January 11, 1863

After two days of fighting, Union forces destroyed the Confederate fort at Arkansas Post (Arkansas County). The defeat at Arkansas Post cost Confederate Arkansas fully one-fourth of its armed forces in the largest surrender of Rebel troops west of the Mississippi River prior to the final capitulation of the Confederates in 1865. While the victory there did not have a major impact on the Union’s drive to take Vicksburg, it did ease the movement of Union shipping on the Mississippi and raise the morale of the Yankee troops after their rough handling at Chickasaw Bluffs.