January 1862 - Prelude to Pea Ridge

Pea Ridge National Military Park

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, not just one of the largest battles west of the Mississippi, but one of the most significant actions of the entire Civil War.
As part of the commemoration of this battle that preserved Missouri for the Union, I will be posting throughout January, February and March on the Pea Ridge campaign, using as often as possible the words of the soldiers, generals and civilians that witnessed it. Be sure to check back regularly for the latest posts.

Curtis

To try to set the stage as well as I can, the Pea Ridge Campaign began to develop in January of 1862 as two armies began to assemble for battle. The Union army, commanded by Gen. Samuel Curtis, was centered at Rolla, Missouri, a town about 112 miles northeast of Springfield. Curtis was determined to drive Confederate forces, particularly the Missouri State Guard under Gen. Sterling Price, from Missouri and fully establish control over the state, which was very divided in its loyalties.

The Confederates, in turn, were equally determined not only to hold at least part of Missouri if possible, but to stop Curtis from advancing into Arkansas. In mid-January of 1862, however, their forces were scattered and had yet to assemble for battle. The Missouri State Guard, under Price, was clinging to its position at Springfield, Missouri. Gen. Price knew, however, that he could not hold there against Curtis's much larger army.

Price

The Missouri general for more than one month had been begging for help from Arkansas. A force of 3,000-4,000 Confederates were centered around Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas under Gen. Ben McCulloch. Unfortunately, Price and McCulloch did not get along. Not only would the latter general not reinforce Price, he had gone to Richmond to discuss the situation with officials there, leaving Col. Louis Hebert of Louisiana in command. Hebert promised Price that he would reinforce him in an emergency and did his best to get supplies through to the State Guard, but otherwise maintained his force in its winter quarters around Fayetteville.

To the south in the Arkansas River valley, Gen. James McIntosh commanded a large cavalry force that was wintering around Van Burn and Fort Smith. He had declined a request from Price for help in December and gone instead to support Col. D.H. Cooper in the Cherokee Nation where he had won the Battle of Chustenahlah several weeks earlier.

Van Dorn

To try to end the confusion and bickering in the West, President Jefferson Davis appointed Major General Earl Van Dorn as head of what he would style the "Army of the West." Van Dorn was not yet on the scene in mid-January, but was heading that way. He was not thinking of just halting Curtis, he had dreams of a major offensive campaign. He told his wife on the day of his appointment that he "must have St. Louis."

To Van Dorn would fall the task of pulling together the three major Confederate forces then assembled in Missouri and Arkansas and leading them into battle. He would receive support from Gen. Albert Pike's brigade of Southern-allied Indian troops.

I will continue to post on the Pea Ridge Campaign throughout the coming weeks. To read more about the battle itself, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/pearidgeindex.

Cooper's Expedition to Fort Smith - Part Four

The key episode of Cooper's 1864 expedition to Fort Smith was the Battle of Massard Prairie, fought on this date (July 27th) in 1864.

Sweeping down from the ridge that overlooked the vast prairie, the Confederate forces stormed onto the open ground in two columns. One of these swept to the right to attack the left flank of the Union camp and the other, led by General Gano in person, rode hard to strike the right flank of the Union position.

A detachment of Union pickets, posted on the old Jenny Lind Road, was scattered by the oncoming Confederates and the sounds of the gunfire alerted the Federals at Picnic Grove that trouble was at hand.

The three companies of "Arkansas Feds," Union recruits from Arkansas, camped on the south side of the grove broke and fled in the face of the oncoming attack. The men of the 6th Kansas, however, hastily formed an east to west battleline through their camp. The position was along an almost distinguishable rise overlooking a trickling stream or branch that ran through the camp.

Because the herd of horses had already been moved out onto the prairie to graze, Company B of the 6th Kansas moved forward slightly and tried to cover the herd until it could be brought in to safety. There was no time, however, as Gano successfully cut off the herd and attacked the men of Company B in their advanced position.

The attack was one of sheer nerve against superior Union weaponry. The small arms of the 6th Kansas Cavalry were far superior to the shotguns, Mississippi rifles and other weapons carried by the Confederates. They had a much greater range. As a result, the Southern troops would wait for the Federals to fire a volley, then charge in on them, fire at short range with their own weapons and then pull back as the Union troops were reloading. It was an unusual, but in the case of Massard Prairie, highly successful tactic.

As Gano was engaged with Company B on the right (west) end of the Union line, the detachment from his column pushed through the grove and attacked the center of the Union position. At the same time, the Choctaw column suddenly appeared from behind the trees and opened fire on the left (east) end of the Union line.

The situation for the Federals quickly became critical and Company B was pulled back into line with the three other companies. Gano pushed forward after them and also began moving around the right flank to strike the Union line from both its flank and rear. The men of the 6th Kansas suddenly found themselves facing Confederate troops from all sides.

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

Cooper's Expedition to Fort Smith - Part Two

We're resuming now our series on the Confederate Expedition against Fort Smith during the summer of 1864. I'm sorry I haven't been posting over the last few days, but hopefully we can catch up.

As his scouts and raiding parties brought information back to headquarters from their forays around Fort Smith, General Cooper developed a plan for an attack that he felt might have a reasonable chance of success. Union troops had ringed the town with a strong line of earthen fortifications and the Confederate force was not of sufficient strength to storm the works without sustaining great losses.

Instead, Cooper learned from his scouts that the Federals had moved several large bodies of troops into exposed positions around the town. Forage had grown so short at Fort Smith that Union commanders had little choice but to do this in order to save their horses and other livestock. The Southern general developed a plan for attacking one of this outlying camps, hoping to inflict damage and draw a pursuing Federal force into an ambush on the Devil's Backbone ridge south of Fort Smith.

The plan was placed in the quite capable hands of Brigadier General R.M. Gano. A native Kentuckian and resident of Texas before the war, Gano had achieved distinction east of the Mississippi as an able cavalry commander under the famed John Hunt Morgan.

Orders were sent for a striking force to assemble on the Poteau River in the Choctaw Nation on the afternoon of July 26, 1864. When Gano reached the launching point for the raid, however, he found that fewer troops had arrived than expected. Considering his options, he decided to alter the plan for the attack. Instead of carrying out Cooper's original plan (which called for a decoy force to lead pursuing Federal troops into an ambush while a larger Confederate force closed on them from the rear), Gano decided to strike a camp that scouts reported was in an exposed position on Massard Prairie.

This camp was Camp Judson, occupied by acting Major David Mefford's battalion from the 6th Kansas Cavalry. Assigned to a position at the "picnic" or "Diamond" Grove on Massard Prairie, an open grassland southeast of Fort Smith, the battalion was guarding a herd of horses that was being grazed on the open range. The battalion consisted of four companies from the 6th Kansas. Three companies of Arkansas Federal recruits were also camped at the position.

Our series will continue throughout the day on Sunday with a series of posts about the Battle of Massard Prairie. To read more until the next post, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardprairie.

Cooper's Expedition to Fort Smith - Part One

The Confederate success during the Red River Campaign created an unexpected window of opportunity for Southern forces operating in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma.

Commanded by Brig. Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, Confederate forces pushed north to the Old Choctaw Council House near Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, about 90 miles southwest of Fort Smith. It should be noted that this was not the Council House currently standing in Tuskahoma, as that structure was not constructed until the 1880s.

Sheltered by rugged mountains, Cooper consolidated his forces at the old council house and sent out scouting parties to observe Union activities along the Arkansas River and identify targets of opportunity.

While Southern-allied guerrilla bands preyed on small Union forces moving between through the Boston Mountains north of Fort Smith, Cooper's forces pushed out from their base.

In mid-June, Col. Stand Watie and his men struck the Union steamboat J.R. Williams as it made its way up the Arkansas River from Fort Smith to Fort Blunt (Fort Gibson). Watie disabled the boat with artillery fire, captured it and then burned it to the waterline.

The attack on the Williams was one of a series of incidents that tightened the noose around the Federals in Fort Smith, forcing them inside a ring of earthen fortifications they had constructed around the town. By the end of June, the Union cavalry horses were in poor condition and a lack of forage threatened the ability of the thousands of men there to make any offensive movements at all.

Our series on Cooper's expedition and the Battles of Massard Prairie and Fort Smith will continue. You can read more about this little known campaign by reading The Battle of Massard Prairie available at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardbook and at the visitor center of Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park.

Massard Prairie, Part Two

This is part two of a series on the Battle of Massard Prairie, Arkansas.

By July of 1864, the Federal troops at Fort Smith were suffering from a critical shortage of hay for their livestock. To alleviate the situation, Gen. John Thayer sent large detachments of troops out onto the surrounding prairies. The primary responsibility of these units was to guard herds of cows and horses sent out to graze and to protect haycutting parties contracted to bring in as much fodder as possible.

Confederate scouts soon reported to Gen. Cooper that large detachments of Federal troops had taken up positions at several locations around Fort Smith. The presence of a battalion of the 6th Kansas Cavalry was noted at Massard Prairie and a second detachment of "Arkansas Feds" (Union soldiers from Arkansas) was reported camped a few miles south of town.

Deciding to move on the latter group, Cooper ordered Brig. Gen. R.M. Gano to assemble a force of roughly and launch an attack. The plan called for the Confederates to divide into three groups. Lt. Col. Jack McCurtain would take position on the Devil's Backbone, a prominent ridge south of Fort Smith, and prepare an ambush. His force consisted of a battalion from the Choctaw Nation that would soon become the 3rd Choctaw Cavalry. A second party, composed of men from the 2nd Choctaw Cavalry, commanded by Col. S.N. Folsom would advance to the outlying camp and try to trick the "Arkansas Feds" into pursuing them.

If Folsom was successful, the Union troops would follow him into the ambush at Devil's Backbone. The rest of the force, composed of around 500 soldiers from the Gano's Texas Brigade, would then swing in behind the Federals and pin them against McCurtain's men on the ridge.

When the strike force assembled on the afternoon of July 26, 1864, however, Gano quickly realized that the strategy was not likely to work. The force that assembled was smaller than expected, so he used discretion to alter the plan. Instead of trying to draw out the Arkansas Union troops, Gano decided instead to combine his force with Folsom's and attack the camp of the 6th Kansas Cavalry at dawn the next morning.

Our series on the Battle of Massard Prairie will continue in the next post. Until then, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardprairie. Also please consider purchasing my new book, The Battle of Massard Prairie, now available by following the link. Profits from the book are being donated to historic preservation efforts in Arkansas.

Massard Prairie, Part One

The summer of 1864 was a difficult time for the Union troops occupying Fort Smith. The Red River Campaign that spring had ended in disaster and the soldiers came back demoralized and worn down from the difficulties of the expedition.

By July, Confederate troops had swept back north through the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) and had carried out successful attacks on the steamboat J.R. Williams and a Union outpost at Roseville, Arkansas.


Commanded by Gen. Douglas H. Cooper, they hovered around Fort Smith, watching and waiting for an opportunity to strike. The opportunity presented itself when Gen. John Thayer, the Union commander at Fort Smith, was forced to send out detachments of soldiers to guard herds and hay cutting parties sent into the area prairies to bring desperately needed fodder into the defenses of Fort Smith.


Confederate scouts soon picked up on these movements and relayed the intelligence back to Gen. Cooper, who had established his headquarters near the old Choctaw Council House in the Sans Bois Mountains southwest of Fort Smith. Deciding to strike against a force of "Arkansas Federals" (Union soldiers from Arkansas) that was camped just south of Fort Smith, he ordered Brig. Gen. Richard M. Gano to prepare a force of roughly 1,000 men for the attack.


Gano was a hard-riding Texas cavalry officer who had served with the famed Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan earlier in the war and then under Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Chickamauga. Now commanding the Texas mounted troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department, Gano had fought and been wounded during the Red River Campaign but by July of 1864 was in the Choctaw Nation, ready for action.

The Confederates had carried out attacks above and below Fort Smith. Brig. Gen. Stand Watie captured the steamboat J.R. Williams on the Arkansas River and another force struck a Union outpost at Roseville, downstream from the fort.

Union troops had heavily fortified Fort Smith, encircling the town with a series of earthen redoubts and rifle pits. General Cooper knew that he lacked both the artillery and sufficient troops to storm the works, but he kept scouts hovering around the town looking for targets of opportunity. The Federals soon provided them with exactly the chance they were seeking.

The Battle of Massard Prairie series will continue in the next post. Until then, you can read more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardprairie.

Fort Smith, Arkansas - The Attack of 1864

Continuing today our look at Fort Smith National Historic Site, this is one of the cannon displayed on the grounds of the fort.

During the spring and summer of 1864, Federal troops strengthened the stone walls of the fort by constructing earthworks around the town, banking earth against the walls of the actual fort and erecting a battery on the bluff at Belle Point (the high ground adjacent to the fort overlooking the confluence of the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers).

The cannon of the main fort received their baptism of fire on July 31, 1864, when Confederate troops under Gen. D.H. Cooper staged a demonstration against the works. Cooper and his men swept up from the South and overran an outpost before engaging Union troops who came out of the earthworks on the Fort Towson Road (today's Towson Avenue) to fight them. A second part of Confederate troops pushed down the west side of the Poteau River and began firing into the main garrison from across the river.

The Federal troops inside the walls moved cannon into position and returned fire, sending artillery fire crashing into the trees and shrubs in the Poteau Bottom. Each time they would fire, though, the Confederates would change position. This "cat and mouse" skirmish continued for some time and could be heard by the main body of Confederates as they ended their demonstration and withdrew from the vicinity.

The paved trail at the National Historic Site leading to the site of the original Fort Smith (first of two constructed at the site) as well as an overlook interpreting the "Trail of Tears" provides an outstanding view of the scene of this fight over the river. The positions of the Confederate troops in the tree cover opposite the Poteau River can be seen, as can the bluff top from which the Union troops fired their artillery.

For more on Fort Smith, simply visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com and scroll down the page to find the link under the "Arkansas" heading in the Index.