Expedition from Helena to Mississippi and Laconia (April 23, 1864)

A late April 1864 Civil War expedition from Helena (Phillips County) into Mississippi and to Laconia (Desha County) resulted in the capture of several notable Confederate guerrilla leaders.

Major Eagleton Carmichael of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment and Captain T. C. Meatyard, assistant adjutant general for the District of Eastern Arkansas, led 300 cavalrymen from the Union base at Helena on April 23, 1864, onto the steamboat Westmoreland on a mission “to break up the forces under Captain Sanders” in Mississippi. The troopers scattered the Mississippi Confederates and then “made a sudden detour into Arkansas below Laconia” after a target of opportunity.

“The rebels were taken unaware,” the Memphis Bulletin reported. “The Mississippi diversion had entirely blinded them.” The Federals captured “six of the foremost guerrillas in the State of Arkansas—six desperadoes who had been bidding defiance to law justice and humanity for months.”

The Union troops surprised and captured Lieutenant Tom C. Casteel, Lieutenant John H. Yerby (who was aide-de-camp to Colonel Archibald Dobbins), Captain S. G. Hanley of the Helena Artillery, Privates Tom Stoneman and Thomas H. Quarles of Dobbins’s First Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (CS), and a Captain Wilds. The Bulletin noted that the seizure of these men—along with the recent captures of Colonel John E. Josey, Captain William Weatherly, and Lieutenant Jack Thompson—“leave the guerrillas in Arkansas without officers, and the people can now organize to defend themselves, if they will,” adding that Federal troops operating from Helena had captured 450 Confederate soldiers and guerrillas “during the last few months.”

While most of the captives were shipped to northern prisoner-of-war camps, Brigadier General Napoleon Bonaparte Buford “retained here, under very strict guard” Casteel, Yerby, Stoneman, and Quarles. “All these persons have violated the laws of war by making midnight thieving excursions to the plantations leased by the Government to peaceful citizens and stealing from them their horses, mules, and watches, money, clothing, and provisions,” Buford reported, adding, “I have evidence that Lieutenant Casteel has more than once fired on unarmed boats; that he has had one white man named Hobbs killed, and two negroes; that he has had other negroes unmercifully whipped, and that all the others above named have been principals or accomplices in similar acts of crime and barbarity.”

Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby, notified by Dobbins that Casteel might be treated as a guerrilla instead of a regular military prisoner, wrote to the Union officer stating that “Lieutenant Casteel is a regular Confederate officer and belongs to my command.” Buford responded that the captives “are treated exactly as the others with the exception that special precautions are taken every night to prevent their escape, while I await an answer to my communication to higher authorities concerning them.”

They remained in captivity until February 1865, when Confederate officials determined to treat both white and Black soldiers equally when exchanging prisoners, and General Ulysses S. Grant “agreed to the release of 3,000 prisoners a week, on a man-to-man basis, until all captives had been freed.” The Helena prisoners, along with Captain John R. Swan, were ordered sent to New Orleans on February 3 and then to Fort Monroe, Virginia, five days later, with the order saying that “the exchange of these prisoners was specially arranged by General Grant.”

For additional information:
“From Helena, Arkansas.” Memphis [Tennessee] Bulletin, April 28, 1864, p. 2.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 34, part 3, p. 562. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1891.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 41, part 2, pp. 991, 996. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1893.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Vol. 8, pp. 176–177, 199. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1899.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas