The Battle of Helena, July 4, 1863
From Rugged and Sublime: The Civil War in Arkansas;
Courtesy of the Department of Arkansas Heritage
In June, General Holmes met with one of his top subordinates, Sterling
Price, to plan for what he hoped would be just such a victory. "Old Pap," as the
fifty-three-year-old Missourian was affectionately known, had enjoyed a
distinguished prewar political career and had seen action at Wilson's Creek, Pea
Ridge, and Corinth, Mississippi. He was extremely popular with the troops. One
Arkansas soldier wrote to his girlfriend, "[I]f Gen'l. Price should come to the
Department the joy of the troops would be incapable of restraint. Cheers loud
and long, & salutes from artillery would be the inevitable result." But quarrels
with Jefferson Davis had relegated Price to subordinate roles like the one he
now held under Holmes.
The subject of his discussion with Holmes was an attack on the Mississippi
River port city of Helena, situated 70 miles downriver from Memphis and 230
miles above Vicksburg at the point where the base of Crowley's Ridge meets the
Mississippi. The town's origins dated from the early years of the nineteenth
century. When the war broke out, it was a busy agricultural and commercial
center with a population of 1,024 white citizens and 527 black slaves. Since its
occupation in July 1862 by Union troops under Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis, Helena
had been a constant thorn in the side of Arkansas Confederates. Not only did the
Federal occupation allow Union forces to control trade and to influence the
sentiments of the surrounding region, but the Federal garrison also posed a
constant threat of invasion of the rest of the state. The Confederate high
command, including Secretary of War James A. Seddon, thought that an attack on
the Federal base there might alleviate those problems and might draw some troops
away from the campaign against Vicksburg. If the town could be captured, it
would provide the Confederates with a strategic position on the river to
compensate for the possible loss of Vicksburg.
Price was eager to attack. He informed Holmes that his men were "fully
rested and in excellent spirits," and that he "entertained no doubt of... being
able to crush the foe" at Helena. Holmes was not so sure. He noted, "If [as
reports indicated] there are 4,000-5,000 men in Helena, fortified as they are,
to take it would cost too much." But on June 14, Marmaduke reported that all the
Federal troops that could be spared had been sent downriver to Grant at
Vicksburg, leaving Union forces at Helena "very weak." Holmes changed his mind.
He wrote to Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi
Department, at Shreveport, "I believe we can take Helena. Please let me attack
it." Smith shot back, "Most certainly do it."
The Confederate plan called for Price's infantry and Marmaduke's cavalry
to move from Jacksonport to the vicinity of Helena, where they would unite with
forces from Little Rock under the command of Brig. Gen. James Fagan, a Mexican
War veteran and former Arkansas legislator. Holmes would travel from Little
Rock, accompanied by Gov. Harris Flanagin, to take personal command of the
In Helena, twenty thousand Federal troops and additional thousands of
former slaves had swelled the town's population to several times its normal
size. There was a shortage of housing, and health and sanitary services had
deteriorated badly. The departure of several thousand troops to join the
campaign against Vicksburg had alleviated these conditions to some degree, but
Union soldiers still complained that the town was cold and wet in winter, hot
and disease-ridden in summer. To compound these conditions, the town's streets
were often turned into impassable mud by frequent rains. Some Iowa soldiers had
rechristened the town "Hell-in-Arkansas."
But in early 1863, at least one of those Federal soldiers found cause for
celebration. Twenty-one-year-old Minos Miller of the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry
wrote to his mother in January, " [W]e are rejoicing today over Brags [sic]
defeat [at Murfreesboro, Tennessee] and Old Abe's [Emancipation] Proclamation.
We got the news last night at 8 o'clock that all the negros was free and them
that was able for servis [sic] was to be armed and set to guarding foarts [sic].
I think the Union is safe and all will be over by the forth [sic] of July."
On April 7, Miller attended a speech by Adjutant General of the Army
Lorenzo Thomas, who was promoting the raising of black regiments for service in
the Union army (under white officers). Reaction to Thomas's address was so
favorable that three companies of a hundred soldiers each were recruited
immediately, forming the nucleus of the First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry
Regiment (African Descent).
Encouraged by the response to General Thomas's appeal, army officials made
plans to create a second black Arkansas unit. Throughout the remainder of the
spring, the first companies of the Second Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment
(African Descent) were formed. Minos Miller volunteered to serve as an officer
in this new regiment. On June 12, he wrote to his mother, "Our regiment is about
300 strong. We are drilling every day. The negros learn fast and will fight
well. We have tried ours twice and know they will stand fire." The First
Arkansas soon left Helena for service in Louisiana, but the Second remained in
Helena throughout the summer. As Minos Miller had predicted in his letter to his
mother, the Fourth of July would be a momentous day, but not in the way he had
imagined. The Rebels were about to give the entire Federal garrison at Helena an
opportunity to "stand fire."
The Confederate commander arrived at the Allen Polk house, five miles from
Helena, on July 3. His arrival did little to arouse the confidence of the
troops. One wrote, "General Holmes and his staff are here. Poor old creature. I
wish he was somewhere else, for I do not think him a fit subject to command an
army." What Holmes found when he arrived probably caused him to wish he were
somewhere else as well. He reported, " [T] he place was very much more difficult
of access, and the fortifications very much stronger, than I had supposed before
undertaking the expedition."
The difficulty of access was the work of nature. The town was rimmed by a
series of hills cut by deeply thicketed ravines. The fortifications were largely
the work of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss, a forty-four-year-old native
of Virginia (now West Virginia), who had made a name for himself at the battle
of Shiloh with a ferocious stand against the attacking Rebels along a sunken
road that came to be called the "Hornets' Nest." Captured and paroled, he was
promoted to major general in March of 1863 and given command of the District of
Eastern Arkansas, which was headquartered at Helena. (For all practical
purposes, Helena was the only part of the "district" securely in Union hands.)",
Prentiss's command had been surprised at Shiloh. He was determined that he would
not be surprised again. In late June, as reports began to indicate that an
attack was imminent, he ordered his men to be up and at their posts by 2:30
a.m., and he felled trees along the roads leading into town. An Independence Day
celebration, which had been planned by some of his officers, was canceled.
The departure of a large number of troops for Vicksburg left Prentiss with
only four thousand effective men. But Shiloh had taught him the defensive value
of the proper use of terrain, and he began to use Helena's topography to
strengthen his position. The town's principal defense was Fort Curtis, an
earthen bastion on the western edge of town. To supplement this position,
Prentiss placed four batteries, protected by breastworks and rifle pits, on four
hills that formed a rough semicircle around the town. He designated these
batteries, north to south, as A, B, C, and D. Additional firepower was provided
by the U.S.S. Tyler, a paddlewheel steamer 180 feet long and 42 feet wide,
anchored off the river bank. The Tyler was armed with one thirty-pounder Parrott
gun and six eight-inch smoothbore cannon. Her upper deck and pilot areas were
covered by five-inch-thick oak bulwarks.
These defenses were formidable, but Holmes had not come all this way for
nothing. He planned a Coordinated attack from three sides. Marmaduke's 1,750
dismounted cavalry would attack Rightor Hill northwest of town (where Prentiss
had placed Battery A). He would be supported on his left by a cavalry brigade
under Brig. Ben. L. M. Walker, a West Pointer from Tennessee. Walker was charged
with preventing any Federal reinforcements from reaching Rightor Hill. Fagan's
1,339 men would move against Hindman Hill southwest of town (Battery D). The
main thrust would be made by Price's 3,095 men against Graveyard Hill near the
center of the Union defensive perimeter (Battery C). Holmes ordered all attacks
to begin "at daylight" on July 4.
Coordinated attacks were difficult under the best of circumstances, and
conditions on this Independence Day were far from ideal. Marmaduke's advance
toward Rightor Hill was stalled by enfilading artillery and small-arms fire from
Federal troops along the levee to his left and rear. He expected Walker to
protect his left flank, but Walker was concerned about his own left flank and
refused to move to Marmaduke's aid. The animosity that developed between the two
men over this incident would have severe repercussions later in the year.
Farther to the Confederate right, a problem of communication hindered the
assault. Fagan had interpreted Holmes's order to attack "at daylight" to mean at
first light, but when his men began their assault on Hindman Hill, they came
under withering fire from Battery C on Graveyard Hill, which, to Fagan's
consternation, was not under attack by Price. Unable to bring along Fagan's
artillery because of the felled trees that obstructed the road and pounded by
artillery from Batteries D and C, the Rebels moved up the hill "amid the leaden
rain and iron hail." They managed to overrun the protecting rifle pits, but were
pinned down short of the battery.
More than an hour after Fagan launched his attack, Price, who apparently
had interpreted "at daylight" to mean sunrise, began his attack on Graveyard
Hill. His men now became the center of attention for the Federal defenders.
Minos Miller's Second Arkansas was on the far left of the Union line and had a
ringside seat for Price's attack. Miller later described it in a letter to his
mother: "Directly we heard the Rebbels cheering and knew they were charging on
the batteries. In a minute we could see column after column pouring over the
hills toward battery C. As soon as they come in sight of Fort Curtis the gunboat
and every battery that could get range of them let into them with a vengence.
The air was full of shells and we could see the rebbels lines open and see them
falling in all directions."
Twice repulsed, the Confederates charged a third time, "yelling like so
many fiends let loose from the bottomless pit." Exhibiting, in Prentiss's words,
"a courage and desperation rarely equaled," they carried the hill and captured
the battery. Price immediately attempted to turn the captured cannon on the
retreating Federals but found, to his dismay, that the guns had been disabled.
His had been the only element of the Confederate assault to reach its objective,
and his troops continued to attract the fire of every available enemy gun.
Holmes arrived on Graveyard Hill shortly after its capture and proceeded
to give a series of confusing and contradictory orders that only made matters
worse. Some of Price's men moved to attack Fort Curtis, while others attempted
to go to the relief of Fagan. But exhaustion, confusion, the July heat, and the
intense Federal fire combined to render both attempts futile. Fagan's men were
forced to retreat back through the rifle pits they had taken at such great cost
earlier in the day. At 10:30, realizing that the situation was hopeless, Holmes
ordered a general retreat. The battered Rebels withdrew toward the Polk house,
their rear guard skirmishing to cover their retreat until around 2 p.m. The
attack had failed; the battle of Helena was over.
A Wisconsin soldier who visited the area around Graveyard Hill shortly
after the battle wrote, "The battlefield is no pleasant place to visit, covered
with men wounded in all ways-some with brains exposed, others shot through the
body with grape shot, or a larger ball still sufficient to nearly cut the body
in twain. But if there is anything that calls on the sympathy of a man it is to
took upon a wounded man, with deathlike and pale face, groaning and wreathing
with the greatest possible pain." Another Wisconsin soldier wrote to his father,
"[J]ust to see the rebels lying in piles where they charged up the hill. it was
awful. I never want to spend another such a "Fourth of July." But Minos Miller
was upbeat. He wrote to his mother, "[W]e celebrated [the Fourth of July] here
by giving the rebs one of the worst floggings they ever had."
Prentiss had indeed performed a defensive masterpiece. His losses were 57
killed, 146 wounded, and 36 missing for a total of 239. His fortifications had
helped hold off a numerically superior foe. The Tyler had proved particularly
devastating to the attackers. Its commander, James M. Prichett, reported that
the gunboat had fired 413 rounds during the battle, and he estimated that these
accounted for at least 600 Rebel casualties.
In his official report, Holmes wrote, "My retreat from Helena was effected
in the most perfect order and without the slightest demoralization of any kind."
But a soldier from Boonsboro (now Cane Hill), Fontaine Richard Earle, wrote to
his girlfriend, Amanda Buchanan, "The most important item of all is that we were
repulsed and retreated, and kept on retreating until now." Of Holmes, he wrote,
"Poor old soul, . . . the whirring 64 pound bombs was too much for him. He is at
L[ittle] R[ock] verr[y] sick, in which condition I leave him and hope he will
For the Confederates, the battle had been a disaster. Of the 7,646 men
involved, 173 were killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing or captured for a total
of 1,636. Nothing had been gained, and desperately needed men had been lost. A
Union soldier summed up the battle in a letter to his father: "The general
opinion here now is that the enemy fought desperately and with a bravery and
determination worthy of a better cause." Years later, a Confederate officer who
had lost both hands on Graveyard Hill to a shell from the Tyler wrote, "Since
that day at Helena I tell the boys I would rather buck against a voodoo than to
try to down Old Glory on the Fourth of July... Yes, the union is good enough for
me on the Fourth of July and every other day in the year, and I don't regret the
price I paid for finding out!"
The demoralizing effect that the defeat at Helena had on Arkansas's
Confederates was compounded by the news that Lee had been repulsed at Gettysburg
on July 3 and was retreating south into Virginia. Even more devastating was the
news that Vicksburg had surrendered to Grant on July 4. Fontaine Richard Earle
fully understood the significance of this turn of events. He wrote to Amanda,
"This Department is now fully cut off from the Eastern portion of the
government, and we must stand or fall alone. No helping hand can be extended
across the Mississippi River to aid us.... The varying war-cloud is now growing
dense and dark, but hope looms beyond.", As the late summer of 1863 approached,
even hope was coming to be in short supply.