Scout from Helena to Council Bend (May 13–14, 1864)

A two-day scouting foray from the Union base at Helena (Phillips County) that reached as far as Council Bend (Lee County) revealed widespread illicit trade in the area.

Colonel William S. Brooks of the Fifty-sixth U.S. Colored Troops led troops from Helena north to Berry’s woodyard at the foot of Walnut Bend (Lee County) on the evening of May 13, 1864, where they debarked from their steamboat. Brooks joined a company of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment as it rode to Clark’s Store and then to Miller’s Landing on the Mississippi River, where they met the steamboat Hamilton Bell on the morning of May 14. While the troopers did not find any Confederate troops or arms, they “found every house supplied with groceries and dry Goods bought in Memphis” with proper permits from Union authorities.

The soldiers then left Miller’s Landing and traveled by Alligator Bayou and Possum Ridge to Bledsoe’s Landing at Council Bend, arriving at 4:00 p.m. on May 14. Brooks dispatched detachments into the interior “who reported great quantities of goods such as flour salt whiskey potatoes by the Barrell Cloth by the Bolt” and “many articles not accompanied by permits.” He said that Black area residents told his troops that the steamer Gen. Morton “and other small boats were often seen trading with Citizens contrary to regulations.”

Brooks concluded that in the area he scouted there were “enough goods and groceries above the amount required by the citizens to feed and clothe a Brigade for a month” and that goods acquired with proper permits were “in the hands of wives sisters Mothers &c of Rebel officers & soldiers” in units headed by Dandridge McRae, Archibald Dobbins, and other local Confederate leaders. He alleged the fact that the local Confederates “are receiving their supplies from Memphis and these trading boats is as certain as” it is that the quartermaster at Helena “feeds and clothes [the Union] command.” While most of the local Confederates had fallen back behind the St. Francis River, Brooks reported that “small parties visit the Mississippi two or three times each week.”

Returning to Helena on the evening of May 14, Brooks seized the Gen. Morton, “and her officers and crew…are now under guard,” noting that “we found the craft late last night [and] had no opportunity to examiner her.”

While no enemy soldiers were located during the May 13–14, 1864, scout to Council Bend, it did reveal a thriving black market in the neighborhood of the Federal stronghold at Helena.

For additional information:
W. S. Brooks to T. C. Meatyard, May 15, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas