Battle of Fort Davidson - Price's Raid Begins

Price's Raid Begins

In September 1864, Price left Camden, Arkansas and marched north into Missouri. His initial objective was St. Louis, the state's largest city. Though Sherman had captured Atlanta, which provided a tremendous boost to Lincoln's reelection campaign, the seizure of St. Louis by Price–together with the huge quantities of arms in the St. Louis arsenal–could still prove catastrophic for the Republicans. As they moved north toward Ironton, near the terminus of the Iron Mountain Railroad from St. Louis, Price's army came upon Fort Davidson with a garrison of 1,500 men and seven guns, a tempting target. Price had a total of 12,000 mounted infantry under his command, 3,000 of whom were unarmed. Capturing the fort and its garrison would certainly prove beneficial to Southern morale.

As Price prepared to seize the garrison, he received word that Federal troops were moving south to intercept him. Ordering detachments to destroy the railroad to the north at once, he slowly moved his three main brigades into the Arcadia valley, where he invested the fort with his three divisions on the evening of September 26.

Union Brig. General Thomas Ewing, deputy commander of the District of St. Louis and a brother-in-law to William T. Sherman, had arrived at Fort Davidson with 200 Iowa infantry to augment the small Federal force already there. He was scouting the route Price might take towards St. Louis when he got word that the Ironton-St. Louis railroad behind him had been cut by Confederate cavalry. Despite being outnumbered ten-to-one, he decided to stand and fight. The fort occupied a strong defensive position, with hexagonal walls nine feet high and ten feet thick, surrounded by a dry moat nine feet deep. Two long rifle pits ran out from the walls, while a reinforced board fence topped the earthworks. Access could only be had through a drawbridge on the structure's southeastern corner. A 300-yard (270 m) cleared field of fire extended in every direction beyond the walls; any enemy approach would prove extremely hazardous.