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The Battle of Fort Hindman, or the Battle of Arkansas Post, was fought January 9–11, 1863, near the mouth of the Arkansas River at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
[edit] BackgroundThe Confederate Army constructed a large, four-sided earthwork fortification near Arkansas Post, on a bluff 25 feet above the north side of the river, forty-five miles downriver from Pine Bluff, to protect the Arkansas River and prevent Union Army passage to Little Rock. The fort commanded a mile view up and downriver. It was a base for disrupting shipping on the Mississippi River. The fort was named Fort Hindman in honor of General Thomas C. Hindman of Arkansas. It was manned by approximately 5,000 men, primarily Texas cavalry, dismounted and redeployed as infantry, and Arkansas infantry, in three brigades under Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Churchill. By the winter of 1862–63, disease and their life at the end of a tenuous supply chain had left the garrison at Fort Hindman in a poor state. Union Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand was an ambitious politician and had permission from President Abraham Lincoln to launch a corps-sized offensive against Vicksburg from Memphis, Tennessee, hoping for military glory (and subsequent political gain). This plan was at odds with those of Army of the Tennessee commander, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. McClernand ordered Grant's subordinate, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, to join the troops of his corps with McClernand's, calling the two corps the Army of the Mississippi, approximately 33,000 men. On January 4, he launched a combined army-navy movement on Arkansas Post, rather than Vicksburg, as he had told Lincoln (and did not bother to inform Grant or the general in chief, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck). [edit] BattleUnion boats began landing troops near Arkansas Post in the evening of January 9 and the troops started up river towards Fort Hindman. Sherman's corps overran the Confederate trenches, and the enemy retreated to the protection of the fort and adjacent rifle-pits. Flag Officer David D. Porter, on January 10, moved his fleet towards Fort Hindman and bombarded it, withdrawing at dusk. Union artillery fired on the fort from positions across the river on January 11, effectively silencing most of the Confederate guns in the fort, and the infantry moved into position for an attack. Union ironclads commenced shelling the fort and Porter's fleet passed it to cut off any retreat. As a result of this envelopment and the attack by McClernand's troops, the Confederate command surrendered in the afternoon, despite orders to Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Churchill to defend the fort at all costs. [edit] AftermathThe defeat at Arkansas Post cost the Confederacy fully one-fourth of its deployed force in Arkansas, the largest surrender of Rebel troops west of the Mississippi River prior to the final capitulation of the Confederates in 1865.[1] There were 6,547 total casualties: Union forces suffered 1,047, with 134 killed; Confederate about 5,500, almost all by surrender. Although Union losses were high and the victory did not contribute to the capture of Vicksburg, it did eliminate one more impediment to Union shipping on the Mississippi. Grant was furious at McClernand's diversion from his overall campaign strategy, ordered him back to the Mississippi, disbanded the Army of the Mississippi, and assumed personal command of the Vicksburg Campaign. [edit] Union order of battle[edit] Army of the MississippiMaj. Gen. John A. McClernand
XV Corps: Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman
[edit]Fifty transport ships and 13 gunboats, including the USS New Era, USS Black Hawk, USS Lexington, USS Monarch, USS Glide, USS Rattler and the ironclads USS Louisville, USS Cincinnati, and USS Baron DeKalb. [edit] Confederate order of battleFort Hindman Garrison: Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Churchill
[edit] Notes[edit] References
Coordinates: 34°01′16″N 91°20′56″W / 34.021°N 91.349°W Categories: Arkansas in the American Civil War | Battles of the Operations Against Vicksburg of the American Civil War | Battles of the Main Western Theater of the American Civil War | Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War | Naval battles of the American Civil War | Union victories of the American Civil War | Arkansas County, Arkansas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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