Expedition on the Arkansas River near Little Rock (February 8–9, 1865)

Elements of two regiments of United States Colored Troops (USCT) conducted an expedition to attack Confederate guerrillas who were raiding east of Little Rock (Pulaski County) in early February 1865.

After receiving reports of guerrilla activity east of Little Rock, Union officials dispatched Lieutenant Colonel John G. Gustafson and the 112^th United States Colored Troops to seek them out. They headed down the Arkansas River on the evening of February 8 aboard the steamboat Davenport. The soldiers landed on the north side of the river about ten miles below Little Rock.

The bushwhackers, though, had fallen back down the river at 9:00 p.m. on February 8, “without molesting our outposts and doing no damage, except to rob a few families and carrying off some negroes, men, women, and children; number not known.” The 112^th returned to Little Rock on February 9.

Gustafson reported that there were about eighty guerrillas in the band and that Colonel Lauriston W. Whipple “will be in soon.” Part of Whipple’s 113th USCT was also involved in the expedition, which is confirmed by a letter from an officer in the 112th who wrote home that “a gang of guerrillas… came up within three miles of town, and committed all kinds of depredations. A detachment of the 112th and 113th was sent after them.”

While it was unsuccessful in locating the bushwhackers they were pursuing, the February 8–9, 1865, expedition down the Arkansas River represented a rare example of field maneuvers by Black regiments that primarily performed labor and guard duties.

For additional information:
Foroughi, Andrea R. Go if You Think It Your Duty: A Minnesota Couple’s Civil War Letters. St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 48, part 1, p. 102. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1896.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System