The Battle of Cane Hill was fought between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War on November 28, 1862, in northwestern Arkansas, near the town of Cane Hill. Confederate Major General Thomas C. Hindman had made an abortive offensive into southwestern Missouri from Arkansas earlier in the year, but had withdrawn to Arkansas. Union troops under Brigadier General James G. Blunt had followed Hindman into northwestern Arkansas, and the Confederate general saw an opportunity to attack Blunt while his division was separated from the rest of the Union Army of the Frontier. Hindman then sent a force under Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke to Cane Hill, which was also known as Boonsboro, to collect supplies. In early November, a detachment of Blunt's command led by Colonel William F. Cloud defeated a small Confederate force commanded by Colonel Emmett MacDonald in the Cane Hill area.
After MacDonald's defeat, Marmaduke remained in the Cane Hill area with his force. Blunt moved to attack Marmaduke on November 27. The Confederates expected the Union attack to come up the Cincinnati Road, but it instead followed the Ridge Road and then the Fayetteville Road. Cloud's men led the Union advance and made contact with Colonel Joseph O. Shelby's Confederate troopers on the morning of November 28. Shelby withdrew from the Cane Hill area after an artillery duel, and Marmaduke reformed his line in the Newburg area.
Due to the Union artillery advantage, the Confederates fell back from Newburg to an elevation known as Reed's Mountain. Shelby conducted a rear-guard action by having a series of small forces confront the Union before falling back and allowing the next line to engage. The Confederates made a stand at Reed's Mountain, but were forced to withdraw. Blunt continued to pursue, and several miles south of the John Morrow house, Confederate troops led by Colonel Charles A. Carroll laid an ambush for Blunt's leading elements. The Confederates then presented a flag of truce as a ruse to give themselves time to withdraw from the field. In early December, Hindman moved to attack Blunt's force, but Union reinforcements from Springfield, Missouri, under the command of Brigadier General Francis J. Herron arrived in time to aid Blunt. The ensuing Battle of Prairie Grove was fought on December 7. While the outcome of the fighting was inconclusive, Hindman withdrew from the field and the Union retained control of Missouri and northwestern Arkansas.
Background
In December 1860 and early 1861, states in the South seceded from the United States as a result of several disagreements with the federal government, chief among them the desire to preserve the institution of slavery in the United States, forming the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. When Abraham Lincoln, the newly inaugurated President of the United States, called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, this proved the catalyst for the southern state of Arkansas to secede and join the Confederacy. Some fighting occurred to the north in Missouri during 1861.
In March 1862, Union forces commanded by Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis defeated a Confederate army commanded by Major General Earl Van Dorn in the Battle of Pea Ridge fought in northwestern Arkansas. After the defeat, Van Dorn abandoned Arkansas and took most of the Confederate soldiers and military supplies in the state with him across the Mississippi River into Tennessee. Curtis moved his army east and captured the Mississippi River city of Helena. On May 31, Major General Thomas C. Hindman took command of Confederate forces in Arkansas, Missouri, and the Indian Territory and rebuilt Confederate military strength in the region. To accomplish this, Hindman used methods that were both unpopular and sometimes extralegal, and he angered many prominent Arkansas civilians. As a result, he was removed from district command by the Confederate government and replaced by Major General Theophilus Holmes.
Hindman retained a field command, and advanced his forces into southwestern Missouri. Curtis, who now commanded the Department of Missouri, formed the Army of the Frontier which was commanded by Brigadier General John M. Schofield. Hindman was temporarily recalled by Holmes, and the two commanders left in charge in his absence performed poorly. By the end of October, the Confederates had been driven back from Missouri into Arkansas, and Schofield had one division, commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt, stationed in Benton County in northwestern Arkansas. In early November, the other two divisions of the Army of the Frontier fell back to the vicinity of Springfield, Missouri, while Hindman's Confederates occupied Van Buren, Arkansas.
Prelude
Hindman saw an opportunity in the Union positioning, since Blunt was isolated from the rest of the Army of the Frontier. Hindman decided to push a cavalry force into the Cane Hill area to distract Blunt, and then isolate Blunt's force and defeat it before reinforcements from Springfield could arrive. The Confederate cavalry was commanded by Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke, and in early November, Marmaduke's division moved north towards Cane Hill with about 2,000 men and six cannons, collecting provisions from civilians in the area. Blunt learned of this movement, and on November 7, sent Colonel William F. Cloud with 500 men and an artillery battery to attack the Confederates. The next day, Cloud's command routed a Confederate cavalry force commanded by Colonel Emmett MacDonald before returning to the main Union camp.
Marmaduke's cavalry remained in the general area, raiding mills and collecting supplies. While Marmaduke had around 2,000 men, Union intelligence placed the Confederate strength at 5,000 men. Blunt placed his division into a defensive posture and informed Schofield of the developments; a planned movement east by the divisions at Springfield was cancelled. On November 23, Union reports credited the Confederates at Cane Hill with over 8,000 men, while Blunt had about 6,000 men with him. Wanting to stop the Confederates' supply-gathering in the Cane Hill area and believing himself abandoned by Schofield, Blunt decided to go on the offensive. Blunt believed that an attack brought the best odds of success, and he was still smarting from an earlier incident in which he assumed a defensive position in the face of a Confederate assault that had never occurred. This advance was delayed by two days while Blunt waited for a group of supply wagons to arrive. Logistics was difficult in the Ozark Mountains and played a major role in the operation and timing of campaigns in the region. While Blunt's men had plentiful ammunition, Marmaduke's Confederates were short on both ammunition and percussion caps. The Union also had a numerical advantage in artillery: thirty guns to six. Furthermore, most of the Confederate cannons were obsolescent. The Union cavalry's horses were in better condition than those of the Confederates, and the Confederates were inadequately uniformed. Leaving on November 27 with 5,000 men, Blunt's force reached Rhea's Mill the next morning; Rhea's Mill was only from Cane Hill.
Marmaduke had planned a strike against a Union position at Elkhorn Tavern, but he learned early on the morning of November 28 that Blunt's forces were advancing up the Line Road, so the Elkhorn Tavern movement was cancelled. Ordering his supply wagons to safety, Marmaduke decided to fight a delaying action to buy time for the wagons. Anticipating that the Union forces would take the direct route via the Cincinnati Road, the Confederates took up a position defending that road. However, Blunt approached via the Ridge Road, which intersected the Fayetteville Road before leading to the Cane Hill area. This resulted in the Confederates holding a line facing northwest, while Blunt arrived from the northeast. Patrols from Colonel Joseph O. Shelby's force guarded the Fayetteville Road. Two guns from Joseph Bledsoe's Missouri Battery were positioned: one aimed down the Cincinnati Road, and the other overlooking the Fayetteville Road.
Battle After having resumed the movement at 5:00 am on November 28, Blunt's advance passed the junction of the Ridge Road and the Fayetteville Road, and Cloud was ordered to take the lead of the column. He sent forward the 2nd Kansas Cavalry Regiment and an artillery battery associated with the regiment that was armed with two mountain howitzers. After having made it to about from the Confederate position without resistance, the Kansans encountered Shelby's scouts who withdrew to the main Confederate camp after a brief exchange of fire. The Union pursuit followed to a position below a hill where Bledsoe's battery was deployed. Cloud claimed that one of the mountain howitzers opened the ensuing artillery duel, while Confederate staff officer John Newman Edwards claimed that the Confederate artillery fired first. Both historian William L. Shea and a journal article written by Kim Allen Scott and Stephen Burgess side with the Confederate claim to have opened the artillery duel. This exchange of artillery began at about 10:00 am.
Both sides brought up additional cannons. Bledsoe's second gun was repositioned, and two cannons from Shoup's Arkansas Battery were advanced to the front. On the Union side, six cannons from the 2nd Indiana Battery deployed. Both sides' batteries fired upon each for about an hour with little effect. By this time, Shelby had determined that Union forces were not using the Cincinnati Road. Blunt found himself with only the small lead force, as the rest of his column had not yet arrived. He sent an aide, Verplanck Van Antwerp, to the rear to hurry forward the rest of his command. Van Antwerp found that the reason for the holdup was that an infantry unit had been placed as the second unit in the marching column. The cavalry units behind the infantry regiment (the 11th Kansas Infantry Regiment) were ordered to pass the marching men, and the 11th Kansas moved forward at double time behind them.
Once the rest of his brigade had arrived, Cloud deployed the additional men. The lead portion of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry was in the front, along with the 1st Indian Home Guard. Hopkins's Kansas Battery arrived and was deployed to the rear, with the 2nd Kansas Cavalry in support. The 11th Kansas Infantry was positioned between Hopkins's battery and the 2nd Indiana Battery. Seeing the Union attack building, Shelby ordered a retreat. Cloud attacked with 1,500 men, and the fighting soon passed through town, although the Cane Hill College was damaged by artillery fire. On the other side of town were 200 Confederate soldiers commanded by MacDonald, but they too were forced to withdraw.
Positioned beyond Cane Hill at a location known as Kidd's Mill was Colonel Charles A. Carroll's Confederate brigade. Carroll had about 400 men (less than one quarter of his brigade's strength on paper), and two mountain howitzers that were positioned on the Confederate right. The two Confederate cannons were able to temporarily slow the Union advance, but fire from Hopkins's battery caused the Confederate cannoneers to withdraw. At least some of Carroll's men were armed only with shotguns, and after firing a few volleys with little effect Carroll's force withdrew. Shelby's men provided a rear guard for Carroll's retreat. By this time it was around noon, and the fighting was shifting to the south toward Newburg.