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.

Massard Prairie, Part Six

This is part six of a series on the Battle of Massard Prairie, Arkansas. To read the previous posts first, please scroll down the page or consult the Archives section.

The breaking of the Union line resulted in disaster for the men of the 6th Kansas Cavalry, many of whom were killed, wounded or captured. The man shown here, James Asher, was a cavalrymen in the 6th Kansas at the time of the battle and was severely wounded in the fight at Massard Prairie.

Realizing that they had been left on their own, the officers and men of the two companies on the right flank of the Union line began to fall back across the open prairie, trying to catch back up with the two companies that had been positioned on the left.

Confederate troops now swarmed after them. The Union soldiers knew that many of the Confederates were Native American and prisoners later told their captors that they continued to fight because they believed they would be massacred if they surrendered.

The running fight continued for about two miles across the open prairie, with Confederate cavalrymen striking the retreating Federals from all sides. By the time ended, the four company battalion of the 6th Kansas Cavalry would sustain nearly 40% casualties.

The battle finally came to a close when acting-Major Mefford was convinced to surrender by Confederate officers. Dead and wounded lay scattered across the prairie and more than 120 Union troops were now prisoners of Gano's men, along with massive quantities of commissary and camp supplies.

Our series on Massard Prairie will continue in the next post. Until then, you can read more on the battle by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/massardprairie. Please also consider my new book, The Battle of Massard Prairie, now available by following the link.