Scout from Helena to Madison (October 11–15, 1864)

A five-day scouting foray by Union soldiers of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment from Helena (Phillips County) resulted in the capture of a dozen Confederate soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.

Acting on orders from Brigadier General Napoleon B. Buford, Captain Albert Collins of Company F, Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, led forty men of the regiment out of Helena at 4:00 p.m. on October 11, 1864. The troopers boarded the steamboat Diligent and steamed north for sixty miles, disembarking at Bledsoe’s landing seven hours later. The Union soldiers rode west to Palmer’s Plantation, where they camped for the night.

Leaving at 6:00 a.m. on October 12, the Federals rode to Oliver Lewis’s plantation, where they surprised and captured nine men from Captain C. N. Biscoe’s company of McGehee’s Arkansas Cavalry Regiment. Collins dispatched nine men to try to capture Biscoe, who was at a house one and a half miles away, but the Confederate spotted them while they were approaching and fled. Collins wrote that his soldiers “pursued Him some distance into the woods. As He has a fast horse They soon lost sight of Him & returned.”

Leaving Lewis’s, the Illinois horsemen crossed Blackfish Bayou and rode fifteen miles through the woods to the Adams Plantation on the St. Francis River eight miles north of Madison (St. Francis County). Continuing on, they crossed the St. Francis and rode west to Dr. Brasher’s Plantation, where they captured Lieutenant Colonel Elbridge G. Brasher of the Second Arkansas Infantry Regiment (CS); Brasher had been wounded in the right knee in fighting near Atlanta, Georgia, on July 22, 1864, and apparently had returned to Arkansas to recuperate after being released from a Georgia hospital in mid-August.

Heading toward Taylor’s Creek, they “found two men lying under a tree with arms and horses & Equipment near bye.” They captured Private James L. Hudson of the Twenty-third Arkansas Infantry Regiment (CS) and Thomas Hudson, who “claims to be a Citizen” but “was armed with a Halls Carbine” and was heading toward the headquarters of the Confederate regiment. After passing the creek they turned toward Madison and rode “past Capt Biscoes Camp. Found It deserted.” The hard-riding troopers finally made camp at 3:00 a.m. on October 13.

Eight hours later, the Federals rode to the home of a James Maloney and “took Him Prisoner for Smugling [sic] and Violating His oath of Alegiance [sic].” They reached Madison at 4:00 p.m. and rested for six hours before retracing their route past Biscoe’s camp. They captured a soldier of the Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment before halting at the Littlefield plantation at 2:00 a.m. on October 14. The horsemen were in the saddle again at 7:00 a.m. and passed several plantations before reaching the Sherer plantation, where “as my advance arrived near this house all the negro men run And the advance thinking them soldiers fired at them.” The shots missed the Black men, who fled into the woods, and “The Negro Women all said that Their master & mistress had told the Negro men to run if They saw the Federal Soldiers comeing [sic] that if They were taken by the Federals They would be placed in the front of Every Battle to be Shot down.”

Leaving the Sherer plantation at 7:00 a.m. on October 15, the Illinoisans rode to Helena, arriving at 4:00 p.m., “Having traveled 60 miles by Steam Boat And marched 140 miles in 4 days Capturing 1 Lt Col & 11 Rebel Soldiers and 2 citizens.” The scout from Helena to Madison was typical of the almost constant Union operations emanating from Helena in search of Confederate soldiers and guerrillas.

For additional information:
Albert Collins to Lieut. Louis Souther, October 16, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas