Scout from Helena (December 6–8, 1863)

An early December 1863 scouting foray during the Civil War by the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment from its base in Helena (Phillips County) resulted in the capture of several Confederate soldiers and irregular troops.

Men of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry led by Major Eagleton Carmichael left Helena on December 6, 1863, and as they rode to Simm’s plantation at the ford of Big Creek in Phillips County, they captured William Boyce and Leonidas Hudson of Lieutenant Thomas C. Casteel’s company of irregular Confederate cavalry. As they reached Simm’s, they captured Lieutenant Isaac S. Chrisman and Private James Collins of Colonel Archibald Dobbins’s First Arkansas Cavalry (CS). When the Illinois troopers approached the ford of Big Creek, they scared off a Confederate picket, who fled and left his horse behind. The Federals camped at Simm’s that night.

After swimming across the creek the next morning, the Illinois cavalrymen rode “to the neighborhood of Crisp & Rogers” about twelve miles west of Trenton (Phillips County), where they “found that Davis’ Comp[an]y had been encamped at Rogers’ but learning of our approach had left there in time to prevent our coming in sight of them.” The Union soldiers then began heading back to Helena, spending the night at Brown’s farm six miles west of Trenton.

Leaving at daylight on December 8, the Federal horsemen encountered a wagon, belonging to a man named Ramsey, hauling three barrels of salt and one barrel of flour. They determined that two barrels of salt and the flour “were for Mr. Trotter” and that the remaining salt “belonged to a rebel Soldier by the name of Cotton, a member of Davis’ comp[an]y.” Carmichael ordered the boy driving the wagon to turn around, removing two barrels of salt from the heavily loaded wagon. When seven miles from Helena, they released the boy with orders for him to take the wagon to Ramsey and for both of them to report to Helena.

Crossing Big Creek at Wallace’s Ferry, Carmichael dispatched a detachment to search for contraband at Charley Brown’s home. They captured a Missouri Confederate named William S. Beard at Brown’s house, but “his wife being absent and having a large family of small children,” the Yankees declined to arrest Brown.

The December 6–8, 1863, scout from Helena was typical of the frequent expeditions Union troops made from their Mississippi River base in search of Confederate troops and guerrillas in the area.

For additional information:
Carmichael, Maj. to Capt. T. C. Meatyard, December 9, 1863. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas