Battle of Poison Spring

The Battle of Poison Spring (April 18, 1864) was fought in Ouachita County, Arkansas as part of the Camden Expedition, during the American Civil War. The battle is infamous for the Confederates' slaughter and mutilation of black U.S. soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry.

Background

Dwindling supplies for his army at Camden, Arkansas forced Union Army Major-General 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, Colonel James Monroe Williams started his return to Camden. Brigadiers-General John Marmaduke’s and Samuel Maxey’s Confederate forces arrived at Lee Plantation, about fifteen miles from Camden, where they engaged Williams.

Opposing forces

Union

Further information: Camden Expedition Union order of battle

Confederate

Further information: Camden Expedition Confederate order of battle

Battle

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. During the fight, Williams positioned the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, a regiment made up of mostly ex-slaves, between the wagon train and Confederate lines; these black troops repelled the first two offenses, but ran low on ammunition and were beaten back by the third. The Confederates refused to take the wounded black soldiers as prisoners, and instead brutally killed, scalped, and stripped them. In all, the regiment lost nearly half of its numbers. The Union lost 198 wagons and all the corn. Estimated casualties were 301 for Williams and 114 for the Confederates.

Aftermath

A few months after the battle, one Confederate in an editorial approved of the Confederates' massacre of black U.S. soldiers in the battle, stating that "They did right."

The site of the battle, the Poison Spring Battlefield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark.

In popular culture

• The battle is mentioned in the 2012 film Lincoln.

See also

• Battle of Poison Spring State Historic Site
• List of American Civil War battles

Further reading

• Battle description in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Volume XXVIII (Winter 1959), p. 338

External links

• Battle of Poison Spring at the American Battlefield Protection Program
• Battle of Poison Spring at Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
• Regimental Colors of the 1st Colored Infantry at the Kansas Historical Society