On September 10, 1863, Maj. Gen. Fred Steele, Army of Arkansas commander, sent Brig. Gen. John W. Davidson’s cavalry division across the Arkansas River to move on Little Rock, while he took other troops to attack Confederates entrenched on the north side. In his thrust toward Little Rock, Davidson ran into Confederate troops at Bayou Fourche, Arkansas. Aided by Union artillery fire from the north side of the river, Davidson forced them out of their position and sent them fleeing back to Little Rock, which fell to Union troops that evening. Bayou Fourche sealed Little Rock’s fate. The fall of Little Rock further helped to contain the Confederate Trans-Mississippi theater, isolating it from the rest of the South.
Believing that the enemy would, by means of the numerous flat-boat ferries which I knew were in the bayou, probably cross from one side of the bayou to the other, I took in tow a flat-boat bridge and carried it with me all the way, and have it with me now.
I immediately swung my bridge across the bayou, ordering eight companies of the Twelfth Connecticut over to support the Eighth New Hampshire, leaving two companies of this regiment, one section of Carruth's battery, and Williamson's cavalry to guard the rear.
The columns of the enemy were advancing on both banks in about equal force, and in consequence, to prevent being outflanked, it became necessary to hold positions on both sides of the bayou.
Battle of Murfreesboro continues along the banks of the Stone's River in Tennessee.
Battle of Champion's Hill, Mississippi: The Union army seals the fate of Vicksburg by defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Champion's Hill.
Battle of Second Winchester: A small Union garrison in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia, is easily defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia on the path of the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.
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