Attack on the Steamboat Curlew

Confederate guerrillas attacked the steamboat Curlew on the Arkansas River on April 16, 1864, and were driven off after Union soldiers from the vessel killed their leader.

Private Thomas Keenan of Company C, Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment, frequently participated in guerrilla raids, earning the nickname “Wild Irishman.” He had led an 1862 attack on the mail packet Gladiator at Bledsoe’s Landing on the Mississippi River but, by 1864, was operating on the Arkansas.

In mid-April 1864, the steamboat Curlew, which was carrying “100 bales of cotton for Memphis engaged at $20 per bale,” was stranded by low water at Johnson’s Island about fifteen miles below Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). A Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper reported that a passenger on the vessel arranged for five cavalrymen to escort him to Pine Bluff. When they were about three miles from the boat, “a bushwhacked fire came upon them, killing two of the escort and wounding the other three, who have since died.” The passenger managed to escape and return to the Curlew. The newspaper noted that “guerrillas are most everywhere, either on the road or concealed in bushes.”

While it is unknown whether Keenan’s band was behind that ambush, he was leading the group on April 16 when the stranded Curlew was “attacked by a party of from ten to twelve of these outlaws.” Union soldiers aboard the vessel “went on shore to give the rascals fight, and succeeded in driving them off, after killing their leader,” the “Wild Irishman” Keenan. One Federal soldier was mortally wounded in the encounter. The Curlew eventually made it to Memphis, arriving on April 25.

While the attack on the Curlew failed, Confederate guerrillas and troops would make successful attacks on the steamboats I Go and J. H. Miller on the Arkansas River during the summer of 1864.

For additional information:
“Guerrillas on the Arkansas.” Memphis Bulletin, April 28, 1864, p. 4.

“Guerrillas on the Arkansas River.” St. Louis Republic, April 28, 1864, p. 3.

“Port of St. Louis.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 23, 1864, p. 4.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas