The Battle of Cotton Plant also known as Action at Hill's Plantation or Action at Cache River or Action at Round Hill (July 7, 1862) was fought during the American Civil War in Woodruff County, Arkansas. Frustrated in its attempt to march to Little Rock by a lack of supplies, the Union Army of the Southwest under the command of Samuel Ryan Curtis moved south down the White River. Curtis's army encountered a Confederate force led by Albert Rust on the east bank of the Cache River near Cotton Plant. Rust was only able to bring two Texas cavalry regiments into action. These horsemen attacked the Federal advance guard under Charles Edward Hovey, but after a spirited fight, Union reinforcements arrived and drove off the Texans. Rust's force made a disorderly retreat and Curtis's army was able to march south to Clarendon before veering east to occupy Helena on the Mississippi River.
A few weeks after the Union victory at the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7–8, 1862, Union General Curtis received reports that General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate army was moving east. On April 5, Curtis's department commander General Henry Halleck authorized a move eastward to block a possible offensive by Van Dorn. Accordingly, the Army of the Southwest marched east through the Missouri towns of Cassville, Forsyth, and West Plains. In fact, on March 23, General Albert Sidney Johnston ordered Van Dorn's troops to move to Corinth, Mississippi where a large Confederate army was assembling. In his zeal to execute the new instructions, Van Dorn denuded Arkansas of soldiers, weapons, ammunition, and other military supplies. Ironically, Van Dorn's troops arrived too late to fight in the Battle of Shiloh on April 6–7, a Confederate defeat.
After Shiloh, Halleck instructed Curtis to move into northeast Arkansas and rendezvous with another Federal force under General Frederick Steele. Curtis's army marched south from White Plains, crossing the state line on April 29 and reaching Batesville, Arkansas on May 2. Steele's soldiers arrived in nearby Jacksonport on May 4. However, Halleck directed Curtis to move half of his infantry to Cape Girardeau, Missouri where they would be transferred east of the Mississippi River. Dutifully, Curtis gathered seven Illinois, two Missouri, and one Indiana regiments, placed them under Generals Jefferson C. Davis and Alexander Asboth and sent them to Halleck. Curtis reorganized his remaining soldiers into three divisions: the Indiana regiments in the 1st under Steele, the Illinois and Iowa regiments in the 2nd under General Eugene Asa Carr, and the Missouri regiments in the 3rd under General Peter J. Osterhaus. Halleck then ordered Curtis to occupy Little Rock, about 100 mi (161 km) south. Curtis's May strength returns listed 6,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 1,000 artillerymen.
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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