ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 19 (Spring 1960), p. 51
The Engagement at
Marks' Mills
By IRA DON RICHARDS
Benton, Arkansas
- THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION, most ambitious of Union offensives west of the Mississippi River, ground to an embarrassing halt in early April, 1864. Union General Nathanial P. Banks fell back when repulsed near Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, and his counterpart in Arkansas, Major-General Frederick Steele, had felt the wrath of the Confederates at Poison Spring*. The Louisiana phase of the expedition no longer posed a serious threat, and Steele in Arkansas had entrenched his 13,000 troops in the easily defended city of Camden on the Ouachita River. From a military point of view the Poison Spring affair had left Steele's army unshaken and still possessing the qualities of a formidable adversary. His army had not been defeated nor had it lost its fighting trim, yet certainly recent developments had altered the complexion of the entire campaign. The most pressing problem confronting Steele at the moment was lack of forage---a need intensified by the capture of the large train at Poison Spring. A regular Federal supply train arrived in Camden from Pine Bluff on April 20 easing somewhat the desperate plight(1), but the scarcity of food worried Steele and only time could tell if it would lead to further complications.
- ______________________-
- * For an earlier article by Mr. Richards on the battle of Poison Spring see the Arkansas Historical
- Quarterly, XVIII (Winter, 1959), 338-349.
- 1. Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Adolph Dengler, June, 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, 734. (Hereafter cited as Official
Records, and all references are to Series I.) This particular
supply train had been requested by Steele as early as April 7.
Words
Study Questions