The Battle of Marks' Mills (sometimes referred to as the Battle of Mark's Mill) occurred on April 25, 1864, in Cleveland County, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 as part of the Camden Expedition

Camden Expedition

The Camden Expedition was a military campaign in southern and central Arkansas during the American Civil War. It involved Union forces stationed at Little Rock and Fort Smith under the command of Major General Frederick Steele...

 of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Confederate troops

Confederate States Army

The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

 under Maj. Gen. James F. Fagan overwhelmed a small Union

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 detachment commanded by Lt. Col.

Lieutenant Colonel (United States)

In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of major and just below the rank of colonel. It is equivalent to the naval rank of commander in the other uniformed services.The pay...

 Francis M. Drake

Francis M. Drake

Francis Marion Drake was an American politician who became the 16th Governor of Iowa.-Biography:Drake was born in Rushville, Illinois, the son of John Adams Drake and Harriet Jane O'Neal. He later moved to Centerville, Iowa...

, leading to Union abandonment of their position in Camden, Arkansas

Camden, Arkansas

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...

.

Opposing forces

Following the Union defeat at the Battle of Poison Spring

Battle of Poison Spring

The Battle of Poison Spring was fought during the American Civil War on April 18, 1864, in Ouachita County, Arkansas as part of the Camden Expedition.-Opposing forces:Dwindling supplies for his army at Camden, Arkansas forced Union Army Maj. Gen...

 on April 18, 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele

Frederick Steele

Frederick Steele was a career military officer in the United States Army, serving as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was most noted for his successful campaign to retake much of secessionist Arkansas for the Union cause.-Early life:Steele was born in Delhi, New...

 retained possession of Camden, Arkansas

Camden, Arkansas

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...

, while Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price

Sterling Price

Sterling Price was a lawyer, planter, and politician from the U.S. state of Missouri, who served as the 11th Governor of the state from 1853 to 1857. He also served as a United States Army brigadier general during the Mexican-American War, and a Confederate Army major general in the American Civil...

 continued his ad hoc

Ad hoc

Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....

 siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

 upon Camden from the countryside. As the Federal provisions diminished, the arrival of much-needed supplies from Pine Bluff

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Pine Bluff is the largest city and county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Arkansas Combined Statistical Area...

 convinced Steele that more could be obtained using the Camden-Pine Bluff Road. Steele ordered Lt. Col. Francis M. Drake

Francis M. Drake

Francis Marion Drake was an American politician who became the 16th Governor of Iowa.-Biography:Drake was born in Rushville, Illinois, the son of John Adams Drake and Harriet Jane O'Neal. He later moved to Centerville, Iowa...

 with over 1,400 infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

men, artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 and cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 support, and 240 wagons to obtain supplies from Pine Bluff. Reinforced on the morning of April 25, 1864, by some 350 additional troops, Drake's command contained approximately 1,800 combatants. Additionally, an unidentified number of white civilians and approximately three hundred African Americans accompanied the column.

Battle

James Fagan detected the movement and positioned four thousand cavalrymen along the intersection of the Camden-Pine Bluff Road and Warren Road to ambush

Ambush

An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...

 Drake's column. Confederate Brig. Gen. William L. Cabell's division opened the attack, stopping Drake's advance, while Brig. Gen. Jo Shelby

Joseph O. Shelby

Joseph Orville Shelby was a noted Confederate cavalry general in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War.-Early life and education:...

's division launched a crushing assault on the Union left. The overwhelming Confederate numbers forced Drake, who had been seriously wounded in the fighting, to capitulate

Capitulation (surrender)

Capitulation , an agreement in time of war for the surrender to a hostile armed force of a particular body of troops, a town or a territory....

. The Confederates captured all of the empty Federal supply wagons.

Aftermath

The Confederates estimated 41 killed, 108 wounded, and 144 missing. The Federal numbers are more difficult to determine because the entire column was captured and approximations range from 1,133 to 1,600. Additionally, the Confederates seized 150 African Americans and were accused of killing at least 100 others during the assault.

The loss of additional men and wagons as well as the further depletion of Union supplies in Camden seriously challenged Steele's position. Coupled with the increasing number of Confederates near Camden (due to the arrival of Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith was a career United States Army officer and educator. He served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, notable for his command of the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy after the fall of Vicksburg.After the conflict ended Smith...

's command), Steele abandoned Camden on April 26, 1864, and marched northward toward Little Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

.

A Federal soldier in the 35th Iowa commented that, "The Rebs robbed nearly every man of us even to our chaplain. They stripped every stitch of clothes, even their shirts, boots and socks, and left the dead unburied and the woods on fire. Clothing was also pulled from the wounded as they begged for mercy. No respect was given for persons rank or age. Old Captain Charles W. Moss of the 43rd Indiana Infantry was marched bareheaded with his bald head and white locks and beard in the burning sun."

A portion of the original battlefield is preserved as Marks' Mills State Park

Marks' Mills State Park

Marks' Mills State Park in Arkansas preserves the battleground of the Civil War Battle of Marks' Mills.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and, with other sites, is part of the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark....

in Cleveland County near New Edinburg, Arkansas.