Two Union cavalry expeditions departed Helena, Arkansas, to suppress Confederate guerrillas operating through the surrounding countryside. The missions ended in a brief but deadly exchange of fire between Federal soldiers who mistook one another for the enemy. Though small in scale, the episode illustrates the unstable military conditions that followed the Union occupation of Helena and the difficulties of counter-guerrilla warfare in eastern Arkansas.
Union forces under Major General Samuel R. Curtis occupied Helena on July 12, 1862, after the Army of the Southwest crossed Arkansas following the Union victory at Pea Ridge. Helena quickly acquired strategic value. Located on the Mississippi River at the southern end of Crowley’s Ridge, the town provided a defensible base, river port, and operational center for patrols into the Arkansas Delta. Federal occupation, however, did not secure the surrounding countryside. Confederate cavalrymen and irregular fighters continued to operate along roads, plantations, forests, and settlements outside Union lines.
Captain James T. Drummond of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry left camp near Helena at about 8:30 a.m. on September 26. His command contained two squadrons of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry and four squadrons of the First Missouri Cavalry. Drummond moved toward LaGrange in search of Confederate soldiers and guerrillas. About a mile and a half from camp, he divided his force, sending detachments under Lieutenants William Dorsey and James H. Burnett along separate roads to rejoin the main body near LaGrange.
At roughly the same time, Major Thomas W. Scudder of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry led another Union expedition from Helena toward Jeffersonville and Marianna. Scudder commanded approximately 275 men from the Fifth Kansas, Fourth Missouri, Fifth Missouri, and Fifth Illinois Cavalry regiments. About 100 initially traveled by steamboat. After the detachments reunited near Jeffersonville and found no Confederate force, Scudder continued toward Marianna and pursued guerrillas associated with a Major Anderson.
Drummond’s expedition soon encountered hostile activity. Burnett reported that sixty to eighty Confederates were ahead. Near a plantation north of LaGrange, Federal soldiers captured a horse bearing United States markings and government equipment. Drummond later met Dorsey, whose detachment had been fired upon from brush beside the road. The attack killed one Union soldier and dangerously wounded another before the assailants escaped through dense undergrowth.
Scudder’s command encountered similar conditions. His troops captured two guerrillas, followed their trail through roads and timber, and discovered a log structure modified with firing ports. Scudder ordered it burned. Farther along, his men encountered about thirty Confederate fighters near the St. Francis and Helena Road. The Confederates scattered through dense timber. Scudder’s troops then found another log building apparently used as a rendezvous and burned it.
The two Federal columns eventually approached each other without realizing another Union command was nearby. Drummond’s scouts reported troops at close range. His men formed for action and opened fire. The opposing soldiers identified themselves as members of the Fifth Kansas before the engagement became general, but the mistake had already caused casualties. A Fifth Missouri cavalryman was mortally wounded, a Fifth Kansas soldier was severely wounded, and a horse was killed.
Scudder recorded that Drummond explained his men had just encountered guerrillas dressed in United States uniforms and therefore initially believed Scudder’s troops belonged to the same hostile force. The official reports contain a slight discrepancy concerning casualties from the earlier guerrilla attack. Drummond’s account described one man killed and another dangerously wounded, while Scudder reported being told that two men had been killed. Both accounts document the confusion produced by concealed attackers and the reported use of Federal clothing.
Drummond returned to Helena that evening with several civilians suspected of aiding guerrillas. Scudder bivouacked overnight and returned on September 27. The expeditions did not eliminate Confederate irregular activity. Their historical significance lies in what they reveal about Union control in eastern Arkansas. Federal occupation secured Helena itself, but authority beyond its defenses depended on repeated cavalry patrols through contested territory. The September 26 friendly-fire incident remains a documented example of how guerrilla warfare, divided commands, difficult terrain, and uncertain identification could turn Union soldiers against one another within miles of their own base.
References / More Knowledge:
Christ, Mark K. “Helena, Expeditions from (September 26, 1862).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/expeditions-from-helena-15836/
United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series I, Volume XIII, pp. 284–286. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1885. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth154621/
National Park Service. “Arkansas Civil War Battles.” The Civil War. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/arkansas.htm
Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “Helena-West Helena (Phillips County).” Central Arkansas Library System. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/helena-west-helena-phillips-county-950/
Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “LaGrange (Lee County).” Central Arkansas Library System. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/lagrange-lee-county-7181/