Arkansas 1st Volunteer Infantry (Union)

Devil's Backbone

Confident that they had cleared Confederates from the Indian Territory of modern-day Oklahoma, Federal commander Maj. Gen. James G. Blunt turned his attention to the Rebel presence around nearby Fort Smith, Arkansas. Capturing the fort without incident the morning of September 1st, 1863, shortly after the Confederates evacuated it, Blunt ordered a pursuit of the fleeing Rebels. Col. William Cloud organized a 1,500-man column of two cavalry regiments and an artillery battery and headed south. Fifteen miles…READ MORE

Moscow

Moscow was the site of a skirmish during the Civil War on December 4, 1863. Confederate cavalry under the command of Gen. Stephen D. Lee attempted to burn the railroad bridge over the Wolf River, in order to aid Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in returning to Tennessee from Mississippi. They were thwarted by African-American Union troops who were stationed nearby. Union Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut wrote of these troops in a dispatch dated December 17, 1863: "The recent affair at Moscow, Tennessee, has demonstrated…READ MORE

Prairie D'Ane

By the spring of 1864, the Federal high command set forth a plan to bring pressure across the whole of the Southern Confederacy. Overall Union commander Ulysses S. Grant, thrust Federal armies into Virginia, north Georgia, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The Battle of Prairie D'Ane was part of two larger Federal operations-the Camden Expedition and the Red River Campaign.READ MORE

Jenkins' Ferry

At Jenkins Ferry on April 29 and 30, 1864, Union troops fought off an attack by the Confederates and, using an inflatable pontoon bridge, crossed the flooded Saline River and retreated to Little Rock. The land where this Civil War battle took place was settled by Thomas Jenkins, who started the ferry in 1815. It was run by his sons, William and John DeKalb, until the Civil War circa 1861.READ MORE