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Historic Battlefield Site
Highway 8 & 97
Cleveland County, Arkansas
N33.46.866 W092.15.399
National Register of Historic Places
- #70000119
The Battle of Marks' Mill
Fought here on April 25, 1864 was a complete Confederate victory.
General James F. Fagan's
Division of Confederate Cavalry surprised and captured
a Union supply train of 2000 men
and 240 wagonloads of supplies. General
Powell Clayton, Union commander, narrowly
escaped capture by flight with small
detachment
Erected to the Memory of Capt.
Richard Tunstall Banks serving under Gen. James Fagan at
the Battle of Marks'
Mill by
His son - A. Burton Banks;
His grandsons -
1st Lt. Lawrence Banks
141st Machine Gun Batt. 39th Division
World War I
Major Richard Holmes Banks
Army Air Forces, World War II
Robert Theodore Banks
His great-grandsons -
George Banks Collins
Richard Lawrence Collins
Captain Richard Tunstall Banks
engaged in Battles of Wilson's Creek, Shiloh, Corinth,
Vicksburg, Marks' Mill, Jenkin's Ferry.
In March of 1864, the Union Army
began the Red River Campaign, a plan to subdue
Arkansas and Louisiana and
capture Texas cotton for northern mills. By mid-April, the
Arkansas arm of
the campaign was stalled in Camden. A Union foraging party and wagon train
had been captured at Poison Spring, and feeding the large Union Army had become
a serious problem. On April 20, 1864, a supply train brought 10-days'
half-rations to Major General Frederick Steele's Union army. On the
23rd, under heavy guard, the train began its ill-fated return to Pine Bluff.
The wagon train, commanded by Lt.
Colonel Francis M. Drake, included 211 government
wagons and was guarded by
three regiments of infantry, 240 cavalry, and four pieces of
artillery, in all
some 1,600 men, not including, 520 men of the 1st Iowa Veteran Volunteer
Cavalry
who were following the train' home on furlough. Joining the train for
protection
were 50 to 75 private vehicles, cotton speculators, unionist
refugees, sutlers, camp followers,
and about 300 refugee slaves.
On April 24, upon learning that this
large Union Supply train had left Camden, Confederate
Brigadier Generals James
F. Fagan, and Joseph O. Shelby selected four brigades of cavalry
and began a
hurried march toward the junction of the Camden, Mount Elba and Pine Bluff roads
to intercept this prize.
The Battle of Marks' Mills
Arriving at the junction of the Mt.
Elba road early on the morning of April 25, the Confederates blocked the Pine
Bluff road. Around 9:30 a.m., the Confederates attacked the flank of the
wagon train. The battle lasted five hours. With the main Southern
united entering the battle dismounted, followed by mounted Missourians charging
from the north and mounted Arkansans attacking from the south. The fate of
the Federal forces were sealed.
The Confederates first subdued the
two lead Union regiments, then the rear guard. The 1st Iowa Veteran
Volunteer Cavalry, marching a few miles behind the Union column, formed a line
of battle behind Moro Creek, beat off several rebel attacks, and conducted an
orderly fighting withdrawal back to Camden.
About 1,600 Union troops were engaged
in battle against 2,500 Confederates. Union losses could not have been
less than 1,300, the majority being captured. Of the 300 unarmed refugee
slaves, over 100 were killed by Confederate Soldiers. Confederate losses
were fewer than 500. The victors found themselves with the entire train, some
1,500 horses and mules, private vehicles, ambulances, four guns, and valuable
official reports concerning Steele's army.
The Union loss here at Marks' Mills,
the previous defeat at Poison Spring, and news that
Major General Nathaniel P.
Banks had been defeated in Louisiana forced Steele to return to Little Rock.
However, his hurried retreat through heavy rains only brought his Union army face to face with the Confederate army and the floodwaters of the Saline River
in the final battle of the Red River Campaign: Jenkins' Ferry.
The exhibits at the park were
financed with assistance from the American Battlefield
Protection Program,
National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and the Arkansas
Historic
Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
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