Battle of Bayou Fourche


The Battle of Bayou Fourche was a minor conflict of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Little Rock Campaign. It was fought on September 10, 1863, in Pulaski County, Arkansas, near the Bayou Fourche, and was the culmination of a month-long offensive launched by U.S. Army Major-General Frederick Steele on August 1, 1863, to capture the capital of Arkansas. The campaign included engagements at West Point, Harrison's Landing, Brownsville, Bayou Meto, and Ashley's Mills.

Background

On July 4, 1863, Vicksburg, Mississippi – the Gibraltar of the Confederacy – fell. With the Mississippi River again, in U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's words, running "unvexed to the sea," Steele, commanding the "Arkansas Expedition," preceded from Helena on August 10 to lead the invasion of 12,000 troops west into Arkansas. Awakening to the distant rumble of artillery September 10, the citizens of Little Rock found themselves in the vortex of the conflict.

Battle

On September 10, 1863, Steele sent a cavalry division led by Brigadier-General John W. Davidson across the Arkansas River to advance on Little Rock while he moved against Confederate forces strongly entrenched on the north side of the river. In his thrust toward the state capitol, Gen. Davidson ran into Marmaduke and Walker's divisions commanded by Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke near the Bayou Fourche. Aided by field artillery from the north side of the river, Davidson forced Marmaduke out of his position and sent the defenders fleeing back to Little Rock, which fell to U.S. troops that evening.

Aftermath

C.S. Army Major-General Sterling Price, commanding at Little Rock, fell back to Arkadelphia on the 14th, and eventually reestablished his command at Camp Bragg, Arkansas. Governor Harris Flanagin relocated the state capitol to Washington, Arkansas, where it remained for the rest of the war. The fall of Little Rock to Union forces after Vicksburg, sealed Arkansas' fate and helped to further demoralize Confederate citizens west of the Mississippi River.

Battlefield preservation

The growth of Little Rock has obscured many of the sites associated with the battle and subsequent evacuation of the city. Today, several markers and monuments are located inside the Bayou Fourche Battlefield, but further expansion of Little Rock National Airport threatens to consume additional land.