BATTLE OF CANE HILL
Page 2
By Dale Cox
The Battle of Cane Hill was a significant preliminary event to the Battle of
Prairie Grove. Fought on November 28, 1862, the engagement lasted nine
hours and extended through villages and farms and across mountainsides
and valleys. Casualties were light considering the intensity of the fight, but
both sides agreed the battle was hard-fought and that both Federals and
Confederates exhibited remarkable courage and determination.
Today’s Cane hill community is the surviving remnant of an extensive
antebellum settlement. According to Confederate Major General Thomas C.
Hindman, the area in 1862 was one of the more prosperous points in
Northwest Arkansas:
Cane Hill is a ridge of perhaps 8 miles length and 5 miles width, in the
southwest part of Washington County, Arkansas, just beyond the north base
of the Boston Mountains. Three villages are built upon it (Russellville,
Boonsborough, and Newburg), which almost blend with each other, covering
a distance, as the road to Fayetteville runs, of 3 or 5 miles….
In addition to its agricultural and commercial interests, Cane Hill was
noteworthy as the site of Cane Hill College. The first institution of higher
learning in Arkansas, the college had been in operation for thirty years by
the time of the Civil War.
The strategic location of the community, where several roads united after
crossing over the Boston Mountains, gave it significant military importance
early in the war. This was evidenced in late November of 1862, when General
Hindman sent a large cavalry force under Brigadier General John S.
Marmaduke to occupy Cane Hill. Following on the heels of a Union scouting
party that had penetrated south of the mountains, Marmaduke positioned his
brigades at successive points along Cane Hill ridge. Among the men
attached to his command, interestingly, were William Clark Quantrill’s
notorious guerillas, who are believed at this time to have included
future outlaws Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger. Quantrill himself
was not present and his company was headed by a lieutenant.
Marmaduke’s occupation of Cane Hill was in anticipation of a planned
movement by Hindman to bring his entire army over the mountains in hopes
of destroying Union forces in the region in detail.
The Federals were quickly alerted to this movement and Marmaduke’s
pickets skirmished with Union scouts near Cane Hill on November 25, 1862,
while calls for reinforcements were rushed up to Union commanders in
Missouri. Deciding that the “best defense is a good offense,” Union
Brigadier General James G. Blunt organized his men and moved to attack
Marmaduke before Hindman’s main army could come across the mountains.
Leaving his camps on November 27, 1862, Blunt marched south. The rough
country across which he marched caused his 5,000 men to become strung
out, and most of his infantry was still miles to the rear when his cavalry
reached Cane Hill at between 9 and 10 o’clock on the morning of November
28th:
In passing down a gorge between two abrupt hills, their grand guard was
encountered in considerable force. Dashing on, and driving them before us,
a few hundred yards brought us to where the bluff on the right terminated,
and in full view of the enemy, who were posted on the right of the road, on
elevated ground, with timber in their rear, their guns in battery, bearing
upon the road on which I was approaching, and from which they
immediately opened a brisk fire. I at once ordered Rabb’s battery into
position, and also the two howitzers under Lieutenant [E.S.] Stover, when
a fierce cannonading ensued, which lasted for the space of nearly an hour.
Although forewarned that the Federals were coming, Confederate Colonel
“Fighting” Jo Shelby still allowed himself to be taken by surprise. Blunt
achieved this by advancing via an unexpected road and the battle was
opened before Shelby had much of a chance to respond:
Having had due notice (eighteen hours previous) by the general commanding
that the enemy were advancing, we endeavored to be on the alert, but I must
confess (thought it may reflect somewhat upon myself) that the enemy, by
his skillful management, fell upon me sooner than I would have desired,
considering that a portion of our division was encamped some distance in
my rear and I had but little time to give them the notice required; yet I had
sufficient time to place my men in their proper positions and await the
coming of the hated foe.
The fighting at the northern end of Cane Hill quickly developed into an
intense artillery exchange. The Confederates held their position for as long
as they could in the face of the developing Union line, then fell back through
the village to a ridge about three-fourths of a mile south of their original
position. This withdrawal, which both sides recorded was handled
efficiently, took both the retreating Confederates and the pursuing Federals
past the grounds of the Cane Hill College.
The rest of Marmaduke’s division was already in place at the new position
and the Confederates watched with interest as the Federals deployed ahead
of them:
Here the naked eye could see General Blunt’s columns of cavalry and
infantry pouring over the hills in our front, and advancing slowly and
cautiously to the attack. It was a splendid sight – flaunting banners, serried
ranks, as the long lines came gleaming on….
The sight was more than “splendid” to the Confederates, for it convinced
them they could not hope to hold their new position against the oncoming
Northern army. Despite Federal reports claiming 8,000 or more Confederates
were on the field at Cane Hill, the actual number was less than half that. In
short, the Union army had more men (even without the delayed infantry),
more artillery and the element of surprise.
Deciding to withdraw to the Boston Mountains, the Confederates again left
their position and retreated, fighting as they went. Along the way, they
stopped and formed in a few positions long enough to force the Federals to
deploy and move up their artillery, but generally continued to fall back until
they reached the first significant ridge of the mountains.
This ridge, which separates Cane Hill from the Cove Creek valley, offered a
commanding view of the surrounding country and had the Confederates not
run out of ammunition for their cannon they likely would have inflicted much
heavier damage on the approaching Federal column. The fighting once again
grew intense:
Immediately on top of the mountain I had a part of Colonel Thompson’s
command, under Major [M.W.] Smith, formed to receive the enemy, and a
little to the rear of
Smith, on the right, I had one company of Elliott’s scouts, commanded by
Captain Martin. Smith and Martin calmly awaited the coming of the enemy,
and as they came charging up the hill in solid columns, they poured a deadly
fire on them, which sent them staggering down the mountain. By this time I
had other detachments formed but a short distance in the rear (Smith and
Martin falling back and loading), who fired on them with much effect, being
in easy gun-shot. Martin, having his men ready and formed, delivered once
more a terrible fire, but in doing so this brigade suffered a terrible loss in
the death of the gallant and heroic Martin. He fell, as he lived, fighting
for his home and fireside, “with his back to the field and his feet to the foe.”
General Blunt also reported that the fight on the mountainside was
determined and severe:
The resistance of the rebels was stubborn and determined. The storm of lead
and iron hail that came down the side of the mountain, both from their small-
arms and artillery, was terrific; yet most of it went over our heads without
doing us much damage. The regiments just named, with a wild shout rushed
up the steep acclivity, contesting every inch of ground, and steadily pushed
the enemy before them, until the crest was reached when the rebels again
fled in disorder.
From the mountaintop, the Confederates withdrew down into the Cove
Creek valley. This valley, created by the tumbling course of Cove Creek as it
flows south through the Boston Mountains, was a narrow but natural
gateway connecting Washington County with the Arkansas River Valley
below. Cove Creek Road, accordingly, was used repeatedly by both armies
throughout the war.
Finding the ground in the valley more suitable for the use of cavalry, the
Federals launched a saber attack against their Confederate opponents. The
movement almost induced panic in the Southern ranks, as many of the men
became convinced their comrades were being hacked to death by Union
soldiers, but Marmaduke had a final bit of strategy up his sleeve:
The charge continued for about half a mile down the valley, to a point where
it converged in a funnel shape, terminating in a narrow defile. At this point a
large body of the enemy were in ambush in front and upon the flanks, where
cavalry could not approach, with their battery also masked in front. As soon
as the party we were pursuing had passed through the defile, they opened
upon us a most destructive fire, which, for the moment, caused my men to
recoil and give back, in spite of my own efforts and those of other officers to
rally them; whereas, if they had, after receiving the enemy’s fire, passed on
200 or 300 yards, we would have secured, in a moment more, what we so
much coveted – the enemy’s artillery. Emboldened by their success in
defending the defile and checking our advance, they raised a wild yell and
advanced toward us.
Thrown back for the first time of the day, the Federals now were forced to
rally behind three companies of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry and beat back the
Confederate counterattack. According to Blunt, he was preparing for
another assault when a Confederate officer approached his lines under a
flag of truce and asked permission to remove the Southern dead and
wounded from the battlefield. Because darkness was falling and expressing
concern that the Confederates might “murder” Lieutenant Colonel L.R.
Jewell who had fallen during the ambush, the Union general agreed to
the request and the Battle of Cane Hill came to an end.
Marmaduke withdrew during the night into the mountains and Blunt and his
men returned to Cane Hill. The two forces would fight again just 9 days later
at the Battle of Prairie Grove.