Scouts from Helena (October 13–16, 1863)

Soldiers of the Second and Third Arkansas Infantry (African Descent) and other Union troops embarked on a series of scouting raids in Phillips County from October 13 to 16, 1863.

Colonel Charles S. Sheley of the Second Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) sent a company of his troops from a detached base in Phillips County on the Mississippi River called Camp Buford on October 13, 1863, to scout an area northwest of the camp. On their return the next day, “having accomplished the object of their mission,” they reported that the plantations in the area were mostly abandoned, finding “but Four hands were to work picking cotton.”

Another group of fifty men under Captain Alden Patten of Company A, Third Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) was sent out on the same day to the southwest of the camp. After a twenty-mile march on a “circuitous rout[e],” they discovered a recently abandoned enemy campsite. They “followed their trail until they disappeared in the heavy woods and brush.” Patten also reported seeing “but few hands picking cotton.” These observations likely helped the expansion of military farm colonies in the area.

Sheley reported that his pickets were fired on that evening, “but without damage. The compliment was promptly reci[p]rocated.”

Sheley sent a column to Helena (Phillips County) on October 15 “with a prisoner and a guard,” which was attacked near the Deputy plantation by Confederate cavalry “estimated at one Hundred by the officer in command.” They “safely reached camp.” He also reported that “Colonel Gilbert has just reported to me with his command” and would likely march on to Helena. (This was probably Colonel James Gilbert of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry, which was moving toward Memphis, Tennessee, after participating in the Little Rock Campaign.) Sheley requested that Brigadier General Napoleon Bonaparte Buford “reinforce me permanently with cavalry also with a piece or two of Artillery” to deter guerrillas across the river from attacking his troops.

Sheley reported that, on October 15, “my cavalry was out yesterday under Major Carmarket”—likely Major Eagleton Carmichael and the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry—and “put to flight a band of guerillas who were engaged in kidnapping colored men. The black men were rescued.” That same evening, he posted twenty sharpshooters after “the enemy appeared on the opposite side of the river.” The marksmen “dismounted one guerrilla.”

A party of eighty-five men under Captain Patten returned to Camp Buford on October 16 after performing “an ambush 6 miles below here.” As Sheley reported, they captured guerrilla Jerry Abberson and a “black man who was caught lurking about their guard….I have evidence that this black man is the person who informed the enemy of our position and strength.”

While the activities of the Black Union troops operating from Camp Buford were somewhat routine, they do show that those soldiers were actively engaged in offensive operations against enemy troops and guerrillas on a daily basis. Though the location of Camp Buford is unknown, its position on the Mississippi River raises the possibility that it later developed into the Fort Pinney contraband camp, which was first mentioned in the Official Records on April 29, 1864.

For additional information:
Col. C. S. Sheley, Commanding Forces, to Brig. Gen. Buford, October 14, 1863. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Col. C. S. Sheley, Commanding Forces, to Brig. Gen. Buford, October 15, 1863. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Col. C. S. Sheley, Commanding Forces, to Brig. Gen. Buford, October 16, 1863. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of Named Departments, 393P2E299, Box 1.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas