Union Troops Cross Arkansas River to Capture Little Rock

North of where you are standing, Union troops on September 10, 1863, constructed a wooden pontoon bridge across the Arkansas River allowing Union Brigadier General John W. Davidson's cavalry division to proceed to Little Rock. Major General Frederick Steele's Union forces continued advancing to Little Rock north of the river. In front of you, Willow Beach Lake occupies part of the old river channel where Union troops made the crossing under protective artillery fire. Across the lake near the present water tower, Confederates with artillery unsuccessfully engaged the Union forces to try to prevent them from crossing.

"As soon as bridge was done, General Davidson ordered over a brigade of infantry to take possession of a levee in the opposite woods, to cover and protect my brigade while crossing and forming, as the enemy had opened artillery upon us. At about 9 a.m., my brigade began to cross the river. When two squadrons of the First Iowa Cavalry were over, they were ordered to the woods in front, where I found the infantry As soon as my command was fairly over, it moved out to the road running up the river to Little Rock...[M]y brigade had not moved more than 1 1/2 miles on the river road, when the enemy opened a heavy volley of musketry, soon repeated, accompanied with artillery. The firing commenced precisely at 12 m. [noon]."




-Colonel J. M. Glover
3rd Missouri Cavalry
Commanding 2nd Brigade of
Davidson's Cavalry Division, U.S.A.

"At sunrise on the morning of the 10th, the brigade...was ordered to leave the forks of the Brownsville and Shallow Ford roads (at which point we had bivouacked the night previous), cross at the lower pontoon, and move down the river at the double-quick to meet the enemy, who had early in the morning effected a crossing at Terry's Ferry..."
-Colonel William L. Jeffers
8th Missouri Cavalry,
C.S.A.

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