Bayou Forche

Fought on September 10, 1863, in Pulaski County, Arkansas, in what is now Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Battle of Bayou Fourche pitted Union troops against Confederate defenders and is also remembered as the Battle of Little Rock. As the concluding engagement of the Little Rock Campaign, it delivered the city into Federal hands.

Earlier that August, Major General Frederick Steele had set his Union force marching westward from Helena, Arkansas, toward Little Rock. Apart from the clash at Bayou Meto, the advance encountered little opposition, even as Major General Sterling Price's Confederate soldiers labored to construct defenses across the Arkansas River from the city.

Rather than throw his men directly against those defenses, Steele divided his command into two columns. He personally led the infantry along the river's north bank, while Brigadier General John W. Davidson took the cavalry across the Arkansas River in an effort to flank the Confederate position. When morning broke on September 10, Davidson's horsemen made their crossing and pushed back a Confederate cavalry unit under Colonel Archibald S. Dobbins. Dobbins withdrew toward a waterway called Bayou Fourche, where command of the Confederate defenders passed to Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke. The bayou itself cut the field in two, forcing Davidson to press his advance on both banks simultaneously.

Following a period of combat, Confederate forces north of the bayou gave way, and their counterparts to the south soon followed in retreat. Price, who had already resolved to give up Little Rock, saw the city pass into Union control. Arkansas's state government then moved to Washington, Arkansas, while Price led his men in withdrawal toward Arkadelphia.

Background

The Civil War brought a Union victory over Confederate forces in northwestern Arkansas at Pea Ridge during the first days of March 1862, and afterward the Confederacy pulled most of its soldiers out of the state. As fighting continued in the months that followed, Federal soldiers seized Helena, Arkansas, in July of that year. Though the Confederacy managed to assemble another sizable force in Arkansas, it suffered defeat at Prairie Grove that December. Even with these losses, Confederate forces still held the Arkansas River as 1862 drew to a close. That changed somewhat on January 11, 1863, when Union soldiers took Fort Hindman from its Confederate defenders at the Battle of Arkansas Post, a site roughly 25 miles (40 km) from where the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers meet. Rather than continuing upriver, however, these Federal troops were pulled away to join the campaign against Vicksburg, and additional Union forces stationed in Arkansas followed suit. Hoping to relieve some of the strain on Vicksburg's defenders, Confederate commanders in Arkansas launched an attack on Helena. The resulting Battle of Helena, fought on July 4, ended disastrously for the attack

Battle

Outnumbered along the riverbank, Confederate horsemen had little choice but to spread themselves thin across a lengthy stretch of possible crossing points, mustering barely 1,200 men to watch it all. Just before dawn on September 10, gunners from Etter's Arkansas Battery and a portion of Pratt's Texas Battery opened up on the pontoon bridge, only to be chased off by return fire from Union guns. Sharpshooters kept peppering the span afterward, yet workers finished it around ten in the morning regardless. Davidson meanwhile staged a diversion roughly two miles farther downstream, using two infantry regiments and supporting artillery to clear away the riflemen there. By eleven that morning his entire division stood on the far bank. Around this same hour, Price started pulling his troops out of the works opposite Little Rock. Price's total strength at this point in the campaign stood at 7,749 present for duty, though only some 1,250 of them actually faced Davidson. Steele's combined forces, both wings together, numbered 10,477.

Three brigades made up Davidson's division, with those under Colonels John M. Glover and Lewis Merrill leading the way forward, together totaling about 2,000 men. Glover's troops pushed ahead first, forcing back Confederate cavalry under Colonel Archibald S. Dobbins all the way to Bayou Fourche, a stream feeding into Fourche Creek a short distance from Little Rock. There Dobbins tried to hold firm, putting 500 men under Colonel Robert C. Newton into position. Price sent reinforcements drawn from Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke's division to bolster them. Because Marmaduke had recently killed Dobbins's former commander, Brigadier General Lucius M. Walker, in a duel, Dobbins would not accept his authority and was arrested for it, though Price soon secured his release. Command of Dobbins's division fell temporarily to Newton.

Near the point where Bayou Fourche joined the Arkansas River, the road the Federals traveled split into two branches with the bayou running between them. Glover pushed the 10th Illinois Cavalry Regiment up the northern fork while the 1st Iowa Cavalry Regiment moved along the southern one. Once Merrill's brigade arrived, it was directed to the left wing. North of the bayou, wooded ground sheltered three regiments and a battalion of Marmaduke's men under Colonel William Jeffers, veterans including the 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment and Greene's Missouri Cavalry Regiment, while sandy beach lined the river itself. Facing Merrill on the Union left stood Newton's Confederates, dug in behind the bayou's western levee with a cornfield stretching before their line; his command mixed troops from Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana. Merrill pushed the 8th Missouri Cavalry Regiment forward and discovered the 1st Iowa already locked in combat with Newton's men. His 7th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, however, had been pulled away to guard an artillery battery and took no part in the fighting. Glover then committed the 10th Illinois along with Lovejoy's Missouri Battery, but after initially pushing back Confederate skirmishers, the Union horsemen were thrown back. Left exposed without infantry support, Lovejoy's guns fell to a charge from Jeffers's troopers.

Glover then shifted his approach, dismounting the 10th Illinois and 3rd Missouri Cavalry Regiment to fight on foot while pulling the 1st Iowa over from the left flank. As Glover gradually forced Jeffers backward, Merrill's advancing men ran into fire from Pratt's battery. Union gunners answered with part of the 25th Ohio Battery, though its shots accomplished little and it was eventually pulled back. The bayou itself proved a communication headache for both Glover and Merrill; at one point Merrill's men took fire from behind and he suspected his flank had been turned, but investigation revealed the rounds were simply overshots drifting in from Glover's engagement with Jeffers.

Around one in the afternoon Shelby's Iron Brigade arrived to reinforce the Confederates under Colonel Gideon W. Thompson, though they immediately faced enfilading fire from Steele's guns positioned across the river. More Confederate infantry showed up as well, but that same artillery fire from Steele kept any counterattack from materializing.

Aftermath

Once word reached Price that Davidson's men had made it across the river, he gave the order to give up Little Rock. To keep them out of Union hands, bridges and train cars were burned, along with the gunboat CSS Pontchartrain. Glover's troops pushed forward from Bayou Fourche toward the city, but exhaustion kept them from reaching it. Instead, it was Colonel John Ritter's brigade, Davidson's third, together with the 1st Iowa, that completed the advance into Little Rock. Neither Davidson's cavalry nor Steele's infantry encountered much pushback from Confederate forces along the way. Arkansas's state government picked up and moved to Washington, Arkansas, while Price withdrew to Arkadelphia. Federal forces seized the Little Rock Arsenal along with five cannons the Confederates had left behind. Losing the city hit Confederate morale hard, and desertions among their soldiers climbed in the wake of the campaign.