Battle of Fort Davidson - The Battle

The Battle

The Battle of Fort Davidson began on September 26, when the leading elements of Price's army encountered Union pickets south of Ironton, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Fort Davidson. The Federal troops were driven back into the town, and the two sides exchanged fire on the Iron County Courthouse lawn. That building still stands, and damage from stray bullets can still be seen in the structure's bricks. As more Rebels arrived, the diminutive Union forces withdrew to the fort.

On September 27, Ewing rejected several demands by Confederate leaders for the fort's surrender. Ewing later wrote that he considered capitulating, except that he had African American civilians in his camp and the slaughter of black soldiers earlier that year at Fort Pillow, Tennessee concerned him. Furthermore, Ewing was uncertain of his own fate if captured. He had issued General Order № 11 after William C. Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, and had used Union cavalry to force thousands of Missouri civilians into Arkansas for alleged collaboration with Confederate bushwackers. Thus, Ewing decided to fight on, and Price determined to take his fort that same day.

Price's attack came as one massive assault from several directions: one brigade went over the top of Pilot Knob, engulfing a small Union force there, while another attacked over the summit of Shepherd Mountain. A third brigade skirted Shepherd Mountain to attack the northwestern sides of the fort, and the fourth attacked through a valley between the two mountains. As Union troops were driven back by superior numbers, the Rebels took control of Shepherd Mountain, southwest of the fort. A two-gun Confederate battery was subsequently deployed there, and its murderous fire caused the smaller of the two rifle pits within the fort to be abandoned.

Unfortunately these assaults were not made simultaneously, allowing the guns of Fort Davidson to be directed at each Confederate unit in turn. Just one brigade actually reached the fort itself, under a withering hail of cannon and musket fire, only to find the earthworks too steep to climb. During the assault, Union defenders were given hand grenades from the fort's magazines; these wood-finned impact devices were tossed over the walls, forcing the Rebels to break off their attack. The disorganized Southerners fell back and prepared to assault the fort again the following day.

As Price now set his troops to building scaling ladders for a new assault the next morning, Ewing held a Council of War inside the fort. Ewing had received belated orders from St. Louis to abandon the post; he now agreed that his position was untenable and planned to escape. Union soldiers put all equipment they could not take with them inside their powder magazine, draped the drawbridge in canvas to muffle the sounds of their movement, and began stealthily to exit the fort after midnight. Though the Confederates had lit a large charcoal pile to illuminate the valley, Union survivors withdrew undetected to the northwest directly between exhausted Confederates in two encampments. They left a slow-burning fuse to their powder magazine, which detonated with a huge blast well after the Union troops had gone. Despite the enormous explosion, Price did not have his men investigate the fort's condition until daybreak.