Skirmish Near Island No. 63

A detachment of soldiers from the Fifty-sixth U.S. Colored Infantry was ambushed near Island No. 63 on the Mississippi River on August 5, 1864, but successfully drove off their attackers.

Company H of the Third Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) was organized at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in September and October 1863 before transferring to Helena (Phillips County). The regiment was designated the Fifty-sixth U.S. Colored Infantry on March 11, 1864.

On July 20, 1864, Company H was ordered to Island No. 63 on the Mississippi River in order to protect a contraband camp where men were employed as woodcutters to provide fuel for steamboats plying the Mississippi River.

On August 5, 1864, a man waving a flag of truce appeared on the Mississippi side of the river; he announced that he intended to desert from the Confederate army and requested to cross over to Island No. 63. Lieutenant William H. C. Jacques ordered eight men of the Fifty-sixth to join him in a skiff and cross the river.

As the Federals approached the Mississippi shore, “a squad of Rebels concealed in the weeds on the river bank” opened fire. Jacques ordered his troops to return fire, and they soon drove the Confederates and the erstwhile deserter from the bank. An officer noted that “nothing could exceed the coolness of the men under fire.” The soldiers returned to the island “without the loss of a man.”

Though it was a minor incident, the skirmish near Island No. 63 showed that even routine garrison duty could prove dangerous in the closing months of the Civil War.

For additional information:
Hewett, Janet B., et al., eds. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 78. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1998, pp. 319–320.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas