The Battle of Devil's Backbone, Arkansas - Mountain Fight for Fort Smith

As Union troops surged into Fort Smith on the morning of September 1, 1863, General James G. Blunt ordered his cavalry to pursue the retreating soldiers lead by Confederate General W.L. Cabell.

The Confederates were falling back on the Waldron Road, having evacuated Fort Smith without a fight, and appeared to be in full flight. Following Blunt's orders, Union Colonel William F. Cloud led the 2nd Kansas and 6th Missouri Cavalries, along with two sections from Rabb's Indiana battery, down the road leading to Jenny Lind and Waldron.

The Federals skirmished with Cabell's rear guard at Jenny Lind, sending the Confederate horsemen into a rapid retreat. What Cloud didn't know as he stormed after them, however, was that it was all part of a trap planned by the Southern general. Knowing that the Union commander would think he had the Confederates on the run and was closing in on the rear of their column, Cabell prepared an ambush where the Waldron Road crossed the Devil's Backbone, an abrupt mountain ridge that runs east to west across the horizon south of Fort Smith.

As Cloud and his horsemen rode up to the foot of the ridge, intent on catching their prey, the hunter suddenly became the hunted. The Union troopers road into a deadly trap and were ambushed by the Confederates of Monroe's Regiment who were hidden at the bottom of the Backbone:

The enemy formed in a dense growth of small timber and brush, and when our scouts came up, they let them pass through without firing a gun, but when Company C came up, they opened upon them a very heavy volley of infantry in two columns. Your son (Capt. E.D. Lines, 2nd Kansas) was killed at that time. He was in the extreme advance, (as was his custom,) and was shot by a Minnie ball, through the bowels and liver.

Following the ambush, the Battle of Devil's Backbone raged for three hours. The two forces engaged in a severe artillery duel that damaged nerves far more than it did bodies. The Confederates held their own and appeared to be on the verge of prevailing when the cannon fire finally slowed. To his shock and dismay, however, General Cabell watched as his army virtually disintegrated around him.

Not under immediate attack and having fought well so far, the Confederate lines suddenly collapsed and soldiers streamed down the backside of the ridge. Cabell could do nothing but withdraw his remaining intact units and fight a rear guard action as he pulled back to Waldron. The loss of the fight at Devil's Backbone ended his hopes of defeating the Union army in detail and retaking Fort Smith.

To learn more about the battle, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/devilsbackbone.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Arkansas

Over recent days I've posted about the movement of Union troops over the Boston Mountains from Northwest Arkansas and the attacks at Dripping Springs and Van Buren in Crawford County. When Fort Smith itself finally came under attack, however, the threat came not from the North but from the West.

The summer of 1863 found General James G. Blunt and the Army of the Frontier at Fort Gibson(temporarily called Fort Blunt) in what is now Oklahoma. On July 17th he had launched a preemptive strike against a Confederate army gathering to attack him, defeating General D.H. Cooper at the Battle of Honey Springs or Elk Creek.

By August, Blunt was moving east fort Fort Smith. General W. L. Cabell tried to hold him back but morale was bad and his force was rapidly disintegrating. Cabell had formed his men along the bank of the Poteau River just west of Fort Smith, but he knew the position was untenable. Rather than await the expected attack, he quietly withdrew during the night of August 31, 1863.

As the Federals advanced on the morning of September 1st, they found the Confederate positions abandoned. Moving forward, General Blunt ordered Colonel William F. Cloud to take the army's cavalry and pursue Cabell who was believed to be in full retreat to the South. Blunt, meanwhile, occupied Fort Smith.

Cloud pursued the Confederate army, skirmishing briefly with Southern cavalry at Jenny Lind, but then rode blindly into an ambush laid for him by Cabell at Devil's Backbone, a long ridge that stretched from near Greenwood, Arkansas, across the line into eastern Oklahoma.

From positions along the ridge, Cabell's men rose and opened fire on Cloud's approaching cavalry, inflicting casualties and sending the Federals scrambling for safety. Heavy fighting broke out and both sides brought artillery to bear, although most of the cannon fire went too high.

If you would like to learn more, check out the newly updated pages on the Battle of Devil's Backbone at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/devilsbackbone. The site includes photographs of the battlefield, an in depth account of the battle and both Union and Confederate reports.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Conclusion

The Battle of Devil's Backbone ended in disaster for the Confederates.

When Cabell's men broke and ran from behind their stone defenses on the mountain, the South lost forever its chance to hold or retake Fort Smith. The strategic post and city passed into Federal hands and would remain in them for the rest of the war.

Much of the site of the battle today is on private property, so please respect the rights of local property owners. There is a growing sense of awareness of the importance of the battlefield. The Civil War Preservation Trust recently obtained an important tract through which the Confederate retreat took place.

A monument to the battle can be seen on nearby Highway 71 at the point where the highway intersects the Backbone just south of Greenwood.

For more on the history of the Battle of Devil's Backbone, Arkansas, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasCW5.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Part Five

The artillery exchange between the Confederates on top of Devil's Backbone and the Federals in the valley below was more noise than anything else, although this rock on the mountain side still displayed an impact mark from a shell more than 140 years later.

As the bombardment slowed and the Union troops began to run low on ammunition, it initially appeared that Cabell's Southern troops might hold. The best efforts of Cloud's Federals had been unable to dislodge the Confederates from the mountaintop.

Suddenly, however, large sections of the Confederate force broke and ran. The act stunned the commanders of both sides. Cabell wrote:

There was nothing to make these regiments run, except the sound of the cannon. Had they fought as troops fighting for liberty should, I would have captured the whole of the enemy’s command, and gone back to Fort Smith, and driven the remainder of the enemy’s force off and retaken the place.

While the general might have been thinking a bit optimistically about retaking Fort Smith with the force at his command, he was correct in his assessment of why his men broke and ran. He had sustained total casualties of only 5 killed and 12 wounded out of a total force of around 1,200 men.

Colonel Cloud was equally surprised by the sudden departure of the Confederate defenders:

...The enemy suddenly withdrew, leaving his dead and wounded, together with arms, baggage, &c., in our possession. I immediately occupied the field, and extended my pickets beyond, taking prisoners and receiving deserters, who came flocking in.

More than 100 deserters, including officers, joined the Union forces over the next several days. At the Battle of Dardanelle, Arkansas, just eight days later, Cloud reported that the former Confederates fought side by side with his men in an attack on their former comrades:

In the attack upon Dardanelle I was assisted by three officers and about 100 men, who had fought me at Backbone, under Cabell, and it was a novel sight to see men with the regular gray uniform and Confederate State belt-plate fighting side by side with the blue of the army, and this novelty was intensified by knowing that they were fighting their old command.

With no option left to him, Cabell withdrew his remaining forces from the battlefield and retreated to Waldron.

Our series will continue. Until the next post, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasCW5.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Part Four

This photograph shows a surviving section of the Confederate main line at the top of Devil's Backbone.

General Cabell positioned his main force along the natural rocky spine of the mountain and the men piled extra rocks on top of the natural formation to create stone breastworks. This section of breastworks is just east of the old Waldron Road trace and was held by the right flank of the Confederate line.

The position was extremely strong and even though the Federals pushed back the Southern advanced lines from the lower slopes of the mountain, they were unable to dislodge Cabell and his men from their breastworks.

The fighting was intense. Confederate artillery, positioned at the center of the line scene here, opened on the Federals each time they exposed themselves. The Federals brought up the guns of Rabb's battery and for several hours the two sides shelled each other. Artifact discoveries at the battlefield indicate verify the reports of both sides, however, that they cannon fire was largely ineffective. The Confederate fire generally went over the heads of the Union soldiers on the lower slopes of hte mountain. Union fire, meanwhile, more often than not sailed over the top of the ridge and landed in the fields beyond. As a result, casualties were low.

This series will continue. If you would like to read more about the Battle of Devil's Backbone before the next post, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasCW5.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Part Three

This view shows the trace of the old Jenny Lind Road at the point where it climbed up the steep slope of the Devil's Backbone near Greenwood, Arkansas.

The photograph was taken during winter, which explains the brown leaves and fairly open view of the otherwise heavily overgrown mountain.

The Confederates formed the first stage of their ambush just down the slope from this point at the bottom of the ridge. As the Federals arrived at Fort Smith on the morning of September 1, 1863, they sent forward a pursuing force under the command of Col. William F. Cloud of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry.

Cabell's Confederate cavalry skirmished with this oncoming force at Jenny Lind, a small community about midway between Fort Smith and the Devil's Backbone. As expected by the Southern general, his horsemen withdrew ahead of the Federals and drew them into the ambush at the mountain.

Colonel Cloud described the scene:

At 12 o’clock we came to their rear guard in ambush, whose deadly fire cut down Captain Lines and 10 or 12 of his command. I found a line of dismounted cavalry and howitzers and steadily drove their rear from their position, and up the mountain side, to within one-fourth of a mile of their line of battle, skillfully formed upon the summit of Backbone Mountain of the Poteau range. I here brought my whole force into action, and for three hours the battle raged with variable violence.

The Captain Lines mentioned in the report was Captain Edward C.D. Lines of Company C, 2nd Kansas cavalry. According to the regimental surgeon, he was shot through the "bowels and liver."

The Confederate ambush stunned the Union advance and a sharp encounter erupted along the lower slopes of the mountain. Cabell's staggered lines slowly withdrew up the ridge as the Federals attacked, falling back on the main line that was formed behind stone breastworks on the top of the mountain.

Our series on the Battle of Devil's Backbone will continue. Until the next post, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ArkansasCW5.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Part Two

Cabell began withdrawing from his lines along the Poteau at around 9 p.m. on the night of August 31, 1863. Men were assigned to keep campfires burning to disguise the movement from the Federals.

At the same time, he sent back orders to Fort Smith instructing troops there to load as many supplies into wagons and possible and get them moving on the road to Waldron, Arkansas. The old road led southeast from Fort Smith by way of the community of Jenny Lind and present-day Greenwood to cross the Devil's Backbone near the latter community.

The supply trains of the army moved as well and wagons were soon strung out along the road. Cabell then put his infantry and artillery in motion, closing out his column with cavalry units assigned to skirmish with the Union troops when they advanced the next morning and draw them on into the ambush he planned to develop at Devil's Backbone.

The evacuation went well and General Blunt did not learn until the next morning that the Confederates were gone. Pushing across the Poteau, he advanced on Fort Smith. By the time he reached the post, however, Cabell had succeeded in pushing his wagon trains over the Devil's Backbone and to safety.

Planning his ambush, he positioned his men in a series of lines staggered up the sides of the Backbone at the point the Waldron Road climbed over the ridge. The first line was hidden in thick brush and timber at the base of the mountain and successive lines were placed in hiding at various points up the slope. The main battle line was then formed, along with the artillery, at the crest of the ridge where the stony spine of the mountain formed a natural rock breastwork. The Confederates strengthened this position by piling stones into low spots.

The cavalry, meanwhile, lingered behind to show themselves to the Federals when, as expected, they came on in pursuit of Cabell's column.

Our series will continue.

Battle of Devil's Backbone, Part One

The Devil's Backbone is a unique mountain ridge that stretches across the horizon south of the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Part of the Ouachita (pronounced Wah-she-tah) Mountains, it is a major feature of both Sebastian County, Arkansas and LeFlore County, Oklahoma.

At the time of the Civil War, the Backbone was more than just a beautiful mountain ridge. It served as a natural barrier to military forces operating in the area.

The Confederates were the first to put the ridge to use for military purposes. Facing a disastrous disintegration of his force as the stronger Union Army of the Frontier approached Fort Smith from the west in August of 1863, Brig. Gen. W.L. Cabell tried to decide on a strategy that might give him a chance for success against the Federals.

The night of August 31, 1863, found the two sides arrayed along the Poteau River in the Choctaw Nation (today's LeFlore County, Oklahoma) just west of Fort Smith. Although the Federals expected to fight the battle for Fort Smith along the Poteau the next morning, Cabell knew he was outnumbered by an enemy that also had superior artillery on the field. In addition, he was worried about the morale of his army. Desertion had become epidemic and he feared his men might break and run unless he put them in a strong position.

Consequently, Cabell developed a plan to pull his force back from the Poteau in the night, move his supply train across the Backbone to Waldron, Arkansas, and then position his force in a strong position along the ridge. He would then use some of his cavalry to fight a delaying action with the oncoming Union force and hopefully draw it into an ambush at the base of the mountain.

It was a risky strategy that would result in the evacuation of Fort Smith by the Confederates, but short of a complete retreat, it was the only reasonable option available to the Southern general.

Our series on the Battle of Devil's Backbone will continue.

The Battle of Devil's Backbone, Arkansas

Beginning tomorrow I will start a new series on the Battle of Devil's Backbone and the important battlefield as it appears today.

This significant engagement took place near Greenwood in Sebastian County on September 1, 1863 between Confederate forces that had been forced out of Fort Smith and a pursuing command of Federal troops. The Southerners formed an ambush along the slopes of the Devil's Backbone, a mountain ridge that extends east-west across the horizon. The Union force ran headlong into it.

The battle resulted in a heavy exchange of artillery fire and fighting along the slopes of the ridge.

Over the next week or so, we will explore this historic battle and look at surviving areas of the battlefield. Please check back tomorrow for part one!

Breaking News! - Portion of Devil's Backbone Battlefield to be preserved!

I am interrupting our tour of the Dripping Springs battlefield today to give you some breaking news. Charles Durnette of the Civil War Round Table of Arkansas has let me know that the Civil War Preservation Trust has voted to purchase ten acres of land at the Devil's Backbone Battlefield near Greenwood in Sebastian County.

The Battle of Devil's Backbone (sometimes called the Battle of Backbone Mountain) was fought on September 1, 1863 when Confederate Brig. Gen. W.L. Cabell took up a series of hidden positions behind natural stone breastworks on the Devil's Backbone, an imposing mountain south of Fort Smith. Union troops under Col. William F. Cloud of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry ran headlong into Cabell's ambush.

The resulting battle was noisy and intense, as each side poured artillery fire on the other, but casualties were relatively low. Despite some initial success, Cabell's chance for victory evaporated when most of his forces suddenly retreated from the field. (If you would like to learn more about the battle and see modern photographs of the battlefield, just click here and look for the link.)

This is really exciting news as it means that a portion of the critical historic site will be preserved for future generations.

By the way, if you are interested in learning more about the Civil War Round Table of Arkansas, they have a great website at http://www.civilwarbuff.com/.

The Walls of Fort Smith, Arkansas

We will spend some time this week exploring Fort Smith National Historic Site, one of the key Civil War sites and heritage tourism destinations in Arkansas.

Fort Smith, the military post for which the modern city was named, was an important supply point for the U.S. Army and the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the years before the Civil War. Realizing that occupation of the fort was essential if they hoped to control Northwest Arkansas and the Indian Nations, State Militia troops seized Fort Smith in the spring of 1861, arriving outside the walls just hours after most of the garrison left.

The state troops quickly took possession of the works and Fort Smith remained a Confederate post until 1863 when it was evacuated on the eve of the Battle of Devil's Backbone. It was then occupied by Union troops and remained in Federal hands for the rest of the war.

The site of the fort is now preserved by the National Park Service as Fort Smith National Historic Site. Although the original walls were demolished years ago, a small section (seen here)has been reconstructed. Despite their formidable appearance, the walls were not particularly effective as defenses. The plan of the fort had been altered during its construction and it functioned more as a supply post than a defensive bastion.

Our look at Fort Smith will continue.