Arkansas in The American Civil War - Major Campaigns

Major Campaigns

Arkansas State Troops provided the bulk of forces for the second major battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Wilson's Creek in southeastern Missouri. Although this first major battle in the western theater was a victory for southern forces, the Arkansas forces moved back to Arkansas and in a dispute over transfer to Confederate Authority, were disbanded. Remaining Confederate Forces in Arkansas were transferred east of the Mississippi River in the fall of 1861, and spent the remainder of the war serving in that theater.

General Earl Van Dorn was dispatched to Arkansas early in 1862 to build a new force. General Van Dorn led his new Army of the Frontier into the Battle of Pea Ridge in late February 1862. This battle was a defeat for southern forces and led to the loss of northwest Arkansas. Immediately following the battle of Pea Ridge General Van Dorn transferred his forces east of the Mississippi River in an attempt to support Confederate Forces in what would become the Battle of Shiloh. Although General Van Dorn's force arrived too late to participate in the battle, they remained east of the Mississippi River for the remainder of the war.

In April 1862 when General Van Dorn left the state, Brigadier General Roane refused to go with Van Dorn because Roan believed that Arkansas Troops should be left to defend their state. Van Dorn detached Roane and left him in command of all military forces in Arkansas, but he then did not leave Roane any organized body of troops to command.

General Roane approaced the Governor of the State Henry M. Rector, for assistance in raising new forces. Governor Rector told General Roane to stop any troops then within the state for the state's defense. There were four companies of the 12th Texas Cavalry at Pine Bluff at the time waiting on a steamboat to take them to Memphis where their Colonel, Parsons, was waiting for them with the two companies of the regiment who were en route to join Van Dorn at Corinth Mississippi per Van Dorn's orders. The remainer of the 12th Texas Cavalry were at Little Rock and Benton heading to Pine Bluff for transportation.

On May 1, 1862, Governor Rector, feeling that Union General Samuel Curtis' army was on the way to capture Little Rock, abandoned Little Rock and moved the state Government to Hot Springs, Arkansas. So for the first three weeks of May 1862 there was no military or State Government at Little Rock. General Roane went to Pine Bluff and enlisted the help of Major General James Yell commander of the Arkansas State Militia and began recruiting for a new Army of the Southwest in the Department of Arkansas. General Yell was a "States Defense first" advocate and lent his power to aiding Roane along with Arkansas Confederate State Senator Colonel Robert Johnson also of Pine Bluff. These three men were the backbone of the newly reconstituting Army of the Trans Mississippi Department. The companies which eventually became the 26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment had started the recruiting process before Genral Van Dorn left the state and had just been organized when General Roane moved his headquarters to Pine Bluff from Little Rock.

Governor Rector in the meantime sent dispatches to President Jefferson Davis threatening to secede from the Confederacy unless he sent some sort of support. Which Davis did in the form of the CSS Ponchartrain and CSS Maurepaus. The State Government did not return to Little Rock until the Ponchartrain arrived and a week later Gen Thomas C. Hindman arrived to take command from Roane, and ordered all troops at Pine Bluff to Little Rock.

General Hindman was dispatched to take command of what had been designated as the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi. Through rigorous enforcement of new Confederate conscription laws, Hindman was able to raise a new army in Arkansas. Union forces threatened the state capitol of Little Rock in the summer of 1862, but settled for occupying the city of Helena and turning it into a major logistical hub. General Hindman's agressive tactics caused complaints that he was basically rulling by Marshall Law, which led the Confederate Government to Dispatch General Holmes to assume command of the new Department of the Trans-Mmississippi. General Hindman was retained in command of the I Corps of the Army of the Transmississippi. General Hindman led this new force, composed largely of conscripts, to defeat in the Battle of Prairie Grove in Northwest Arkansas in December 7, 1863. Hindman was defeated in this attempt to clear northwest Arkansas of Union forces.

General Hindman was moved back east of the river and commanded forces in the Army of the Tennessee, leave General Holmes and General Price in command in Arkansas. General Holmes moved his army across the state and attacked the Union supply depot at Helena in an attempt to relieve federal pressure on Vicksburg, Mississippi. Confederate forces were unsuccessful in this attempt to retake Helena on July 3, 1863. Union forces followed up this victory with a move against the state capitol at Little Rock. Little Rock fell to Union forces in early September 1863 and Confederate forces retreated to southwestern Arkansas. A new Confederate State Capitol was established at Washington Arkansas in Hempstead County.

The next major action in Arkansas was the Camden Expedition (March 23– May 2, 1864). Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele and his Union troops stationed at Little Rock and Fort Smith were ordered to march to Shreveport, Louisiana. There, Steele was supposed to link up with a separate Federal amphibious expedition which was advancing up the Red River Valley. The combined Union force was then to strike into Texas. But the two pincers never converged, and Steele's columns suffered terrible losses in a series of battles with Confederates led by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price and Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith at the Battle of Marks' Mills, Battle of Poison Spring and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry. Ultimately Union forces managed to escape back to Little Rock where they basically remained for the duration of the war.

When the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, Union forces were in occupation of northwestern Arkansas. Local Union commanders, who had been aggressively enforcing the Confiscation Acts to grant freedom to slaves of rebel owners, put the proclamation into effect immediately, freeing many slaves in the area.

The Fort Smith Council was a series of important meetings held at Fort Smith in September 1865 that were organized by the United States government for all Indian tribes east of the Rockies. The purpose was to discuss the future treaties and land allocations following the close of the Civil War. Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868.