Hill's Plantation

Fought on July 7, 1862, in Woodruff County, Arkansas, this engagement carried several names: Action at Hill's Plantation, Action at Cache River, and Action at Round Hill, alongside its more common title, the Battle of Cotton Plant. The clash occurred amid the wider American Civil War. Supply shortages had stalled the Union Army of the Southwest, under Samuel Ryan Curtis, in its planned march toward Little Rock, prompting the force to instead head south along the White River. Near Cotton Plant, on the eastern side of the Cache River, Curtis's troops ran into a Confederate contingent commanded by Albert Rust. Limited by circumstance, Rust managed to commit only two Texas cavalry regiments to the fight. These mounted troops struck the Federal advance guard, led by Charles Edward Hovey, sparking an intense clash. Union reinforcements soon arrived, however, pushing the Texans back and forcing Rust's men into a chaotic withdrawal. With the path now clear, Curtis continued his advance southward to Clarendon, then turned eastward, ultimately settling his army at Helena on the Mississippi River.

Battle

On the morning of July 7, 1862, soldiers of the Army of the Southwest arrived at James Ferry on the Cache River and discovered the water shallow enough to permit a crossing, which they promptly began. Colonel Charles Edward Hovey, commanding a brigade within Steele's 1st Division, dispatched Colonel Charles Harris of the 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment ahead with 400 men to reconnoiter the area. This advance detachment combined four companies from the 11th Wisconsin, four companies drawn from the 33rd Illinois Infantry Regiment, and a contingent of the 1st Indiana Cavalry Regiment bringing along a single cannon. Harris pushed his men southward until they reached a crossroads near Parley Hill's Plantation, roughly three miles northwest of Cotton Plant, then started them down the Clarendon road toward that town. Word soon reached Hovey that a Federal soldier had fallen into enemy hands, prompting him to call Harris back and redirect him instead onto the southwestern route known as the Des Arc road.

On the Confederate side, Rust commanded five Texas cavalry regiments, three Arkansas infantry regiments, and a single artillery battery. He assigned Colonel William H. Parsons, at the head of 1,000 riders from his own 12th Texas Cavalry Regiment along with Colonel William Fitzhugh's 16th Texas Cavalry, the task of securing the crossing point at James Ferry. Although the 12th Texas had been ready to move out the previous day, Parsons chose to hold back for the slower-moving 16th Texas, so his troops instead bivouacked some six miles south of the river crossing. Around nine that morning, news reached Parsons that Union forces were fording the Cache at James Ferry. He wheeled his command northeast onto the Des Arc road and pushed twenty riders forward in a skirmish line through a swampy stretch of cypress trees.

Hovey kept one Wisconsin company stationed at the crossroads while sending Harris onward with the remainder of the force. Harris's three companies of Wisconsin troops made their way past the Hill residence and a cornfield before entering woodland in skirmish order, trailed by an Illinois company and the cannon, with three more Illinois companies held further back in reserve. Moving through dense brush, the Wisconsin skirmishers caught sight of Parsons's cavalry. Gunfire erupted first between the twenty Texas riders and a handful of Union horsemen at a distance of about forty yards, wounding at least three of the Texans immediately. Harris continued to advance, but his skirmish line collided with the bulk of the 12th Texas and took a heavy volley in return. Though wounded himself, Harris remained at the head of his troops directing them. The Texas horsemen then launched a mounted charge that pushed the Wisconsin men backward. During this action, Edward M. Pike earned the Medal of Honor for helping keep the Union artillery piece out of enemy hands. Hovey pulled the three Wisconsin companies, their supporting Illinois company, and the gun back toward the crossroads, while positioning the other three Illinois companies out of sight within the cornfield. When Parsons's cavalry emerged from the tree line chasing the retreating Wisconsin men, they rode straight into a devastating volley from the hidden Illinois troops, followed by sustained fire that emptied numerous saddles and forced the Texans back into the woods. Hovey maintained his position and awaited the Confederates' next move, while Parsons withdrew his riders behind the cypress swamp.

Hoping to cut Hovey's command off from the rest of Curtis's army, Rust personally joined Colonel James R. Taylor's 17th Texas Cavalry Regiment on a broad flanking movement to the northeast, circling through Cotton Plant toward the same crossroads. As the Confederate riders drew close, however, the beat of a drum signaled the presence of a substantial Union force rising up before them, and the Texans chose to pull back rather than

Results

Union figures acknowledged six men killed and 57 wounded in the fighting, and Federal accounts claimed 138 Confederates and 66 horses had been killed. Estimates of Southern casualties varied widely: one source put the total at 250, while another calculated 30 killed and somewhere between 50 and 60 wounded on the Confederate side. A soldier from Texas gave more specific figures for his own unit, stating that the 12th Texas suffered 14 dead, 20 badly hurt, 16 with lesser wounds, and two unaccounted for. He believed the 16th Texas had suffered losses of a similar scale.

By July 9, Curtis and his men had marched into Clarendon, only to discover the naval flotilla had pulled out a day earlier. Fitch and Shirk, unable to establish contact with the approaching army, had refused to linger any longer. Although Curtis fired cannon signals and dispatched riders downstream in pursuit, the ships had already vanished beyond reach. Any lingering hope Curtis held of pushing toward Little Rock using the White River as a supply line now faded. Recognizing that feeding and equipping his men mattered more than continuing the offensive, he redirected his columns eastward toward Helena, roughly 45 miles (72 km) away.

After enduring a grueling trek through oppressive heat and choking dust, the Army of the Southwest marched into Helena unopposed on July 12. There, soldiers flagged down steamboats moving along the Mississippi, and supplies soon flowed back into the ranks. Curtis chose Hindman's own house as his command post. As the summer of 1862 wore on, Federal campaigns across the western theater stalled entirely. Curtis's command sat idle for months afterward, even as cotton speculators descended on the town in large numbers. Eventually, the units that had made up the Army of the Southwest were folded into the Army of the Tennessee. Helena itself stayed under Union control for the rest of the conflict, and on July 4, 1863, its garrison beat back a Confederate attack in what became known as the Battle of Helena.