Today in History:

743 Series I Volume XXXIV-I Serial 61 - Red River Campaign Part I

Page 743 Chapter XLVI. THE CAMDEN EXPEDITION.


Numbers 23. Itinerary of First Brigade, Frontier Division, for April, 1864.*

April 13.-The brigade was engaged in action against the forces of the enemy under command of Generals Maxey and Dockery, at Moscow, Ark. The action, commenced at 1 p. m. and lasted until 5 p. m. The Second Indiana Battery fired 210 shots (solid and shell) and used grape and canister with good effect. The enemy were repulsed and driven 4 miles, when the brigade, under cover of night, withdrew and resumed the advance. Marched all night through a swamp. The loss on our side was 7 killed and 24 wounded.

April 18.-One section of the Second Indiana Battery and Eighteenth Iowa Infantry were ordered out in support of a forage train to Poison Spring, Ark., and was overwhelmed by the enemy; the section of battery was captured. The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 83.

April 30.-The First and Second Arkansas Infantry were engaged in the action at Jenkins' Ferry, on Saline River.


Numbers 24. Report of Colonel James M. Williams, First Kansas Colored Infantry, commanding detachment Frontier Division, of engagement at Poison Spring.

CAMDEN, ARK., April 24, 1864.

CAPTAIN: I have the honor to submit the following report of foraging expedition under my command: In obedience to verbal orders received from Brigadier-General Thayer, I left Camden, Ark., on the 17th instant with the following force, viz: 500 of the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, commanded by Major Ward; 50 of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Henderson; 75 of the Second Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Mitchell; 70 of the Fourteenth Kansas Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Utt; one section of the Second Indiana Battery, commanded by Lieutenant Haines; in all, 695 men and two guns, with a forage train of 198 wagons.

I proceeded westerly on the Washington road a distance of 18 miles, where I halted the train and dispatched parts of it in different directions to load, 100 wagons, with a large part of the command under Major Ward, being sent 6 miles beyond the camp. These wagons returned to camp at midnight, nearly all loaded with corn. At sunrise n the 18th, the command started ont the return, loading the balance of the train as it proceeded. There being but few wagon loads of corn to be found at any one place, I was obliged to detach portions of the command in different directions to load the wagons, until nearly my whole available force was so employed. At a point known as Cross-Roads, 4 miles east from my camping-ground, I met a re-enforcement of the following force, viz: Eighteenth Iowa Infantry, 375 men, Captain Cuncan; Sixth Kansas Cavalry, 25 men, Lieutenant Phillips; Second Kansas Cavalry, 45 men, Lieutenant

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*From monthly return.

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Page 743 Chapter XLVI. THE CAMDEN EXPEDITION.