Battle of Arkansas Post
The Battle of Arkansas Post, also known as the Battle of Fort Hindman, was fought from January 9 to 11, 1863, along the Arkansas River at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, as part of the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate forces constructed Fort Hindman near Arkansas Post in late 1862. Also in late 1862, Major General John A. McClernand of the Union army was authorized to recruit troops in the Midwest for an expedition down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant began an overland campaign against Vicksburg along the Mississippi Central Railroad in November. He and Union General-in-Chief Henry Halleck did not trust McClernand, and through machinations placed the start of the riverine movement against Vicksburg under the command of Major General William T. Sherman before McClernand could arrive. Sherman's movement was defeated at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December, and Confederate cavalry raids forced Grant to abandon his overland campaign.
McClernand arrived at Memphis, Tennessee, in late December and found that Sherman had left without him. McClernand moved downriver, joined Sherman's force, and took command in early January 1863, calling it the Army of the Mississippi. Both Sherman and McClernand had independently come to the conclusion that Arkansas Post should be attacked: Confederate forces raiding from Fort Hindman had recently captured a Union supply vessel, and Sherman may have been hoping for a victory to restore his reputation after Chickasaw Bayou. McClernand's troops and a Union Navy fleet commanded by Acting Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter moved upriver towards the Arkansas River. The expedition began unloading troops downriver from the fort late on January 9. The next day, some of Porter's warships bombarded the fort, while McClernand's troops maneuvered into position. At 1:00 pm on January 11, Porter's warships began another bombardment of the fort, and McClernand's troops attacked the Confederate positions, which consisted of the fort and a line of rifle pits that extended west to a bayou.
McClernand's attack was repulsed, but white flags of surrender began to appear over parts of the Confederate line in uncertain circumstances. Confusion ensued, and Union troops moved up close to the Confederate line and swamped parts of it. The Confederate commander, Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill, agreed to surrender. When Grant learned of the operation against Arkansas Post, he disapproved and ordered McClernand back to the Mississippi River, although Grant was later convinced of the wisdom of the operation. Grant relieved McClernand on January 30 and took command of the campaign against Vicksburg. In April and May, Grant's army crossed the Mississippi River downriver from Vicksburg and won a series of battles. The Confederate forces withdrew into the Vicksburg defenses in mid-May. The Siege of Vicksburg ended with a Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863; this was a key contribution to the eventual Union victory.
Background
Initial Union plans and operations
Early in the American Civil War, the Union military leadership developed the Anaconda Plan, a strategy to defeat the Confederate States of America by controlling its coastline and the Mississippi River. Much of the Mississippi Valley fell under Union control in early 1862 after the capture of New Orleans, Louisiana, and several land victories. The strategically important city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, was still in Confederate hands, and it served as a strong defensive position that commanded the river and prevented the Union from separating the eastern and western halves of the Confederacy. Union Navy vessels were sent upriver from New Orleans in May to try to take the city, a move that was unsuccessful. In late June, a joint army–navy expedition returned to make another campaign against Vicksburg. The Union Navy leadership decided that the city could not be taken without more infantry, who were not forthcoming. An attempt to construct Williams's Canal across a meander of the river in June and July, bypassing Vicksburg, failed.In early November 1862, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant began concentrating troops at Grand Junction and La Grange, Tennessee, in preparation for a campaign into the state of Mississippi along the Mississippi Central Railroad, with Vicksburg as its goal. After a delay in Tennessee to await reinforcements, Grant's troops set out in late November, and his part of the movement contained about 31,000 men, with another 17,000 in a supporting force under the command of Major General William T. Sherman. Grant at this time commanded the Department of the Tennessee, which consisted of Cairo, Illinois; Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee; the area west of the Tennessee River in Tennessee and Kentucky; and northern Mississippi. All of the troops in the department were part of the XIII Corps, which had a complex organizational structure.
In September, Major General John A. McClernand had discussed with President Abraham Lincoln a campaign down the Mississippi River to take control of the river, as McClernand believed that Confederate control of the river was dampening support for the war in the Old Northwest. Despite some hesitancy from high-ranking Union military and political figures about McClernand's suitability for an independent command, an arrangement was reached whereby McClernand was permitted to recruit soldiers in the Midwest and then take this force downriver to operate against Vicksburg. McClernand received secret orders from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton regarding the expedition on October 21. These orders, which had originated from Lincoln but had been influenced by Halleck, gave McClernand a theoretically independent command operating in the military department commanded by Grant, and McClernand believed his command was independent. Instead, the ambiguous wording of the order gave General-in-Chief Henry Halleck the ability to redirect the troops McClernand raised for other purposes; it also stated that McClernand's operation could proceed "when a sufficient force not required by the operations of General Grant's command shall be raised". In effect, both Halleck and Grant had the power to override McClernand's campaign.
Halleck used this language in the official orders to undercut McClernand, whom he distrusted. Halleck transferred McClernand's newly recruited troops to Memphis, Tennessee, or Helena, Arkansas, as they entered service. On December 5, Halleck suggested to Grant a naval operation down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg, using a portion of Grant's force. At that time, Grant was growing concerned about the length of his supply line in Mississippi, as well as the condition of the roads ahead. Halleck had informed him that the downriver movement had the support of the President, and Grant assumed that McClernand, who Grant had a low opinion of, would command the movement. Grant decided to take control of McClernand's recruits, and placed them under the command of Sherman, who was to lead them on a riverine expedition down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg. Sherman had command of over 30,000 men, drawn from Memphis and Helena, and one division that Sherman took from Grant's main column. Presidential orders issued on December 18 divided the XIII Corps into four separate corps: a smaller XIII Corps, the XV Corps, the XVI Corps, and the XVII Corps. McClernand was given command of the new XIII Corps, but this division of the old XIII Corps did not immediately take effect as active operations by the corps were ongoing. McClernand was to command "that part of the army which was to operate down the Mississippi". Grant, in turn, knowing that Sherman was expected to begin the expedition in a matter of days, sent McClernand a letter authorizing him to take command of the force moving downriver. This message was not received because of Confederate cavalry raids in western Tennessee.
Acting Rear Admiral David D. Porter was in command of the Union Navy portion of the riverine movement towards Vicksburg. Sherman and the lead elements of his command left Memphis on December 20, with more troops following the next day. McClernand was still in Illinois and the force he had intended to command left without him. McClernand received communication from Halleck on December 21 confirming that he was intended to command the downriver expedition under the overall direction of Grant, but McClernand did not have direct authorization to leave Springfield, Illinois. Telegraphic communications with Stanton, who was not aware of Halleck's machinations against McClernand, produced the requisite authorization. After getting married, McClernand continued downriver and reached Memphis on December 28, where he learned that Sherman had left without him.
Confederate Major General Earl Van Dorn raided and destroyed a major Union supply center in the Holly Springs Raid, with Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest's West Tennessee Raids causing even more damage to Grant's supply line through the latter half of December 1862. These raids led Grant to order a retreat. Sherman's force reached the Vicksburg area on Christmas Eve, and sailed up the Yazoo River. After landing on December 26 and 27, the Union soldiers made a frontal attack against Confederate defenses at Chickasaw Bayou on December 29, but were repulsed with heavy losses. Defeated, Sherman's men re-boarded their ships on January 1, 1863, and withdrew from the Yazoo.
Confederate preparations
Control of the Arkansas River Valley was vital for the Confederate defense of Arkansas and the Indian Territory. As late as September 1862, Confederate defenses on the Arkansas and White rivers were minimal. On September 28, Colonel John W. Dunnington, a former officer in the Confederate States Navy, was assigned to supervise Confederate river defenses within the state. Dunnington selected a location for a fortification on the Arkansas River near the settlement of Arkansas Post. The fort was located north of the village, at a point commanding the river on a hairpin curve. The labor to construct the fort was supplied by impressed slaves, a unit of Confederate military engineers, and work details from the regular Confederate units. The work on the fort itself was mostly done in October and November.Known by both the names Fort Hindman and the Post of Arkansas, the fortification was square-shaped, with sides long, surrounded by a ditch that was wide and deep. Behind it was a sloped wall, with an diagonal length. On the inside of the top of the wall a firing step. The fort had four bastions, each of which had emplacements for three cannons; another cannon was on the north-side curtain wall of the fortification. The southern side of the northeastern bastion included a by casemate, one side of which was the parapet wall. Its walls and roof were composed of three layers of timber; the roof was additionally protected by iron sheets nearly thick. To cover the river approaches to the fort, a Columbiad cannon was positioned in the northeastern bastion's casemate, and another in the southeastern bastion. An Columbiad was mounted in another casement in the fort's southern curtain wall, which overlooked the river. Eight other cannonsfour 10-pounder Parrott rifles and two 6-pounder smoothbore cannonswere distributed among the bastions. Three buildings, two magazines, and a well were located in the fort. The Columbiads were originally from the ram CSS Pontchartrain. From the northwest bastion, a line of rifle pits ran west to Post Bayou. The position was strengthened by obstructions placed in the river. Construction of another, outer, line of rifle pits downriver from the fort was begun, with a further, inner, tier of rifle pits between the outer line and the fort. Neither these last two lines of rifle pits nor the line between the fort and the bayou was ever completed. Many of the men assigned to defend the fort were concerned that it was poorly sited. In November, Union troops from Helena attempted to raid the fort site, but the attempt was foiled by flooding along the riverbanks caused by heavy rains. On December 10, Brigadier General Thomas J. Churchill was appointed to command the post.