Battle of Backbone Mountain

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Cotton Plant Union order of battle is located in Arkansas
Cotton Plant
Cotton Plant
Pea Ridge
Pea Ridge
St. Charles
St. Charles
Batesville
Batesville
Little Rock
Little Rock
Helena
Helena
Whitney's Lane
Whitney's Lane
Marianna
Marianna
Arkansas campaigns, March–July 1862

The Battle of Cotton Plant (July 7, 1862) saw a 10,000-strong Union Army commanded by Samuel Ryan Curtis[1] encounter a 5,000-man Confederate force led by Albert Rust. A Union advance guard commanded by Charles Edward Hovey did most of the fighting, repelling an attack by two Texas cavalry regiments led by William Henry Parsons. Union reinforcements under William P. Benton arrived and pressed the Texas cavalry and Arkansas infantry into a disorderly retreat. Curtis's army subsequently occupied Helena.[2] Earlier in the campaign, Texas cavalry inflicted 49 casualties on a Union foraging party in the Battle of Whitney's Lane near Searcy on May 19, 1862.[3] At the Battle of L'Anguille Ferry near Marianna on August 3, 1862 the Texas cavalry overran a Union wagon convoy.[4]

The following Union Army units and commanders served in the campaign.[5]

Abbreviations used

Army of the Southwest

Army Commander

MG Samuel Ryan Curtis

Army of the Southwest - District of Eastern Arkansas - May 1862[5][note 1]
Division Unit
Unattached units
MG Samuel Ryan Curtis
Bowen's Missouri Cavalry Battalion
24th Missouri Volunteer Infantry
1st Illinois Cavalry Regiment
5th Illinois Cavalry Regiment
9th Illinois Cavalry Regiment
13th Illinois Cavalry Regiment
5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment (joined June)
2nd Wisconsin Cavalry Regiment (joined June)
1st Nebraska Infantry Regiment (joined July)
First Division
BG Frederick Steele
11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Hovey)
33rd Illinois Infantry Regiment (Hovey)
8th Indiana Infantry Regiment
18th Indiana Infantry Regiment
Kane County Illinois Cavalry Company
1st Indiana Cavalry Regiment
3rd Iowa Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (6 companies)
1st Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery
16th Ohio Battery
Battery A, 1st Missouri Light Artillery
Second Division
BG Eugene A. Carr
4th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment
9th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment
13th Illinois Infantry Regiment
3rd Illinois Cavalry Regiment
4th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
1st Missouri Volunteer Cavalry (3 companies)
1st Iowa Independent Battery Light Artillery
Elbert's 1st Missouri Flying Artillery
3rd Iowa Independent Battery Light Artillery
Third Division
BG Peter J. Osterhaus
3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry
12th Missouri Volunteer Infantry
17th Missouri Volunteer Infantry
4th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry (6 companies)
5th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry (5 companies)
2nd Ohio Battery
4th Ohio Battery
Battery A (Peoria), 2nd Illinois Light Artillery
Battery B, 1st Missouri Light Artillery (Welfley's)

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ^ Dyer did not specify brigades or brigade commanders. Patrick stated that Hovey and Benton were brigade commanders in Steele's Division.
Citations

References