Expedition from Helena to Indian Bay

A four-day expedition from the Union base at Helena (Phillips County) resulted in the capture of several Confederate soldiers and a Union deserter, as well as the seizure of horses and mules. 

Major Eagleton Carmichael of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry led 200 officers and men from Helena on April 3, taking the Spring Creek road to Thomas’s Mill, where they crossed Big Creek. They rode through Turkey Scratch (Phillips County) and passed several farms and plantations before stopping at Mrs. Luckadoo’s place and camping for the night. They captured two privates from Colonel Archibald Dobbins’s First Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (CS) and a private of the Twenty-third Arkansas Infantry Regiment over the course of the day. 

They were on the road by 6:00 a.m. on April 4, “having learned that there was a probability of capturing some prisoners to the left of the Hickory Ridge Road toward Clarendon” in Monroe County. Sending Major Samuel B. Sherer forward on the Hickory Ridge Road with part of the troops, Carmichael turned to the left with the rest of the Illinois horsemen, passing several farms before capturing Frederick Hill, a “deserter and robber” from the Thirteenth Illinois Infantry Regiment. Rejoining Sherer’s troops, they rode to within eight miles of Clarendon and then turned toward Trenton (Phillips County), spending the night at Andrew Roberts’s farm. The “probability of capturing some prisoners” was accurate: In addition to Hill, the Federals captured conscripting officer Captain B. F. Kerr, three privates from Dobbins’s command, a sergeant and two privates from “Mayo’s Co.,” and a man from “Davis’ Battalion.” 

Leaving at 6:00 a.m. on April 5, the Illinoisans rode through Lawrenceville (Monroe County) to Dr. Redman’s plantation “and found there Mr. Harper and a colored man—Sandy who acted as guides for us. We went to a number of places where Mayo’s Co. had camped but did not find them.” They then turned toward Indian Bay (Monroe County), camping for the night at a Mrs. Lambert’s farm. “During the night the pickets were fired upon several times,” Carmichael reported, “but I know of no damage being done.” The regiment returned to Helena the next day, having “captured during the trip 12 Horses and seized in compliance with General Order No. 91” a total of seventeen mules and eight horses from farms owned by people suspected of supporting the Confederacy. “The whole number of stock captured and seized and brought to Big Creek was 51 head,” Carmichael reported. 

The Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment’s expedition to Indian Bay was typical of the almost constant patrols into the area surrounding Helena in search of Confederate soldiers and guerrillas, as well as animals that could be used at the Mississippi River base. 

For additional information:
Carmichael Maj to Lieut. Southern, April 8, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas