The Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, also known as the Engagement at Jenkins' Ferry, was fought on April 30, 1864, in Hot Spring and Saline counties (present-day Grant County), Arkansas, during the American Civil War. Ending in a tactical Union victory, the Confederacy saw it as a strategic success as they prevented Frederick Steele from holding southwest Arkansas. Due to the chaotic nature of the battle, casualty figures vary.
Jenkins' Ferry was the decisive engagement of Steele's Camden Expedition (a part of the Red River Campaign) and E. Kirby Smith's last. As a result of the battle, Federal forces could complete a retreat from a precarious position at Camden to their defenses at Little Rock.
The battlefield has largely been preserved as a unit within the Arkansas State Park System.
Background
In March 1864, the United States Army in Louisiana under the command of Major-General Nathaniel Banks and the United States Navy operating on the Mississippi River under the command of Admiral David Porter launched the Red River Campaign. The campaign's immediate objective was the capture of Shreveport, Louisiana, which was the headquarters of General E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Shreveport also was the temporary capital of Louisiana, a major supply depot and a gateway to Texas. An incidental objective of the campaign was to purchase cotton, which was in short supply in the northern States, and possibly win the loyalty of planters along the river for the United States. It was thought this action might expand Reconstruction in Louisiana. Henry Halleck, Major-General and General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, who devised the plan, also wanted to open the road to the occupation of Texas by U.S. forces and to discourage French incursions from Mexico. France had invaded and occupied Mexico in June 1863, setting up a government under their puppet "emperor," Maximilian.
Since President Lincoln had approved the Red River Campaign plan before promoting Ulysses Grant to lieutenant general and appointing him General-in-Chief, Grant felt he could not stop the campaign. Grant did try to hurry its execution because he would have preferred to use a 10,000-man force which was diverted to the campaign to reinforce Sherman in his March to the Sea through Georgia. Grant also would have liked to have pinned down more Confederate troops in Alabama with an attack on the Confederate stronghold at Mobile.
General Banks had a force of at least 20,000 men available near New Orleans for the campaign. He was to be joined by 10,000 men of Sherman's army from Vicksburg, Mississippi, under the command of Brigadier-General Andrew Smith. Smith's force accompanied Porter's flotilla up the Red River. Initially, they were successful in capturing Fort DeRussy to open passage up the Red River. Major-General Frederick Steele commanding approximately 14,000 men also was supposed to move his forces in support of Banks against Shreveport from their bases to the north at Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Prelude
To Camden
Steele's part in the campaign became known as the Camden Expedition. Steele later said its objective was to reach and occupy Camden, Arkansas, and to draw Confederate cavalry away from Shreveport in support of Banks's effort to take that city. Nonetheless, Banks obviously planned for Steele to join him in the attempt to take Shreveport, not just to occupy Camden temporarily. Even Grant sent a telegram to Steele which told Steele that a demonstration alone was insufficient support of Banks. After Banks's forces were repulsed in their march toward Shreveport at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, by outnumbered forces led by Confederate Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor, Banks paused his retreat at Alexandria, Louisiana. Banks still thought he could renew the campaign and communicated to Steele his desire for Steele's reinforcements to join his forces in another attempt to take Shreveport.
Steele, with 8,000 men, first marched southwest from Little Rock to Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Steele planned to meet a federal column of 4,000 men from Fort Smith, led by Brigadier-General John Thayer, at Arkadelphia. A Federal cavalry force of about 2,000 men from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was supposed to keep watch on the Confederate garrison at Camden, divert attention from Steele's movement, and eventually to join up with Steele. Even though Steele was three weeks behind schedule, he did not find Thayer at Arkadelphia when his forces arrived there on March 29, 1864. Steele's men had marched for the last three days in the rain on already reduced rations. The people of the poor country along the route of the march were destitute and there was little food or forage to be had. After waiting until April 1, 1864, with his supplies being further depleted and no word from Thayer, Steele moved southwest toward Washington, Arkansas, the temporary capital of Confederate Arkansas. He eventually united with Thayer near Elkins' Ferry on the Little Missouri River on April 9, 1864. Thayer brought few supplies, however, and the combined force then became short of supplies.
Steele succeeded in aiding Banks only to the extent of keeping the five Confederate cavalry brigades in the region from joining the forces opposing Banks. Two Confederate infantry divisions from Arkansas and Missouri under the overall command of Major-General Sterling Price, the commander of Confederate forces in Arkansas, were sent from the Camden area to support the forces opposing Banks. Under the command of Brigadier-General John Marmaduke and the overall command of Price, who stayed in Arkansas, three of the five Confederate cavalry brigades left in Arkansas harassed Steele's force as it moved from Arkadelphia. They could not stop its slow progress. The opposing forces fought a small battle at Elkins' Ferry on the Little Missouri River on April 3, 1864, where Steele's forces stymied Marmaduke's attempt to prevent them from crossing the Little Missouri River. They fought another small battle at Prairie D'Ane, Arkansas, on April 10, 1864. On April 12, Steele feinted toward Washington, where Price had moved to resist Steele's presumed objective to take the town. Steele then sidestepped the Confederates with a move to Camden, which was out of the way for a march to Shreveport. After brushing aside Marmaduke's cavalry 14 miles (23 km) from Camden, Steele's force occupied Camden on April 15, 1864. Price had earlier evacuated that fortified town in order to defend the temporary Confederate state capital at Washington, Arkansas.
Camden, Poison Spring, and Marks' Mill
Price, who had been joined by two Texas cavalry brigades under Brigadier-General Samuel Maxey, appeared at Camden with his cavalry soon after Steele's occupation of the town. Price besieged the entrenched Steele with the seven cavalry brigades, even though Steele's federal force still outnumbered Price's Confederate force.
Steele had hoped to be resupplied from depots at Little Rock and Pine Bluff and to collect provisions from the countryside. He was denied significant resupply when Confederate cavalry forces of 1,700 troopers under Brigadier-General Marmaduke and 1,600 additional troopers under Brigadier-General Maxey overwhelmed a federal foraging expedition under the command of Colonel James M. Williams, which would have been successful had it been able to return to Camden. The Confederates captured 170 wagons and teams from a 198-wagon supply train and destroyed the other wagons at the battle of Poison Spring, Arkansas. One source stated that the Confederates killed or captured "most" of the Federal escort of 1,170 infantry and cavalry and four artillery pieces during the battle on April 18, 1864. Another source states that the U.S. forces lost 301 men, mostly killed or missing. The Confederates killed some colored soldiers from the escort in this battle as they tried to surrender, according to reports from the field. About the time the remnants of the federal force who were not killed or captured at Poison Spring stumbled back into Camden, Steele learned that General Banks had turned back in his drive toward Shreveport after being defeated at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana (also known as Pleasant Grove or Sabine Cross Roads), about 40 miles (64 km) from Shreveport, on April 8, 1864.
Banks had won a tactical victory and inflicted more casualties (1,626) than his forces sustained (1,369) at the Battle of Pleasant Hill the day after the battle of Mansfield. His force also outnumbered the Confederate force, but Banks thought otherwise, so he continued his retreat toward Alexandria. Meanwhile, Admiral Porter had to retreat down the Red River and back toward the Mississippi River while under near-constant Confederate fire from the river banks. Porter had to return not only because of Banks's retreat but because his flotilla was in danger of being stranded by uncommonly low water levels in the Red River. Although the boats were freed from the Red River by May 13 through skillful engineering and damming of the river, Banks had to wait at Alexandria when Porter's boats were bottled up to protect the fleet from Confederate attack from the shore. Only after the boats were safely down the river could Banks move in any direction.
On April 23, 1864, when Steele received the dispatch from Banks asking that he join Banks so they could move again on Shreveport, Steele responded that he was in no position to join Banks. He also noted that he now faced not only Confederate cavalry but Price's returned infantry and additional infantry under Kirby Smith who had joined Price with some of the infantry which had been with Taylor at the battle of Pleasant Hill. Brigadier-General Thomas Churchill's Arkansas division and Brigadier-General Mosby Parsons's Missouri division had returned to Price's command. They were followed by Major-General John Walker's larger Texas division with Kirby Smith. Kirby Smith had decided that Steele was a bigger threat and a bigger prize, than Banks when Banks continued to retreat after the battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9, 1864. Kirby Smith thought he could destroy Steele's force and perhaps still turn back and trap Banks later. Taylor vehemently disagreed with this decision and wanted to attack Banks immediately. Nonetheless, Taylor could not convince Kirby Smith to change his plan. As Banks appeared to be waiting for the naval force at Alexandria, Louisiana, Kirby Smith became even more certain that his decision was correct and he had time to execute it.
On April 25, 1864, in an action called the Battle of Marks' Mills, two Confederate cavalry brigades under the overall command of Brigadier-General James Fagan, operating under Price, captured a Federal wagon train of between 211 and 240 wagons and 1,300 men of the escort which Steele had sent to seek supplies from the federal depot at Pine Bluff. Only about 150 of the 1,400 to 1,700 U.S. soldiers escaped after a five–hour fight. Fagan had about 300 casualties in the engagement. Reports showed his men killed wounded African-American soldiers at the end of the battle. The Confederates, in turn, would pay for this at the battle of Jenkins' Ferry.
Retreat from Camden
Steele was now desperately short of supplies, outnumbered, and in danger of being surrounded at Camden. After his senior officers agreed with him that he had no other reasonable choice, Steele ordered a night withdrawal toward Little Rock on April 26 and the early morning of April 27, 1864. The Confederates did not detect Steele's movement until later in the day. Steele's forces used a pontoon bridge which they had carried on the campaign to cross the Ouachita River. Steele thus gained a head start on the Confederates, who pursued the federal force as soon as they realized that Steele had withdrawn from Camden. First, the Confederates had to get across the swollen and bridgeless Ouachita River on the morning of April 28 by constructing a raft bridge. This delay allowed Steele to get a further head start, although rain soon slowed him down. The Confederates struggled through the rain, as well, but they did not have as many wagons or as much equipment to slow down their pursuit.