American Civil War
During the American Civil War Little Rock, population 3,727 (2,874 white, 853 black), was the site of much military and civilian activity.
On February 8, 1861, the Little Rock Arsenal was attacked by Confederate forces and its store of ammunition, cannon, and other weapons captured.
In May 1862 the city was attacked and occupied by 22,000 Union troops advancing from the northeast under the leadership of Major General Samuel R. Curtis. Governor Henry Rector evaded capture by fleeing to Jackson, Mississippi.
The city was captured again in September 1863 by fourteen thousand federal troops under the command of Major General Frederick Steele. C.S.A. Major General Sterling Price attempted to defend the city with eight thousand men and miscellaneous cavalry, which he described as "in excellent condition, full of enthusiasm and eager to meet the enemy." Price erected rifle pits and earthen fortifications two-and-a-half miles downstream from the capital city on the Arkansas River, at Dark Hollow, and along the high ground on the north side of the river opposite downtown Little Rock. Three large cannon were stationed on Big Rock and [[Park Hill]. He also ordered strategic cavalry attacks of the Union Army camp.
Steele bypassed this installations by crossing the Arkansas River on a pontoon bridge erected at Terry's Ferry on September 9th. The crossing was completed the next day. At 11 AM on the 10th Price began evacuating his soldiers from the north side of the River using his own pontoons, and decamped for Arkadelphia. Confederate cavalrymen under the leadership of Brigadier General John Sappington Marmaduke met Union cavalry under Brigadier General John W. Davidson at Fourche Bayou east of the city (site of the present Port of Little Rock). "Every advantageous foot of ground from this point onward was warmly contested by them," Davidson later reported, "my cavalry dismounting and taking it afoot in the timber and cornfields." The Confederate stand at Fourche Bayou gave Price time to evacuate all of his troops from the city by 5 PM. The capitol surrendered to Steele at 7 PM. Total casualties among the Confederates in this campaign numbered about sixty-four men. The tally on the Union side was eighteen killed, one hundred and eighteen wounded, and one missing.
Susan Bricelin Fletcher, wife of a Pulaski County plantation owner, wrote of the Federal occupation, "After we were visited by the first half dozen squads of blue coats, we knew what civil war was when it was brought to your door. They first demanded water, then feed, after which they began to look around to see what could be carried away or destroyed. ... They killed the cattle on one occasion. I saw my hillside pasture red with the blood of slain cattle. They tore photographs from the wall, burnt the cotton bales, took our combs and every vestige of food. We would have to send neighbors back to the woods for food, as not a crumb of anything would be left."
References
- "Occupation of Little Rock, the Capital of Arkansas, by Our Forces," New York Times, June 1, 1862.
External links
St. John's Men's School
Price had issued an appeal to the citizens of Little Rock that urged every able-bodied man to arms, lest they "be overridden by a merciless and vindictive foe, and either driven with your wives and daughters into a homeless exile or forced to crouch in servile and degrading submission at the feet of the conqueror." In case that appeal did not work, he added, "If there be any among you too cowardly or base to volunteer under these circumstances, he shall be compelled to share your dangers.... The commandant of this post will be directed to arrest every able-bodied man who may be absent from his post ... and to place him wherever his services may be most required. Neither the appeal to honor nor the threat of arrest produced results. Dr. Bragg summed up the mood of the city as the Federal troops drew near: " [T]he danger now menacing her kindles no patriotic fire to blaze forth and consume the invader. Dull apathy sits upon the face of her people. Her chivalry has long since gone from her shores."
Meanwhile, Price's troops were fortifying the heights opposite the capital city (in today's North Little Rock). They mounted three field guns on Big Rock and others along the crest of present-day Park Hill. Then they established gun emplacements and rifle pits as far east as today's Dark Hollow, with the aim to sweep the entire north shore of the Arkansas River so that the Union troops could be driven off or destroyed.
Steele, meanwhile, was preparing to send Davidson's cavalry across the river at a place called Terry's Ferry. Here the river made a horseshoe bend to the north, enabling Steele to cover the crossing with artillery placed near the neck of the bend. Construction of a pontoon bridge was begun on September 9 and finished on the morning of the tenth. A Confederate battery of four guns attempted to contest the crossing but was driven off by the counterfires of twenty Federal cannon.
By 11 a.m. Davidson had all three brigades across the river and was moving toward Little Rock along the south bank. Steele led his infantry toward the city along the north bank. He had hoped that Davidson's flanking movement would force Price to weaken or abandon his fortified position on the north shore, and he was not disappointed. At 11 a.m. Price realized his defensive line had been by-passed, and began to withdraw his men from their entrenchments and to cross them back into Little Rock on pontoon bridges. He then began to evacuate the city; his troops falling back toward Arkadelphia.
South of the river, Confederate forces under Marmaduke fell back toward the capital, skirmishing with the advancing Federals as they went. Along Fourche Bayou, about five miles from the city (present-day Port of Little Rock Industrial Park), they made a stand. A Federal cavalry unit moving through a cornfield east of the bayou ran into "a heavy crossfire of grape, canister, and spherical case." The fierce Rebel resistance brought Davidson's advance to a standstill, but enfilading fire from Steele's artillery across the river came to the rescue. A captain of Illinois artillery on the north bank reported that his gunners twice broke up the Confederates' line, producing disorder and the "tallest kind of skedaddling."
Davidson reported, "Every advantageous foot of ground from this point onward was warmly contested by them, my cavalry dismounting and taking it afoot in the timber and cornfields." The engagement at Fourche Bayou cost the Federals seven killed and sixty-four wounded and gave Price time to evacuate the capital. The last Confederate defenders rode out of town about 5 p.m. with the Federal cavalry entering hard on their heels. At 7 p.m. Little Rock's civil authorities formally surrendered the City.
The Federal campaign against Little Rock lasted forty days and cost 137 casualties (18 killed, 118 wounded, 1 missing). Incomplete Confederate reports listed 64 casualties. Price had managed to evacuate his army and a large portion of his supplies to Arkadelphia, but the Little Rock arsenal, with three thousand pounds of powder and a considerable quantity of cartridges, fell into Union hands.
As the demoralized Confederates retreated after yet another setback, many simply faded away. William W Garner of Quitman, a soldier in Marmaduke's division, wrote to his wife on September 15, "[O]ur company have nearly all deserted.... I will never, no never, desert .... I expect our property will be taken by January or before, but only hope that they may leave enough for you and the children to live on comfortably." Two months later, he wrote again, this time an emotional letter, which expressed the pain of separation and the depression that the surrender of the capital had caused: "In bygone days I thought that I felt the sting of being deprived of my family; but I acknowledge that I have never until the fall of Little Rock felt the sting of being an exile."
Civilians in the Little Rock area also felt the sting of Federal occupation. Susan Bricelin Fletcher was left alone on her Pulaski County plantation after her husband enlisted in the Confederate service. She recalled, "After we were visited by the first half dozen squads of blue coats, we knew what civil war was when it was brought to your door. They first demanded water, then feed, after which they began to look around to see what could be carried away or destroyed.... They killed the cattle on one occasion. I saw my hillside pasture red with the blood of slain cattle. They tore photographs from the wall, burnt the cotton bales, took our combs and every vestige of food. We would have to send neighbors back to the woods for food, as not a crumb of anything would be left." She could sympathize with the captured Rebel soldier who told her, "Mrs. Fletcher, I hate blue so hard I never expect to allow anything blue on my farm, not even a blue hog." To her surprise, she found General Steele to be "a quiet, kind man, very different from the officers who had come to my country home on scouting parties."
The city itself experienced something of a revival after the Federal occupation. A local editor wrote, " [T]he streets are filled with a restless, quick-motioned business people.... [E]very store and storehouse is full, drays and wagons crowd the streets; two theaters are in full blast and all is bustle and business."
Steele made only a half-hearted pursuit of the retreating Rebels, choosing instead to consolidate his control of the city and to secure his line of supply to his base at DeValls Bluff. He seemed to feel that the capture of Little Rock had effectively brought an end to organized Confederate resistance in Arkansas. On September 19, he wrote to his superior, Maj. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut, "From all accounts, Price's army is demoralized, and half disbanded.... I am told they have made preliminary arrangements to move into Texas.... I am satisfied that the majority of the people of the State are tired of the rebel oppression, and earnestly desire the re-establishment of the old Government."
It was an overly optimistic assessment. John Sappington Marmaduke would soon demonstrate to Steele that there was life yet in the Arkansas Confederacy.
