Transcript Civil War II - ARChapter5CivilWar

Civil War II
The Civil War Comes
To Arkansas
Invasion of Arkansas
• Early in 1862 Missouri called Arkansas back
into section.
• Union general, Samuel R. Curtis, pushed
General Sterling Price’s Missouri Confederates
out of the state into northwest Arkansas.
• Curtis followed price into Arkansas .
• Price joined with Arkansas’s General Ben
McCulloch’s Confederate army in the Boston
Mountains, 70 miles south of the Missouri
border.
New Leadership
• Price and McCulloch, as usual, disagreed
about what to do next.
• Finally the Confederacy sent a new
general to take command of AR.
• General Earl Van Dorn was a West Point
graduate with a good war record.
• His first issue is to deal with the threat to
AR.
• Under Van Dorn’s command Price and
McCulloch began working together.
Plans for Battle
• Confederate forces with 15,000 men decide to
attack Cutis’s Union army of 10,500 men.
• This Confederate Army includes two regiments
of Cherokee under General Albert Pike.
• Van Dorn Ordered his army northward toward
the Federal army.
• Some loyal Unionists in Fayetteville rode North
to warn Curtis that the Confederates were
coming.
Pea Ridge
• The two armies met just South of the
Missouri border on a road that ran
past Elkhorn Tavern stage stop, next
to a long low hill called Pea Ridge.
• Since Curtis had been warned he
took up a defensive position with the
hill at his back.
Van Dorn’s Daring Plan
• The night of March 6, he ordered the soldiers to
leave their camp fires burning to fool the
enemy.
• Then he moved his army on a night march,
around Curtis’s forces, to come up behind
them.
• But the army split, when morning came on
March 7, Van Dorn and Price were north of
Curtis but McCulloch and Pike were still two
miles away to the west.
The Battle of Pea Ridge
• The fighting began mid-morning.
• The Confederate line to the west collapsed
when McCulloch was killed.
• The Confederate Cherokee began
scalping and murdering the federal
wounded.
• Van Dorn and Price’s troops fought hard
all day but could not break Federal lines.
• That night both armies slept around
Elkhorn Tavern.
• In the morning the Federals attacked and
forced the Confederates to retreat.
• The Union army lost 1,384 men.
• The Confederates lost nearly 2,000 men.
• The Federal army still controlled the road
to Missouri.
• The Arkansas Confederate army was in
disarray.
The Results
• Pea Ridge was the largest battle
fought west of the Mississippi River.
• It made the idea of the Confederates
winning Missouri impossible.
• Arkansas, with its depleted army, was
now open to Federal attack.
The Western Theatre
• Things weren’t going well for the
Confederacy in the western theatre.
• The Union army had captured Forts Henry
and Donelson in February.
• The Federals captured Shiloh in April.
• They took New Orleans in April and
Memphis in June.
• Only Vicksburg held out as a Confederate
strong hold on the Mississippi River.
Curtis Begins to Move
• Curtis led his army from Pea Ridge,
across northern Arkansas to Batesville.
• There was not a big battle at Batesville, he
just moved in and set up headquarters.
• From there he moved South to Helena in
the summer of 1862.
• Union soldiers stripped the land bare of
food, horses, and firewood as they went.
• At the Cache River, near Cotton
Plant, a small battle took place on
July 7.
• A small force of Confederate cavalry
tried to block the road to Helena.
• They were easily defeated.
A Second Secession?
• Governor Rector was convinced the
Confederacy had abandoned Arkansas.
• He even threatened to recommend that
Arkansas secede from the Confederacy to
form a free standing state.
• The Confederacy sent Thomas C.
Hindman, now a General, to take control
of events in Arkansas.
“Total War”
• Hindman took a “total war” approach to
Arkansas.
• He took money, weapons, medical supplies,
and men wherever he could find them.
• He encouraged the cruel, uncontrolled guerilla
fighting of the mountain people.
• He put the state under martial law-military rule.
• He shot deserters without a trial.
• He burned all of the cotton he could find.
Prairie Grove
• The Union tried to attack Arkansas
again in the Northwest.
• Their small army was being led by
General G. Blunt.
• Hindman marched his Confederate
army to meet Federal troops at Prairie
Grove, southwest of Fayetteville.
The Battle of Pea Ridge
• These armies met on December 7, 1862,
and each side had about 10,000 men.
• The Confederates took up an advantageous
position on a hill.
• Federals lost 1,251 men.
• Confederates lost over 1,300 men.
• Hindman retreated to Little Rock and the
Union followed, raiding Van Buren and
destroying supplies.
More Losses in Arkansas
• January 10-11, 1863, a large Union army
forced a small Confederate force of 4,500
out of Arkansas Post.
• In July, 1863, a Confederate force tried to
take pressure off of Vicksburg by retaking
Helena.
• They failed and suffered heavy losses.
• That same day, July 4, Vicksburg fell.
Moving the Capital
• The Confederate government fled Little
Rock because it was open to capture.
• The Capital moved to Washington in the
southwest.
• General Frederick Steele led Federal
troops into Little Rock in September 1863.
• Fort Smith Fell to the Union army the
same month.
General Steele’s Campaign
• In spring 1864, the Union army planned
the Red River Campaign.
• The goal was to take Shreveport, LA.
• General Steele, in Arkansas, was ordered
to meet approaching Federal troops at
Shreveport.
• Steele moved South from Little Rock with
5,000 men.
• They took over Camden, but Steele ran
short of supplies.
• He sent 700 men to find food for his soldiers.
• A Confederate force met them at Poison
Springs and wiped them out. They executed
the black Union soldiers.
• At the Battle of Mark’s Mill the Confederates
captured Steele’s supply train coming from Pine
Bluff.
• Because of a lack of supplies, Steele had to go
back to Little Rock.
• When Steele’s men slowed to cross the Saline
River, 10,00 Confederates attacked.
• Steele managed to fight them off and escape to
Little Rock.