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.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next