned yesterday. He brought no prisoners, that being a useless operation about played out." The Rolla Express of the same date said: "A scouting party of rangers, which left this place last week for Maries county, has returned. The boys bring no prisoners--it isn't their style."

At that time there was not an organized Southern guerilla band in the State. The first organization of that kind was effected in Quantrell. In January, 1862, he had seven men with him and operated in Jackson county. During that month Capt. William Gregg joined with thirteen men, making his force twenty. After that his command increased rapidly. They had many fights and took many prisoners, but always paroled them. In a fight at Little Santa Fé Quantrell and his band were surrounded in a house, the house was set on fire, and they fought their way out, one man being wounded, captured and taken to Fort Leavenworth. Shortly afterward Quantrell captured a Federal lieutenant. He proposed to the Federal commander to exchange the lieutenant for his man. The commander refused. He then paroled the lieutenant and sent him to ask the commander to make the exchange. The commander still refused. The lieutenant reported back, and Quantrell released him unconditionally, but his man was shot.

On the night of the 20th of March, 1862, Quantrell with sixty men camped on Blackwater, four miles from California. Early on the morning of the 21st he got a copy of the St. Louis Republican, which contained General Halleck's proclamation outlawing his band and all other bands of partisan rangers, and ordering Federal officers not to take them prisoners, but to kill them wherever and under whatever circumstances found. Quantrell said nothing of the proclamation until he had formed his men next morning. Then he read it to them, <cmh9b_188>told them it meant the black flag, and gave every man who could not stand that kind of warfare permission to retire and return to his home. After a short consultation twenty of the men turned and rode away. Never until then had Quantrell or his men shot a prisoner or a Federal soldier who offered to surrender. They accepted the black flag when it was forced on them and fought under it, but it was not of their seeking nor did they inaugurate that kind of warfare. The capture, sacking and burning of Lawrence, Kan., was in retaliation of the sacking and burning of Osceola by Jim Lane and his men more than a year before. The fight, and massacre as it has been called, at Centralia, was in retaliation of the killing of one of Anderson's sisters and the crippling for life of another by undermining and throwing down a house in Kansas City in which they with other Southern women were confined.

Missouri was isolated and cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. It was far removed and practically beyond the range of vision of the civilized world. There was a Federal garrison in nearly every town and at nearly every crossroads. Any manifestation of freedom on the part of the people was repressed by banishment, the destruction of property or death. There was no law. The courts were terrorized, and the nominal officers of the law were puppets of the military power. Fire and sword, rapine and murder, reigned supreme, and the guerrillas simply paid back the insults and wrongs to which they and their families and their friends were subjected. They fought in the only way in which they could fight, and they fought to kill.

EARLY in 1863 there was a formidable array of Federal forces confronting the Southern troops in Arkansas. The Federal troops in eastern Arkansas were put under the orders of General Grant in January. In this district alone, in February, there was a grand total of I4,I44 present for duty, absent, 17,415. Of this menacing power the Confederate generals were, of course, informed. Yet the defenders of Arkansas continued with great energy, despite the weather, the want of equipments or supplies and the most ordinary facilities of war, to strike at the superior and well-equipped force at all points. Some brief mention of the incidents in the disordered and irregular warfare which disturbed Arkansas during this period will serve to show the disadvantages under which the Southern soldiery campaigned, and the suffering which the people were compelled to endure. Of these raids, battles and skirmishes only a few can be named, and the story of them cannot in the space of this volume be fully told.

While the Confederates in Tennessee were battling with Rosecrans, December 31, 1862, General Marmaduke was marching from Lewisburg, on the Arkansas river, with Shelby's brigade, MacDonald's and Porter's commands, for a raid into Missouri. Springfield was attacked, and the forts at Hartville and Hazlewood were burned. Among the killed in the action at Hartville were the <cmh10b_162>brave Col. Emmet MacDonald, Lieutenant-Colonel Weimer, Major Kirtley, and others. From Hazlewood the Confederates returned to Batesville, Ark., January 18, 1863. Carroll's Arkansas brigade, commanded by Col. J. C. Monroe, started under General Marmaduke upon this raid, but was detached by Orders from General Hindman's headquarters, and directed to operate against the enemy at Van Buren creek, thus escaping an arduous campaign in sleet and snow over a rough region, in which there was scant food for man or horse.

After General Marmaduke had marched away, the Federal captain of militia, John Philips, surprised some citizens who had "hidden out," as was customary on the approach of Federals, armed with sporting guns only, as no one dared to go unarmed, and captured them with his force of 75 militiamen near Berryville, Carroll county, Ark., and 9 of these citizens were murdered. Philips reporting them as "bushwhackers," to excuse his brutality. On the 13th of January a force of 300 of the First Iowa cavalry seized a preacher, named Rodgers, took his horses, mules, wagons and portable property, near Kingston, then proceeded to the Confederate saltpeter works, on Buffalo river, captured 15 or 20 of the small force in charge under Lieutenant Kinkade, and destroyed the works, burning the buildings. The lieutenant and ? of his men made their escape. On the same day, Captain Crawley and a small Confederate force met a detachment of Col. Powell Clayton's Fifth Kansas cavalry and of the Second Wisconsin cavalry; at the crossing of Lick creek, twelve miles from Helena, and routed it, taking 20 prisoners, besides killing and wounding many of the enemy.

Brigadier-General Gorman, having sent 1,200 Federal cavalry to Clarendon on White river, moved to St. Charles on White river, accompanied by the two gunboats St. Louis and Cincinnati, and finding the post evacuated by <cmh10b_163>the Confederates, garrisoned it with 800 infantry. He then proceeded on transport to Devall's Bluff, which he occupied January 17th, capturing on the cars, ready for shipment to Little Rock, two columbiads and some small-arms, and a part of the little force engaged in guarding them. From there, with the gunboats Romeo and Rose, he sent an expedition which occupied Des Arc, Major Chrisman, with his battalion, retiring to Cottonplant.

February 2d, Maj. Caleb Dorsey, with his squadron of Confederate cavalry, was escorting the steamboat Julia Roane down the Arkansas river, when at White Oak, seven miles west of Ozark, he was attacked by a band of Arkansas Federals, under Captain Galloway. Dorsey, with his Confederates, charged and routed them, killing horses and wounding several of the enemy, who retreated to Frog bayou. On February 3d, Capt. Peter Mankins, with a portion of his company, was surrounded in a house on Mulberry by a scouting party under Captain Travis, which Mankins repulsed, killing two men of the Tenth Illinois and wounding others.

The land and naval forces on the Mississippi burned Mound City, Ark., on the 15th of January. On the 24th, a scouting party from Fayetteville crossed the Boston mountains, and going down Frog bayou, entered Van Buren and captured the steamboat Julia Roane, with about 250 Confederates from the hospital, who were paroled, being sick; the steamer, which was only a hospital, being allowed to proceed.

March 5th, Col. Powell Clayton led an expedition to Madison on the St. Francis river, where, meeting but little resistance, he captured some Confederate stores and cotton, with about 46 citizens, whom he paroled as "prisoners of war." An expedition of 500 Federals from Bloomfield, Mo., under command of John McNeil, marched, on March 9th, against Chalk Bluff, compelling the Confederate force under Col. M. Jeff Thompson to retire to their dugouts on Varney's river, in which they retreated down <cmh10b_164>the St. Francis, leaving McNeil to parole the citizens and ravage that swampy region as usual. In April, James R. Vanderpool, of the Federal Missouri militia, made raids into Carroll and Marion counties, in which he killed some non-combatants, reporting them as bushwhackers, besides taking off their stock and household goods.

General Hindman has told how he conveyed information (such as he desired) to the enemy through deception practiced upon disloyal informers. A man calling himself Wm. R. Johnson was permitted to pass at will through the Confederate camps, as a Southern sympathizer going to Missouri, but who was really a Union refugee from Dallas county, Tex., going to Iowa. He passed up to Pilot Knob, where he opened his budget of information to the Federal commander of the post, who transmitted it to General Curtis. Johnson's statement was that he was stopped by Marmaduke at Batesville, February 1st, who admitted him to a conversation with Colonel Ponder and himself, in which Marmaduke said that General Price was to move up White river to Salem and to Rolla, and had about 14,000 men, one-third being mounted; that Marmaduke's intention was to march on Pilot Knob with a command of about 4,000 men, etc. General Curtis, desiring as usual to increase his force, sent the statement to the war department with this indorsement:

Price is no doubt going to move heaven and earth to raise or mass forces in Arkansas. He ought to be attacked from Helena before he gets far in this scheme; his popularity in Arkansas and Missouri will enable him to do much mischief. As now situated, eastern Arkansas is under Grant's command. I am obliged to stop sending more troops from southeastern Missouri, until I ascertain the whereabouts of Marmaduke.

The circumstance is mentioned to call attention to the effect of these movements, and rumors of movements, against Missouri, which were useful for the general <cmh10b_165>defense, and assisted our armies east of the river as effectually as if the troops had been actually fighting there.

April 15th, General Marmaduke marched on his second raid into Missouri, with a cavalry force composed of Carter's Texas brigade, Shelby's, Greene's and Burbridge's Missouri brigades, the latter including Col. Robert C. Newton's Arkansas cavalry regiment of State troops. Failing to capture the Palmyra assassin, McNeil, Carter and Shelby moved on Cape Girardeau, but found it unadvisable to attack. Colonel Newton was attacked in camp the night of April 26th, and lost several killed and wounded. Marmaduke retired before a strong Federal force in good order to Chalk Bluff, where he found the St. Francis river swollen and no boats. He formed line of battle and engaged the enemy until rafts could be constructed, and then crossed his artillery, wagons and horses safely, losing about 30 killed, 60 wounded, and 150 missing.

It was on this expedition that Colonel Newton's scouts captured in Missouri Hon. Elisha Baxter, a citizen of Batesville, brother of John Baxter of Knoxville, Tenn. Elisha Baxter had been a merchant at Batesville, but studied law and was elected as a Whig to the legislature. He favored all measures looking to the perpetuation of the Union, and upon the beginning of the conflict of arms, declared himself a Union man, but declined the appointment tendered him by General Curtis, at Batesville, of commander of the First Arkansas (Federal) regiment, there organized. On the departure of Curtis, being told that he was in personal danger, he took refuge in Missouri. There he was recognized by Newton and his men, captured and taken as a prisoner to Little Rock. He was part of the first reconstruction government of the State as a Supreme judge, and later as governor, then fell <cmh10b_166>out with his party and was instrumental in delivering Arkansas from carpet-bag rule, making a record as an upright, consistent officer and citizen.

Jasper, the seat of Newton county, Ark., situated at the head of Buffalo fork of the White river, near the foot of Mount Judea (or Juda), the highest cone of the Boston mountains, had long been the rendezvous of Unionists and Federal recruiting officers. Vanderpool, Worthington, and other mountaineers made it headquarters, from which they terrorized Southern sympathizers of the adjoining counties. Its leading citizens were Unionists, who kept Hudson's mill under their protection for their own use and those of such Southerners as they admitted to use it. Harrell's battalion resolved to endeavor to capture Vanderpool and bring out some of these leaders. Capt. John Sissell, former sheriff of that county, commanding Company E in Harrell's battalion, on May 10th guided the battalion through the mountains in an attack upon the town, surprising it and capturing the leaders, but missing Vanderpool. Vanderpool had been informed of the movement, and with a large force was posted in ambush on the highway by which he expected the Confederates to enter the town. In fact, his force was larger than the battalion and armed with the latest-improved arms, as the Confederates found when they moved out against him in his position. The Confederates were therefore content to retire from the town by the way they came, with their captured horses and arms and their eight or ten prisoners, some of whom were badly wounded in their desperate resistance. The battalion joined Cabell's brigade at Fort Smith in May.

Maj. W. L. Cabell, who had been sent to inspect the accounts of quartermasters in the department, having well acquitted himself of this duty, was, in March, 1863, commissioned brigadier-general and requested to collect absentees from the service in northwestern Arkansas. Given Carroll's and Monroe's regiments, he was directed <cmh10b_167>to perfect such organizations as he could, and take command in northwest Arkansas. He issued his proclamation in accordance with these instructions, and soon organized Hill's battalion into a fine regiment; Gordon's and Morgan's regiments were added. He also organized Gunter's, Witherspoon's and Ousley's battalions, Hughey's battery, and the companies of Palmer, Ingraham and Wm. Brown. Crawford's battalion, organized under the order of General Holmes, of which J. M. Har-tell was elected commanding officer, was ordered to Cabell, and it was not long before he had a command numbering about 4,000 men. This rapidly organized body redeemed that part of the State from the despondency into which it had been plunged by the retreat from Prairie Grove and other Confederate misfortunes.

Federal scouts--Missouri and Arkansas Federals, the latter organized under Col. M. La Rue Harrison--made constant forays into the border counties. Other bands of men, moving out of Missouri as State militia, made raids to plunder and kill the inhabitants. A merciless butcher, known as Captain Worthington, returned to Fayetteville from Carroll county, reporting that he had killed 22 men on the trip, and captured 7 "prisoners." The men killed were old citizens, or youths not subject to enlistment, and who therefore ventured to remain at home for the protection of the helpless women and children from violence at the hands of either side. If the grown men had gone away, no matter to which army, the raiders held their families to be Southern sympathizers, and as such shot them down, some of them in their own doors or front yards; and others, who had fled to the woods to conceal themselves, when discovered were condemned as bushwhackers. Less frequently, those under military age were captured as prisoners, by men who called themselves "Federal Arkansas soldiers."

Col. John F. Philips, who commanded the Seventh Missouri State militia, which murdered the nine citizens <cmh10b_168>near Berryville, Carroll county, had set the example for these atrocities. There was another Phillips (W. A.), commanding a brigade of Cherokees (Federal enlistments), known as Pin Indians, who guarded Blunt's transportation over the mountain at the battle of Prairie Grove, and burned Fort Davies on the 25th or 27th of December. T-hough representing the Indian race, he was a knight of chivalry compared with his militia namesake. Col. M. La Rue Harrison emulated the ferocity of the militia commander in words and on paper, but not in deeds. He conducted his operations from the "Post," only encouraging cruelty by giving commissions to unworthy men who abused his authority. The country north of the Arkansas was now at the mercy of irresponsible banditti, claiming to be authorized by J. F. Philips or Harrison, and bearing the Union flag whenever they did not deem it more useful to their purposes to carry no flag at all, and to pretend to be Confederates. Houses were broken open, horses and cattle driven off, fences burned to make fires, women and children terrorized and insulted if suspected of being Confederate "widows" and "orphans." Implements for making clothing were destroyed or taken away--specially cards for carding wool or cotton. These latter were hidden and guarded as precious treasures by the women of north Arkansas, and for these the valiant militia made diligent and rude search. From burning fences they proceeded to burning barns and outhouses, but as yet generally spared the humble dwellings which sheltered the families.

A citizen of Fayetteville, Ark., soon after the war, pointed out to a visitor on the public square, a man seated in a wagon drawn by a horse and a mule, accompanied by a woman who delivered the produce he had for sale. The man wore a brown jeans homespun coat, and the woman a homemade worsted skirt. "You see those people ?" he asked of the visitor. "I used to think they were the salt of the earth; and their homemade <cmh10b_169>woolens had a sanctity in my eyes as true emblems of honesty and innocence. But during the war that man manifested his true nature, and but for the general amnesty, could be indicted for a dozen murders, for robbery, arson and larceny. He used to ride through the country and strip the beds of the poor women in these hills, until he piled quilts in his lap so high he could not see his horses' ears. They say the women shot at him, but the quilts proved a protection against their bullets. He is known as 'Bed-quilt Blank.'"

The raids of these forces under Philips, Harrison and Vanderpool, who left their bloody trail through the counties on the border, from Forsyth on White river to the Dutch mills on the Indian line, demanded a movement for defense and redress. But the veteran soldiers of the region were called away again, this time to defend other parts of the State. The forces remaining were only the cavalry, ill armed, newly organized, without any system for providing subsistence or clothing, and as for ammunition, relying with uncertain dependence upon the efforts of General Magruder in Texas.

Although scantily equipped for such an expedition, General Cabell, in response to appeals for protection to the once populous and bountiful plateau north of the Boston mountains, of which Fayetteville and Bentonville are the principal towns, prepared his little force in and around Ozark (on the Arkansas river below Van Buren), to make a dash against Fayetteville, 70 or 80 miles distant, where the enemy was in greater force. His contemplated movement was considered opportune by General Steele at Fort Smith, who believed that Colonel Phillips, the Cherokee commander, was preparing to march from Fort Gibson southward through the Indian country, and that his force would be recruited from the enemy's troops at Fayetteville, so that the garrison would be reduced to the minimum and unprepared for Cabell's attack. The latter resolved to make a demonstration, <cmh10b_170>whatever the result, hoping at least to "round up" the prowlers who had too long been suffered to perpetrate their enormities with impunity.

Col. John F. Hill's battalion was practically unarmed, with horses not shod to stand the stony roads, and was left out of the movement. With Monroe's, Gordon's and Carroll's regiments (the latter commanded by Lieut.-Col. L. L. Thompson), Dorsey's squadron, commanded by Col. John Scott, and Capt. W. M. Hughey's artillery, consisting of two formerly discarded 6-pounders----900 of all arms---General Cabell left Ozark at 3 o'clock a.m. on April 16, 1863. Moving with all possible dispatch by the Mulberry and Frog bayou road in the direction of Fayetteville, he opened his attack upon the rifle-pits and fortifications of the place at 5 o'clock a.m. on the 18th. The enemy had full knowledge of his march and were prepared to resist his attack, not only with the entire garrison which was retained, but with such additional troops as had been summoned from adjacent stations. Cabell's force charged the rifle-pits along the edge of the hill south and east of the town, drove in the men defending them, and entered the streets of the town, aided by Hughey's guns; but on gaining the town they could not use artillery without injury to houses and their occupants, some of whom were families of men in the Confederate armies. In the streets Cabell's men met with effectual resistance from the windows, doorways and corners of the houses, and after three hours spent in a vain effort to draw out the forces so protected, they fell back to the artillery. The enemy was armed with Springfield and Whitney rifles; had a force numbering about 2,000, and had the advantage of a position forbidding the destruction or shelling of the defenses. The attacking party awaited and invited an attack from the garrison outside the works, but none was offered. The Confederates <cmh10b_171>then returned to Ozark at their leisure, unmolested on the march. The following extracts from General Cabell's report will be of interest:

Col. J. C. Monroe made two splendid charges with his command, one on foot and the other mounted. Col. L. L. Thompson, with his regiment, and Colonel Dorsey, with his squadron, under Colonel Scott, made a dashing charge and drove the enemy to their rifle-pits and to the houses, where they rallied and poured in a dreadful fire with their long-range guns. The artillery, managed by Captain Hughey, under my immediate command, did frightful execution in the enemy's camp [outside of the town], driving them out and completely scattering their cavalry for a while. Captain Hughey was wounded in the arm by a sharpshooter at the commencement of the action, but continued in charge of his pieces under a heavy fire from the enemy's sharpshooters during the whole of the fight. His men were all taken from a camp of instruction at Dardanelle, a little over a month ago, and with one or two exceptions did well. Two horses were killed and 2 wounded in the battery, 1 man killed and several wounded. Our loss is not positively known, but will not exceed 20 killed, 30 wounded and 20 missing. The enemy's loss in killed fully equals our total killed and wounded. The number of his wounded was very great. We captured and paroled 26 prisoners, 1 lieutenant, 1 non-commissioned officer and 24 privates; also destroyed a train of 10 or 15 wagons. I could have burned a large part of the town, but every house was filled with women and children, a great number of whom were relatives of the officers and soldiers in our service.

The enemy's force consisted (notwithstanding all previous reports from persons living in Fayetteville to the contrary) of . . . total 1,850, besides four squadrons of cavalry . . . from Springfield .... Had I had 500 long-range rifles with good cartridges, I could have taken the place in an hour. As it was, I could not advance my battery, as I had nothing to cover the pieces, and the enemy's guns were equal in range to the artillery. The Arkadelphia rifles, with the cartridges sent with them, are no better than shotguns .... The officers and men, with a few exceptions, acted well. Colonel Monroe and his whole regiment deserve particular mention. Colonels <cmh10b_172>Scott, Noble, Thompson and Major Dorsey acted with great gallantry. Capt. Fen Rieff, Lieutenant Ferguson, Captain Jefferson and Private Sublett, of Rieff's company, deserve to be particularly mentioned. My staff officers, Lieut. Ben J. Field, Surg. J. H. Carroll, Maj. Hugh Wilson, commissary, Capt. J. }t. Crawford, quartermaster, and Lieutenant Roberts, acted with great gallantry. Major Wilson, I am sorry to add, was badly wounded. I sent an officer back with a flag of truce to have my wounded properly cared for, leaving surgeons to attend upon them.

Colonel Harrison, commanding the garrison at Fayetteville, replied to Cabell's request to care for his men who were wounded, that he had buried the dead decently in coffins, and removed the wounded to his general hospital, where they were in charge of Surgeons Russell and Holden, of the Confederate command, who were supplied with everything needed. "Rest assured, General, that your wounded shall receive the best of care, such as we would hope to have from you, were we placed in a like situation." Colonel Harrison issued a congratulatory address, April 19th, in which he indulged in the unobjec-tionable and natural effusions of a grateful heart, as follows:

Let April 18, 1863, ever be remembered! The battle of Fayetteville has been fought and won. Today, the brave and victorious sons of Arkansas stand proudly upon the soil which their blood and their bravery have rendered sacred to every true-hearted American, but doubly sacred to them. In the light of this holy Sabbath sun, we are permitted through God's mercy to gather together in His name and in the name of our common country to offer up our heartfelt thanks to the "Giver of every good and perfect gift"; for the triumph of our arms, and for the blessings which we enjoy.

The address was framed upon a high and familiar precedent, and was altogether in a tone honorable to the piety and patriotism of its author. It may have been the restraining influence of these sacred feelings, and not <cmh10b_173>the march of Cabell, which caused the cessation of the pillage and murder that had been indulged in by the triumphant defenders of Fayetteville, or by their agents. The fact is, thenceforth they were discontinued, and comparative quietude resumed its sway among these romantic valleys. The old men mended their plows, and women and children began the cheerful preparation for the cultivation of their little fields.

Colonel Harrison was soon ordered to evacuate Fayetteville and go to the assistance of Colonel Phillips and his army in the Indian Territory. Phillips had crossed the Arkansas on the night of the 24th and made an attack on Stand Watie's Confederate Cherokees, at Webber's Falls, and prevented the assemblage of the Cherokee legislature there on the 25th. He then sent a heavy scout, with howitzers, to the Lee's creek road, between Fayetteville and Van Buren, to prevent any force moving up east of his position, until Colonel Harrison should move.

Lieut.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith had been assigned, January 14, to the command of the " Southwestern army," embracing the troops in west Louisiana and Texas, and on February 9th his command was extended to embrace the Trans-Mississippi department. He issued his general orders, No. 1, March 7th, assuming command of the forces west of the Mississippi. Gen. Sterling Price was at last transferred to the Trans-Mississippi, February 27th, and a month later was assigned to the command of the division lately commanded by General Hindman, who had been relieved from duty in the Trans-Missis-sippi, January 30th.

On March 18th, the secretary of war advised General Smith that a pressing necessity would require the latter's presence at an early day in Arkansas. The secretary wrote: "From a variety of sources, many of which I cannot doubt, the most deplorable accounts reach the department of the disorder, confusion and demoralization everywhere <cmh10b_174>prevalent, both with the armies and the people of the State." On the date of this letter, Lieut.-Gen. T. H. Holmes was relieved from the command of the Trans-Mississippi department and assigned to the district of Arkansas, including also Indian Territory and Missouri. The abstract from returns of the district of Arkansas for April 30, 1863, shows the following present for duty: Price's division, headquarters Little Rock, 529 officers, 6,656 men; Steele's division, Fort Smith, 317 officers, 4,082 men; Marmaduke's division, Jacksonport, 352 officers, 4,018 men; Frost's division, Pine Bluff, 153 officers, 2,107 men; Dobbin's regiment, near Helena, 38 officers, 605 men; Hill's artillery battalion, Little Rock, 17 officers, 251 men; Dawson's cavalry, Little Rock, 1 officer, 52 men. Total, 1,407 officers, 17,771 men; aggregate present, 22,249; aggregate present and absent, 34,431.

Price's division at that date embraced the Arkansas brigades of Fagan, McRae and Tappan (formerly Shaver's), and M. M. Parsons' Missouri brigade. Steele's division included the brigades of Cooper and Cabell. Marmaduke's division at that time was composed of the brigades of Carter, Burbridge, Shelby and Greene, but on June 2d was limited to his own brigade and Shelby's. Gen. L. M. Walker, on June 2d, was given command of a brigade composed of Dobbin's and Newton's Arkansas cavalry.

In his report covering this period, General Halleck said: "The main body of our troops in the department of the Missouri had, in the early part of the season, been sent to reinforce General Grant before Vicksburg." It was considered by the Confederate leaders that the impatience of the war party at the North to take Vicksburg, as an achievement that would give promise of success to their policy and a speedy termination of the war, was stimulating the Union commanders to strain every energy to its accomplishment, regardless of minor successes or disasters, <cmh10b_175>and that with this view the defenders of Helena, Ark., had been reduced to the merest show of occupation. The demand to take Vicksburg was thoroughly impressed upon General Grant, who stated in his "Memoirs" that it would have been far easier to fall back to Memphis after the failure of Sherman above Vicksburg, and undertake a new movement overland from Memphis; but the change would have been regarded as retreat and have greatly injured, if not defeated, the war party. This political importance of Vicksburg was well understood by the people of both sections. It justified the belief of the Confederate generals that Helena would be neglected. But the possibility of an attack had also the attention of the Federal leaders. Curtis referred to it and directed a movement from Cape Girardeau in aid of Helena. The hordes collected from all lands to fill the Union armies supplied such numbers of recruits, that with steam transports on the Mississippi it would be comparatively easy to reinforce the place if it should be assaulted from the land side, and the navy could blow any force out of water that might approach by the river. The strategy of the attack as a diversion in favor of Vicksburg was good, but in view of the resources of the enemy, a reverse was to be feared.

General Price was at Jacksonport, in the rich valley of White river, below Batesville, June 8th, when General Holmes addressed.him a note asking "If we could with propriety attack Helena. Please inform me whether the condition of your troops will justify the attempt." To this General Price sent the following prompt and encouraging reply:

General: In regard to the condition of my troops, I am glad to say that they are all now fully rested and in excellent spirits. General Marmaduke also reports his command to be in efficient condition. He reports to me this morning the following number: Total present, Shelby's brigade, 1,561; Greene's brigade, 1,122; Burbridge's <cmh10b_176>brigade, 1,089; Kitchen’s battalion, 286. In all, 4,058. Of these, many are out on outpost duty. Carter's (Texas) brigade, now attached to General Walker's command, is reported 1,170, total present. From the most reliable information General Marmaduke can obtain, the enemy have not more than from 4,000 to 5,000 at Helena; and were a movement conducted with celerity and secrecy, by which you could concentrate the commands of Generals Frost and Fagan with this column, I entertain no doubt of your being able to crush the foe at that point.

The raids into Missouri, arduous as they were, could not be compared with the march on Helena from Little Rock and Jacksonport with infantry, artillery and trains. The line of march was across the Grand prairie, a treeless level, whose heavy, wet flats are easily cut into miry roads. At the season of this march, millions of prairie-flies and black gnats swarmed everywhere, distressing the mules and horses. White river was to cross, and the low, swampy bottoms of Cache river, and the soft bottom land of Bayou de View and Caney creek. Other watercourses, all more or less difficult, were to be passed and, to increase the distress, a four days' rain commenced about the 22d and caused a rise in all these Stygian waters.

On the 18th of June it was ordered that Cottonplant should be the place of rendezvous, June 26th, and on that day the following marching orders were issued by Lieutenant-General Holmes:

1. The movement against Helena will be under the immediate direction of the lieutenant-general commanding the district.

2. Major-General Price, with the forces now under his command, will constitute the first column, and will march from Switzer's, on the direct road to Helena, keeping his cavalry well in advance. He will communicate with headquarters at the close of each day's march. Briga-dier-Generals Fagan's and L. M. Walker's brigades will constitute the second column, of which Walker's brigade <cmh10b_177>will be the advance, and will rendezvous at a point hereafter to be designated. Fagan's brigade will march on the lower Little Rock road ....

Neither Tappan's, Cooper's, Cabell's nor Frost's brigade was engaged in the attack on Helena. General Holmes, who now assumed command in the field, had hitherto remained at headquarters at Little Rock, charging himself with the general interests of the district. Unfortunately, there was no general system managed by a common head, each district acting independently. The vast extent of country to be governed and protected, and the absorbing interest of Missouri affairs, probably bewildered the department commander, while the hope of advancing into that State, no doubt, controlled him in the policy he pursued.

During the concentration against Helena, the commanding general was in receipt of dispatches from subordinate commanders, giving glimpses of stirring events taking place along the Mississippi river, on his front, attendant upon the movements of the Federal army against Vicksburg. From General Marmaduke a dispatch . June 14th, read: "A scout from the Mississippi river, 30 miles above Memphis, reports ten transports passed two clays ago, going south, loaded with negro troops. I am firmly of the opinion that all the troops that can be spared are being sent to reinforce Grant; that New Madrid, Memphis and Helena are very weak." Major McLean, adjutant-general of Price's division, forwarded the following, June 13th: "A pilot who has been running the river from Memphis, says that if he can get protection from our side, we can capture from one to fifteen boats at Island No. 63, where Dobbin has been firing on transports while passing." From General Price, June 15th: "Two hundred and fifty men, with small howitzers, have been sent to a point on the river north of Memphis, and 400 men with a section of Collins' battery (one piece rifled) to a point on the river below Memphis, with <cmh10b_178>instructions to harass the enemy's transportation of supplies and troops." From Col. Colton Greene, June 17th: "It is estimated that over 40,000 men went down to Vicksburg during the past ten days, consisting of Burnside's troops from Kentucky, and Herron's division from Missouri." From the express agent, June 18th: "Yesterday five boats passed down with troops. The boats going up this evening are either hospitals or empty. There is more activity to-day than usual. No gunboats have passed. On all transports, I am told, are one or two pieces of artillery; very few troops visible. What fine service for a regiment of cavalry, with a battery, or even a section of artillery. We could render our hard-pressed friends at Vicksburg great service." From the same, June 21st: "Seven passed up last night. The steamer Dove went down last night, came up to-day, with one piece of artillery and the horses harnessed. They reported heavy fighting at Vicksburg. Dobbin and Gary (cavalry) within 12 miles of Helena."

As to the advance of his troops on Helena, Holmes was hourly in receipt of dispatches. From General Price, June 27th: "Crossed Cache river with my cavalry, on Thursday morning .... The infantry, in consequence of the rapid rise of Cache river, was unable to finish the crossing of that stream with their trains before 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon, having fasted from daybreak of the previous day. I had meanwhile caused Bayou de View to be bridged, and the bottom on each side of it to be causewayed, as also Caney creek. But the very heavy rains of yesterday and last night raised both the bayou and the creek so as to sweep away the bridges and render the bottoms utterly impassable." Prom General Marmaduke, June 28th, on Plat creek bayou: "Reached this point this morning and find the bayou here a quarter of a mile wide, 50 yards of which is swimming water." From Maj. Thomas L. Snead, Price's adjutant-general: "Parsons and McRae have encountered greater difficulties <cmh10b_179>in passing their trains over Big creek bottom than were anticipated, and they will hardly get beyond this point to-morrow." From Gen. M. M. Parsons to Major Snead, July 1st: "I finished crossing this evening at 5:30; worked the men in the water to their waists last night until 10; again this morning from daylight. Men much worded; mules more so--they are without forage; not a grain to be had without pressing." From Jo O. Shelby, at Gordon's plantation, July 1st: "I have the river road from Helena to St. Francis river well guarded. My command is 8 miles in advance of General Holmes."

These reports are enough to present the picture of an army struggling through the mud, water and rain, without forage for mules or battery horses, in order to "surprise" an enemy who had every facility for reinforcement or retreat. The movement of the Western army, however, was suggested by an exigency which could not wait on weather. A diversion must be made in favor of Vicksburg. The energies of this faithful army must be exerted in favor of the common cause, even looking to the maintenance of the conflict in the East, although its own borders be left for a time defenseless.

The secretary of war had suggested it, May 23d, in a dispatch to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding in Mississippi. "I venture with diffidence," he said, "only one suggestion. It is, that should opportunity to communicate with Generals Holmes or Price occur, it might be well to urge they should make diversion for you, or in the case of the fall of Vicksburg, secure a great future advantage to the Confederacy, by the attack on and seizure of Helena, while all the available forces of the enemy are being pushed to Grant's aid." This letter forwarded to Gen. Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, was sent on by him, with the indorsement, "To Lieutenant-General Holmes, to act as circumstances may justify." To which General Holmes replied from Little Rock, after consulting Price, "I believe we can take Helena. Please let me attack it." <cmh10b_180>General Smith gave his assent in a Cæsarian dispatch, dated June 16, 1863: "Most certainly do it."

General Holmes believed he could take it. Like another noble visionary, he would have accepted any challenge of emulation. He made investigations and based his opinion upon "information considered reliable," but he afterward confessed, "The place was very much more difficult of access and the fortification much stronger than I had supposed before undertaking the expedition, the features of the country being peculiarly adapted to defense, and all that the art of engineering could do having been brought to bear to strengthen it. The fortification consisted of one regular work heavily armed with siege guns, and four strong redoubts mounted with field pieces and protected by rifle-pits on suburban hills." This latter information he did not have when it might have been useful. He does not mention the gunboat Tyler, which lay in the Mississippi, opposite Hindman hill, the commander of which had surveyed the works and calculated his range to assist in defending them.

The Mississippi river, the main channel of which is more than two miles wide at Helena, runs south in front of the place, originally built on the west brink of the river. The town had grown gradually to extend back upon the uneven and elevated ridge of land known as Crowley's ridge, which, at its southern extremity, the great river cuts here, and was easily fortified against a force coming from the west. The ridge is broken into many elevations (with deep ravines between), and upon these had been constructed the breastworks and fort described by General Holmes. The heavy timber of the western slope of the ridge had been cut down to blockade the road and form an impregnable abattis for miles. A road, called the Sterling road, ran from the north, a little back from the river, into town, upon a lower plateau, above which frowned Fort Curtis. A little southwest of this fort was Graveyard hill, upon which the <cmh10b_181>enemy had constructed their Battery C, protected by rifle-pits and abattis in front. To the south of Battery C was Hindman hill, Battery D, commanding the road to Little Rock, called the "upper Little Rock road" to distinguish it from a road from Little Rock leading in from the south on the river levels. On a headland north of the city, Rightor hill, on Sterling road, was Battery A, which also commanded the old St. Francis road, running northwest; and upon the upper St. Francis road, a little farther south, on a commanding headland, was Battery B. Batteries C and D, a quarter and a half mile south, under the guns of Fort Curtis, were the keys to the capture of Helena from the west.

It was July 3, 1863, when the disposition for the attack was made under the following order:

The attack on Helena will be made tomorrow morning at daylight, and as follows: I. Major-General Price, in command of McRae's and Parsons' brigades, will proceed by the best route, assume position, assault and take Graveyard hill [Battery C] at daylight. 2. Brigadier-General Walker, with his cavalry brigade, will in like manner proceed to the Sterling road [north of the town, at Battery A], where he will hold himself in position to resist any troops that may approach Rightor hill; and when these positions are captured, he will enter the town and act against the enemy as circumstances may justify.

3. Brigadier-General Fagan will proceed by the best route, assume position, and take the battery on Hindman hill [Battery D] at daylight. 4. Brigadier-General Marmaduke will proceed with his command by the best route, assume position, and take Rightor hill [Battery A] at daylight.

About midnight the troops began to move to their respective positions. Soon after daylight, General Marmaduke drove in the enemy's pickets and commenced the assault at Rightor hill, but a cavalry force, under Cols. Powell Clayton and T. H. Benton, appearing on his flank and rear, he had to fall back. This force had <cmh10b_182>swept by General Walker unimpeded. Simultaneously with this assault, Fagan advanced against Hindman hill and carried the last of the line of rifle-pits, but was enfiladed from Graveyard hill (Battery c) before the advance upon the latter by General Price. Fagan's charge upon the redoubt was repulsed, and he took refuge behind the inner line of breastworks. After sunrise (an hour after "daylight"), General Price brought his troops into position to make the assault on Graveyard hill, and moving forward, with a magnificent charge carried the rifle-pits, breastworks, and entered the redoubts without a halt (Battery C). The enemy, before retreating, had wedge-shotted his abandoned guns, so that the Confederates could not use them. From time to time the enemy made repeated assaults on Graveyard hill; but were always successfully repulsed by McRae and Parsons. General McRae, finding that Parsons could hold the works, proposed to assault Hindman hill in the rear, against which Fagan was vainly engaged; but upon essaying this movement, with the troops at his disposal, was fired on from Fort Curtis, from the rifle-pits, and on his flank by the heavy missiles from the gunboat Tyler, and was compelled to withdraw his gallant command to shelter in the timber and ravines. Fagan having retired from the assault, Parsons alone held the field, and though advanced upon in front and on both flanks by infantry, and under cross-fire of the artillery from the right and left, maintained his position and repulsed every assault until ordered by the commanding general to retire, at 10:30, after five hours' continuous and deadly conflict.

The return of casualties compiled in the War Records shows a loss, in McRae's Arkansas brigade, of 46 killed, 168 wounded, 133 missing, total, 347; of which total the Thirty-sixth (Glenn's) regiment lost 159. Fagan's Arkansas brigade lost 47 killed, 115 wounded, 273 missing, total, 435. Parsons' Missouri brigade lost 61 killed, 304 <cmh10b_183>wounded, 365 missing, total, 730. The total loss of Shelby's brigade was 52; of Greene's, 12; of Walker's division (imperfectly reported), 12. Aggregate of these figures, 173 killed, 645 wounded, 772 missing.

General Price reported that his command in the battle was composed of McRae's Arkansas brigade--three regiments of infantry and a field battery, with 1,227 men present for duty--and Parsons' Missouri brigade--four regiments of infantry, a battalion of sharpshooters and a field battery; having in all, 1,868 men present for duty. He ordered the field pieces to be left behind, because of darkness and the difficulties of the way, across abrupt hills and deep ravines. When he got within one and a half mile of the position he was ordered to take, he found that he would arrive on the ground prematurely, and a brief halt was ordered to give the troops time to recover from the rapid march over a succession of almost precipitous and heavily-wooded hills. At dawn he advanced again, and his skirmishers were soon sharply engaged. He continues:

The order for the assault (as explained to the general officers and regimental commanders of the division the evening before) directed that General Parsons, moving in front, should halt the head of his column at the point from which he was to make the assault until the head of General McRae's column should reach its position on the left, when both columns should advance simultaneously to the assault.

During the brief halt alluded to, and just as I had ordered General McRae forward, the general commanding rode up and asked why the assault had not been made. I explained the facts to him, and thinking that time enough had elapsed for General McRae to get into position, I dispatched one of my staff to General Parsons to ascertain why he was not advancing. He replied that he was waiting for General McRae to get into position. [General McRae was in position, but owing to the necessities of the ground, further to the left than planned, and a high ridge interposed between him and <cmh10b_184>Parsons. Price informed Parsons of this and ordered the assault.

Both brigades moved forward on the instant, rapidly, steadily, unflinchingly, and in perfect order, under a storm of minie balls, grape and canister, which were poured into them, not only from the Graveyard hill in their front, but from the fortified hills upon the right and left, both of which were in easy range. The enemy gave way before the impetuous assault of the attacking columns, which, entering the works almost simultaneously, planted the Confederate flag upon the summit of Graveyard hill. Each brigade had done its allotted duty with equal zeal, devotion and gallantry, and each is entitled to an equal share of the honor which justly attaches to those who discharge their duty as these men did, fearlessly, well, and successfully. [Parsons' command was composed of self-exiled volunteers from Missouri, and McRae's of Arkansas conscripts, and General Price was a Missourian who paid this high tribute.]

Being in possession of the hill, and finding that the captured guns had been shot-wedged, I directed my chief of artillery to bring forward the pieces which I had left behind. This he did as promptly as the difficulties of the ground would permit, but not until it was too late for them to be used in the action.

Meanwhile a heavy fire was concentrated upon the hill from the four fortified positions which the enemy still continued to hold, and from the hillsides and ravines, under cover of which their sharpshooters delivered a well-directed and very effective fire, while the gunboat which lay in front of the town kept up an unintermitting discharge of its heavy guns. Perceiving that the surest way of relieving my men from the disastrous effects of this galling fire was to aid General Fagan to take the enemy's works upon my right, and receiving information that that gallant officer had been repulsed in every attempt to assault those works, I sent an order directing General Parsons to move his brigade forthwith to the reinforcement of General Fagan. He replied to the officer, by whom I had sent the order, that General McRae (who was by his side at the time) would, with my permission, go to the assistance of General Fagan, while his (Parsons') brigade, being the stronger, would hold Graveyard hill. [This was approved.] It soon became <cmh10b_185>obvious, however, that both brigades had been so weakened by their heavy losses in killed and wounded, and particularly in prisoners (the most of the latter having been captured in the immediate vicinity of the town, whither they had gone without orders from me), and by straggling of those overcome by the intense heat and thirst, and that I could not send any effective aid to General Pagan without too greatly endangering my own position. It was equally obvious that unless such aid be promptly sent to General Pagan, the general attack upon Helena must fail. It was under these circumstances that I received an order from the lieutenant-general, commanding me to withdraw my division. In compliance with this order my troops were withdrawn to a point about four miles from Helena, where they rested for the night and resumed the march hither on the morning of the 5th.

The lieutenant-general commanding was himself a witness of the conduct of my division. He saw the alacrity with which they advanced to the positions assigned. He knows the steadfastness and unfaltering courage with which they moved, in the midst of a deadly fire, over deep ravines and precipitous hills, obstructed by felled timber, to, into, and over the works which they had been ordered to take, driving everything before them. He was himself a witness of the undaunted bravery and enduring constancy with which, animated by his own inspiring example and gallant bearing, they stood unshaken in the very center of that unceasing fire hurled against them from gunboats, from forts and from rifle-pits. I am sure that he will pay them that tribute of praise to which their courage and endurance entitle them .... I must also commend the excellent discipline which General McRae maintains at all times in his brigade; the marked good sense and energy with which he conducted its march to Helena; the promptitude with which he has always obeyed my commands, and the earnest efforts which he made to reinforce General Fagan toward the close of the attack.

General McRae said in his report:

As soon as the command was massed in position, a general rush was made into the fort, and the works were <cmh10b_186>carried. This assault was made from the north. The enemy were driven from the works and pursued to the verge of the town. About this time General Parsons' brigade entered the fort, he having charged about the same time as my brigade, thus rendering the capture of the position certain, for had my assault failed, he was so close that he could not have failed. Moving along the north side of Graveyard hill, my command was exposed not only to the fire of the fort and the rifle-pits in front, but also to that of the fort north of Graveyard hill, which fort was not attacked, and to whose fire my command was exposed .... I discovered a battery of field pieces being moved by the enemy to the rear, so as to completely enfilade my command. Before marching, I had armed Capt. John G. Marshall's company of artillery with muskets, and moved it along in rear of my column, so that in case we captured the fort I should be prepared to work the enemy's guns. I now used this company as sharpshooters, ordering them to approach this battery and prevent it from getting into position, which they accomplished in a very gallant manner. As soon as the works were carried, I returned and ordered Captain Marshall to call on his men and take charge of the guns and work them. While giving these orders, Lieutenant-General Holmes rode up and ordered me at once to the assistance of General Fagan, who was attacking the fort south of Graveyard hill. I at once went to the fort and ordered the officers to assemble their men. Before they were able to do so, General Holmes again, in a peremptory manner, ordered me to the assistance of General Fagan. I had not more than 200 men with me. With them I charged down the hill, aiming to assault the north front of the fort; but when I arrived at the foot of the hill the fire of the enemy was so withering that with the force I had it was madness to attempt to scale the hill, the hollow being raked by artillery opposite its mouth, and completely enfiladed by rifle-pits in point-blank range. I therefore deployed my men and commenced firing on the rifle-pits and works which were being attacked by General Fagan, in order to make as great a diversion as possible. When informed that the enemy had retaken Graveyard hill, I sent Capt. Paul M. Cobbs, of Hart's regiment, with his company, to General Fagan, to say that I was unable to attack the works in front, being now <cmh10b_187>exposed to fire in rear as well as flank. I crossed over the narrow ridge in front of the fort attacked by General Fagan, and the fire was so severe that my men were compelled to cross the ridge singly. When I reached the crest of the hill I discovered General Fagan's men in a rifle-pit in front of the main works, and they seemed too few, even reinforced with what men I had, to accomplish anything. Within a short time I saw them rush out of the rifle-pits into a deep gorge immediately in their rear. [He withdrew into a ravine between the two forts.] The first field officer I met was Colonel Hawthorn, at some huts where some wounded were, and in a short time General Fagan came up. After moving a short distance I met General Holmes.

As for my field officers, that they did their duty it needs but to state that of 9 that went into the battle, 6 were wounded, 2 mortally. Attention is called to the gallant conduct of Col. R. A. Hunt, who led his men to the assault, and when in the fort, seized one of the enemy's guns and fired it against them. Here also fell, mortally wounded, Lieut. W. F. Rector [second son of Governor Rector], adjutant of Hart's regiment, whose gallantry and undaunted bravery signally distinguished him in the assault. Maj. J. M. Davie, leading his men, fell, shot through the thigh, in front of the fort. Capt. W. C. Robinson, acting major, fell, mortally wounded, in front of his men. Here also fell, mortally wounded, the brave, the zealous Maj. J. C. Martin, of Hart's regiment; Maj. A. F. Stephenson, of Gause's regiment; Capt. J. C. Garland, of Glenn's regiment; and Lieut. Thomas A. Eppes, of Gause's regiment, than whom a better man or braver soldier has not offered up his life during this war. [Capt. J. R. Morris and Lieuts. R. B. Camp, R. F. McKinney, W. T. Tompkins and J. R. Harlan were also reported killed.] Cols. J. E. Glenn and L. C. Gause, and Lieut.-Cols. J. W. Rogers and William Hicks, deserve special mention for the daring manner in which they led their men. Lieut. J. W. Crabtree, of Glenn's regiment, displayed the greatest intrepidity. Sergt. John H. Champ, Company A, of Hart's regiment, deserves special mention. Color-Sergeant Garland, of Glenn's regiment, advanced his regimental colors to the front, and maintained his position through the assault, his colors being torn into ribbons. My thanks are due my staff, especially to Lieut. John W. McKay. <cmh10b_188>

Gen. Jas. F. Fagan's report accounts for the Arkansas men under his command:

On the evening of the 3d inst., at dark, I ordered Col. W. II. Brooks, with his regiment, one section of C. B. Etter's battery, commanded by Lieut. J. C. Arnett, and three companies of cavalry, commanded by Capt. W. B. Denson, to move to the front in support of the cavalry, then within three miles of Helena. About 11 o'clock at night, with the three remaining regiments, commanded, respectively, by Cols. J. P. King, A. T. Hawthorn and S.S. Bell, and Blocher's battery of light artillery, commanded by Capt. W. D. Blocher, I moved forward on the road toward Helena ....

At daylight I reached and attacked the enemy in his works. Colonel Hawthorn, being in advance, was hur-rled rapidly into line on the right of the road which led directly up to the fort on Hindman hill [Battery D]. He at once engaged the enemy in the extreme outer line of their rifle-pits. Bell's regiment emerged next from the confused mass of felled timber, and was double-quicked into line on the left of the road, engaging, as they came into position, the intrenched forces of the enemy over against them. King's regiment brought up the rear. He threw his men into position and by me was ordered to the support of Colonel Hawthorn. My entire force was now engaged. The assault upon the rifle-pits was made from both the right and left of the road .... The gorge is passed, the ascent of the steep acclivity is nearly gained, and the red line of rifle-pits looms up clearly amid the uncertain light and haze of dawn. With a shout of triumph they rush toward it, and the enemy are driven pell-mell from one row of rifle-pits to another ....

We reached and took possession of their fourth tier of rifle-pits. Now it was that the column commanded by Major-General Price (Parsons' and McRae's brigades) charged the works on Graveyard hill, gallantly driving the enemy before them, and taking possession of their fortifications and artillery. There remained yet one row of intrenchments between my brigade and the fort on Hindman hill [Battery D]. I ordered a charge. My men, though thoroughly exhausted and worn, answered with a shout and sprang forward most gallantly. This being the inner and last line of works between us and the <cmh10b_189>enemy, of course was defended with great stubbornness. It was of no avail. My men sprang forward bravely and defiantly and, after a severe contest, succeeded in driving out the enemy, who fled, crowding back into the frowning fort and under cover of its heavy guns ....

Before us there only remained the fort and the plain on which it was built. Notwithstanding the reduced condition of my command and the exhaustion of those yet remaining, I ordered a charge upon the fort. My colonels did all in their power to encourage the men to the attack. The effort was made; but the prostrate condition of my command prevented success, and after losing in the attempt several gallant officers and many brave men, I formed again in rear of the inner line of rifle-pits, while the guns of the fort continued to pour forth a furious fire.

It was now verging on 11 o'clock in the day. More than three hours before the guns on Graveyard hill had been taken by our friends, and there seemed no obstacle in the way of their victorious march. Eagerly did we look to see their column coming to our aid, as hour after hour passed, and still they made not their appearance. Time wore on. The pleasant morning deepened into the sultriest and hottest of days. The thinned ranks of my regiments became thinner and thinner each moment. The guns of the enemy (not more than 100 or 150 yards distant) were telling sadly against us, while the heat, the want of water and the toil were no mean auxiliaries. Still the brave men left stood manfully up to the discharge of their duty. At this time written orders were received from Lieutenant-General Holmes, directing that I withdraw my troops from the field, and fall back to Allen Polk's, 6 miles in the rear. We retired from the field and fell back slowly to that point ... My aggregate force engaged was 1,339.

It was in the last assault that Maj. John B. Cocke, of Hawthorn's regiment, received a severe wound. His daring was conspicuous .... Colonels Brooks, King, Hawthorn and Bell, each did his whole duty .... The position assigned to Colonel King threw him perhaps on that ground most difficult to get over. Maj. John J. Dillard and Adjt. W. T. Bourne deserve much praise. · . . Colonel Hawthorn remained with a small number of his men, engaging the enemy until the last of the army <cmh10b_190>had retired beyond the high hills Colonel Bell and Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson, with a large number of officers and over 100 men, were captured by the enemy in an attempt to enter the fort from the south side.

Maj. T. H. Blacknall, Maj. B. T. Du Val, Capt. Wyatt C. Thomas were also specially commended by General Fagan. Capt. Walton Watkins, of Hawthorn's regiment, was referred to as falling after displaying great gallantry, but that officer, happily, survived the battle many years. Colonel Hawthorn also reported the death of Lieuts. Richard J. Shaddock, W. H. Hinson, L. R. Kinniard. Maj. T. H. Blacknall, reporting for the Thirty-seventh regiment, reported Capts. H. C. Pleasants and W. J. Smith wounded.

The character of the approaches in this action was such that the Arkansas batteries could not be brought to bear so as to perform their important part. The cavalry, except General Walker's division, does not seem to have been dismounted. The army returned by the roads it had advanced upon, again obstructed by the same obstacles, but were not otherwise molested.

General Marmaduke's report contained a paragraph reflecting upon the inactivity of Gen. L. M. Walker's brigade, which led to an angry controversy that resulted eventually in a fatal personal encounter between them. Marmaduke asserted: "Walker's brigade not only did not prevent reinforcements from going to Fort Rightor, but the enemy, after sunrise, actually passed to my left and half a mile to my rear and held that position during the day." General Walker's version was as follows: "I was continually engaged until nearly 3 p. m. I effectually complied with the part assigned to me in the order of attack by preventing the enemy from throwing troops to Rightor hill, which they were constantly trying to do and made two strong efforts and were repulsed. I protected Brigadier-General Marmaduke's left flank. My command was engaged in front of his left. At about <cmh10b_191>2 o'clock I was informed by General Marmaduke that he had already withdrawn his command. I had hard fighting to protect my left flank, and when my right became exposed I commenced to get loose from the enemy, and retired."

Rumors were circulated which reflected upon the conduct of Brig.-Gen. Dandridge McRae, and that officer pursued the more regular method of silencing them by demanding a court of inquiry. The proceedings by that court, at Shreveport, resulted in a finding that "General McRae's conduct at Helena, on July 4, 1863, on the occasion of the attack upon the enemy at that place, was obnoxious to no charge of misbehavior before the enemy."

That the student may consider this expedition and action from every standpoint in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the relative positions, and form an impartial judgment upon the merits of the opposing actors in the engagement, the report of the Federal commander, Maj.-Gen. B. M. Prentiss, should be referred to. He stated that he had been warned of the attack by vague rumors in the public press for several weeks previous, confirmed by the reports of his scouts of the concentration of Confederate forces. Consequently, he spared no labor to strengthen his defenses, digging rifle-pits, throwing up breastworks, and erecting four outlying batteries on the bluffs west of the town.

On Saturday morning, July 4th, at 3 o'clock, my pickets were attacked by the enemy's skirmishers. They made an obstinate resistance, holding the enemy well in check until 4 o'clock, when they reached over rifle-pits and breastworks and joined their respective regiments, which before this time had assumed their designated positions in the intrenchments. The attack was now commenced in earnest, in front and on the right flank; but the enemy, though assured by his overwhelming numbers of a speedy victory, were driven back again and again. For four hours the battle raged furiously, the enemy gaining little, if any, advantage. Now, however, <cmh10b_192>the attack in front became more furious. The enemy covered every hilltop, swarmed in every ravine, but seemed to be massing his force more particularly against Battery C [Graveyard hill]. I now signaled the gunboat Tyler, the only one at hand, Lieutenant-Commander Pritchett commanding, to open fire in that direction. The enemy (Parsons' and McRae's brigades), nothing daunted by the concentrated fire from Fort Curtis, Batteries B, C and D, the Tyler, and all the infantry I could bring to their support, and led, as I since learn, by Lieutenant-General Holmes and Major-General Price in person, charged upon Battery C. Twice they were repulsed, but the third time, exhibiting a courage and desperation rarely equaled, they succeeded in driving my small force at the point of the bayonet and capturing the battery. Dividing his forces and sending a part, as a feint, to menace Fort Curtis, the enemy then assaulted Battery D [Hindman hill demonstration by Fagan], to reach which they must pass through a deep ravine and encounter a heavy cross-fire. The enemy faltered; seeing which the men in Battery D, and those behind the breastworks and in the rifle-pits supporting it, sallied forth and, surrounding more than three times their number, brought them off prisoners. Not to be outdone by their comrades, the men who had been supporting Battery C . . . gallantly charged upon the enemy in Battery C, retaking it, and capturing as well a large number of prisoners This was about 10 o'clock. I immediately dispatched two aides to carry this information to Cols. S. A. Rice and Powell Clayton, who, with the remnants of two small brigades, were holding the enemy in check on the right flank, where the attack was only the less severe and successful than it had been in front. At 10:30 it became evident that the enemy was withdrawing his forces; but, unaware how severely he had been punished, and learning somewhat of the strength of his forces from prisoners, I could but believe it was for the purpose of massing and attacking my left flank, which I considered the weakest point (the south end of his line). The attack was not resumed, however .... My whole force numbered . . . 4,129. [Total loss, 239.]

Except by those who suffered from it immediately, through losses and bereavements never to be forgotten, <cmh10b_193>the attack on Helena soon passed out of mind. There were contemporaneous and more significant events that absorbed the public attention. On the same day Vicksburg capitulated, and four days later Port Hudson fell. On the day before, Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania had terminated adversely in his decisive defeat at Gettysburg.

Before this momentous July 3d and 4th, the sympathy of the French and English was approaching the point of intervention in favor of the South. Napoleon III was actively advocating it. Gladstone, "the grand old man," openly eulogized the Confederates. His touching reference to "that heroic people, struggling for independence," is yet remembered against him in Wall street. A majority of the British cabinet was in favor of recognition. The motion of Roebuck for intervention had been offered in the house of commons. If once put to the house its passage was a foregone conclusion. The London Times exulted over Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. But while parliament was becoming daily more favorable to the proposition, Gettysburg was lost! The force of events and the dictates of prudence turned the tide so that Gladstone himself mournfully made this decisive utterance in parliament: "It is not that I think the war is waged on the part of the North for any adequate or worthy object that I would venture to deprecate the adoption of the motion of the honorable gentleman (Roebuck). I fear it is running the risk of making that worse which is already and sufficiently horrible; of causing other feuds and quarrels that may carry still further desolation over the face of the earth." The last thought of intervention was banished from the councils of that great power. General Lord Wolseley, in a eulogy on Lee, has written: "The desperate, though drawn battle of Gettysburg was the death-knell of Southern independence." But the conflict went on. Blood continued to flow, even more freely than before.

MAJOR-GENERAL CURTIS, commander of the Federal department of Missouri, wrote, on May 12, 1863, to Major-General Halleck, commander-in-chief at Washington: "At such a crisis, east, west and everywhere, I will not trouble you with details in this department. Reliable information, just received, satisfies me that the enemy west of the Mississippi is located as follows: Near Little Rock, under General Price, 11,000; near Batesville, under Marmaduke and others, 8,000; in the region of Fort Smith, including rebel Indians, under General Cabell and others, 4,000 .... A move up White river now would separate Marmaduke and Price, and totally dishearten all the rebels in Missouri, Arkansas and everywhere west of the Mississippi. I think a junction could be formed between forces now at Helena and General Herron's force (army of the Frontier); now massing west of Pilot Knob, and thereby complete the discomfiture of every rebel hope in this region."

On the same date of this letter, General Halleck had notified Maj.-Gen. John A. Schofield, at Murfreesboro, Tenn., that the latter had been assigned to the command of the department of Missouri. General Schofield assumed command of the department of Missouri on the 24th of May. President Lincoln declared that this change was made on account of a "factional quarrel" among the <cmh10b_195>Union men of Missouri, in which Curtis and Governor Gamble were opposing leaders. As he could not remove Gamble, he had to remove Curtis. General Halleck gave another reason, which throws light on the subsequent campaign in Arkansas, namely: "Although Curtis had been repeatedly instructed to push his entire force from the Mississippi river and White river to Little Rock, he had, instead, brought troops from Helena to operate in Missouri from Pilot Knob, and pushed forward his column again into western Arkansas, under a fear of insurrection in the State of Missouri, and fears of threatened movements into that State by General Price." Halleck also said, that "Those in Missouri who, at the outset, sided with Price and his rebel gang, but were permitted to return and settle down as quiet and peaceable citizens, are now treated as enemies. No worse policy could possibly be adopted."

In this correspondence, Schofield was sustained in the acrimonious controversy which had arisen between him and Curtis in regard to the Prairie Grove (Ark.) engagement. Schofield had written to Curtis: "At Prairie Grove, Blunt and Herron were badly beaten, and owed their escape to a false report of my arrival with reinforcements." To this Curtis had replied that he "did not see the necessity of Schofield's anticipating the reports of these generals of their own affairs." Herron, now put in command of the army of the Frontier, protested against serving under Schofield, and was informed by Stanton that if he should tender his resignation it would be accepted. After recovering from a dangerous illness at Springfield, Mo., he was sent to assist in the attack on Vicksburg.

General Schofield, in a statement of his operations from May 24 to December 10, 1863, says that the capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson permitted the return to him of the troops he had sent to Grant to aid in these achievements, and opened the way for active operations in <cmh10b_196>Arkansas. From Grant he received (including the troops already at Helena) "a force of about 8,000 infantry and five batteries, to form, with troops to be sent from Missouri, an expedition against the enemy in Arkansas." Maj.-Gen. Frederick Steele was sent to command this force. At the same time, the cavalry division under Brigadier-General Davidson, at Pilot Knob, Mo., was ordered to move south, through the eastern part of Arkansas, and effect a junction with the force at Helena for the expedition against Little Rock. Davidson reached Wittsburg on the St. Francis river July 28th, and opened communication with the Federals at Helena.

In northwest Arkansas, meanwhile, the situation was disturbed and threatening, on account of the movements of Blunt and his Federal Indian allies and the despondency of the people, caused by the ravages and ruin they had suffered, and the news of continued disaster to the armies of the South. The tyrannies of the military rule on both sides had brought the people to a state of detestation of war and of soldiers in any uniform. Yet the great bulk of the population was true to the Southern cause. Gen. William Steele had been commended to General Holmes as a suitable commanding officer for the Indian Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs, and in May had been assigned to duty as such. He was an old army officer, residing at San Antonio, Tex., had served in the Mexican war, was with May in the charge at Palo Alto, and commanded a regiment at the close of that war. But he was severely afflicted with rheumatism, which almost incapacitated him. General Cooper, commanding the Indian allies, since the defeat of Maysville, seemed to have fallen into a state of torpor. While Steele was placed in command of the Territory, General Cabell commanded in northwestern Arkansas.

On repairing to Fort Smith, General Steele found there Col. A. S. Morgan's regiment of infantry and some cavalry. Colonel Morgan had the sick and wounded of Prairie Grove <cmh10b_197>in hospitals there, in a condition he reported as "wretched." Morgan was a veteran soldier, captain of Company A, First Arkansas Confederate infantry; had returned to the Trans-Mississippi department and was appointed colonel of the regiment by Hindman. He had raised and organized Company A of the regiment at Eldorado, Union county, and had led the regiment at the battle of Prairie Grove. Lieut. William Smith became captain, by promotion of Morgan, of Company A. The other captains appointed were Samuel Gibson, W. S. Otey, A. H. Holiday, J. R. Stanley, Jesse Bland, J. S. Brooks, J. W. May, J. R. Maxwell and W. A. Bull. The clamor for election of officers had been yielded to by the Confederate Congress, and the regiment insisted upon a reorganization under the law. Colonel Morgan was the reliance of General Steele, as long as he was content to serve under the many annoyances and privations of the post. When an election was ordered, he declined to be a candidate, and was appointed inspector of field transportation, in which capacity he served to the close of the war. Upon the reorganization of his regiment, Maj. Pitts Yell was elected colonel; Capt J. S. Brooks, lieutenant-colonel, and Capt. Sam Gibson, major. After serving for months at Fort Smith, the regiment was ordered to Louisiana, where Colonel Yell was killed at the battle of Mansfield, and Brooks became colonel. When General Steele assumed command, as successor to Generals Pike and Cooper, he had, in addition to Morgan's regiment, 100 men of Monroe's regiment, and Lane's Texas partisan rangers, under Lieut.-Col. R. P. Crump, numbering about 150 men. He was charged with the control of the hospitals at Fort Smith, then containing about 1,500 patients, in a wretched condition. He reported the quartermaster and commissary departments in a state of great confusion. The continuance since the organization of Hindman's camp there in 1862 of large Confederate forces, had exhausted supplies of every kind, and the people, abandoned by their defenders, <cmh10b_198>were hopeless, and with a few honorable exceptions almost completely demoralized. Corn could only be obtained by boating it up the river under convoy of cavalry along the river banks. Bass' regiment of Texans was employed in this duty, and for the defense of Fort Smith. The rest of Spaight's brigade he was ordered to send to Red river. General Cooper had adopted the system of "general furlough" for his Indians, which many of the regiments in his command adopted. But there were others which refused, and, of course, had to be fed. It being impossible to subsist them on the line of the Arkansas river, they were ordered southward.

The organization of Steele's division, on April 30th, was reported as follows:

Brigade of Brig.-Gen. D. H. Cooper: First Cherokee, Col. Stand Watie; Second Cherokee, Col. W. P. Adair; First Choctaw and Chickasaw, Col. Tandy Walker; First Creek, Col. D. N. Mcintosh; Second Creek, Col. Chilly Mcintosh; First Chickasaw battalion, Lieut.-Col. L. M. Reynolds; Osage battalion, Major Broke Arm; Seminole battalion, Lieut.-Col. John Jumper; Texas partisan rangers, Col. L. M. Martin; Twenty-ninth Texas cavalry, Col. Charles De Morse; Scanland's squadron, Capt. John Scanland; cavalry company, Capt. L. E. Gillett; Howell's Texas battery; Lee's light battery. Brigade of Brig.-Gen. W. L. Cabell: Carroll's Arkansas cavalry, Lieut.-Col. Lee L. Thompson; Dorsey's squadron, Col. John Scott; Hill's Arkansas cavalry, Col. John F. Hill; Monroe's Arkansas cavalry, Col. J. C. Monroe; Bass' Texas cavalry, Lieut.-Col. T. D. Taliaferro; Texas cavalry company, Capt. W. J. Coggins; Crawford's Arkansas cavalry, W. A. Crawford, organizing officer, Maj. John M. Harrell commanding; Hughey's Arkansas battery.

Fort Smith was the strategic key to Indian Territory, and Steele, determined to hold it, applied to General Holmes for Monroe's regiment and Carroll's, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, at Roseville, Ark. General Holmes sent Monroe's regiment, about 400 strong, which, with Carroll's, was soon after ordered to report to <cmh10b_199>Gen. W. L. Cabell in northwest Arkansas. Notwithstanding the failure to increase his command, and its depletion by the withdrawal of Spaight and Monroe, General Steele ordered Cooper to advance to the Arkansas river and compel Blunt and Phillips to release their hold on the upper Arkansas. In obedience to this order, Cooper, with two regiments of Texas cavalry and some of the Indian troops, a battery of three howitzers and one small rifle gun, advanced toward Fort Gibson, which was now strengthened by the earthworks of "Colonel" Phillips. At the same time, General Cabell, with a considerable cavalry force, made a bold movement beyond Fayetteville to Cowskin prairie, in Missouri, operating upon the enemy's rear and lines of communication in that quarter. Cooper was instructed to avoid a general action and operate from the west. Col. D. N. Mcintosh, with his Indian regiment, was sent forward, and Stand Watie was ordered to attack a large train of the enemy, going from Fort Scott to Gibson. He did attack, but Cabell did not coöperate, having been informed that Mcintosh had been withdrawn, being ignorant of the substitution of Stand Watie's command, and impeded by the high waters of the June rains. Thus Stand Watie was repulsed, and the enemy's immense train of supplies and munitions was suffered to reach Fort Gibson, near the banks of the upper Arkansas, in safety.

General Cabell, now having recruited his force to 3,000 or 4,000 men, was summoned to Fort Smith to make a campaign against Blunt's forces by advancing up the Arkansas on the south side and forming a junction with Cooper in front of Fort Gibson. With his force, well mounted and composed of young men chiefly, but poorly armed, Cabell entered the Territory by the old Pacific mail route, the bridges of which, in some places, were still standing in the uninhabited prairies. The desert, wild prairies, dismal post-oak barrens, and the direction they were taking, produced a demoralizing effect upon <cmh10b_200>the men who lived where fertile mountain valleys, threaded by crystal streams, alternating with rich, populous prairie meadows, had inspired that local attachment characteristic of mountaineers. They began to desert by companies. The rumor that they were nearing the enemy did not put a stop to it altogether, although pride of character prevented many from taking leave at such a juncture.

Scouts came with reports of a large force of Federal infantry, artillery and cavalry, in long columns, heading for the Arkansas river. Their numbers seemed greater as they were seen moving over the open, rolling prairies, and their glitter and banners more imposing in the June sunshine than if viewed from some height or obscured by obstacles. The command of Cabell was disposed for battle, and the troops hurried forward with the ordnance wagons, while the subsistence train proceeded slowly, and by a night march was left behind. Early next morning the booming of cannon ahead announced a conflict; ammunition was served out and the march resumed. The brigade pushed on without dinner, while the sounds of the artillery firing and the rattle of small arms were borne on the wind. Before night the reinforcement came up with Cooper's force, camped in a skirt of timber, in apparently fine spirits. Cabell moved forward to the scene of battle, but the enemy had retreated. There in the prairie lea, upon a bed of rails, under a bank of earth recently thrown up, were thirty or forty lifeless forms, whose straight, black hair protruding in tufts from the newly-made grave indicated their race. It was the 18th of July, and the temperature was about 95 degrees. The dead bodies had to be buried. Dotted over the prairie were graves with headboards designating the killed of Blunt's command.

It was the field near Honey Springs, where Blunt had surprised Cooper on the 17th of July before Cabell could come up. Blunt's command was composed of the Second Colorado <cmh10b_201>infantry, First Kansas, colored, First, Second and Third Indian home guards, Sixth Kansas and Third Wisconsin cavalry, and 12 pieces of artillery. On the night of July 15th the Federal commander had forded 250 cavalry across the Arkansas river, crossing his 2,500 infantry in boats, and at daylight attacked the Confederate camp at Honey Springs. Then moving up with massed columns, he deployed his lines suddenly, and after a brief conflict drove the Confederates back. Blunt captured one piece of artillery, one stand of Cherokee colors, some small-arms and wagons, but as Cabell came in sight, several miles distant, he retired across the Arkansas, leaving the field to the vanquished. He confessed to 17 killed and 60 wounded. Cooper reported his loss as 134 killed and wounded and 47 captured. The Confederates remained for several days on the ground, and were entertained at night by the corn-dance, or sun-dance of the Indians, a diversion consisting in stamping around in a circle with monotonous chants, broken at intervals by loud cries or grunts, to time kept by beating a hollow log for a drum.

The native Indian soldiers were subjects of curious contemplation. Nearly all the infantry were barefooted, dressed in coarse shirts and loose cotton trousers, and many with heads protected from the sun's rays only by their matted hair. An Indian infantry soldier, with gun on shoulder, would walk up to General Cooper, anywhere, at any time, and holding up his five fingers would say: "Cooper! me go home to see wife and baby. Mebbe so, come back five days---mebbe so, ten. Goodbye, Cooper." Thus they granted themselves furloughs, which they never broke; but it was a small matter if they did. "Perhaps," said General Cooper, "if they were all furloughed, it would be as well."

Finding coal, General Cabell put his blacksmiths to work shoeing the horses of the command, until he was ordered to return to Fort Smith, keeping out scouting parties in front, at the river opposite Fort Gibson, and on <cmh10b_202>both flanks. The enemy made no attempt to recross the river to the south bank during the stay of Cabell's brigade. Cooper's and Cabell's brigades were concentrated July 22d, 25 miles in rear of the battle ground, and by the 25th had been placed in position at Prairie Springs, 15 miles from Gibson, to await the arrival of Bankhead from Texas. But it was discovered that the powder sent the Confederates from Texas was worthless. A night's heavy dew would convert it, when exposed, to a paste. Moving to Honey Springs, Cabell's brigade remained a few days, then fell back to Soda Springs, and thence was ordered to old Camp Pike. The enemy was reported as crossing the Arkansas to attack Cabell, when Steele, with Cooper's command, joined him on the march to Camp Pike. There remaining a few days, a position was taken for a week on the San Bois, where the Beale road crosses it, expecting an attack. The brigade was then ordered to fall back to Scullyville, near Fort Smith, and if attacked take the road leading to Riddle's Station, where there were commissary stores.

On August 21st, General Cabell was ordered to ascertain the enemy's strength in northwestern Arkansas, and assume direction of the forces about Fort Smith. He concentrated his regiments at McLean's crossing of the Poteau, and removed all the public property at Fort Smith to a place of safety.

The enemy pursued General Steele to Perryville with a force of 2,000 cavalry, and 3,000 infantry hauled in wagons, before which Steele evacuated Perryville, which the enemy burned, and turned toward Fort Smith. General Blunt's advance, striking Cabell's scouts two miles west of the San Bois, skirmished with them until within twelve miles of Scullyville, within four miles of Cabell's pickets. At 2 o'clock on August 31st, General Cloud attacked the Confederate pickets and skirmished with them to a field near the Poteau bottom. The powder used by the Confederate pickets would knock up the dust in the <cmh10b_203>road, only 60 or 70 feet ahead, when aimed to strike 100 yards ahead. Here the Federal cavalry waited for the wagon brigade, and knowing Cabell's position, sent a strong force of infantry and artillery to attack him and drive him from the Poteau. Thompson's regiment and Harrell's battalion engaged them beyond the bottom, and falling back, crossed and formed line of battle on the east side of the Poteau, repulsing the enemy about dark. By order of General Cabell, Hughey opened upon them effectively with grape and canister.

That night Cabell determined to fall back to the mountains by the road to Waldron, and terminate his Indian campaign, being separated from Steele by Cloud's division. Early in the morning he started his baggage trains to Jenny Lind, thence to cross the mountain. Blunt sent Cloud with cavalry, 40 wagons loaded with infantry, and 6 pieces of artillery, on Cabell's trail, and struck him at the foot of Backbone mountain, while the train was not yet across, on September 1st. But the Confederates, having taken a position which had the enemy close under fire while unseen themselves, fired into the Federal advance guard and killed the commander, Captain Lyon, and 20 of his men. The enemy in force advanced against the strong position held by Cabell, but after a three hours' engagement was repulsed with considerable loss. The Confederate loss was 5 killed and 12 wounded.

The Confederate infantry regiment and some of the mounted men refused to stand fire, and retreated into the ravines and behind the rocks. But the train was protected, and the brigade that crossed the mountain southward to the valley of the Ouachita numbered about 1,500. The men that ran, deserted--but not to the enemy; they went back north of the Boston mountains to their unprotected families, leaving word that as soon as they could do something to protect the folks at home they would return, which was regarded as a contemptuous farewell by the enraged commander. But they did return, and, though <cmh10b_204>decimated in subsequent victories, constituted a splendidly armed and mounted brigade of nearly 3,000 at the surrender. After the capture of General Cabell on the Little Osage river, Kansas, six months before the close of the war, Colonel Harrell was in command.

The situation in the Trans-Mississippi department now deterred the boldest, and caused those in exalted positions to take a view of affairs similar to that of the humbler soldiers. Gen. Kirby Smith, on July 10, 1863, wrote to General Holmes, from Shreveport: "I can now give you no assistance. You must make the best disposition you can with the troops at your disposal for the defense of the Arkansas valley. In the event of being driven from Arkansas valley by overwhelming numbers, the concentration must be in this direction. Quietly establish depots for provisions and forage along the line of your probable march." As early as May 9th, before the capitulation at Vicksburg, Smith had given similar advice, suggesting a concentration in the Red river valley against Banks.

To the same purpose General Smith issued a circular letter, containing advice to citizens in regard to destruction of cotton and means of embarrassing the invader, and calling a meeting of citizens at Marshall, Tex. This brought forth a vigorous protest from Geo. C. Watkins, former chief-justice of Arkansas, and member of the military court; C. C. Danley, member of the military board, and R. W. Johnson and A. H. Garland, Confederate States senators. Their address to Governor Flanagin, dated at Little Rock, July 25th, contained the following, among other vigorous paragraphs:

We are opposed to any policy of abandoning Arkansas to the enemy, and remonstrate against it as ruinous to our people and greatly injurious to the cause. It is less difficult to hold the country than it will be to regain it. If Arkansas is given up, we lose the Indian country, west, which must share the same fate ....

The Trans-Mississippi has given up vast numbers of its <cmh10b_205>soldiers, and what arms it could spare. They have been sent to fight the battles of our country, east of the Mississippi; they went with promise of return; they have never been sent back; there is now little hope of that. They, as a general rule, comprised our best men, spirited and devoted to the cause. Those remaining are less reliable. The question is, Can Texas furnish men enough to defend herself and maintain her independence, much less reconquer the vast area that would separate her from the Mississippi and the Confederacy? The danger is, that Texas may seek to make terms for her own safety, in a revival of her favorite and ancient idea of separate nationality.

The thought of our being cut off from the Confederacy and our subjugation to Northern domination, degrading and ruinous, is insupportable. If any such army as the enemy can bring against us shall be permitted, quietly and without meeting resolute resistance, to march through and occupy so extensive a country as Arkansas, in view of the resources of this whole department, of which Arkansas is now the key, and involving such mighty and disastrous consequences, it must become a sad reflection upon those in authority.

In the way of advice, we offer the following suggestions, and hope General Smith will find something in them worthy of consideration: To make all our people and slaves retire from the banks of the Mississippi. Let that region become waste. To prevent all illicit traffic with the enemy at the various points on the river. That has been vastly injurious to us, and is what we have most to dread. To break up all planting operations attempted under Federal license or control. To allow no cotton to be raised, and destroy what is on hand .... Our opinion is against calling out the State militia. General Smith should rigidly enforce the Confederate conscription while and wherever he has an opportunity, throughout his department.

Thus they depended upon maintaining Little Rock as a strategic center; not upon "the best and spirited" soldiers who had been sent to fight battles east of the Mississippi and would not return, but upon those "remaining and less reliable." <cmh10b_206>

One of these gentlemen voluntarily addressed to Mr. Davis his individual suggestions:

Mr. President: . . . I believe a thorough reorganization of our army there (district of Arkansas) would be productive of good results. Both Generals Holmes and Price have their friends and their enemies there, but they themselves do not agree. The good of the service requires the removal at least of one or the other of these generals. Which one ought to be removed, I will not undertake to say at all. I would suggest that the general commanding the department say which one should be removed. This being done, send General Hood, when he is ready for duty, there in place of the one removed .... Recommend that Congress pass a law authorizing the President to appoint persons (say inspectors) to visit that department and investigate the management of the quartermaster and commissary departments, etc.

Thus the non-military element saw the way clear to redeem the State from military mal-administration in all its branches. The obvious truth was, that with well-equipped armies of sufficient strength, Generals Price, Holmes, Kirby Smith or Robert Lee could win victories. Success attends upon the heavier battalions, and these they did not have. Circumstances over which he had no control prevented General Smith from making Little Rock the center, and Arkansas the granary, of the department. Those circumstances were the swarms of soldiers in blue uniforms, recruited from every land and every race, which swelled the ranks of the enemy, while sheer exhaustion of resources was rapidly diminishing the armies of the Confederacy. The regions of the State which were engaged in planting sent their soldiers to aid the cause. The little county of Phillips, of which Helena is the county seat, furnished the Confederate army seven generals before the termination of hostilities. They were Brig.-Gens. Archibald Dobbin, Charles W. Adams, D.C. Govan, J. C. Tappan, Lucius E. Polk and Major-Generals Hindman and P. R. Cleburne. <cmh10b_207>

The Federal army was getting ready, in July, to occupy the Arkansas valley and march upon Little Rock. On the 27th, by special orders of General Grant, Maj.-Gen. Frederick Steele was assigned to the command of the army, to take the field from Helena, and on August 11th he assumed command of "all of Arkansas north of Arkansas river." His military force included the infantry divisions of Col. W. E. McLean and Gen. S. A. Rice, present for duty, 4,493; cavalry under Gen. J. W. Davidson and Colonel Clayton, present for duty, 4,652; and artillery, total present for duty, 9,433; aggregate present, 13,207. The field artillery included 49 pieces. With this strong force the Federal movement began on August 11th, the infantry marching from Helena by easy stages, with complete supply trains. The estimate of Confederate troops present for duty in the district of Arkansas, exclusive of Steele's division, and not allowing for the losses at Helena, was as follows: Price's division, Arkansas brigades of Fagan, McRae and Tappan, and Missouri brigade of Parsons, 5,500; Marmaduke's Missouri division, 3,000; Frost's brigade, 1,800; Dobbin's and other commands, 900. The return for September showed 8,532 present for duty; aggregate present, 10,665; field artillery, 32 pieces.

On April 1, I863, General Frost had been assigned to command of Hindman's division. On March 2d he was relieved and ordered to Day's Bluff to his brigade,(*) and Gen. Sterling Price was given the division. In his orders assuming command, General Price announced his staff as follows: Maj. Thos. L. Snead and Maj. L. A. McLean, assistant adjutant-generals; Maj. Isaac Bunker,

(*) On May 31st, General Frost's division (defenses of lower Arkansas) was returned as follows: First brigade, Col. John B. Clark, Jr.--Clark's regiment, Lieut.-Col. M. W. Buster; Mitchell's regiment, Col. Chas. S. Mitchell; Musser's battalion, Lieut-Col. Richard H. Musser; Ruffher's battery, Capt. S. T. Ruffner. Not brigaded--Nineteenth Arkansas, Col. C. L. Dawson; Twelfth Texas cavalry, Col. W. H. Parsons; Rector's company (refugees from Arkansas Post ), Capt. W. G. Rector; Richardson's company. Lieut. J. J. Brooks; Peoples' company, Lieut. S. J. Peoples; McKie's Texas squadron, Capt. M. M. Boggess. <cmh10b_208> assistant quartermaster; Maj. John Reid, assistant commissary; Maj. Ed. C. Cabell, paymaster; Maj. Wm. E. Woodruff, Jr., acting chief of artillery; Lieut. John Moon, engineer and ordnance officer; Thos. D. Wooten, M. D., chief surgeon; Wm. McPhetters, medical inspector; Lieuts. Robert C. Wood and R. T. Morrison, aides-de-camp; Maj. Celsus Price and John Tyler, Jr., volunteer aides.

On the 23d of July, Lieutenant-General Holmes was seized with an illness which grew so pronounced that he ordered General Price, then with his division at Des Arc, to assume command of the district. Assuming this duty immediately, Price left his division under General Fagan, whose headquarters were at Searcy, near the Little Red, a branch of White river.

Being satisfied that the Federal army at Helena was about to advance against Little Rock, Price ordered Gen. D. M. Frost, commanding the defenses of the lower Arkansas near Pine Bluff, to move at once with his infantry and artillery to Little Rock, and Fagan's division, camped at Des Arc and Searcy, to take position upon Bayou Meto, I2 miles northeast of Little Rock, at the crossing of the Memphis & Little Rock road. General Marmaduke, near Jacksonport, was directed to dispose his command so as to retard as much as possible the advance of the enemy, and keep in his front until he should be compelled to fall back upon Bayou Meto. Brigadier-General Walker's division--brigades of Carter and Dobbin--remained in the vicinity of Helena to check the enemy's advance; his position became hazardous and he was ordered (August 2d) across that stream. When the enemy crossed White river, the commands of Walker and Marmaduke, united, were kept at the front. Tappan's brigade, which had been detached from Price's division several months before for duty in Louisiana, was now returned, and held in reserve on the south side of the Arkansas river, at Little Rock. <cmh10b_209>

Rifle-pits and redoubts were constructed on the north of the river, near Little Rock, for occupation by the infantry, should the position at Bayou Meto be turned by the enemy. This was a danger to be apprehended for the bayou line of defense, and, in fact, for the rifle-pits, as the river was fordable in a great many places, and the enemy could cross east of the city. General Price ordered the removal of all public stores in the city to Arkadelphia, in order to be prepared to evacuate Little Rock; but he still strengthened his defenses in front, and perfected the means of transit so as to be able to throw forces from one side to the other, and particularly, to secure the withdrawal of the army to the south side in the event of defeat. Then came information from General Cabell of the retreat of Gen. William Steele in the Indian country, the defeat of Cabell near Fort Smith, and that the Arkansas river above was exposed at all points, all pointing to the inevitable abandonment of the Arkansas valley.

Steele's army advanced slowly. Davidson, reaching Clarendon, August 15th, reported to Steele that the expedition which he had sent up White river had captured the two Confederate steamers Kaskaskia and Tom Suggs, in the Little Red, and had destroyed the bridge of flatboats over which the "ubiquitous Marmaduke" had crossed his cavalry to the south side; losing 2 men killed in the expedition, and 5 wounded. It was rumored among the Federals that Kirby Smith was in command at Little Rock.

On the 23d, Steele, occupying Devall's Bluff, reported that he should operate from that base, with two gunboats there to defend his flanks; that his sick list was frightful, including many officers, and if reinforcements were not sent him, he should very likely meet with disaster; that his army was the poorest command, excepting the cavalry, he had ever seen; more than 1,000 reported unfit for duty, and he asked for "more gunboats."

General Davidson's cavalry force met with its first <cmh10b_210>resistance at Bayou Two Prairies, a small. stream in the skirting of timber between the two prairies. West of this stream, across the second prairie, he was confronted by the Confederate cavalry of Marmaduke and Walker.

The action which followed is described by General Marmaduke in the following official report:

August 23d, I received orders from Major-General Price to march my brigade to Brownsville and report to Brig-adier-General Walker.* On the morning of August 24th, I reported to General Walker, who ordered Shelby's brigade to report to me, and ordered me to hold my force in the vicinity of Brownsville to guard the main approach {Wire road) to Little Rock. The next morning at sunrise the enemy were reported advancing in force. I moved my two brigades, about 1,300 effective men, with two pieces of artillery, forward to engage the enemy, Shelby in advance. At this time Walker's brigade, commanded by Col. Archibald S. Dobbin, was encamped some 10 miles south of Brownsville, guarding another important approach from Devall's Bluff to Little Rock [Shallow ford road]. A sharp engagement ensued between the Federal force and my division. The Federals were under command of Gen. J. W. Davidson, and consisted of about 6,000 cavalry and sixteen pieces of artillery. Being unable to meet the enemy's forces in a general engagement, I withdrew my command, retiring slowly through Brownsville toward Little Rock. The Yankees were exceedingly cautious in their pursuit .... After retiring some 4 miles, my division was ordered into position by Brigadier-General Walker, commanding the cavalry. At this time I was with my rear guard. Upon my

(*) Brig.-Gen. L. Marsh Walker, a West Point graduate and officer of the old army, having been transferred to duty west of the Mississippi and ordered to report to General Holmes, had been assigned, June 2d, to the command of a brigade composed of Dobbin's and Newton's regiments of Arkansas cavalry, which brigade, with Carter's Texas brigade, should constitute a division to be commanded by General Walker. Brigadier-General Marmaduke, under whose command some of the troops had served, was ordered to form a brigade of Greene's, Burbridge's and Jeffers' regiments and Kitchen’s battalion, to constitute Marmaduke's brigade {Greene's), which, with Shelby's brigade, should form a division under command of General Marmaduke. On August 17th, Shelby's brigade was sent to Walker.

<cmh10b_211>

arrival at my new line of battle, I made all necessary preparations to check the enemy's advance. This was an important point, and absolutely necessary to hold, as Walker's brigade, troops and trains, would come into the main road at this place, and they had not yet reached the junction. The enemy came upon me, and were handsomely repulsed. They then commenced pushing their forces on my right and left, which forced me to retire. No further pursuit was made. I received orders to encamp my division on and in the vicinity of Bayou Meto. The next day I withdrew my whole force, except scouts and pickets, to the south side of Bayou Meto.

On the morning of the 27th, I advanced a light force, engaged the enemy's advance, and after brisk skirmishing my troops fell back to the main force. My troops were disposed as follows: Shelby's brigade . . . in line of battle above the bridge; Marmaduke's brigade . . . below the bridge; Bledsoe's battery on the main road commanding the bridge, and Bell's section of artillery near the main road below the bridge .... Immediately below the bridge, and between my two brigades, was formed Dobbin's regiment. The whole force, except Preston's regiment [in reserve], was dismounted. Davidson advanced his troops--cavalry and artillery, a part mounted, part dismounted--and came dashing toward the bridge (which Lieutenant Moon, of the engineer corps, had prepared for, and was now handsomely burning) and toward the bayou. Suddenly, artillery and small arms opened upon them with deadly effect, and caused a precipitate retreat. Soon the enemy formed their lines, brought up their artillery, and the fight continued until sunset, when the enemy, failing to occupy the bayou, retired after a heavy loss, leaving a number of their dead on the ground. I was ordered to retire at dark within 5 miles of Little Rock. My troops, until after the evacuation of Little Rock by our forces, were engaged in scouting and picketing.

The following report by Col. R. C. Newton, Fifth Arkansas cavalry, will perpetuate names of places and positions, and will be of especial interest to Arkansans. The officer was a native of Little Rock, and familiar with the country and the names of the inhabitants:

The engagement at Brownsville occurred on the 25th <cmh10b_212>of August. Col. A. S. Dobbin's brigade, composed of Dobbin's and R. C. Newton's regiments, was camped at Legate's bridge, on Bayou Meto. About 7 a.m. scouts reported the enemy moving upon Brownsville and near the town. By Colonel Dobbin's order I moved my regiment in rear of his, out into the prairie, about a mile from Legate's, the brigade trains being sent on the prairie road to get upon the main military road at Baker's. About 9 a.m. scouts sent by Colonel Dobbin toward Brownsville reported that the enemy was in town and General Marmaduke retiring on the military road (or Wire road) toward Little Rock. We accordingly retired on the prairie road to the Wire road at Baker's, where General Marmaduke's command was formed, and thence down Wire road to Long Prairie, where we formed to cover retirement of General Marmaduke's forces. Remained there an hour or so, and then, by order of Brigadier-General Walker (commanding cavalry at that time), we moved on to Bayou Meto at Reed's bridge. My regiment was immediately to the right of the bridge. We remained there all night. The next morning (the 26th) my regiment was detached by General Walker and ordered to Shallow ford, to cover that crossing of Bayou Meto. I moved from Reed's bridge about 9 a. m. and reached Shallow ford at 3:30 p. m. Learning from citizens that a party of Federals had been there the day before, I immediately, upon my arrival there, and after posting my pickets to guard against surprise, sent out small scouts upon all the roads on the east side of the bayou leading to the ford. Lieut. J. C. Barnes of Company A, whom I sent with 8 men upon the road leading from Shallow ford to Long's stage stand on the Wire road, encountered a party of 10 or 12 Federals about 2 miles beyond the bayou, who fled precipitately upon his approach. He pursued them some distance, but was unable to overtake them. Being satisfied from the result of the reconnoissance of the different roads that no force of the enemy was in the neighborhood of the ford, I encamped on the bayou near Mrs. Ewell's, and about a mile above the ford, picketing carefully toward Brownsville and other points from which an attack was possible. Here I remained all night.

Early next morning (August 27th) heavy cannonading commenced at Reed's bridge, indicating an engagement there. The firing in that direction increasing, I pushed <cmh10b_213>out small scouts upon all the roads leading from the ford toward the Wire road, and satisfying myself that the enemy were making no demonstrations against me, I left Maj. John P. Bull, with the bulk of my force, to hold the crossing at Shallow ford, and keep up communication with General Walker at Reed's bridge; and with about 80 men I crossed the bayou and moved toward the Wire road. Reaching Baker's place on that road, about 4 or 5 miles from Shallow ford, I encountered a small Federal picket, which my advance, under Lieutenant Barnes, attacked and scattered, some of them going in the direction of Brownsville and the others toward Reed's bridge. Pushing off down the Wire road toward Little Rock, I ran off one company of Federals picketing at Long's stage stand. They left in great confusion, without firing upon me. I pressed on in pursuit, some 2 or 3 miles beyond Long's, whence I returned to that place, and from there by the direct road, made my way back to Shallow ford. Soon afterward the firing ceased at Reed's bridge. About 8 o'clock that night, got a note from General Walker's adjutant-general, informing me that he was withdrawing from Reed's bridge, and directing me to retire on the direct road leading from Shallow ford to the point where that road intersects the Wire road, about

4 miles from the river, opposite Little Rock, and to move at once, sending a few trusty scouts across the bayou to get upon the Wire road in rear of Davidson, and report in the morning what should transpire there during the night.

I withdrew my pickets and commenced the retrograde movement in obedience to General Walker's order; reached the point designated about 12 p.m., and bivouacked there for the remainder of the night. About 8:30 a.m. the next day (August 28th), received an order from General Walker to move to English's on the Shallow ford road, about 2½ miles from its intersection with Wire road, camp there, and picket 6 or 8 miles in front of me, which order I obeyed, and remained in camp there that night; sent Capt. L. D. Bryant with his company to Shallow ford. Next morning (August 29th) Bryant returned with no news of the enemy. About 3 p. m., by General Walker's direction, I moved toward Shallow ford to take position there; camped for the night at Hicks' plantation; sent Capt. John H. Dye with his company to <cmh10b_214>Legate's bridge, on lower road, scouting. The next morning, August 30th, moved from Hicks' at sunrise, in the direction of Shallow ford, and just beyond Greenwood's met a small party of Federals; advanced Major Bull with 15 men to ascertain enemy's strength: Federals fled at his approach. He pursued them rapidly to Mrs. Ewell's, where he learned a considerable body of the enemy had been in the morning. Arriving there, I placed 40 men under command of Major Bull and sent him forward to ascertain enemy's whereabouts and strength. About half a mile beyond we found some little force of the enemy. I retired to the [Memphis & Little Rock] railroad, where a heavy force of dismounted cavalry was lying concealed behind the railroad embankment. In a short time, the enemy being reinforced from Shallow ford by cavalry and artillery, the force behind the railroad embankment commenced advancing, resisted at every step by Major Bull and his men with admirable courage and steadiness. I immediately ordered forward all the men with long-range guns in the command, and made my preparations to retire before the vastly-superior force of the enemy, fighting as I fell back. He now commenced using his artillery upon me very freely, and although I had none to reply with, I continued the fight with small arms at every available point, dispatching a courier to General Walker with information of the enemy's movements, and suggesting that more force be sent upon the Shallow ford road. The fighting, which commenced a little before 9 o'clock, had now continued with but short intermissions, until 2 o'clock, when, being forced back to Martin's place, I took position there, for the purpose of delaying the enemy as long as possible, and giving the reinforcements to me, if any should be sent, time to come up, as Ashley's mills and the crossing of the Arkansas river at Terry's ferry would be left entirely exposed should I be forced back a mile farther. About 3 o'clock the enemy advanced to the attack. I had concealed Companies B and E, under the command of Capt. P. J. Rollow, on the edge of Hicks' field, in front of which was an open clearing, and cautioned my men to let the enemy get well into the clearing before they fired, and then to rake them with their shotguns. Displaying a few scouts on the road, the enemy in line pushed rapidly on, and Companies E and B delivered a volley into him when he was not expecting <cmh10b_215>any resistance whatever. Recovering from his confusion, the enemy commenced sending heavy bodies of dismounted cavalry to my right and left. The nature of the country permitting this double flank movement, and my force being wholly inadequate to prevent it (as I had but 180 fighting men), I retired slowly to Hicks', three-quar-ters of a mile distant, leaving a rear guard to observe the enemy and resist any further advance, should he attempt it. At Hicks' I put my little force into position to meet him again; but he advanced upon me no further.

On August 15th, General Fagan had been relieved of the command of Price's division, and Gen. D. M. Frost placed in command of the infantry, consisting of his own brigade, Fagan's, Parsons' and McRae's, occupying the intrenchments on Bayou Meto, northeast of Little Rock. A week later, General Frost, fearing to bring Tappan north of the river on account of the unguarded fords, disposed Clark's brigade to cover the road by Shallow ford, and withdrew his advanced brigades to the rifle-pits (in their incomplete condition hardly worthy of the name).

On September 2d, the entire Federal force was concentrated at Brownsville, and Steele set about finding a line of approach to Little Rock. He discovered that the military road on the south side of Bayou Meto was impracticable, and a reconnoissance in force against the Confederate left (up the river), covered by a demonstration at Bayou Meto, decided the Federal commander to take the road leading by Shallow ford to Terry's ferry on the Arkansas. From Brownsville west to Little Rock, the old stage (Wire) road, almost impassable in winter, but dry and comparatively firm in summer, skirted the hills adjacent on the northwest, crossing Bayou Meto at Shallow ford, and then winding through the bottoms amid a network of lakes and bayous, by way of Ashley's mills, to Terry's ferry over the Arkansas river, 8 miles below Little Rock, thence along the river up to the city. The road along the south bank is the chord of a circle, while that along the north bank leads around the arc into the upper <cmh10b_216> road in front of the city. By this route Steele reached the river September 7th, his advance skirmishing sharply. His plan was to follow up the south bank and enter the city from the east and south, attacking the Confederates in their right flank and rear. He had pontoons, which were convenient but not necessary, as the Arkansas river was then very low. From Terry's ferry, besides the road leading to the city along the river front, a second road runs along the Fourche bayou, which flows from the southern suburb of the city into the river, 4 miles below. Davidson was to occupy both roads, but throw his force into the Fourche road, while Steele, with the infantry, would proceed along the north bank of the Arkansas to the city's front. There was a loop in the river at Terry's ferry on the river below, enclosing several hundred acres, connected with the mainland by a neck or isthmus, not over 500 yards across. By sweeping this neck with artillery, Davidson was enabled to cross over to the peninsula without resistance. General Churchill's plantation was opposite this peninsula on the north bank. The land in the peninsula was owned by Mrs. Harrell.

On August 31st General Price ordered General Walker to move his headquarters south of the river, and concentrate all the cavalry south of the river and east of the city. For an account of the subsequent operations, we return to the report of Colonel Newton, who, after discovering that the enemy had crossed Bayou Meto at Shallow ford, remained in camp at Hicks' on August 31st and September 1st, skirmishing with the Federal pickets between Ashley's mills and Terry's ferry, September 3d and 4th; and on the road to Little Rock north of the river, September 5th and 6th.

About dark [September 6th] I received an order from General Price's headquarters, directing Colonel Dobbin to assume command of Walker's division, and for me to assume command of Dobbin's brigade. Dobbin's regiment <cmh10b_217>(which with my regiment composed that brigade) was encamped on the south bank of the river at Buck's ford, headquarters at (Col. F. A.) Terry's house near the ferry. The next morning (September 7th) I went to the brigade headquarters, leaving Major Bull in command of my regiment. About 8:30 a.m. Major Bull reported the enemy rapidly advancing upon him from Shallow ford, and that skirmishing was going forward at Ashley's bayou, in front of his camp. I sent him orders to resist with obstinacy and retire, when forced to the Adamson plantation, on the Arkansas river, and cross by the ford at that place. I, at the same time, sent directions to Maj. S. Corley, commanding Dobbin's regiment, to have his command well in hand to resist the enemy at Buck's, if he should attempt to cross at that place. I . . . found Bull making a most gallant resistance against overwhelming odds, and causing the enemy to pay dearly for every inch of ground he gained upon him .... Returning to Terry's, I learned that the enemy were driving Lawler before them and would soon be at the ferry, as well as upon the river at Adamson's, toward which point they were forcing Bull, notwithstanding his stubborn resistance ....

Found Bull crossing in safety, and without molestation. Encamped Bull's regiment just below Temple's, on the river opposite Adamson's, to guard the ford there, leaving Corley at the ford at Badgert's, just above Buck's, keeping a strong picket at Terry's ferry. September 8th, considerable firing all day across the river, but [river-bed being a mile wide there] no damage done. Etter's battery was put in position at Bull's camp. On the next day (September 9th), considerable activity observed among the enemy. Bodies of cavalry moved up the river and returned. About dark my pickets reported that the enemy was hauling timber to near the ford in the point of the bend, half a mile above Terry's ferry, and putting batteries into position. Heavy knocking heard during the night; enemy evidently preparing to construct bridge across the river.

A little before daylight, September 10th, by direction of Colonel Dobbin, commanding division, I moved a section of Etter's battery into the bend opposite to where the bridge was being constructed. At daylight could see workmen constructing the bridge, which was one-fourth the way across the river. Sent Major Bull with a party <cmh10b_218>of sharpshooters to support Etter. A little after daylight Etter opened upon the bridge. His second shot took effect, clearing the bridge of workmen. Immediately the enemy opened with three batteries, so posted as to pour a murdering cross-fire upon Etter, which soon silenced him and drove him out. The sharpshooters kept up a desultory fire without much, if any, effect. About 10 a.m., the enemy having completed his bridge, threw forward two regiments of infantry, and crossed them over onto the bar, on this side, his batteries keeping up a continuous and well-directed fire upon the road leading up the river on the south side, and upon the woods in front of his bridge, and above it. I withdrew Major Corley to a point above the bridge, and sent Etter up the river with instructions to halt at Fourche, whither I also sent Corley with his regiment in a few minutes. The enemy now commenced pouring their troops across the bridge in large numbers.

By Colonel Dobbin's directions, I left Bull with his regiment to resist the enemy's advance and retard him as much as possible, and went in person to put the other troops in position at Fourche. Brigadier-General Marmaduke arrived with orders to assume command of all the cavalry. Colonel Dobbin being placed in arrest by General Marmaduke's directions, I assumed command of all of Dobbin's forces, which included my own brigade, W. B. Denson's Louisiana cavalry company, C. L. Morgan's Texas squadron, and J. H. Pratt's and C. B. Etter's batteries. Major Corley's regiment, being dismounted, was sent (with Etter's battery) to where the road leading to the mouth of old Fourche and the road leading across the dam diverge at the corner of Vaughn's field. Pratt's battery was placed in Vaughn's field, opposite the dam, and Bull's regiment, Denson's company and Morgan's squadron along the bayou on the right and left of the battery in such manner as to support it, and at the same time to be used to our right, should the enemy attempt to cross the bayou above us. The battle opened on our left. The enemy, in small parties, came up in my front so as to be distinctly visible between my position and Fletcher's house, but I directed Pratt to reserve his fire until they advanced in some force and came within easy range, when he was to ply them vigorously with grape and canister. It was not until after their repulse by Jeffers' brigade, <cmh10b_219>on our left, that they advanced upon me, when Pratt opened with his two guns and quickly drove them back. Moving to our right, they attempted to force a crossing of the bayou, but were met and handsomely driven back by Bull's command, assisted by Pratt's trusty guns, which continued to rake them with canister and grape until Fletcher's field, immediately in my front, was entirely cleared of them. I earnestly commend Captain Pratt for the skill and bravery displayed here, as he has displayed them on every field where I have had occasion to observe him.

The enemy being driven from my front, I reported the fact by a staff officer to the brigadier-general commanding. The firing in the meantime grew hotter on our left, and indicated that we were retiring there. [The enemy had left the road leading up the river, and crossing the bayou above Newton with a very large force, passed by his right, up behind his line, toward the city. ] In a short time I received an order to withdraw through Vaughn's field and get upon the river road near Keatt's [2 miles below town], which I did. I received an order to report to Colonel Dobbin [released from arrest], and, by his direction, moved through Little Rock and upon the southern road to Ayliff's [15 miles south], where the command encamped for the night ....

In closing his report, Colonel Newton warmly commended the bravery and dash of Maj. John P. Bull and the valuable services of Lieut. J. C. Barnes, Capt. W. N. Portis, Newton's regiment. Others named as particularly distinguished were Lieut. John Bradley, Sergts. C. D. England and B. F. Rodgers, Corp. John Hinkle, and Privates A. Bradley, S. H. Bradley, John Griggs, C. C. Rodgers and James Woddel. "In the engagement at Fourche, the brave Maj. Samuel Corley, commanding Dobbin's regiment, was killed while fighting in gallant style. To that command it was an irreparable loss, and in his death the country was deprived of the services of one of its bravest and most devoted officers. To an unflinching courage was added a sincere piety, and in him was furnished as noble a specimen of the Christian soldier <cmh10b_220>as any our cause can boast." In the same regiment, Lieut. W. H. Bowers was killed, Capt. W. H. Crawford and Lieut. David Morgan wounded.

On the morning of September 6th, a lamentable tragedy occurred in the vicinity of the cavalry camp. Evading arrest, which had been attempted, the general then commanding the cavalry and his next in command met in personal encounter, by appointment, attended by friends, and the senior in rank fell at the first fire. Both were officers of experience, bred to arms, of handsome presence and distinguished address, and chivalrous lovers of their native South. It was one of the incidents of army life, in which a high sense of honor forbids a stain or offers to efface it with blood. As gallant a soldier and kindly a gentleman as ever fought for the defense of his home here lost his life, and the Confederacy was deprived of one of its most accomplished defenders through the officious partisanship of over-zealous friends. Generals Walker and Marmaduke were educated in the military academy at West Point. The first named was a brother of J. Knox and Samuel Walker, bankers and business men of Memphis, Tenn. J. Knox Walker had been private secretary of James K. Polk, his uncle, when President of the United States. Marmaduke was the son of a former governor of Missouri. He forever sincerely deplored the unhappy altercation. To a gentleman with whom, as a member of General Hindman's staff, he had been associated, but who was absent at the time of the duel, he said: "How I prayed for you to be here. If you had been present, that meeting would never have taken place." This friend says the meeting was brought about by misinterpretations. Generous and full of dash, Walker, when told that a movement of his command had been censured, only laughed. When persuaded that the charge was having an injurious effect, he grew serious, then angry and demanded an apology. Marmaduke, to whom the criticism was attributed--cool, precise and unyielding <cmh10b_221>--- declined to apologize for words not written by him. Explanations could not be made, and in the whirl of the 'pressing moments Walker challenged, through Colonel Crockett; Marmaduke accepted, through Maj. Henry Ewing. Then, in the edge of the prairie, on the morning of the 6th of September, the principals exchanged shots with revolvers, at a few paces, and Walker fell, mortally wounded. There was much bitterness of feeling over the event. Walker's friends were slow to be appeased. More trouble would have arisen, but the messengers of death flew about them too swiftly from other hands--those of the enemy--for private animosities to take much depth. Excitement of the hour and the assuaging effect of time cured or alleviated the resentment.

Gen. Sterling Price, in a note to Colonel Dobbin, wrote as follows, in relation to this event:

Having been informed, toward midnight of September 5th, that a duel was pending between Brig.-Gens. L. M. Walker and Marmaduke, I sent to each of them an order to remain closely at his headquarters for twenty-four hours. This order did not reach General Walker, but did reach General Marmaduke. The duel took place, nevertheless, the next morning, and General Walker was mortally wounded. I immediately ordered General Marmaduke and the seconds of both parties in arrest. Feeling, however, the great inconvenience and danger of an entire change of cavalry commanders in the very presence of the enemy, and when a general engagement was imminent, I yielded to the urgent and almost unanimous request of the officers of General Marmaduke's division, and his own appeal, suspended his arrest, and ordered him to resume his command during the pending operations. I did this in spite of the apprehension that such leniency toward General Marmaduke might intensify the bitter feelings which had been already aroused in General Walker's division by the result of the duel. When the enemy had forced the passage of the Arkansas on September 10th, and you were falling back before their overwhelming numbers (the command of Walker's division having devolved upon you by <cmh10b_222>his death), I sent General Marmaduke with his division to reinforce you, ordering him, of course, to assume command as senior officer of all the cavalry. You reported to me a few hours later, in arrest, as you informed me, by order of Brigadier-General Marmaduke for disobedience of orders. I at once suspended your arrest for reasons similar to those governing in General Marmaduke's case, and ordered you to resume your command during the pending operations. When, about a fortnight later, I turned over the command of the district to Lieutenant-General Holmes, I communicated the above facts to him.

By General Price's order, the infantry north of Little Rock began to leave their intrenchments about x x a.m., September 10th, crossing on the pontoon bridge, followed by the artillery and later by the cavalry, a continuous procession for hours--the pageant of an evacuation. The bridge of boats was then broken up, some of them set afire. Some river craft and an ironclad gunboat, rendered useless by the low water, were also given to the flames, sending up black signals of retreat and defiance, which threw a veil over the scene and darkened the fiery September sun. The booming of cannon down the river, the neighing of horses, and soon the shouting of the Federal army, moving up to the city's front, the crowds of excited and hurrying citizens, was a mise en scene preceding the fall of the curtain, which could not have been better arranged for dramatic effect. The last Confederate left by 5 o'clock that evening. There was no pursuit.

The beautiful little city, seat of refinement and hospitality, and center of the hopes of a State which longed to be "free" and "sovereign" as a birthright, saw its defenders retiring; its homes, its helpless women and children, its lares et penates, abandoned to "the insolent foe." The ruin was as great as its statesmen had predicted. The carpet-bagger trailed in behind the conquering army.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1863, Lieutenant-General Holmes, having returned from a visit to Gen. Kirby Smith at Shreveport, La., resumed command of the district of Arkansas, with headquarters at Arkadelphia on the Ouachita river, 65 miles southwest of Little Rock, directing Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price to take charge again of his division, and Brigadier-General Frost to resume command of his brigade. Maj. George A. Gallagher, a leading member of the bar of Little Rock, who had served as a private in Virginia and Mississippi, was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with Maj. L. A. McLean. The Confederate army was encamped in the vicinity of Arkadelphia, to which place the army workshops had been removed, and where manufactories had been established by General Hindman when in command of the district.

Near Arkadelphia, in the flat-pine woods, the digging of shallow wells yielded salt water, from which large quantities of salt were obtained for the army and the citizens by evaporation from kettles set in rows upon crude outdoor furnaces, according to the process of boiling and crystallizing the juice of the sugar-cane. A large number of men, women and children, whites and negroes, were employed in this industry, camping out and enjoying it <cmh10b_224>as a picnic. The lands of that region are productive, and the yield of various grains afforded subsistence sufficient as yet. General Marmaduke, in command of cavalry at Rockport, between Arkadelphia and Little Rock, September 14th, reported no enemy in pursuit, but could not say how long it would be before he would be forced from his position there. He was sending scouts in the direction of Pine Bluff, Little Rock and Hot Springs.

While the army was near Arkadelphia, General Cabell obtained leave of absence, and the command of his brigade devolved upon Col. J. C. Monroe. Major Harrell was ordered to Carroll county, Ark., the Missouri border, and, making day-and-night marches, he forded the Arkansas at Ozark early in October. Encountering a small force of Federals, he routed them and proceeded up the Mulberry to the head of the Buffalo, crossing over to King's river in Madison county. There he formed a junction with a considerable force of Confederate cavalry under Col. W. H. Brooks, who had obtained a transfer from his infantry brigade in Fagan's division, with authority to raise a cavalry brigade in Washington and adjoining counties. Two companies being added (Peel's and Ingraham's) to Harrell's battalion, a reorganization was ordered by Colonel Brooks, at which Major Harrell was elected lieutenant-colonel of the battalion. He was ordered to scout through Carroll county to Sugar Loaf, and in Missouri beyond White river. He drove out the Missouri militia, captured prisoners and horses, and rejoined Colonel Brooks at a later date, on Frog bayou, in Crawford county.

General Shelby, after the evacuation of Little Rock, with the hope of recruiting his brigade of Missourians, obtained permission to go on an expedition into Missouri, and crossing the Arkansas, September 27th, marched by way of Huntsville beyond the Wire road near Sugar creek. After a raid of considerable range and some fighting nearly every day, he returned to Cross Hollows, <cmh10b_225>Ark., and about the I9th of October reached Huntsville, with McNeil in pursuit. He then crossed the headwaters of the Buffalo, Harrell's battalion, which had not yet crossed the Arkansas, covering his retreat to the head of Limestone valley, which has an outlet to shallow fords of the Arkansas river, near the mouth of Piney. While he was ascending the bluffs of the Buffalo crossing, with McNeil close on his trail, the enemy was fired upon in the defiles by divided detachments of Harrell's battalion and brought to a stand. Then McNeil, taking Harrell's force for Shelby's command, deployed in line of battle, with the view of flanking Shelby--an imposing array, extending a mile or more up and down the bluff, which he crossed in this manner, occupying hours. This, however, was not Shelby's army, but Harrell's detachment. On the 27th, McNeil, with his brigade, marched into Clarksville on the Arkansas, to learn that Shelby had made the crossing of the Arkansas river below there, and that Brooks had gone. He turned his course up the river toward Van Buren and Fort Smith. His force consisted of Hunt's First Arkansas cavalry, and Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin troops, forming a force of about 1,500 men, infantry, artillery and cavalry.

Colonel Brooks crossed the Arkansas soon afterward near the same place with 1,000 men or more, and on the south side encountered a force of Federal cavalry under Captain Gardner, which Harrell's battalion charged without orders, taking 20 prisoners and capturing twice as many horses. Moving through Caddo gap, Colonel Brooks crossed the Little Missouri and went into camp at Temperanceville, early in December, with about 1,000 men and horses. Plenty of subsistence for men and forage for horses was found in the neighborhood, but the weather became severe. Snow, sleet and rain fell upon the men and horses, who were without shelter except straw shacks made upon inclined scaffolding of rails, and much suffering followed. While there, Colonel Brooks <cmh10b_226>was transferred to other duty. Harrell's battalion was put on outpost duty there until ordered to report to Cabell's brigade, then camped at Columbus, in Washington county. General Cabell had returned from his visit to Texas and placed his brigade in comfortable winter quarters--huts, with doors and chimneys--with abundant food and forage. The brigade now numbered about 2,500 mounted men, with Hughey's battery of four guns. Shelby was in winter quarters on the Little Missouri, and Marmaduke's brigade near Red river at Harvey's.

October 31, 1863, the monthly return of Marmaduke's cavalry division showed the following strength, "present for duty": Marmaduke's brigade, 139 officers, 1,269 men, 1,751 horses, 8 pieces of artillery; Shelby's brigade, 35 officers, 271 men, 1,624 horses; Cabell's brigade, 91 officers, 779 men, 963 horses, 4 pieces of artillery; Dobbin's brigade, 33 officers, 416 men, 563 horses; Texas brigade, 26 officers, 297 men, 1,110 horses, 6 pieces of artillery; temporary dismounted cavalry regiment, 12 officers, 144 men, 217 horses; Wood's battalion, cavalry and artillery, 14 officers, 205 men, 222 horses. Total, 350 officers, 3,381 men, 6,450 horses, 18 guns. Aggregate present, 5,060. Brooks' brigade reported 18 officers, 1,500 men, 1,518 horses.

The abstract from return for the district of Arkansas, November, 1863, showed the following aggregate present: Price's division infantry, 5,795, 16 pieces of artillery; Pagan's infantry, 2,257; Marmaduke's cavalry, 4,482, 16 pieces of artillery; Brooks' cavalry, 431; Newton's brigade, 587; Carter's command, 353; total, 13,905 Present for duty, 1,017 officers and 10,354 men; artillery 32 guns.

By orders of war department, August 18, 1863, Brig. Gens. W. N. R. Beall and S. B. Maxey were assigned to the Trans-Mississippi department, and directed to report to General Holmes for duty. August 10th Col. T. P. Dockery <cmh10b_227>had been ordered to report to Lieut.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith. He was directed:

To assemble the scattered and furloughed men, who had passed west of the river, of the brigade recently commanded by you at the surrender of Vicksburg, take command, and proceed to organize and equip them as perfectly as may be practicable. You will discriminate between such as before the final departure from Vicksburg were, by the act or with the complicity of the enemy, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, transferred to/he west bank of the Mississippi, and those who afterward by straggling, or after furlough, returned to that side, and return lists as early as possible of the two classes, both to the general commanding the Trans-Mississippi department and to the adjutant and inspector-general here. The first class will, with the approval of the commanding general, be regarded as discharged from all obligations of parole and free for immediate service. Of the exchange or discharge of the others you will be informed as soon as it can be effected. . . . It is desirable that these troops be returned from the west to the east side of the Mississippi; but in reference to the ultimate disposition of your brigade, you will obey such instructions as may be given by the commanding general of the Trans-Mississippi department.

On the 7th of October, Gen. Kirby Smith wrote to General Holmes, instructing him in regard to the disposition of his forces; directing the removal of the telegraph line from Arkadelphia, and the removal of army stores from Washington to Shreveport; that the position at Arkadel-phis was good only as covering the magazine at Washing. ton, Ark.; that Camden was a better position than Arkadelphia for the infantry; the Little Missouri a stronger front than the Ouachita, as its bottoms in winter are impassable; that concentration at Camden would be easy, and the line of retreat toward Shreveport would be secured. This contemplated the abandonment of all territory in Arkansas. General Smith explained the necessity for such dispositions as follows:

You will see that the force below Shreveport [under <cmh10b_228>Banks] which has so long been menacing us, is about finally developing its plan of operations. From their position, an advance on either Alexandria or Sabine Pass is still practicable. Should the former course be adopted, and the Red river valley be made their line of advance, I shall concentrate your command on Taylor's, and drawing what support I can from Magruder [in Texas], risk a general engagement somewhere below this point [Shreveport]. Prepare your command for moving south with as little delay as possible. The smallest Arkansas brigade of infantry with the cavalry under Marmaduke, should be left in Arkansas. Your line of march will be either direct to Shreveport or by Minden to Campti, crossing the river at Grand Ecore.

October 11th, Colonel Dobbin reported that he had been driven from Tulip to Dallas county, 80 miles southwest of Little Rock.

On October 24th, Marmaduke,with his division, marched upon Pine Bluff, which the enemy had occupied a few days after Steele's entry into Little Rock. Having crossed the Saline, fordable at any point, by a night march from Princeton, he arrived at Pine Bluff on October 25th, and sent a flag to the commander at 9 a.m. demanding surrender. The place was occupied by the Fifth Kansas and First Indiana, numbering, the enemy claimed, 600 men only. Upon receiving the summons to surrender, the Federals employed 300 negroes in rolling cotton bales out of the warehouses where they were in storage for those who had influence to save them from the cotton burner. With the cotton bales the Federal commander, Colonel Clayton, fortified the streets leading to the public square in Pine Bluff, and planted six mountain howitzers and three steel rifled guns, so as to command every street leading into the square. His rear was protected by the Arkansas river

The Confederates, with about 2,000 men and 8 pieces of artillery, speedily occupied the enemy's camp and the town, except the public square. The court house, built <cmh10b_229>of brick, was filled with Federal sharpshooters. Some Confederates went over the breastworks, but it was apparent that with the aid of the enemy's nine pieces of artillery, the position could only be carried by storm. The end, a brief occupation, would not have justified the sacrifice of life necessary. The Confederates replied to the enemy's artillery for a short time, but discovering that the houses of citizens, those of General James, General Yell and John Bloom, near the square, were in some way ignited, either by the enemy or the artillery fire, they withdrew their artillery, and eventually their whole force, at 2 p.m.

Colonel Clayton reported his loss at 11 killed, 27 wounded and 1 missing, and 5 negroes killed and 12 wounded. The Confederate loss, as reported by General Marmaduke, was about 40 killed and wounded. Among the killed of his command were Capt. Fenn Rieff, of Monroe's regiment, Cabell's brigade; Lieut. D. Biser, adjutant of Greene's regiment, Orderly John Smith, of Newton's regiment. General Marmaduke reported the capture of 250 mules, 400 blankets, 600 or 1,000 bales of cotton taken, and a large quantity of quartermaster stores. He also reported that his troops behaved well, and "the Federals fought like devils." As he withdrew his forces the enemy advanced, attacking Greene's brigade, but were repulsed. The regiment of Colonel Lawther, covering the rear, also repulsed an attack of the enemy. Marmaduke retired and went into camp at Princeton. Col. R. C. Newton, in this affair, commanded his brigade of Arkansas cavalry, the Texas brigade under Maj. B. D. Chenoweth, and Wood's battalion of Missouri cavalry.

Although the attack on Pine Bluff failed of its object, it had a wholesome effect in showing to the Federal commander that the Confederate forces which retired from Little Rock, in the fulfillment of a policy long since decided upon by those in control, were by no means disheartened and without power and spirit to strike when <cmh10b_230>opportunity should call for action. It put an end to the random Federal forays which had been commenced after the fall of Little Rock, and caused the Federal commander to keep his army concentrated and disciplined for the moment when it should be ordered to move, in accordance with a studied plan of strategy, in concert with other forces constituting the army of the Southwest. General Marmaduke was wise not to waste the lives of his command in a coup de main, which if successful would have realized no substantial result or permanent advantage.

The next day the First Iowa cavalry, sent to Pine Bluff, followed on the trail of Marmaduke to Tulip, and turning off at Princeton, marched on the evacuated Confederate post of Arkadelphia, capturing eight or ten sick soldiers, "a large mail," some Confederate money, two lieutenants, some salt, and three 6-mule trains. Marmaduke had gone to camp near Washington.

General Price had marched his infantry division to position near Camden, on the lower Ouachita. The Federal general, Rice, with 2,000 infantry and two 6-gun batteries, moved out from Little Rock, October 18th, but returned soon. Gen. Kirby Smith sent to General Holmes the following forecast, November 1st, which proved correct: "I hardly think the enemy will move this season with the intention of opening the campaign. They may be acting in connection with General Banks and intend to prevent reinforcements going to General Taylor. They will not attempt an advance beyond the Ouachita or the Little Missouri if they find you in their front and any opposition is made to them."

Harrell's battalion was on outpost duty toward Mt. Ida, and his scouts pursued the Federal scouts from time to time until the winter weather grew so severe that neither side attempted military operations. On December 15th, Col. Lewis Merrill, with 1,000 men, surprised a camp of newly-formed State troops in an unarmed camp of exchanged men, near Princeton, and caused them to fall <cmh10b_231>back toward Camden. He returned a blood-and-thunder report of his men killing numerous Confederates with the saber, and wounding many more with that rarely-used implement. No one of the Confederate camp "stood" to be reached by a saber, and none were made prisoners or ever exhibited wounds from that or any other weapon. They were simply dispersed without a fight of any description. The slaughter was ideal; the flight, a real test of horsemanship and woodcraft. It was, however, accepted as a veritable "battle" at Little Rock, and heralded as a "famous victory."

The Federals had augmented their forces at Fort Smith, by the 1st of December, to 5,000 whites and blacks and their Arkansas cavalry were pushed forward to Waldron, 50 miles south of Fort Smith. On October 24th Brig.-Gen. R. M. Gano was ordered to report to Brig.-Gen. William Steele, and on December 11th Steele was, at his own request, relieved from the command of Indian Territory and Brig.-Gen. S. B. Maxey assigned.

Gen Kirby Smith, on December 20th, left Shreveport for Camden, with the purpose of making a forward movement to regain the Arkansas valley, in which he was to be aided by the forces in Louisiana under Maj.-Gen. Richard Taylor. He had prepared Taylor to make a simultaneous advance with General Holmes, but kept this secret, hoping to draw the Federals out of Little Rock by the maneuvers of Holmes' weaker force, and then overwhelm them with Taylor and Holmes combined.

But after reaching Camden, Smith wrote Taylor, on the 23d, that on investigation he found it would be madness to attempt to drive the enemy from Little Rock. Steele had prudently fortified his key points. At Pine Bluff were intrenchments inclosing the principal part of the town, with a deep ditch in front, and a second line of cotton bales. Four regiments and twelve cannon were in position. At Little Rock, two large forts had been completed, and other works, held by 6,000 men, and Benton <cmh10b_232>was fortified and held as an advanced post. It was Smith's information that by drawing in his outposts Steele could concentrate 12,000 effective men. Against these Holmes had but 5,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, a force which Mouton's division would swell to 12,000. Consequently, the projected blow for the Arkansas valley was abandoned as" Quixotic and impracticable." Regarding the disposition of the Confederate forces, General Smith said: "General Holmes will place his troops in winter quarters, holding the line of the Ouachita, and will endeavor to discipline and improve their morale for operations in the spring. The Texas brigade goes directly to Texas. Price holds his Missouri division ready to move as circumstances may require." General Smith had been notified that 25,000 stand of arms were at the Mississippi, to be crossed for his troops, and General Mouton was directed to use his division, aiding Col. L. F. Harrison, and reinforced by Dockery's 900 unarmed mounted infantry--paroled Vicksburg prisoners--to cover and protect their transportation to Monroe.

General Marmaduke, who was to lead the advance to the Arkansas river, and had reached Camden, in his letter of the 28th to his adjutant-general, Maj. Henry Ewing, wrote, "The whole program is changed." He set forth the new plan, which was for the cavalry to operate on the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. Therefore Marmaduke did not move except for forage. Shelby remained in the passes of the Little Missouri around Murfreesboro, in Pike county, Cabell in the black lands of Hempstead, on the Ozanne and Plum creek, amidst impassable black mud, but where there is corn in abundance, only 12 miles from Washington. His brigade of about 3,000 men made the best of the situation. The officers and men got up horse-races. The young officers were entertained by the pretty girls--- daughters of Colonel Cannon, Dr. Brown, Dr. Walker, and Mrs. Stuart, at Columbus, and of Dr. Jett, Major Witter, and Mr. Britton, at Washington. Many <cmh10b_233>notables and notables-to-be resided there- Senator Charles B. Mitchell, John R. Eaken, chancellor and supreme judge, Senator James K. Jones, then a private under General Forrest, Col. Daniel Jones, afterward governor; and sojourning there were Judges David Walker, Geo. C. Watkins and Albert Pike, for it was the temporary capital of Arkansas. Governor Flanagan, who resided at Arkadelphia, was near there at the head of "State troops"; but ex-Governor Rector was at Columbus, a member of the Home Guard. Thus passed six or eight weeks, while the men and horses were recuperating for the season when the Federals should advance in force.

Meanwhile the usual scouts and skirmishes continued. There was a combat at Brownsville, January 17th, between Poe's Confederate rangers and Missouri Federal cavalry. January 21st, a scout of Kansas cavalry from Waldron, Scott county, passed down the Little Missouri into Sevier county and, making a circuit, returned north along the Cossatot, attacking Captain Williamson's company of Confederate cavalry in the rear at Baker Springs, killing the commander and dispersing his command. Harrell's battalion was sent in pursuit of the raiders, but was unable to overtake them. Gen. Dandridge McRae, tired of camp life with the infantry, obtained orders to scout and recruit a cavalry command in White and adjoining counties, along White river, and speedily organized a force of 300 men, with which he met and skirmished with Livingston's rangers from Batesville at Lunenburg, killing Captain Baxter, Fourth Arkansas (Federal) infantry; took possession of Jacksonport a few days afterward, and held the south side of Red river. McRae, Freeman and James Rutherford made life irksome for the Federal commander of the Batesville district thenceforward, operating throughout White, Jackson, Woodruff and Independence counties. January 30th, Captain Kauffner, with a detachment of the Third Arkansas (Federal), <cmh10b_234>made a raid against McRae's force, capturing a lieutenant of Andrew Little's company and 11 men, as he reported, near Searcy landing. At Hot Springs, February 4th, Capt. Wm. Harrison surprised and killed some mountain Federals who had been terrorizing his family. February 5th, Gen. C. B. Holland, in command of Missouri and Arkansas cavalry, made a raid on Berryville, Carrollton and Rolling prairie, in pursuit of Freeman and Love's Confederate commands, which had crossed White river at Talbot's ferry on an expedition into Missouri. Holland reported that his valiant Missouri militiamen killed 70 men on this raid, and captured 8 or 10 "prisoners," who were non-combatants very likely, or they would not have been captured.

These expeditions were simply such as Stanley has described of the Arabs upon Turi and Congo rivers. In January the Federal commander at Fayetteville sent out an expedition, under Captain Galloway of the First Arkansas (Federal), through Carroll into Searcy county. At Clear creek it met a scouting party from Col. A. R. Witt's command, which, after a skirmish, fell back to the crossing of the Tomahawk. There the Federals were again attacked by the Confederates, but proceeded to Burrowsville, the county seat of Searcy county, being fired upon from the brush along the march. On January 25th, Captain Human, of this expedition, proceeded with his Missouri company to Van Buren county, "killing and capturing a number of prominent rebels." Galloway learned on the 26th that a detachment of Missouri cavalry bearing dispatches from General Sanborn had been attacked and 11 men killed by Col. Tom Freeman's men. The defeat of Colonel Freeman near Batesville, and the pursuit of Colonel Witt across the Arkansas river below Clarksville, were also reported. Returning to Crooked creek and Rolling prairie, in Marion, Galloway told of pursuing a force of 300, killing and capturing a number, and about Dubuque, on White river, "killing <cmh10b_235>ten rebels." He summed up the result of the scout as "over 100 killed of the rebels, with a loss on our side of 2 killed and 3 wounded." He was twenty days in that remote but fertile region, which had been raided and foraged over by the soldiers of both sides since the summer of 1862. The citizens had not dared to sleep in their own houses for a year or more, but took their bedclothing to the hollows and thickets, and there "slept out" in the coldest of weather for fear of being murdered in their beds; and if found in these positions were shot down as "bushwhackers." These reports must magnify the number slaughtered, as, if summed up, they show the destruction of twice the whole population of those counties. Lieutenant Phelps, of this expedition, moved across Judea (Judah) mountains to the vicinity of Bellefonte, and reported that his command alone "killed 15 or 20, and wounded several more. Serviceable property captured by my regiment in this expedition has all been branded and memorandum taken of it." It doubtless consisted of cows, pet heifers, calves and poor old farm horses belonging to the old men and widows along the route of his raid; saddles, bridles, bedquilts and coverlets of the children, and children's clothing. The natives had no ivory, palm oil, or ostrich feathers with which to render tribute to the doughty invaders. The hero of this expedition was son of the Col. John S. Phelps, whom Mr. Lincoln had just appointed governor of Arkansas, as if it were one of the territories of the Union.

General Smith's defenses of the Trans-Mississippi department extended from the Indian Territory, through Arkansas, to the Mississippi, and down that stream to the mouth of Red river; thence by the Atchafalaya bayou to Berwick bay, and thence along the Gulf coast to the Rio Grande. His forces were collected at three points--those under Taylor holding the lower Red river, Price confronting Steele, Magruder on Matagorda peninsula. The immense transportation of the enemy enabled him <cmh10b_236>to commence the invasion at any moment, at any point he might select, while the great distances between the Confederate commands made it impossible to concentrate rapidly or assume the offensive. When the enemy should develop his plans, the Confederate maneuver was to endeavor to throw our whole force against one of the enemy's columns. Believing the enemy would choose the line of Red river as his main line of attack, when the water rose to admit gunboats in support of the movements of infantry, General Smith prepared to concentrate against the invasion, for this purpose establishing depots of subsistence and forage along the roads through the barren country between Tyler, Tex., and Red river, arid between Camden, Ark., and the town of Natchitoches. The people of the Arkansas valley, given up to the Fed. erals; were incredulous of the commander's plan of"drawing the enemy on," and the critical ones invented epigrams expressive of their belief in a disastrous result.

On March 5, 1864, General Holmes was notified by General Smith of the opening of the to-be famous Red river campaign, Federal operations having already been reported by General Taylor on the Ouachita. "By North. ern dates of February 18th," wrote Smith, "the arrival at Little Rock of one of General Banks' staff was announced, with the statement that arrangements were being made for the coöperation of General Banks and General Steele. The intelligence from below makes it probable that a simultaneous movement from General Steele may be anticipated .... You may expect to wind up the campaign by making your headquarters at Little Rock."

Sterling Price, returning from leave of absence March 8th, resumed command of his division, and wrote to General Smith advising him to concentrate 20,000 men and attack Steele, and relieve the armies east of the Mississippi by invading Missouri. On the 11th, Lieutenant-General Holmes, at his own request, was relieved by <cmh10b_237>order of the general commanding, and Major-General Price was put in command of the district of Arkansas.

Maj.-Gen. Frederick Steele, who had been assigned to command of the Seventh army corps and the Federal district of Arkansas, had suggested a demonstration, rather than a determined movement, from Little Rock in coöperation with Banks' Red river expedition; but General Grant, who had lately come into command of the United States armies, instructed him to "make a real move from Arkansas." General Banks left New Orleans to lead the expedition up the Red river March 22d, and on the next day Steele started out from Little Rock toward Arkadelphia. Leaving a force of 2,500 at Pine Bluff, under Col. Powell Clayton, which coöperated with him from that point, he took Salomon's infantry division, 5,127 strong, Carr's cavalry division, 3,428, and 30 pieces of artillery. On the march, April 9th, he was joined by Gen. John M. Thayer, from Fort Smith, with about 5,000 infantry and cavalry.

Price's infantry division, reported as about 5,000 present for duty, was ordered to Louisiana to reinforce Taylor, and Fagan's brigade was soon called from Camden to the same field. Thus Price was left for the time with only the cavalry of Marmaduke's division--- Greene's and Shelby's Missouri brigades and Cabell's Arkansas brigade, numbering 3,200 effectives--reinforced, about the time that Thayer arrived, by Brig.-Gen. Samuel B. Maxey from Indian Territory, with his division--Gano's Texas brigade and Col. Tandy Walker's Indian brigade.

If a column of the enemy had moved southwesterly from Little Rock and marched about 30 miles a day, it could have camped the first night near Benton on the Saline river; the second at Rockport on the Ouachita; thence following down that river on either bank, the third night at Arkadelphia on the same stream; the fourth at Okolona, near the junction of the Little Missouri and Antoine creek; the fifth near Washington, in the rolling <cmh10b_238>blacklands; the sixth at Fulton on Red river; the seventh near Texarkana, and there turning southerly, the eighth at Hughes Springs, Tex., and the ninth at Marshall, Tex., west of and behind Gen. Kirby Smith's army and depots near Red river. This route is almost an airline to Fulton. It is the line of the Iron Mountain & Southern railroad, which makes an arc south to avoid the hills of Antoine. From Little Rock to the Ouachita river the surface is hilly and rocky, the ridges between the streams sterile, and at the time the Seventh army corps made its southwestern movement from Little Rock, the route was practically a journey through the desert. At the end of a three-days' march of 30 miles each day, reaching Arkadelphia, an army might turn southeast and go down the banks of the Ouachita to Camden, or it might keep on to the four-days' camp at Okolona, and turn there southeast and go to Camden. If from Camden it should turn back to Little Rock, 90 miles by the shortest route, it would pass through Princeton, having the Saline river to cross again, a day's march northeast of that place, at Jenkins' ferry.

It will be instructive to follow the successive movements by which the well-equipped army of General Steele was impeded, surrounded, turned and put to flight by a few thousand ill-equipped Arkansas and Missouri cavalry. The strength of the Confederate cavalry is not preserved in the records, but counting the Indians which Maxey brought eventually to their assistance, it did not amount to 8,000 men, and not more than 18 pieces of artillery. They were inspired by one important fact--they had been provided with efficient arms and munitions, secured by General Smith and distributed in place of the shotguns, horse-pistols and old smooth-bores, with which they had been formerly provided. Virginia rifles with superior explosives had been placed in their hands and fully appreciated by them. They were, in fact, not cavalry, but mounted infantry, and could march day and <cmh10b_239>night over wide circuits, dismount and engage as infantry, and if pressed by superior numbers, remount and elude the foe. The trains of the Confederates were very light and employed chiefly for ordnance. Each soldier had his scanty wardrobe rolled up in an oilcloth behind his saddle, and with this for his pillow at night, covering with a saddle blanket, he slept anywhere. The beef and pork killed by the way and his country's corn-meal made his rations; and he marched by the stars as often as by the light of the sun, to fall confidently upon the flanks and rear of the invading army.

The winter quarters of the Confederates were broken up at the first advance of Steele from Little Rock. The pleasant diversions of a few weeks of rest were now only a stimulating memory, and the stern duties and privations of the soldier, with their uncertain consequences, confronted them. General Shelby's brigade, which had been camped near Camden, was ordered to cross the Ouachita river and pass to the rear of the advancing army, between it and Little Rock. It was not long before his comrades heard the old iron guns of Bledsoe sending their messages across the valleys, announcing that he was "closing up" the enemy upon their flank.

General Thayer, in command of the Federal frontier division, moved from Fort Smith March 21st, to make a junction with Steele at Arkadelphia. He moved by way of Booneville, Ark., through Danville and Mt. Ida to Caddo gap, thence down the Caddo and Antoine creeks to the river, and joined Steele, April 9th, at the crossing of the Little Missouri. Thayer, with his force of a little over 5,000, composed of negro regiments and mountain Federals, with his immense train of broken-down teams, some stuck in the mire, others upset, might have been destroyed as he emerged from the mountains of Caddo creek if the Confederates had attacked him in force; but Marmaduke was devoting his exclusive attention to Steele's column. <cmh10b_240>

On March 22d Cabell's brigade marched to Tate's bluff, at the meeting of the Little Missouri and Ouachita rivers, to which place General Marmaduke marched with Greene's brigade and a section of Blocher's battery, under Lieutenant Zimmerman. Cabell and Greene were ordered to operate against the enemy's front, while Shelby marched directly in his rear. Harassed by detachments of cavalry sent against him by Marmaduke,* Steele reached Arkadelphia before Cabell and Shelby got into the positions assigned them. April 1st, Steele, after waiting at Arkadelphia a few days, marched on the old military road toward Washington, and Shelby entered Arkadelphia the same evening, capturing some stragglers. Cabell had moved to Antoine creek, 18 miles west of Arkadelphia, and in several fights with the detachments of the enemy seeking forage, drove them back on his main body. Shelby encamped the night of April 1st at Arkadelphia in Steele's rear, Cabell on Antoine creek in his front. Before daylight on the morning of the 2d, Marmaduke, with Greene's column, formed a junction with Cabell's brigade on the military road to Washington, three miles south of the Little Missouri, at Cotting-ham's store in Spoonville. West of Arkadelphia is a good road which turns to the right, leading north from the military road to Okolona and Elkin's ferry, across the Little Missouri. Fearing the enemy might take that road and occupy Elkin's ferry, General Marmaduke stationed Monroe's regiment, Fayth's battalion and a section of Hughey's battery of Cabell's brigade at the Antoine as a rear-guard, and withdrew the other commands of Cabell's brigade to Cottingham's, where they could reinforce Monroe or prevent the crossing of the Little Missouri at any of the fords below the military road. It was Colonel Salomon's regiment (Ninth Wisconsin) and Benton's

(*) Dockery's brigade was ordered to act with Marmaduke. "Unfortunately, be[ore General Dockery could execute this order, he was, on March 30th, attacked at Mount Elba by a party of the enemy from Pine Bluff and completely routed. "--Price's Report.

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Twenty-ninth Iowa which were ordered forward to protect the train moving down a road toward Camden. They were hurled back until General Rice, with the Fiftieth Indiana infantry and Voegel's battery, came up to their support. Monroe and Fayth, falling back to Wolf creek, were attacked by this whole force, which they again drove back on the main body, with severe losses. The enemy reported 16 killed and 45 wounded. The brigade under Shelby was at the same time in the enemy's rear as he passed the Terre Noire bottom, killing several and wounding many more. Captain Thorp, of Elliott's battalion, charged a regiment of the infantry, scattering them and receiving a painful wound. Second Lieutenant Trigg, of Marmaduke's escort, having been sent to Shelby with dispatches, charged with Shelby's men and fell mortally wounded.

Gordon's, Harrell's and Morgan's commands were stationed that night at the ford, while Cabell's and Greene's brigades fell back and encamped.

The enemy remained halted at the river all of the 3d, waiting perhaps for Thayer, but were attacked from the rear by Shelby, who fought them with his artillery and dismounted men and scattered their rear-guard, killing and wounding many, until, flanked by superior numbers, he fell back. On the 4th, Steele advanced to the crossing of the river with his main body. General Marmaduke immediately attacked with Greene's brigade and Mon. roe's regiment and Zimmerman's artillery section, and a section of Hughey's battery of Cabell's brigade. He drove the enemy back two miles, killed and wounded many, and losing 29 killed and wounded.

On the morning of the 5th of April, the Confederate advance, at the ferry, was ordered to fall back, which it did, on being attacked by the enemy in large force. Col. Dan W. Jones' State troops and Harrell's battalion captured several guidons of the enemy, and held him in check from time to time, crossing the open prairie under <cmh10b_242>his fire without a casualty. The command of .Marmaduke was now drawn up on the south edge of Prairie D'Ane, where he was reinforced by Colonel Gano with 400 men (Indians) and Lawther's regiment. Shelby had returned to the front and was camped in the prairie on the Camden road, south side of the river, to rest his men. On the 7th the enemy advanced again, opposed by a part of Burbridge's regiment, under Captain Porter, which did not cross the prairie. General Price arrived at the front with Dockery's 'and Crawford's brigades and Wood's battalion, and took command. Gano was now up with his brigade, about 500 men. Cabell's brigade was transferred to Fagan's division. On the 8th the enemy advanced, but did not drive Marmaduke's command out of the timber on the northeast of the prairie. Greene's regiment was relieved from outpost duty by troops of Fagan's brigade. Marmaduke had caused breastworks of logs and small earthworks to be thrown up on the southeastern edge of the prairie, by which the enemy was deceived as to the real strength and the intention of the Confederates. Reinforced by Thayer, Steele now attacked the Confederate outposts, portions of Cabell's brigade, of Dockery's and Shelby's. But Collins' battery opened upon them, while the Confederates, under fire of small-arms and sixteen pieces of artillery, held their position until ordered to retire. That night, supposing Shelby had withdrawn, the enemy again attacked with shot and shell, but were still confronted by Shelby and Collins, until they were ordered to fall back to the Confederate position at the mimic breastworks.

Steele had now reached the junction of three roads leading southward, one to Washington, one to Louisville on Red river, and one to Camden on the Ouachita. It was disclosed that his intention was to fall back on Camden. His vacillation and hesitation were puzzling to the Confederates. On the 12th he drew up his whole force in line of battle on the prairie in front of the Confederate <cmh10b_243>works, as if preparing to push forward to Washington, threw out his skirmishers (which were engaged in the open prairie by the Confederate skirmishers) along his extended line, formed as for dress parade, with artillery on his flanks and cavalry in reserve. Withdrawing across the prairie, he resumed the former day's position, but the Confederates had learned that his immense train was passing behind his line, on the road toward Camden, and broke their camp, moving in detachments against his front and flanks. The cavalry under Price (reinforced by Walker's Indians, about 1,000 strong) closed up his rear as he withdrew his column, and engaged him with artillery and cavalry charges until night, one of their shells wounding the Federal general, Rice, in the head. The rear-guard of Steele's army, protected by cavalry and artillery, disappeared from the prairie, under a fierce bombardment by the Confederate artillery, through the little village of Moscow, at dark.* Greene's brigade passed at once to his front, moving toward Camden. Marmaduke and Cabell went into camp, few of the men having slept a whole night for fourteen days.

On the 13th, Marmaduke marched from Prairie De Rohan, and having ridden sixty miles, passed around to Steele's front on the 14th. Finding the enemy pressing resolutely forward to Camden, he left Colonel Lawther in his front, with orders to destroy all Confederate property at Camden, and then move out and picket all roads leading to Shreveport. The main body of Marmaduke's command went into camp 8 miles from Camden. News of the defeat of Banks by General Taylor on Red river had now reached the Confederate camp, and explained Steele's position and retrograde movement. The enemy entered Camden the night of the 15th, having consumed twenty-one days in the march from Little Rock via

(*) In the action at Moscow, Dockery, being in the advance, attacked with great intrepidity, and at one time captured a section of artillery, which was retaken by a greatly superior force, and his troops repulsed with some loss.--Price's Report.

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Moscow, 140 miles---the direct line being less than 100 miles, only a five-days' easy march. The Confederates under Marmaduke had killed and wounded 600 of the enemy. They had lost 150, and without rest, rations, or sleep adequate to man, fought incessantly, yet not a murmur or complaint was ever uttered by one of those devoted men.

Meanwhile, General Price's old infantry division had been taking a gallant part in the heroic fighting which resulted in the defeat of Banks' expedition on Red river. General Churchill was in command of the two divisions (Arkansas and Missouri) into which it was divided, and General Tappan commanded the Arkansans, his brigade fighting under Colonel Grinsted, and Churchill's brigade under Colonel Gause. In his report General Tappan said:

On Thursday night, April 7th, about 11 o'clock [being encamped at Keatchie], I received orders to hold the division in readiness to move the next morning for Mansfield, at daylight .... We reached Mansfield that evening exactly at 3:30. The battle of Mansfield was then progressing, but Major-General Taylor not deeming it necessary to order us into the fight, we were directed to take position on the Gravelly Point road to prevent a flank movement of the enemy, which was anticipated in that direction. That night the division prepared two days' rations and slept upon their arms, in line of battle. At 2 a.m. we were summoned, and moved promptly at 3 o'clock. We expected to meet the enemy about 4 or 5 miles distant. When, however, we reached the point he had retired to the night before, we found he had precipitately fled. We instantly took up the line of march in pursuit, the division under my command taking the lead of the infantry troops. We proceeded some 18 miles, to within 2 miles of Pleasant hill, where we were informed the enemy occupied an advantageous position. Within thirty-six hours my division had marched some 45 miles, almost without sleep, and were necessarily very much worn out and fatigued. After resting about two hours we diverged from the main Mansfield and Pleasant hill road, and proceeded some <cmh10b_245>4 miles for the purpose of making a flank movement upon the enemy. Brigadier-General Parsons' Missouri division was upon my right.

My line was formed at about 4:30 o'clock .... I threw out three companies of skirmishers, under Major Steele of Grinsted's regiment, and immediately ordered my line to advance rapidly as directed .... For an hour and a half we were as warmly engaged with the enemy as it has ever been my experience to witness on any battlefield. My division, however, never faltered, but moved steadily and firmly forward, with the valor of men determined to succeed or fall m the attempt .... At this juncture, learning that the division on the right had been outflanked and was falling back, I immediately directed my attention in that direction and saw that such was the case. When said division had swept entirely past mine, and my command became exposed to a heavy and murderous fire from the flank as well as the front, I ordered the brigade commanders to fall back with a view of forming a line in a more advantageous position ....

The exhausted condition of the men, the lateness of the hour (it being near dark), and the denseness of the thicket made it extremely difficult to rally the men. While the battle lasted no men ever fought more gallantly. This is evidenced by the fact that the enemy made little or no attempt to pursue our line; on the contrary, he fled toward Red river as soon as night came, leaving his dead to be buried and his wounded to be cared for by us. The loss of the division in the engagement was as follows: Killed, 26; wounded, 112; missing, 63.

General Smith, Banks being now in full retreat, determined to reinforce Price with the infantry, and Churchill's and Walker's commands were ordered into Arkansas. On April 17th the general commanding made his headquarters near Calhoun, Ark., Price's headquarters, and assumed command of the operations against Steele.

Following is the organization of the Confederate forces in Arkansas, Gen. E. Kirby Smith commanding, April 20, 1864:

District of Arkansas, Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price; escort, Fourteenth Missouri battalion, Maj. Robert C. Wood. <cmh10b_246> Fagan's cavalry division, Brig.-Gen. James F. Fagan: Cabell's brigade, Brig.-Gen. W. L. Cabell--First Arkansas, Col. James C. Monroe; Second Arkansas, Col. T. J. Morgan; Fourth Arkansas, Col. A. Gordon; Seventh Arkansas, Col. John F. Hill; Arkansas battalion, Lieut.-Col. Thomas M. Gunter; Arkansas battalion, Lieut.-Col. John M. Harrell; Blocher's Arkansas battery. Dockery's brigade,'Brig.-Gen. Thomas P. Dockery--Twelfth Arkansas battalion sharpshooters; Eighteenth Arkansas; Nineteenth Arkansas (Dockery's), Lieut.-Col. H. G. P. Williams; Twentieth Arkansas. Crawford's brigade, Col. Wm. A. Crawford--Third Arkansas (Slemons), Capt. O. B. Tebbs; Crawford's Arkansas regiment; Wright's Arkansas regiment, Col. John C. Wright; Arkansas battalion, Maj. Jas. T. Poe; Arkansas battalion, Maj. E. L. McMurtrey; Arkansas battery, Capt. W. M. Hughey.

Marmaduke's cavalry division, Brig.-Gen. John S. Marmaduke: Greene's brigade--Third Missouri, Lieut.-Col. L. A. Campbell: Fourth Missouri, Lieut.-Col. Wm. J. Preston; Seventh Missouri, Col. Sol. G. Kitchen; Eighth Missouri, Col. Wm. L. Jeffers; Tenth Missouri, Col. Robert R. Lawther; Missouri battery, Capt. S.S. Harris. Shelby's brigade, Brig.-Gen. Jos. O. Shelby--First Missouri battalion, Maj. Benj. Elliott; Fifth Missouri, Col. B. Prank Gordon; Eleventh Missouri, Col. M. W. Smith; Twelfth Missouri, Col. David Shanks; Hunter's Missouri regiment, Col. D.C. Hunter; Missouri battery, Capt. Richard A. Collins.

Maxey's cavalry division,(*) Brig.-Gen. Samuel B. Maxey: Gano's brigade, Brig.-Gen. R. M. Gano,(+) Col. Charles DeMorse--Twenty-ninth Texas, Maj. J. A. Carroll; Thirtieth Texas, Lieut.-Col. N. W. Battle; Thirty-first Texas, Maj. Michael Looscan; Welch's Texas company, Lieut. Frank M. Gano; Texas battery, Capt. W. B. Krumbhaar. Second Indian brigade, Col. Tandy Walker --First regiment, Lieut.-Col. James Riley; Second regiment, Col. Simpson W. Folsom.

Walker's division,(++); Maj.-Gen. John G. Walker: Texas <cmh10b_247>brigades of Brig.-Gens. Thos. N. Waul, William R. Scurry and Col. Horace Randal.

Arkansas division,(++) Brig.-Gen. Thomas J. Churchill: Tappan's brigade, Brig.-Gen. James C. Tappan--Nine-teenth and Twenty-fourth Arkansas regiments consolidated, Lieut.-Col. William R. Hardy; Twenty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Arkansas, Col. R. G. Shaver; Thirty-third Arkansas, Col. H. L. Grinsted. Gause's brigade, Col. Lucien C. Gause--Twenty-sixth Arkansas, Lieut.-Col. Iverson L. Brooks; Thirty-second Arkansas, Lieut.-Col. William Hieks; Thirty-sixth Arkansas, Col. James M. Davie. Hawthorn's brigade, Brig.-Gen. Alexander T. Hawthorn.

Missouri division, (++) Brig.-Gen. Mosby M. Parsons: First brigade, Brig.-Gen. John B. Clark, Jr. --Eighth Missouri, Col. Charles S. Michell; Ninth Missouri, Col. Richard H. Musser; Missouri battery, Capt. Samuel T. Ruffner. Second brigade, Col. Simon P. Burns--Tenth Missouri, Col. Wm. M. Moore; Eleventh Missouri, Lieut.-Col Thos. H. Murray; Twelfth Missouri, Col. Willis M Ponder; Sixteen Missouri, Lieut.-Col. P. W. H. Cumming; Ninth Missouri battalion sharpshooters, Maj. L. A. Pindall; Missouri battery, Capt. A. A. Lesueur. ,

The return of Price's division, March 10th, showed the following brigade strength, aggregate present: Churchill (Gause), 766; Drayton (Clark), 968; Parsons (Burns), 1,720; Tappan, 1,478; staff and cavalry, 200. Marmaduke's cavalry division, January 10th, Cabell, 1,468; Greene, 1,242; Shelby, 1,583; artillery, I48; Brooks' cavalry, 486.