Chalk Bluff
Civil War Arkansas

American Civil War
May 1-2, 1863

Union Brigadier General William Vandever pursued Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke to Chalk Bluff, where the Confederates hoped to cross the St. Francis River.

To ford the river, Marmaduke established a rearguard that received heavy punishment on May 1-2.

Although most of Marmaduke's raiders crossed the St. Francis River, they suffered heavy casualties and therefore ended the expedition.

Result(s): Confederate tactical victory

Location: Clay County

Campaign: Marmaduke's Second Expedition into Missouri (1863)

Date(s): May 1-2, 1863

Principal Commanders: Brigadier General William Vandever [US]; Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke [CS]

Forces Engaged: 2nd Division, Army of the Frontier and force under command of Brigadier General John McNeil [US]; Marmaduke's Cavalry Division [CS]

Estimated Casualties: Unknown


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Arkansas Civil War History Book Club Reading Titles


Into the Mouth of the Cannon: A Historical Biography of the 18th Arkansas Infantry and the Civil War in the Western Theater from 1861 to 1863
No one knew the truths of slavery better than the slaves themselves, but no one consulted them until the 1930s. Then, recognizing that this generation of unique witnesses would soon be lost to history, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project acted to interview as many former slaves as possible. In a continuation of the project's interest in the life histories of ordinary people, writers interviewed over two thousand former slaves, more than a third of them in Arkansas. These oral histories were first published in the 1970s in a thirty-nine-volume series organized by state, and they transformed America's understanding of slavery.
With Fire And Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 provides a scholarly examination of just how the events of the Civil War and the Reconstruction so heavily devastated the state of Arkansas, its population and its economy, that this southern state was never to fully regained the level of prosperity it had enjoyed prior to the war. A candid and detailed retracing of crucial decisions, their interplay, and their lasting legacy, With Fire And Sword is a welcome contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and Reconstruction Era reference collections and reading lists.

Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
U.S. Library of Congress.