Scout from Houston, Missouri, to Spring River Mills (August 6–11, 1863)

The Federals’ August 6–11, 1863, Civil War scouting expedition from Houston, Missouri, to Spring River Mill near present-day Mammoth Spring (Fulton County) resulted in the deaths of twenty Confederate soldiers and guerrillas and the destruction of a pair of mills.

Acting on intelligence from a female spy saying that Colonel Thomas R. Freeman and his Confederate brigade were camping in Fulton County, Arkansas, Captain Richard Murphy led detachments of four companies of the Fifth Missouri State Militia Cavalry south from Houston, Missouri, on August 6, 1863.

The Missourians had several skirmishes with bushwhackers as they rode south through Howell County, Missouri, killing two in one fight, eight in another, and five more in a third engagement. When they reached Gouge’s Mill in Missouri, they found “a notice posted up, calling on the citizens to enlist in the Confederate army.” They surprised and captured five Confederate soldiers at the mill and discovered a gunsmith shop “where these lawless bands get their arms repaired.” The Federals burned both buildings and continued toward Arkansas.

Entering Fulton County on August 8, Murphy’s advance scouts “saw 3 men running with guns on their shoulders” and “succeeded in killing them all.” The remainder of the militia cavalry arrived at Spring River Mill at about 4:00 p.m., and Murphy wrote “this mill, although I found no rebels there, is nevertheless a great rendezvous for these guerrillas.”

The cavalrymen found remnants of Freeman’s camp where the Confederates had spent “the greater part of the summer” before they moved south about two weeks earlier. “On account of its reputed bad name and my own knowledge of it heretofore,” Murphy ordered Spring River Mill burned down “with a quantity of flour and corn, which was in it.” The column continued north, killing two more guerrillas.

They reached their base at Houston on August 11 after “marching a distance of 250 miles, killing at least 20 rebels,” and “destroying at least all of their principal places of rendezvous” at the cost of one man being slightly wounded. They also brought in eleven prisoners and about ten horses, along with assorted seized equipment.

The scout from Houston to Spring River Mill reflected a growing pattern of destroying civilian infrastructure to hinder the bushwhackers operating in the increasingly lawless land of southern Missouri and north-central Arkansas.

For additional information:
Bradbury, John F., ed. “My Own Commander”: The Civil War Journal of J. J. Sitton, 1863–1865. Columbia: State Historical Society of Missouri, 2023, p. 287.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Vol 22, part 1, pp. 547–549. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1888.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System