Hill's Plantation
Cache River, Cotton Plant, Round Hill
Civil War Arkansas

American Civil War
July 7, 1862

Union Major General Samuel R. Curtis moved on Helena, Arkansas, in search of supplies to replace those that had been promised but never delivered by the Navy. The Confederates under Major General Albert Rust attempted to prevent this change of supply base by continually skirmishing with the Union troops.

The Confederates made a stand at the Cache River on July 7. As Union Colonel C.L. Harris moved forward with elements of the 11th Wisconsin, 33rd Illinois, and the 1st Indiana Cavalry, moved forward, he blundered into an ambuscade. The fighting became more general, and the Confederates, with a frontal attack, forced the Union to retreat about a quarter of a mile. The next Confederate attack, however, was stopped.

With reinforcements, the Federals pursued the retreating Confederates and turned the retreat into a rout as the day progressed. Curtis was able change his supply base, but Major General Albert Rust, despite suffering defeat at Hill's Plantation, remained between Curtis and Little Rock, his objective.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: Woodruff County

Campaign: Operations near Cache River, Arkansas (1862)

Date(s): July 7, 1862

Principal Commanders: Colonel Charles Hovey and Brigadier General William P. Benton [US]; Major General Albert Rust and Colonel William Parsons [CS]

Forces Engaged: 1st and 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Army of the Southwest [US]; unknown [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 308 total (US 63; CS 245)


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Arkansas Civil War History Book Club Reading Titles


Into the Mouth of the Cannon: A Historical Biography of the 18th Arkansas Infantry and the Civil War in the Western Theater from 1861 to 1863
No one knew the truths of slavery better than the slaves themselves, but no one consulted them until the 1930s. Then, recognizing that this generation of unique witnesses would soon be lost to history, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project acted to interview as many former slaves as possible. In a continuation of the project's interest in the life histories of ordinary people, writers interviewed over two thousand former slaves, more than a third of them in Arkansas. These oral histories were first published in the 1970s in a thirty-nine-volume series organized by state, and they transformed America's understanding of slavery.
With Fire And Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 provides a scholarly examination of just how the events of the Civil War and the Reconstruction so heavily devastated the state of Arkansas, its population and its economy, that this southern state was never to fully regained the level of prosperity it had enjoyed prior to the war. A candid and detailed retracing of crucial decisions, their interplay, and their lasting legacy, With Fire And Sword is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and Reconstruction Era reference collections and reading lists.

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.