Scout from Helena to Laconia (May 27–29, 1864)

A Union scouting foray from Helena (Phillips County) to Laconia (Desha County) in late May 1864 resulted in the capture of several Confederate soldiers and the severe wounding of “a robber.”

Major Eagleton Carmichael led troopers of his Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment out of Helena on the evening of May 27, 1864, boarding the steamboat Dove and heading south on the Mississippi River. The Federals disembarked at Dr. H. Blackburn’s plantation and then rode to Laconia.

From there, they proceeded past several plantations, searching for Confederate soldiers and guerrillas. On reaching the Pillow plantation, they captured three men named Ross, Scott, and Morgan, “all prisoners of war. They did belong to Miss[issippi] Regiments but lately attached” to Lieutenant Tom C. Casteel’s irregular cavalry company, Carmichael wrote.

The Illinois troops also engaged in a skirmish in which “one Miller, a robber,” was “I think mortally wounded,” Carmichael reported. “He received two shots one through his body entering near his Backbone and coming out through his right brest [sic] the other entering the left side of his face the ball stopping in the joint of his right jaw.” This may have been the same man who Colonel William S. Brooks of the Fifty-sixth United States Colored Troops wounded during the April 29–May 2, 1864, expedition from Helena to Desha County.

In addition to the three Confederate soldiers who were captured, the Federals seized three horses, two revolvers, and a rifle before returning to Helena on May 29, completing one of the regular patrols the Union troops in Helena conducted seeking Confederate soldiers and guerrillas operating in the Delta region.

For additional information:
Carmichael to Capt. T. C. Meatyard, May 30, 1864. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas