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3: “The Atmosphere Begins to Smell a Little Gunpowderish”
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3 “The Atmosphere Begins to Smell a Little Gunpowderish” With the start of the new year, the focus of military action in Arkansas turned away from Northwest Arkansas and concentrated on control of the verdant Arkansas River valley. Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes, concerned that Federal forces would use the river as a route to take the state capital at Little Rock, ordered high points along the river fortified to contest traffic. The easternmost of these sites, a stout redoubt dubbed Fort Hindman, was constructed at Arkansas Post, a location already rich in history. Brig. Gen. Thomas Churchill commanded the post, manned primarily by Texas regiments and a sprinkling of Arkansians.1 In late December 1862, rebel cavalry out of Arkansas Post captured the steamer Blue Wing on the Mississippi River, bringing the vessel and the supplies it carried to Fort Hindman. This brought Arkansas Post to the attention of Maj. Gen. John McClernand, an Illinois politicianturned -soldier, who decided the garrison there endangered operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and future control of the Mississippi River. McClernand assembled around thirty-three thousand troops and a flotilla of armored gunboats, then taking the White River Cutoff to the Arkansas River, moved against Churchill and his five-thousand or so troops. On January 10, 1863, the Union armada attacked Fort Hindman, mercilessly hammering the fortification while its defenders desperately poured cannon fire on the gunboats. Yankee troops moved into position during the night, filling the area in front of the fort and the trenches 105 1. Thomas James Churchill (1824–1905), a native of Kentucky, served in the Mexican War. He raised the First Arkansas Mounted Riflemen at the outbreak of the Civil War and eventually became a major general in the Confederate army. In 1880 he was elected governor of Arkansas. David Y. Thomas, “Thomas James Churchill,” in Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Allen Johnson et al., 20 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–36), 4:105–6. holding most of the Confederate troops. The gunboats resumed their attack on the morning of the eleventh, aided by artillery batteries on land. By 3:00 P.M., McClernand was ready to send his infantry forward in an irresistible assault. Just before the attack began, however, white flags suddenly popped up along the Confederate lines. Churchill, who had not ordered a surrender, had no choice but to capitulate. Confederate losses were 60 killed and about 80 wounded, with 4,791 taken prisoner—about one-fourth of the effective rebel fighting men in the entire Trans-Mississippi. Union losses totaled 134 killed, 898 wounded, and 29 missing from the army troops and 30 killed or wounded in the gunboats. After the battle a Union flotilla steamed up the White River, causing further damage to Confederate operations. W. W. Heartsill, a Confederate cavalryman from Texas, and Frederic Davis, a sailor from Rhode Island, left lively accounts of the battle and its aftermath. Originally appeared in Arthur Marvin Shaw, ed., “A Texas Ranger Company at the Battle of Arkansas Post,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 9 (Winter 1950): 270–97. This is an excerpt from W. W. Heartsill’s 1876 book, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army. Jany 8th. Raining this morning. Harwell2 and R S Allen3 start out for the scout. Vines4 is sent to Napoleon on picket. At dark a scout comes in and reports a Gunboat at the Cut Off; sounding, and that it had come through the Cut Off, 106 “The Atmosphere Begins to Smell a Little Gunpowderish” 2. William Williston Heartsill was twenty-one years old when he enlisted in W. P. Lane’s Texas Rangers in 1861. After their capture at Arkansas Post, Heartsill and his comrades were imprisoned in Illinois until being exchanged in April 1863. Assigned to various units in the Army of Tennessee, many of the Rangers deserted and walked back to Texas, where they reunited and garrisoned the prisoner-ofwar camp for Union soldiers at Tyler. They later served in Louisiana and Arkansas. After the war Heartsill was a businessman in Marshall, Texas, where he was active in civic matters. He died at Waco in 1916. “Guide to the William Williston Heartsill journal, 1861–1866,” Texas Archival Resources Online, accessed Sept. 30, 2011, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ricewrc/00156/rice-00156.html. Alfred Washington Harwell, twenty-two, a clerk and Tennessee native, was elected second sergeant of the W. P. Lane Rangers when the unit organized on April 19, 1861. He served in...