Expedition from Helena to Stewart’s Plantation, Mississippi (July 1–2, 1864)

A detachment of the Fifty-sixth U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) conducted an expedition from Helena (Phillips County) to Stewart’s Plantation, Mississippi, on July 1–2, 1864, to seize cotton and seek the capture of Confederate soldiers.

Under orders from Brigadier General Napoleon B. Buford, Colonel William S. Brooks left Helena on July 1, 1864, with “95 men properly officered” from his Fifty-sixth USCT “provided with one days rations.” Their steamboat first stopped at Fort Pinney, a contraband camp southeast of Helena, and then at Island No. 63 (a couple of months before the skirmish there) on the Mississippi River, where they added another twenty-one men from the Fifty-sixth to the force while delivering teachers and a chaplain to the site.

Crossing to Robinson’s Landing in Mississippi, Brooks sent most of his men to Stewart’s Plantation, where they were to seize cotton. The colonel, finding “evident signs of an enemy in the visinity [sic],” took fifteen mounted men and “struck the trail of Sanders Co.” They pursued the trail for about three miles “when I had assertained [sic] that they were leaving…and would not molest my comd [command]” and returned to Stewart’s, where they spent the night.

At about 3:00 a.m. on July 2, the Federals brought the twenty-one bales of cotton from Stewart’s plantation to the steamboat along with “2 fat sheep 3 cows and 3 calves which belonged to Lt. Robinson of Sanders Co.”

Having “learned that Capt Montgomery with 2 Cos [companies] was at Forrest plantation opposite Island 68,” the Union soldiers steamed down to Cranshaw’s landing and marched to the plantation, where they “captured one Soldier and chased several others.” Brooks determined that Montgomery was in the area with a force of mounted Confederates and “deeming it useless to pursue farther I returned to Helena,” where he turned his prisoner over to the provost marshal and the cotton and livestock to the post quartermaster.

The expedition to Stewart’s plantation was typical of the raids regularly undertaken from the Union stronghold at Helena into Mississippi during the summer of 1864.

For additional information:
W. S. Brooks to Capt. T. C. Meatyard, July 10, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas