Colonel Dahlgren’s detachment was divided into several parties for the accomplishment of different objects, keeping together, however. One party attempted to cross the river, but were repulsed. A very sharp fight ensued, and, finding the enemy in superior numbers and confronting them on every road, the force was compelled to fall back.
In attempting to cut their way out, Colonel Dahlgren and Major Cook of the Second New York, with about one hundred and fifty men were separated from the rest, and Colonel Cook was taken prisoner. The other detachments succeeded in rejoining General Kilpatrick.
A Confederate correspondent thus describes the tragic close of Colonel Dahlgren’s expedition:
“Lieutenant Pollard had been watching the movements of the enemy all day on Wednesday, in King William, and ascertained that night that Dahlgren, with about two hundred of his followers, had crossed the Mattapony at Aylett’s. With his own men he crossed over and followed the retreating raiders. On reaching the forks of the road, a few miles above Walkertown, Lieutenant Pollard learned that the enemy had taken the river road, leading to that place. Leaving a few men to follow on after them, he quitted the main road with the larger portion of the force at his disposal, and by a circuitous route and forced march, he succeeded in throwing himself in front of the enemy and awaited his approach. In the mean time he had been joined by the home guards of King and Queen County, and a few men of Robbins’s battalion. A little before eleven o’clock at night the enemy approached on the road in which they were posted. A fire was at once opened upon them; but their leader, Colonel Dahlgren, relying, perhaps, upon their numbers, or stung by chagrin at his failure to capture Richmond, determined to force his way through, and at once forming his men, ordered a charge, which he led himself. It proved, however, a fatal charge to him; for, in the onset, he was pierced with a ball and fell dead. After his fall, the command could not be rallied, but were soon thrown into confusion inextricable. Our boys, noticing this, availed themselves of the opportunity it afforded, and used it to the best advantage. Dashing in among the discomfited foe, they succeeded in capturing ninety prisoners, thirty-five negroes, and one hundred and fifty horses. The body of Dahlgren also fell into their hands.”
A cavalry force from General Butler’s command had been sent out from Williamsburg, to render assistance, if needed, to General Kilpatrick. A junction was effected at Tunstall’s Station, and the whole body, accompanied by the balance of Colonel Dahlgren’s cavalry, proceeded to Williamsburg. The entire loss of the expedition was about one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded, and one hundred and sixty in prisoners and missing.
OPERATIONS IN ARKANSAS IN 1864.
In January, 1864, a Convention of Delegates, representing the people of Arkansas, met at Little Rock, and remodelled the State Constitution, so as forever to abolish slavery. The Convention also elected a Provisional Government, under which efforts were made to restore quiet throughout the State. But the Confederates were still powerful in Arkansas, and the current of affairs was frequently vexed by rebel demonstrations, throughout the year. Engagements between the Unionists and roving squads of rebels were numerous, and sometimes disastrous. The organized forces of the Confederacy, stationed at various points in the State, numbered upwards of twenty-one thousand, and they were rarely idle.
Among the many minor battles which were fought at this time may be mentioned that of Cotton Plant, which happened on the twenty-second of April, and which may stand as a type of all the rest. It was incidental to the progress of an expedition, which had been sent out from Little Rock, to relieve the town of Batesville, on White river, from a threatened attack by the rebels under General McRae. The National force consisted of the Eighth Missouri cavalry, and was commanded by Colonel, afterwards General Andrews. The battle lasted four hours, and was hotly contested. The Unionists lost twenty-seven men, killed and wounded, while the rebel loss was upwards of one hundred. Colonel Andrews’s horse was shot beneath him. The expedition resulted successfully.
The most important military movement, however, which took place in Arkansas, this year, was an expedition from Little Rock, that set forth on the twenty-third of March, moving in a southwesterly direction, and designed to cooperate with General Banks, in his advance on Shreveport, Louisiana. The National force consisted of the Seventh Army Corps. The expedition was not successful in its ultimate design, but it led to one important battle, and it enabled the Unionists, in several encounters with the enemy, to display great courage and endurance and to win distinction. On the fifteenth of April, after frequent fights with detachments of the rebels, under Marmaduke, Shelby, Cabell, and Dockery, General Steele took possession of Camden, an important point on the Washita river. Here he remained eleven days, when he received intelligence of disaster to Banks, such as would preclude the proposed attack on Shreveport, and learned, also, that Kirby Smith was advancing, with eight thousand troops, to reinforce Price. Under those circumstances General Steele resolved to abandon Camden and retire towards Little Rock. This movement was begun on the night of April twenty-eighth. On the thirtieth the enemy was encountered, near Jenkins’s Ferry, on the river Sabine, where occurred the important fight which we have mentioned above. The enemy’s force was found to be large, and consisted of all his troops in southwestern Arkansas, and also some from Louisiana, and was commanded by General Smith, General Price, General Walker, and General Churchill. The forces under General Steele consisted of the commands of Generals Salomon, Rice, Thayer, Ingleman, and Colonel Benton. It was found impossible to cross the Sabine on the night when the troops reached it, in consequence of a heavy rainstorm and intense darkness, but the pontoon bridge was laid, and a small force of the Unionists crossed over. On the morning of the battle the rain poured in torrents, and in the midst of the storm the artillery trains and men were obliged to cross the river. Skirmishing had commenced in the rear with the first dawn of day, and a general and fierce engagement speedily succeeded, which continued for seven hours. The enemy fought with the wild desperation which characterized all their pitched battles, but were finally repulsed with very heavy loss. General Steele lost seven hundred men in killed and wounded, but secured a safe retreat to Little Rock, which he reached on the second day of May; and also redeemed, for the time, that portion of Arkansas and the State of Missouri from the hands of the rebels. The conduct of the troops under General Steele was of the most noble description throughout the whole campaign, as will be seen by the following address to his men:
Headquarters Department of Arkansas, }