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What Happened...
The Battle of Fayetteville, April 18, 1863
From Rugged and Sublime: The Civil War in
Arkansas;
Courtesy of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.
In April, two of the state's most aggressive cavalry commanders
attempted to reverse the Southerners' sagging fortunes. On the
sixteenth, Brig. Gen. William Cabell led nine hundred Rebel cavalry
north from Ozark to attack Federal forces occupying Fayetteville.
Cabell, nicknamed "Old Tige," was a thirty-six-year-old Virginian and a
West Pointer whose prewar service in the army had been primarily in the
quartermaster departments On this spring morning, he would lead his
troops into a fight that was a microcosm of the whole war. The First
Arkansas Cavalry (Confederate) would battle the First Arkansas Cavalry
(Union) in an area both called home.
A Federal officer described Fayetteville as "a beautiful little hamlet
nestling among the foothills of the Ozark range,… the chief educational
center of the state, the home of culture, refinement, and that inborn
hospitality so characteristic of the South… The Public Square… was
surrounded by stores and shops, broken only… by an old-fashioned
tavern."
The first "casualties" of the battle of Fayetteville were Lt. Gustavus
F. Hottenhaur and eight of his men from Company B of the First Arkansas
Cavalry (Union), who were enjoying a dance at a private home in West
Fork some eight miles south of the town. A detachment of Cabell's
cavalry under Lt. Jim Ferguson surprised the merrymakers and demanded
their surrender. The shocked Federals scattered in every direction,
"into the kitchen, the cellar, and under the floor." Their commanding
officer demonstrated the greatest imagination by attempting
unsuccessfully to climb up the chimney. All nine were taken prisoner.
Cabell continued his march on Fayetteville, arriving shortly after
sunrise on Saturday, April 18. The Confederates approached the city
from the east with "wild and deafening shouts" and advanced on the
headquarters of the Federal commander, Col. M. LaRue Harrison, located
in the Tebbetts' house just northeast of the town square." Harrison's
brother, Capt. E. B. Harrison, was asleep in the Baxter house across
the street when the Rebels attacked. Awakened by the commotion, he
looked out the east door of his room and saw, to his shock and
consternation, a column of Confederate cavalry moving toward him. He
escaped out the front door and ran to warn his brother.
Cabell placed his two pieces of artillery on a hillside east of town
and opened fire on the Federal camp with canister and shell. One of the
first shots, an explosive shell, entered the Baxter house, where
several women and children had sought shelter in the cellar. The shell
crashed through the wall and struck a heavy wooden partition. The
partition deflected the shell into a kettle of lye, which extinguished
the fuse and prevented an explosion and, in all probability, saved the
lives of the civilians huddled in the cellar. For almost four hours the
battle raged around the Union headquarters. The Rebels managed to gain
control of the Baxter house and a grove of trees south of the Tebbetts'
house, but could go no farther.
Around 9 a.m., Col. J. C. Monroe led a desperate cavalry charge against
the Union right, only to run into "a galling crossfire ... piling rebel
men and horses in heaps" in front of the Federals' ordnance office.
Captain Harrison had sought protection behind a tree and witnessed the
Rebel charge. He later wrote,
I looked with wonder, as well as admiration, upon that splendid body of
horsemen as they swept down Dixon Street.... [W]hen nearing College
Avenue, they were met by a fire from the Federal soldiers the most
heroic could not face it.... I stood by the tree as the cavalrymen came
thundering down the road, many falling from their mounts, one horse
(evidently wounded to its death) turned and with a terrific leap
cleared the high plank fence and fell dead in the Baxter lot, carrying
his rider with him, who, though evidently wounded, freed himself from
the dead horse and made his way around the house.
Monroe's charge was the Confederate high water mark. Gradually, the
Union forces began to drive back both flanks of the Rebel line. The
Confederates in the Baxter house at the center of the Rebels' position
continued to resist for almost an hour after both wings had begun to
give way, but eventually they too were driven out. By late morning,
what remained of Cabell's command was retreating toward Ozark. Colonel
Harrison had too few horses to mount a pursuit.
Federal losses were four killed, twenty-three wounded, thirty-five
missing, and sixteen captured (including Hottenhaur's ill-fated dancers
at West Fork). Cabell reported his losses as approximately twenty
killed, thirty wounded, and twenty missing. The fierce resistance of
the Arkansas Federals surprised him. The First Arkansas (Union) had
turned and run at the battle of Prairie Grove and ever since had been
considered unreliable. But in his official report of the engagement at
Fayetteville, Cabell noted, "The enemy all (both infantry and cavalry)
fought well, equally as well as any Federal troops I have ever seen.
Although it was thought by a great many that, composed as they are of
disloyal citizens and deserters from our army, they would make but a
feeble stand, the reverse, however, was the case."
Cabell also reported that he could have burned a large part of the
town, "but every house was filled with women and children, a great
number of whom were the families of officers and soldiers in our
service." He placed part of the blame for his setback on the superior
weapons possessed by the Union troops. Many of his men were armed with
"Arkadelphia rifles," which, he noted, were " no better than shotguns."
The Federals were equipped with the longer-range Springfields and
Whitneys. Despite his failure to take the town, Cabell reported that
his men were "in fine spirits, and ready to try to take the enemy again
and that he would shortly be prepared "to strike a heavier blow."
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