All Around Arkansas: The Battle of Jenkins' Ferry

 

            Several years ago while reading a book about my family’s genealogy, I found that one of my distant ancestors fired the first shot at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, which many historians consider to be the inaugural action that started the War Between the States.

             The man’s name was Edmund Ruffin, and as the oldest member of the South Carolina Palmetto Guards, he was given the “honor” of firing the first shot in April 1861 from a 64-pounder cannon. This, along with my love of American and Arkansas history, sparked my interest in the Civil War.

             I began to take a closer look at Civil War battles fought in the Natural State and took many road trips searching for battlefields, cemeteries and historical markers. One of those trips took me to the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the war in Arkansas: Jenkins’ Ferry Battlefield State Park. The battle of Jenkins’ Ferry started on the morning of April 29, 1864, about 9 miles east of Leola (Grant County).

             The land where the battle was fought was first settled by Thomas Jenkins, who started a ferry across the Saline River in 1815. Jenkins paid the Saline County Clerk just $1 to operate the ferry and charge travelers to cross the river. The ferry was operated by his sons, William and John, until the Civil War began in 1861.

            In March 1864, Union Gen. Frederick Steele led 14,000 troops out of Arkansas’ capital city of Little Rock to join the Union army’s Red River Campaign (sometimes referred to as the Camden Expedition). The goal of the campaign was to unite with Union Gen. Nathaniel Banks’ troops in north Louisiana to invade the state of Texas.

            Steele and his troops successfully seized Camden on April 15, but they didn’t proceed to Louisiana or Texas. Instead, threatened by Confederate soldiers and running low on supplies, Steele chose to return to Little Rock. On the morning of April 29, dealing with the flooded Saline River and aware of the approaching rebel troops, Steele ordered his engineers to create a pontoon bridge at the site of the old Jenkins’ Family Ferry crossing.

             Throughout the night and the next day, the Confederate troops brutally attacked Union forces, resulting in 521 Union casualties and 443 Confederate casualties. Because the Union army succeeded in crossing the river and subsequently destroying the pontoon bridge behind them, the battle went down in the history books as a Union victory. Steele’s troops returned to Little Rock on May 3. Historians estimate more than 2,000 soldiers died in the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry.

             Jenkins’ Ferry Battlefield State Park was created in 1961 by Act 10 of the Arkansas General Assembly and is now is maintained by the state’s Department of Parks, Heritage & Tourism. The 40-acre park consists of several interpretive markers and historic monuments, a section of the original military road, picnic tables, boat ramp and recreational opportunities along the Saline River such as boating and swimming.

            One bit of trivia: The battle is briefly depicted and mentioned by fictional soldiers Pvt. Harold Green of the 116th United States Colored Infantry Regiment and Cpl. Ira Clark of the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment, who speak with President Abraham Lincoln (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) in the opening scene of the 2012 movie, “Lincoln,” directed by Steven Spielberg.

        While it’s not as famous as Gettysburg or even Pea Ridge, the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry is significant in its own right, as it led to one of the few overall rebel victories (the Red River Campaign) in Arkansas. And as far as my distant ancestor who fired the war's first shot, I’ll leave it to you to find out (in the words of the late radio legend Paul Harvey), the rest of the story.

        A proud sixth-generation Arkansan, Darrell W. Brown is a lover of all things Arkansas. He lives on beautiful Lake Norrell in Saline County with his wife, Amy, and two beloved Boston Terriers. You can find him on Facebook and Instagram at AllAroundArkansas.