Devil's Backbone

A clash between Union and Confederate forces unfolded at Devil's Backbone, sometimes called the Action at Devil's Backbone, as part of the fighting that took place in the Trans-Mississippi Theater during the American Civil War. This ridge, situated within the Ouachita Mountains, lies roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) to the southwest of Greenwood, Arkansas. Sebastian County, Arkansas served as the setting for this engagement, which occurred on September 1, 1863. Federal troops emerged triumphant, and their success kept the garrison at Fort Smith secure for the remainder of the conflict.

Background

In late August 1863, Union forces under Major General James G. Blunt pushed remaining Confederate units southward into Indian Territory before wheeling swiftly toward Fort Smith. On August 31, Blunt's men clashed briefly with the brigade of Confederate Brigadier General William L. Cabell, positioned southwest of the fort. Facing this pressure, Cabell opted to pull back toward the southeast, dispatching his baggage and ordnance wagons ahead that same evening. When Union scouts uncovered the withdrawal the following morning, Blunt moved an infantry regiment into Fort Smith and seized it without a fight. Meanwhile, Colonel William F. Cloud set out after Cabell's retreating column with roughly 1,500 Union horsemen and artillery crews.

Cabell's route carried him down the road bound for Waldron, Arkansas, in Scott County, but he eventually halted and reversed course, hoping to stall the Union pursuit long enough for his slower wagon train to get clear. Although his command numbered 1,250 men in total, it is unlikely every soldier took part in the fighting that followed. Discipline and morale ran low throughout the ranks, as a portion of his men were characterized as deserters, conscripts, and jayhawkers who felt scant loyalty to the Confederate effort. To meet the coming clash, Cabell hid one dependable cavalry regiment near the foot of Devil's Backbone, a ridge the road ran across. He placed three cavalry units of questionable steadiness along the hillside flanking the road, and set an infantry regiment together with an artillery battery a few hundred yards farther up the slope, behind the mounted troops.

Battle

Around midday, the fighting opened when Cloud's advance guard stumbled into a hidden ambush laid by Cabell's cavalry regiment, giving Cabell the first success of the engagement. Thrown into disorder, the survivors of that advance guard pulled back as a Confederate battery opened up on the remainder of Cloud's approaching force. In response, the Union side moved its artillery into position on the road and began firing while Cloud's cavalrymen swung down from their horses, took up positions on both sides of the road, and pushed forward toward the ridge, climbing its slope. Despite the fact that Cloud's men had not yet fired a single shot, the hidden Confederate cavalry withdrew in the face of this approach.

It was then that the rest of Cabell's command showed how shaky it truly was. One officer serving with Cabell's infantry regiment later described the scene: as the Yankees came within musket range, the leading regiment broke and ran without firing, crashing into the two regiments behind it and throwing them into the same panic, until the entire tangled mass tore through the left wing of Cabell's infantry and cleared it from the field entirely. Within moments, all that remained of Cabell's force was a single cavalry regiment, the artillery battery, and a portion of the infantry.

Cloud continued to press his dismounted horsemen forward until they stood within a quarter mile of the Confederate position atop the ridge. From there the battle settled into three hours of exchanged rifle and cannon fire. Cabell personally guided the battery's aim while Cloud's men occasionally feinted as though preparing to charge, yet no real assault ever came; both sides seemed satisfied to keep firing from a distance rather than close in for direct combat.

Aftermath

Once the fighting stopped, each side insisted it had won. According to Cloud, the Confederates pulled back abruptly when Union artillery and rifle fire fell silent for a time. Cabell appears to have read that silence differently, since his own account held that Cloud's men had been driven off and that his own troops withdrew only afterward. Whatever the truth of these competing versions, the ground itself remained in Union hands when the engagement closed. With Cabell's retreat, the fighting stopped entirely. His column arrived in Waldron the following day, while Cloud made his way back to Fort Smith.

The twin successes at Fort Smith and Devil's Backbone gave Federal troops a lasting position in the Arkansas River Valley. Operating out of that stronghold, Union forces went on to fight Confederate partisans in the region, marched out in April 1864 to join the Camden Expedition, and lent support to operations in Indian Territory. Fort Smith's weaknesses became evident later, during the Battle of Massard Prairie in July 1864, yet the post stayed under U.S. control for the remainder of the conflict.