Scout from Helena to Swan’s Plantation (October 18–20, 1864)

A detachment of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment lost one man during a three-day scout from Helena (Phillips County) while pursuing a company of the First Arkansas Cavalry (CS) in October 1864.

Captain Albert Collins and Lieutenant William H. Huddleston led forty men of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment out of the Union base at Helena at 10:00 a.m. on October 18, 1864, on a scouting expedition into eastern Arkansas. While hunting for Confederate soldiers and guerrillas in general, the troopers were likely searching in particular for Captain John R. Swan’s company of Colonel Archibald Dobbins’s First Arkansas Cavalry (CS), of which a Federal officer had written following an expedition from DeValls Bluff (Prairie County) a day earlier: “Swan has belonging to his command about 100 men composed principally of deserters from the rebel and Federal armies; are well armed and mostly mounted on Government stock stolen from Helena.”

After passing the Union picket lines outside of Helena, the Illinois troopers sidled toward LaGrange (Lee County) to Bailey’s Plantation, where they captured William Adams of Anderson’s company. The Federals crossed Big Creek and followed a road from the mouth of Spring Creek toward Trenton (Phillips County). At the Wilson plantation, they captured two of Swan’s men, after which “a Picket Guard discharged his gun & run into the woods & fired twice…to alarm Swans camp & other pickets.”

On the morning of October 19, Collins and his men were on the Ridge Road when they learned that “a party of 15 or 20 had passed during the night toward Wallace’s Ferry.” They rode to the ferry and “found nothing,” and then proceeded to Trenton. From there, they rode to the large farm owned by Swan and his mother Pamelia, who between them had owned $12,420 in real property and enslaved nineteen people in 1860. The farm was located “on Big Creek, about four miles from the bay [Indian Bay (Monroe County)], which is [Swan’s] favorite haunt.”

At Swan’s, they surprised two horsemen who “run towards the woods in rear of the house about ½ miles distant.” Two Illinois troopers riding ahead of the detachment pursued them. As they approached the woods, one man stopped, but the other, Private Thomas Sears, was on a horse that was “running as fast as possible [and] could not stop with him.” Sears rode to within fifteen yards of the woods, “where there were 15 or 20 of the Rebels in ambush & they fired a Voley [sic] at Him killing Him instantly & disabling his horse.” Collins and the rest of the cavalrymen charged forward, “but the Rebels had fled into the woods so I did not see one of them.” The Federals buried Sears in the Swans’ garden, but “the time occupied in doing this made it too late to reach the vicinity of Swan’s camp before dark.”

The Federals camped that night at the Thompson plantation, leaving at 6:00 a.m. on October 20 and returning to Helena at 5:00 p.m.

While the October 18–20, 1864, scout of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry failed to capture Swan, another sortie by the Fifteenth captured him on October 27. Swan would be imprisoned until taking the oath of allegiance to the United States on June 16, 1865.

For additional information:
Albert Collins to Lieut. Louis Souther, October 21, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Combined Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas, 1861–1865, Roll 3.

E. Carmichael to Capt. T. C. Meatyard, October 28, 1864, National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Hewett, Janet B. et al., eds. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 8, p. 228. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1995.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1, Part 1, Vol. 41. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1885, p. 889.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas