Steele’s Arkansas Campaign 1 March–3 May 1864

In the Spring of 1864, the Union launched attacks against the Confederacy across multiple theatres. The westernmost prong of this assault was led by Major General Frederick Steele through Arkansas, with the aim of joining up with General Banks’s Red River Campaign through Louisiana. If successful, this operation would have isolated Texas from the rest of the Confederacy, but the Red River Campaign was, in General Sherman’s words, “One damn blunder from beginning to end”, and had to be abandoned. Steele was left isolated, short of provisions, and at the mercy of marauding Confederate forces. The Union Army holed up in the city of Camden, desperately short of supplies, and foraging expeditions were remorselessly harried by Confederate troops, culminating in the rout at the Battle of Marks’ Mills (25 April), which led to the capture of around 2,000 Federal troops. Steele took this opportunity to abandon Camden with the remnants of his army, retreating under continuous attack to the sanctuary of Little Rock Arsenal on 3 May.