The Battle of Bayou Fourche, also known as the Battle of Little Rock, was a battle of the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces on September 10, 1863, in Pulaski County (present-day Little Rock and North Little Rock), Arkansas. It was the final battle of the Little Rock Campaign, resulting in the Federal occupation of Little Rock.
A Union force commanded by Major General Frederick Steele had begun an advance from Helena, Arkansas, west towards Little Rock in August. The campaign met light resistance aside from the Battle of Bayou Meto, while Confederate troops under Major General Sterling Price built fortifications on the other side of the Arkansas River from Little Rock.
To avoid a direct assault on Price's fortifications, Steele split his troops into two wings. Steele and the infantry advanced along the north bank of the Arkansas River, while Brigadier General John W. Davidson and the Federal cavalry crossed the Arkansas River to outflank the Confederates from their fortifications. On the morning of September 10, Davidson's cavalry crossed the river and drove back a Confederate cavalry force commanded by Colonel Archibald S. Dobbins. Dobbins's men fell back to a body of water named Bayou Fourche, where Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke took command of the Confederate forces. The bayou separated the battlefield into two spheres of action, and Davidson advanced with troops on both sides of Bayou Fourche.
After some fighting, the Confederates on the northern portion of the field were driven back and those south of the bayou retreated as well. Price had earlier decided to abandon Little Rock, and the city fell to the Union forces. The state government relocated to Washington, Arkansas, and Price withdrew his command to Arkadelphia.
In early March 1862 during the American Civil War, Union forces defeated Confederate troops in northwestern Arkansas during the Battle of Pea Ridge, after which most Confederate troops were transferred out of Arkansas. During the campaigning following Pea Ridge, Union troops captured the city of Helena, Arkansas, in July 1862. The Confederates rebuilt a significant fighting force in Arkansas, but were defeated at the Battle of Prairie Grove in December. Despite these setbacks, control of the Arkansas River remained in Confederate hands at the close of 1862. On January 11, 1863, Union forces captured Confederate-held Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River in the Battle of Arkansas Post, which was about 25 miles (40 km) from the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. However, instead of pushing up the Arkansas River, the troops were withdrawn to fight in the Vicksburg campaign. Other Union troops stationed in Arkansas were also transferred to the operations against Vicksburg. Confederate forces in Arkansas decided to attempt to draw off some of the pressure on Vicksburg with an assault on Helena. The ensuing Battle of Helena was a bloody Confederate repulse on July 4 in which the Confederates suffered over 1,600 casualties. Vicksburg surrendered the same day.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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