52 Following the withdrawal of Banks in Louisiana, General Kirby Smith, Confederate chief of Trans-Mississippi operations, turned his attention to Steele in Arkansas. Smith could not permit Steele's army to remain on the Ouachita River where it would constantly menace Shreveport and endanger Confederate use of the Red River(2). Since Banks had withdrawn to Grand Ecore and entrenched at that point, the Confederate commander saw little chance to gain positive results in further pursuit of the Federals in Louisiana(3). Yet on the other hand Steele appeared to be much easier prey. Weaker in number than Banks, Steele also had an unstable line of supply stretching seventy miles through enemy territory to the banks of the Arkansas River(4). Weighing these factors carefully, Kirby Smith chose to ignore Banks and concentrated the full resources of his department in Arkansas for a knockout blow. Prior to Federal occupation of Camden, Major-General Sterling Price, the Confederate district commander in Arkansas, received instructions on April 14 to dispatch a cavalry unit east of the Ouachita River in the event Steele occupied that city(5). Its purpose would be to disrupt Union communication and supply lines from Camden to the Arkansas River. For undetermined reasons the order was not compiled with, and as late as April 23 no Confederate force had crossed the river(6). Kirby Smith reached Price's headquarters on April 17 and subsequently organized a cavalry group to function east of the river. ______________________ 2. Report of General E. Kirby Smith, June 11, 1864, ibid., 481. 3. Joseph H. Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C. S. A. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U. Press, 1954), 395; Report of General E. Kirby Smith, August 28, 1864, Official Records, vol. XXXIV, pt. 1, 485. 4. General E. Kirby Smith, "Defense of the Red River," R. U. Johnson and C. C. Buel (eds.), Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 vols., New York: Century Co., 1884-1887), IV, 372. 5. Assistant Adjutant-General to Major-General Sterling Price, April 14, 1864, Official Records, XXXIV, pt. 3, 766. 6. Report of Brigadier-General James F. Fagan, May 7, 1864, ibid., pt. 1, 788. Fagan crossed the river on April 24. Perhaps Price felt he could not comply with the order until reinforcement had arrived from Louisiana. If Fagan had taken 4,000 troops with him as he later did, Price would have had only 2,000 remaining to face Steele. In Price's report, (May, 1864, Official Records, vol. XXXIV, pt. 1, 781), a cavalry force was ordered east of the river on April 19, but no troops crossed.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next