Little Rock falls; the last Confederates are out by five o'clock
By the afternoon of September 14, 1863, Sterling Price's Confederates were losing their grip on the line north of the Arkansas River. Frederick Steele's Union troops crossed the Arkansas River and pressed Marmaduke's line at Bayou Fourche, and Price ordered a full withdrawal toward Arkadelphia. The last Confederate soldiers left Little Rock by five that evening; the city's civilian government surrendered two hours later. Union troops found five cannons, 3,000 pounds of gunpowder, and 650 sick and wounded men the retreating army had left behind.
Little Rock was the first Confederate state capital the Union captured west of the Mississippi River, and its fall cut the Trans-Mississippi Department off from Confederate recruiting grounds in Missouri and Indian Territory. For a Union public weary of Vicksburg's aftermath, taking a rebel statehouse was evidence the war was turning against the Confederacy in the West.
QWhy did the Union march to Clarendon nearly cripple Steele's army before it ever reached Little Rock?
Heat, choking dust, and contaminated water did more damage than Confederate bullets during the opening leg of the campaign. Steele's troops left Helena on August 10, 1863, and linked up with John W. Davidson's cavalry at Clarendon on August 15. Within two days of arriving, more than a thousand men had fallen sick. The march came after Vicksburg had freed up Union manpower for operations in Arkansas, but disease nearly stalled the advance before a single major engagement was fought. The army still had weeks of marching and fighting ahead before Little Rock fell on September 14, one more case of a Civil War campaign nearly undone by terrain and climate before the armies even met.
QWhat happened to the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy after Little Rock fell, and how long did it hold out?
The Confederate command structure west of the Mississippi survived nearly two more years after losing its Arkansas capital. E. Kirby Smith, who led the Trans-Mississippi Department, backed Price's decision to abandon Little Rock rather than risk losing his army entirely. Confederates spent late 1863 fortifying a new stronghold at Camden, and the region saw two more major campaigns: the Camden Expedition in March 1864 and Price's Missouri Expedition in late 1864. It was not until June 2, 1865, nearly two months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, that Trans-Mississippi forces finally laid down arms, It was not until June 2, 1865, nearly two months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox, that Trans-Mississippi forces finally laid down arms.
QHow did an 1862 failure shape the Union's second, successful attempt to take Little Rock?
Union forces had already tried and failed to seize Little Rock more than a year before Steele's campaign succeeded. In early 1862, an earlier push toward the city collapsed when Union troops ran into supply problems and were forced to retreat. That failure left Arkansas's capital in Confederate hands until Steele's 1863 advance, which benefited from lessons about logistics and from troops freed up after Vicksburg fell. Confederate forces also tested Union resolve that July, attacking the garrison at Helena, only to be repulsed. Little Rock's eventual capture came only after two earlier setbacks, in 1862 and July 1863, had already tested both sides.
