Devil's Backbone
Backbone Mountain
Civil War Arkansas

American Civil War
September 1, 1863

Union Major General James G. Blunt ordered Colonel William Cloud to continue in pursuit of the Confederate forces that had withdrawn from Fort Smith and were chased to Old Jenny Lind.

The Rebels turned on Cloud and skirmished with him at the base of Devil's Backbone. Cabell's forces ambushed approaching Union troops and momentarily halted their advance.

Regrouping, the Union forces, with the help of artillery, advanced again and forced the Confederates to retire in disorder to Waldron.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: Sebastian County

Campaign: Operations to Control Indian Territory (1863)

Date(s): September 1, 1863

Principal Commanders: Colonel William F. Cloud [US]; Brigadier General W.L. Cabell [CS]

Forces Engaged: 2nd Kansas Cavalry, 6th Missouri Cavalry, and two sections of Rabb's 2nd Indiana Battery [US]; Cabell's Brigade [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 81 total (US 16; CS 65)


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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.