Mystery Soldiers of Massard Prairie - Fort Smith, Arkansas

Massard Prairie Battlefield Park

One of the more intriguing mysteries of the Battle of Massard Prairie, which took place at Fort Smith on July 27, 1864, originates from the reports of Confederate soldiers that the overran parties of "Arkansas Feds" as they moved in to attack a battalion from the 6th Kansas Cavalry.

The terms "Arkansas Feds" and "Mountain Feds" were often used by Southern soldiers to describe Arkansans who either evaded service in the Confederate army or deserted from their units and joined the Union side.

According to several eyewitness accounts of the battle, the "Arkansas Feds" were taken by surprise and broke and ran. The Confederates did not immediately pursue them as the Kansas cavalrymen had formed a line of battle through their camp at the Picnic or Diamond Grove (site of today's Massard Prairie Battlefield Park). Union reports, however, make no mention at all of any Arkansas Union troops being present at the battle. All of which begs the questions: Were there "Arkansas Feds" on Massard Prairie? And, if so, who were they?

The answer seems to be yes, there were several companies of Arkansas Federals camped on Massard Prairie at the time of the attack.

On July 5, 1864, about three weeks before the battle, 100 Arkansas Unionists signed a letter to the editor of the Fort Smith New Era newspaper complaining of the disrespect being shown them by Union soldiers from Northern states and by the citizens of Fort Smith. The men were members of the 4th Arkansas Infantry (U.S.). The letter was dated from the men's camp at "Mazard Prairie."

This short-lived regiment was formed early in 1864 and merged with the 2nd Arkansas Infantry (U.S.) in October of that year. At its greatest strength, it included around 173 men, including officers and a surgeon, making up three companies.

Massard Prairie at Fort Smith, Arkansas

Coincidentally, the sites of three additional company-sized camps have been found at Massard Prairie, opposite or south of the branch from the main camp formed by four companies of the 6th Kansas Cavalry. This would have placed the men of the Arkansas battalion directly in the path of the Confederate attack and these men would have been the first hit, exactly as Southern accounts reported.

This evidence provides strong support then for the presence of the 4th Arkansas Infantry (U.S.) as well as the 6th Kansas Cavalry at the Battle of Massard Prairie. The scattering of two battalions of Federal troops instead of just one makes the Confederate victory there even more impressive and significant.

To read more about the battle, please consider my book:

The Battle of Massard Prairie: The 1864 Confederate Attacks on Fort Smith, Arkansas


The book is also available as an instant download for Amazon Kindle:

The Battle of Massard Prairie, Arkansas: The 1864 Confederate Attacks on Fort Smith

You can also learn more about the battle by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasCW4.

Arkansas Feds at Massard Prairie

After Union troops occupied Fort Smith at the time of the Battle of Devil's Backbone in 1863, the Confederate forces in the region experienced a severe phase of demoralization. Hundreds of men (many of them probably more loyal to their region than to either cause) switched sides, slipping away from the Confederate army and joining the Union army that now occupied Fort Smith.

Many of these men were used to form the basis of what was expected to be a new Union regiment, the 4th Arkansas U.S. Infantry.

The 4th, however, never reached full regimental strength. During the most successful period of its formation, it achieved enlistments of 173 men (including officers and a surgeon). This was a sufficient force to form about three companies.

The men were placed in a training camp on Massard Prairie during the spring of 1864. They occupied three company-sized campsites in the woods seen here. The area then was an open grove of trees watered by a small stream.

These men were called "Arkansas Feds" by the troops of both sides. Confederate troops, obviously, had little use for them. Northern soldiers, meanwhile, were often suspicious of their loyalties. The men of the 4th became so irate at their treatment by their own (Union) army, in fact, that they sent a protest letter to the Little Rock Unconditional Union in July of 1864.

The letter provided revealing insights into the mindset of the "Arkansas Feds" in the last year of the war. After express their outrage at being mistreated by their Northern comrades, even though they had joined and were serving in the Union army while their own families were unprotected and subjected to bushwhacker raids, they continued:

Under these circumstances we came to lay our all on the altar of our country, many of us having competent estates. We never owned slaves, no! We never bought one, sold one, held an interest in as much as old Shylock’s pound of human flesh. We come with clean hands, we are Union soldiers, and like the Romans of old, we call on the army and the community to award us the honor and distinction due to American soldiers as long as we are faithful.