- Battle of Poison Spring
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Poison Spring
caption=
partof=American Civil War
date=April 18 ,1864
place=Ouachita County,Arkansas
result=Confederate victory
combatant1= flagicon|USA|1863United States (Union)
combatant2= flagicon|CSA|1863 CSA (Confederacy)
commander1=Col.James M. Williams
commander2=John S. Marmaduke Samuel B. Maxey
strength1=Brigade (1,100 men)
strength2=Marmaduke’s and Maxey’s Divisions
casualties1=301
casualties2=114|The Battle of Poison Spring was fought during the
American Civil War onApril 18 ,1864 , inOuachita County, Arkansas as part of theCamden Expedition .Dwindling supplies for his army at Camden forced Maj. Gen.
Frederick Steele to send out a foraging party to gather corn that the Confederates had stored about twenty miles up the Prairie D’Ane-Camden Road on White Oak Creek. The party loaded the corn into wagons, and on April 18, Col.James M. Williams started his return to Camden. Brig. Gen.John S. Marmaduke ’s and Brig. Gen.Samuel B. Maxey ’s Confederate forces arrived at Lee Plantation, about fifteen miles from Camden, where they engaged Williams. The Confederates eventually attacked Williams in the front and rear, forcing him to retreat north into a marsh where his men regrouped and then fell back to Camden. The Union lost 198 wagons and all the corn. Estimated casualties were 301 for Williams and 114 for the Confederates. Many men of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry did not make it back, due to revenge killings by Confederates from the border regions and scalpings by Native Americans in Confederate service whose homes in theIndian Territory had been raided.The site is commemorated as the
Poison Spring State Park .References
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/ar014.htm National Park Service Poison Spring battle description]
External links
* [http://peace.saumag.edu/swark/articles/ahq/camden_expedition/poisonspring/poisonspring338.html Battle description in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Volume XXVIII (Winter 1959), p. 338]
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