Scout from Helena to Bayou DeView (March 20–23, 1863)

The Civil War scout from Helena (Phillips County) to Bayou DeView in late March 1863 was undertaken to attack Confederate troops reported to be at Cotton Plant (Woodruff County) but was stymied by high water, though several Confederates were killed, wounded, or captured.

Colonel Powell Clayton of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry led a scouting party “one thousand Strong” from Helena on March 20, 1863, taking the Little Rock Road to Lick Creek, where his men built a temporary bridge. After crossing the creek, they took the Spring Creek Road toward Cotton Plant to “disperse a force of rebels reported to be stationed there.”

When the Union force stopped at noon, its pickets were attacked by troops under Captain Samuel Corley of Colonel Archibald Dobbins’s Confederate cavalry regiment “who were hanging upon our rear evidently for the purpose of picking up Stragglers.” An Illinois cavalryman wrote that “when the [Confederates] came in range of their guns they fired upon them killing the Captain dead.” (This is an error: Corley would instead be killed in the Engagement at Bayou Fourche on September 10, 1863, at the conclusion of the Little Rock Campaign.) An Illinoisan reported that Corley’s troops made two more charges, saying they “fired & retreated as before with the same success as before,” after which they broke off the attack. Clayton reported that “upon our side no injury was sustained. Corley lost one man [killed] and had two wounded and two horses killed.”

The Federals arrived at Bayou DeView on the evening of March 21, and a Kansas officer wrote that he “found the crossing of that deep and sluggish stream utterly impracticable, on account of the bridge being destroyed and the bottom of the east of the ‘Bayou’ being overflowed.” Clayton, “being satisfied that with the exception of Corley’s Company, there was no Rebel forces on this side of Bayou de View,” decided to return to Helena.

They started back on the morning of March 22, “capturing at different points five Confederate Soldiers and paroled one who was too sick to accompany us,” and were back in camp on March 23. A Kansas soldier concluded that “we did not accomplish much this time. Killed one secesh, wounded two and captured five or six prisoners, with out any loss on our side, but we had plenty to eat and we had lots of fun.” The Federals did lose about fifty horses, though, “on account of a contemptible little fly, called the Buffalo Gnat.” Clayton noted that “I was informed by citizens that this insect is very destructive to all kinds of Stock at this Season of the Year, tar and lard rubbed upon the vulnerable parts is a remedy.”

While the scout from Helena to Bayou DeView did not meet its original goal, it is typical of the frequent forays of Union troops from their Mississippi River base at Helena in search of Confederate troops and guerrillas lurking in the area.

For additional information:
Fry, Alice L. Following the Fifth Kansas: The Letters. Independence, MO: Two Trails Publishing, 1998, pp. 37, 169.

Kohl, Rhonda M. The Prairie Boys Go to War: The Fifth Illinois Cavalry, 1861–1865. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2013, pp. 100–101.

Powell Clayton to General, March 24, 1863. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

“Reverend Samuel Madison ‘Major Sam’ Corley.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25449270/samuel-madison-corley (accessed November 14, 2024).

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas