Today in History:

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

Page 760 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter XLVI.

On the 17th, the train left Camden for the purpose of procuring forage for the command, a portion of the detail for escort being made from the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, consisting of 75 cavalry and the section of howitzers attached to the regiment, under command of Lieutenant Robert Henderson, Company G. On the 18th, the train was attacked and captured by the enemy at Poison Spring, 12 miles west of Camden. In the engagement Lieutenant Robert Henderson was wounded and captured; Private C. C. Goodman, Company D, attached to the howitzers, was killed; Private H. Gable, Company K, was captured, and several wounded. The detachments returned to Camden, and remained there until the 26th, when the regiment, with the command, took up its line of march for Little Rock.

On the morning of the 29th, about 10 o'clock, while the command was crossing the Ouachita River, the enemy attacked our rear guard, which consisted of Companies C and K, Sixth Regiment. A sharp skirmish ensued, in which Private E. Gray, Company C, was severely wounded, and 2 men of Company K missing. On the morning of the 30th, the enemy attacked our army in force while crossing Saline River. In this engagement the regiment did not participate, two companies being occupied in guarding fording on the Saline River, the other companies, with the Cavalry Division, en route to Little Rock, where they arrived May 1, 1864. At the crossing of the Saline River the medicine stores, tents, and wagons were burned, by order of Major-General Steele, and unfortunately the regimental records were all destroyed. On the 6th of May the regiment left Little Rock, and arrived at Dardanelle on the 9th. Same day had a skirmish with a party of rebels, in which Sergt. G. P. Freeman, Company A, was mortally wounded, and Sergt. Joseph E. Powell severely wounded. From Dardanelle the regiment marched for Fort Smith, Ark., where it arrived on the 16th of May.

W. T. CAMPBELL,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Sixth Kansas Cavalry.

Colonel W. F. CLOUD,

Commanding Third Brigade, Frontier Division.


No. 36. Reports of Brigadier General Eugene A. Carr, U. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division.


HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION,
Camp near Elkin's Ferry, April 2, 1864-4 p.m.

GENERAL: I arrived at this place about 3 o'clock. A few shots were fired from the other side, and a few have just been fired. The ford is entirely practicable except for the small howitzers, whose boxes will have to be put in wagons. It is at least 5 miles from Okolona. There has a considerable force crossed here to-day from Rome toward the south, judging from tracks. Ritter thinks he saw artillery tracks. We captured 3 men, who say they belong to Marmaduke's body guard; captured in the direction of Rome, by forages. Say they left Marmaduke at Tate's Ferry yesterday morning; do not know whether he went to Rome or Numbers Part of the command,


Page 760 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter XLVI.