Battle of Jenkins' Ferry 150th Anniversary

Monument at Jenkins' Ferry State Park

Today (April 30, 2014) marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas.

The last significant action of the Camden Expedition, as the Arkansas phase of the Red River Campaign is known, the battle took place in the floodplain of the Saline River about 12 miles south of Sheridan, Arkansas.

Gen. Frederick Steele
Courtesy National Park Service

In the Spring of 1864, Union troops from Little Rock and Fort Smith had joined forces for a march to join a second Union army making its way through Louisiana to Shreveport and northeastern Texas. Commanded by General Frederick Steele, the Federals made it as far as Camden before running into a hornets' nest of Confederate resistance.

Following disastrous defeats at the Battles of Poison Spring and Marks' Mill,  Steele's army faced the very real threat of starvation due to his inability to obtain supplies. Giving up on the idea of pushing forward to Shreveport, he ordered a retreat back to Little Rock.

Gen. E. Kirby Smith
Library of Congress

The Federals reached Jenkins' Ferry on the Saline River on April 29, 1864, and their engineers began building pontoon bridges for the soldiers to use in crossing. Heavy rains, however, turned the river bottom swamp into a muddy morass, bogging down men, cannon and wagons. Then, late on the afternoon of the 29th, Confederate forces arrived on the high ground to the south and began lobbing shells into the Union ranks.

The main Confederate army came up during the night and heavy fighting began at sunrise on April 30, 1864. As the Union troops threw up temporary breastworks of logs and fence rails, Confederate General E. Kirby Smith ordered wave after wave of Southern attacks.

The fighting was fierce and bloody as the soldiers fought in mud and water that ranged from a few inches to three feet deep.

To read more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/jenkinsferry1.

May 4, 1864 - Another Union Account of the Battle of Poison Spring

Poison Spring State Park

In the weeks and months after the Battle of Poison Spring (April 18, 1864), a steady stream of letters trickled north from officers and men in the Union army.

Most of these came from soldiers in Thayer's column, which had marched south from Fort Smith to join in the Camden phase of the Red River Campaign. Since many of these men were from Kansas or associated with regiments from that state, a number of their letters wound up in newspapers there.

The following, for example, was dated from Fort Smith on May 4, 1864, and appeared in the White Cloud Chief newspaper in Kansas on May 26th:

Interpretive Shelter at Poison Spring

...They fought the rebels nearly half a day, until, overpowered by superior numbers, they were crushed and dispersed. When the officers of the Colored Regiment held up their arms in token of surrender, the enemy took their arms and blew their brains out. The negroes, seeing that no quarter was to be given them, stood and fired as long as they had ammunition, then took what they could from the dead around them; and when this failed, clubbed their guns and waded out. One company went in with 80 men, and was led out by the Orderly Sergeant, with only 11 men left. Most of the Cavalry escaped. About 60 of the 18^th Iowa were taken. One-half of the officers of the 1^st Colored are reported killed or wounded. Col. Williams escaped. All the trains and guns were of course captured. One Major got in, in the evening. His first words were: “Good God! Why didn’t you reinforce us?” The question was asked by hundreds. They heard the firing at Camden, for hours. Gen. Thayer wanted to send reinforcements, but Gen. Steele was not willing. There he lay, with 12,000 men, in hearing distance of the guns, (about 8 or 10 miles,) when they were not only willing, but anxious to go; and more, he let the dead and wounded lie on the field for four days, without caring for the wounded or burying the dead. The wounded died by inches, and crawled into camp on their hands and knees; and in some instances, not until a flag of truce came in from the rebels....

The writer, who identified himself only by the initials "O.B.G.," appears to have been in Camden during the battle, since he describes such details as the arrival of Union survivors there and being able to hear clearly hear the sound of the guns.

Fought when Confederate forces trapped and overwhelmed a Union foraging force, the Battle of Poison Spring was one of a series of disasters that hit Steele's column as it tried to march to Shreveport to link up with a larger Union army marching up through Louisiana. Federal losses in the fight totaled more than 200 killed and missing and 97 wounded, while Southern forces 13 killed and 81 wounded. The Confederates also captured more than 1,200 mules, 170 wagons, 4 pieces of artillery and all of the corn, furniture and other items seized by the Union forces as they rampaged through the countryside.

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

The Battle of Jenkins' Ferry - Arkansas

It seems appropriate in a way that the last significant battle of the Arkansas phase of the Red River Campaign was fought in flooded swamps with the soldiers of both sides standing from a few inches to a few feet deep in water.

The campaign to seize Shreveport, an important strategic objective on the Red River, was already a disaster by the time the Union and Confederate armies tore into each other at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas, on April 30, 1864. General Frederick Steele's troops from Little Rock and Fort Smith had been badly beaten in fighting at Poison Spring and Marks' Mills after they had bogged down due to a shortage of supplies and stiffening resistance at Camden earlier in the month.

The other arm of the Union army, led up from the Mississippi River by General Nathaniel P. Banks, had advanced as far as Alexandria, Louisiana, before they were soundly thrashed at the Battle of Mansfield by a much smaller Confederate army commanded by General Richard Taylor.

With the campaign in shambles, both Federal forces went into retreat. In Arkansas, the last major fight of that retreat took place at Jenkins' Ferry, an important crossing of the Saline River about 12 miles south of Sheridan. The fighting started on April 29th, when Confederate artillery opened an ineffectual fire on Union forces trying to move supply wagons across a pontoon bridge.

Heavy rains began to fall, and continued to fall through the night, and by the next morning the swamps along the Saline were flooded with muddy water. The road leading to the temporary bridge was a quagmire of mud and the Union troops were battling the elements in trying to cross the river when Confederate troops launched a dawn attack from the rear.

The Federals threw up temporary breastworks and hurled back repeated Confederate attacks in fighting that turned out to be confused and bloody. The Southern assaults were poorly coordinated, however, and General E. Kirby Smith was finally forced to call off the fight. Steele took advantage of the break in the fighting to move his army across the Saline and destroy the bridge behind him.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/jenkinsferry1. Our page on the battle is newly updated. Among the new features is an aerial photograph of the battlefield.

Prelude to the Battle of Poison Spring, Arkansas

After he moved his forces into the fortifications of Camden on April 15, 1864, Union General Frederick Steele assessed his situation.

Faced with growing Confederate resistance and a severe shortage of supplies, Steele also heard rumors from local citizens that the Louisiana advance under General Nathaniel P. Banks had been badly beaten and was retreating. He decided that his best option was to keep his men under the cover of Camden's defenses until he could learn more of Banks' fate.

His first priority was to obtain food for his men. If he could not do so, the campaign would end in disaster do to starvation.

Learning that there was a large supply of corn stockpiled on farms about 20 miles west of Camden, Steele began assembling a force on April 16th to march out and retrieve it. With a total strength of 670 men, the bulk of the force was made up of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteers. The 1st Kansas was a seasoned regiment that had fought extremely well at the Battle of Honey Springs, Oklahoma, the previous summer. The force was augmented by two pieces of field artillery.

Colonel James Williams was assigned to command the raid, which would leave Camden on the morning of the 17th. The soldiers assembled a train of 200 wagons, all of which they hoped to fill with confiscated corn.

Our look at the Red River Campaign will continue in the next post. Until then you can read more on the events surrounding the Battle of Poison Spring at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/poisonspring.

Red River Campaign leads to Occupation of Camden

After the inconclusive fighting at Prairie D'Ane on April 10-11, 1864, Union General Frederick Steele realized that he was facing a growing Confederate force and running low on supplies at the same time.

Turning his army to the city of Camden in southern Arkansas, he took up positions there on April 15th.

Steele apparently still planned to continue his advance to Shreveport as soon as he could round up additional supplies. He had no way of knowing that the Louisiana phase of the campaign had already ended in disaster. Confederate General Richard Taylor had smashed the army of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks at Mansfield on April 8th and then pursued him to Pleasant Hill where the two forces had fought a bloody battle the next day. Despite the fact that he outnumbered Taylor, Banks began to withdraw in the face of the Confederate attacks.

Camden was strongly fortified and Steele settled his men camp protected by earthworks such as Fort Sutherland, shown above. The forts had originally been built by the Confederates, but were not manned when Steele moved on Camden. He strengthened the positions and was relatively secure, but his supply situation was beginning to grow critical.

With no other option for obtaining provisions for his army, Steele decided to send out strong raiding parties to gather corn and other supplies from farms and plantations in the area. This strategy would soon lead to major disaster for the Union forces.

I will continue to look at the Red River Campaign in Arkansas through the coming week, so be sure to check back for additional posts.

Jenkins' Ferry, Part Three

This is the monument erected at the Jenkins' Ferry battlefield in 1928 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The monument is to the left just inside the entrance to the state park.

Although estimates of casualties vary, the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry was extremely bloody for Confederate forces who hurled themselves repeatedly against the breastworks of the Union army. The Southern attacks were uncoordinated and hampered by flooding. As a result, the Confederate ranks experienced severe losses.

Although they were unable to carry the Union lines, the Confederates were able to hammer the Federals so hard that they withdrew from the battlefield in an extremely battered condition, bringing the Arkansas phase of the Red River Campaign to a close.

Our look at the Jenkins' Ferry battlefield will continue, but in the meantime you can read more by going to www.exploresouthernhistory.com/jenkinsferry1.

Hot Springs - A Civil War Landmark

Steam can be seen rising in the background of this winter photograph of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. Just as the natural hot springs flowing from the Ouachita Mountains continue to amaze visitors today, they also attracted the attention of soldiers during the Civil War.

The springs were already well known then and owned by the U.S. Government, which had secured the "Hot Springs of the Ouachita" as the nation's first national ecological preserve. Early settlers and visitors believed the water held curative properties of benefit to individuals suffering from a variety of afflictions, and a small industry catering to visitors had grown in the area of the springs long before the war.

The outbreak of conflict, of course, interrupted the use of the springs, but also exposed the natural wonder to thousands of new visitors - the troops of both sides who marched back and forth through the Hot Springs Valley during the Civil War.

Thousands of troops en route from Fort Smith to participate in the Red River Campaign marched past the springs early in 1864 and comments appeared in letters and diaries written at the time expressing wonder and amazement at the springs.

Hot Springs National Park is today one of the most unique attractions in Arkansas. To learn more, visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com and scroll down to the Arkansas heading in the Index section.