ARKANSAS HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY, Volume 20 (Spring 1961), p.3
The Battle of
Jenkins' Ferry
By IRA DON RICHARDS
Benton, Arkansas
THE POSITION OF THE FEDERAL ARMY AT CAMDEN HAD BECOME UNTENABLE. COLLAPSE
OF
the overland supply route to Pine Bluff on the Arkansas River had turned
Camden into something less than an impregnable fortress. As reports of the
April 25th tragedy at Marks' Mills filtered into the Federal stronghold
on the Ouachita River, Major-General Frederick Steele, with wholehearted
endorsement from his general officers, chose the only course now
open to him---retreat(1). All hope for a successful campaign vanished. Confronted
by a superior Confederate force and almost without regular supplies, the
question before Steele resolved itself into one of
survival(2).
- Arrangements, cloaked in secrecy, for the speedy withdrawal of the
Federal expeditionary force were begun, and in the early afternoon of 26
April the first signs of general movement were visible. Ammunition and
baggage trains led the procession across the one hundred yard pontoon bridge
which spanned the Ouachita River opposite Camden. Then, under cover of
growing darkness, the Union army, regiment by regiment, filed hurriedly
to the east bank of the river. Last of follow were the pickets who had
maintained a lonely vigil throughout the night(3). As the final pontoon
was lifted from the water, growing light heralded the beginning of a new
day and found the Union column already stretched for some distance along
the road to Little Rock(4).
- ________________________
- 1. Report of Major-General Frederick Steele, May 4, 1864, The War
of the Rebellion; a Compilation
- of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
(70 vols. in 128, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1880-1901), Series
I, vol. XXXIV, pt. 1, 668. Hereafter cited as Official Records with
all references to Series I. For the opinion of Steele's officers see Memorandum,
Ibid., 671. Only Brigadier-General Samuel Rice opposed a
full scale retreat.
- 2. Report of Major-General Frederick Steele, May 4, 1864, Ibid.,
668.
- 3. Ibid., 668.
- 4. Report of Colonel Adolph Engelmann, May 5, 1864, Ibid., 723.
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