The Battle of Cane Hill was fought between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War on November 28, 1862, in northwestern Arkansas, near the town of Cane Hill. Confederate Major General Thomas C. Hindman had made an abortive offensive into southwestern Missouri from Arkansas earlier in the year, but had withdrawn to Arkansas. Union troops under Brigadier General James G. Blunt had followed Hindman into northwestern Arkansas, and the Confederate general saw an opportunity to attack Blunt while his division was separated from the rest of the Union Army of the Frontier. Hindman then sent a force under Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke to Cane Hill, which was also known as Boonsboro, to collect supplies. In early November, a detachment of Blunt's command led by Colonel William F. Cloud defeated a small Confederate force commanded by Colonel Emmett MacDonald in the Cane Hill area.
After MacDonald's defeat, Marmaduke remained in the Cane Hill area with his force. Blunt moved to attack Marmaduke on November 27. The Confederates expected the Union attack to come up the Cincinnati Road, but it instead followed the Ridge Road and then the Fayetteville Road. Cloud's men led the Union advance and made contact with Colonel Joseph O. Shelby's Confederate troopers on the morning of November 28. Shelby withdrew from the Cane Hill area after an artillery duel, and Marmaduke reformed his line in the Newburg area.
Due to the Union artillery advantage, the Confederates fell back from Newburg to an elevation known as Reed's Mountain. Shelby conducted a rear-guard action by having a series of small forces confront the Union before falling back and allowing the next line to engage. The Confederates made a stand at Reed's Mountain, but were forced to withdraw. Blunt continued to pursue, and several miles south of the John Morrow house, Confederate troops led by Colonel Charles A. Carroll laid an ambush for Blunt's leading elements. The Confederates then presented a flag of truce as a ruse to give themselves time to withdraw from the field. In early December, Hindman moved to attack Blunt's force, but Union reinforcements from Springfield, Missouri, under the command of Brigadier General Francis J. Herron arrived in time to aid Blunt. The ensuing Battle of Prairie Grove was fought on December 7. While the outcome of the fighting was inconclusive, Hindman withdrew from the field and the Union retained control of Missouri and northwestern Arkansas.
Background
In December 1860 and early 1861, states in the South seceded from the United States as a result of several disagreements with the federal government, chief among them the desire to preserve the institution of slavery in the United States, forming the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. When Abraham Lincoln, the newly inaugurated President of the United States, called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, this proved the catalyst for the southern state of Arkansas to secede and join the Confederacy. Some fighting occurred to the north in Missouri during 1861.
In March 1862, Union forces commanded by Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis defeated a Confederate army commanded by Major General Earl Van Dorn in the Battle of Pea Ridge fought in northwestern Arkansas. After the defeat, Van Dorn abandoned Arkansas and took most of the Confederate soldiers and military supplies in the state with him across the Mississippi River into Tennessee. Curtis moved his army east and captured the Mississippi River city of Helena. On May 31, Major General Thomas C. Hindman took command of Confederate forces in Arkansas, Missouri, and the Indian Territory and rebuilt Confederate military strength in the region. To accomplish this, Hindman used methods that were both unpopular and sometimes extralegal, and he angered many prominent Arkansas civilians. As a result, he was removed from district command by the Confederate government and replaced by Major General Theophilus Holmes.
Hindman retained a field command, and advanced his forces into southwestern Missouri. Curtis, who now commanded the Department of Missouri, formed the Army of the Frontier which was commanded by Brigadier General John M. Schofield. Hindman was temporarily recalled by Holmes, and the two commanders left in charge in his absence performed poorly. By the end of October, the Confederates had been driven back from Missouri into Arkansas, and Schofield had one division, commanded by Brigadier General James G. Blunt, stationed in Benton County in northwestern Arkansas. In early November, the other two divisions of the Army of the Frontier fell back to the vicinity of Springfield, Missouri, while Hindman's Confederates occupied Van Buren, Arkansas.
Prelude
upright=1.5|thumb|left|alt=A map of northwestern Arkansas. Van Buren is on the north side of the Arkansas River, with Fort Smith on the south side. Prairie Grove is on the north side of the Boston Mountains|A map of northwestern Arkansas, showing locations significant to the American Civil War
Hindman saw an opportunity in the Union positioning, since Blunt was isolated from the rest of the Army of the Frontier. Hindman decided to push a cavalry force into the Cane Hill area to distract Blunt, and then isolate Blunt's force and defeat it before reinforcements from Springfield could arrive. The Confederate cavalry was commanded by Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke, and in early November, Marmaduke's division moved north towards Cane Hill with about 2,000 men and six cannons, collecting provisions from civilians in the area. Blunt learned of this movement, and on November 7, sent Colonel William F. Cloud with 500 men and an artillery battery to attack the Confederates. The next day, Cloud's command routed a Confederate cavalry force commanded by Colonel Emmett MacDonald before returning to the main Union camp.
Marmaduke's cavalry remained in the general area, raiding mills and collecting supplies. While Marmaduke had around 2,000 men, Union intelligence placed the Confederate strength at 5,000 men. Blunt placed his division into a defensive posture and informed Schofield of the developments; a planned movement east by the divisions at Springfield was cancelled. On November 23, Union reports credited the Confederates at Cane Hill with over 8,000 men, while Blunt had about 6,000 men with him. Wanting to stop the Confederates' supply-gathering in the Cane Hill area and believing himself abandoned by Schofield, Blunt decided to go on the offensive. Blunt believed that an attack brought the best odds of success, and he was still smarting from an earlier incident in which he assumed a defensive position in the face of a Confederate assault that had never occurred. This advance was delayed by two days while Blunt waited for a group of supply wagons to arrive. Logistics was difficult in the Ozark Mountains and played a major role in the operation and timing of campaigns in the region. While Blunt's men had plentiful ammunition, Marmaduke's Confederates were short on both ammunition and percussion caps. The Union also had a numerical advantage in artillery: thirty guns to six. A 2006 battlefield guide prepared by Shea and historians Earl J. Hess, Richard W. Hatcher, and William Garrett Piston places Union losses at six killed and thirty-five wounded, and Confederate casualties as ten killed, 66 wounded, and six missing. Historian Stephen B. Oates has Blunt's loss at eight men killed and thirty-two wounded and similar Confederate casualties. Both Shea and Scott and Burgess note that casualties were lower than would be expected under the circumstances. Scott and Burgess suggest that the reasons for this include weapons that were ineffective except at close range, terrain difficulties, poor aim, the tactics the Confederates used, and the fact that only portions of each army were engaged at any one time. Oates attributes the low casualty totals to Marmaduke's tactics, suggesting that if Marmaduke had attempted to fight a decisive defensive battle then his command would probably have been completely wrecked.
Both sides were able to view the results of the battle as having accomplished their goals. Blunt held the field after the battle, and had driven Marmaduke from the area, while the Confederates had escaped with their supply train and drawn Blunt further south: Blunt's Union soldiers were now much closer to the main Confederate force than to their reinforcements. Blunt claimed victory, while the Confederates viewed the action as only a setback. Scott and Burgess compare the outcome of the battle to a hung jury. The 2006 battlefield guide describes the battle as a Union tactical victory. According to Oates, Marmaduke's men learned lessons in cavalry fighting that would later be put to use in raids into Missouri. After the fighting ended, Blunt withdrew his forces to Cane Hill, and it became the base of operations for his division. Marmaduke withdrew his men to Lee Creek, and then fell back to Dripping Springs, which was north of Van Buren. Union troops looted the Cane Hill College during the early portion of their stay at Cane Hill.
thumb|right|alt=A black and white drawing of soldiers capturing several cannons in front of a house. The soldiers in the foreground carry a flag that reads "20th Wisconsin"|An 1866 engraving of the [[Battle of Prairie Grove, which followed Cane Hill]]
On December 3, Hindman moved his army north from Van Buren to attack Blunt; the day before, Blunt had suspected that the Confederates were going to be on the move, and he ordered the two divisions at Springfield to join him while he took up defensive positions near Cane Hill. The divisions near Springfield were commanded by Brigadier General Francis J. Herron, who after receipt of the message from Blunt, moved his men south on foot in three and a half days. On December 6 Hindman learned of Herron's approach, and he decided to confront Herron first instead of Blunt. On the morning of December 7, the Confederates made a stand near Prairie Grove, and Herron and his men arrived that morning as well. The two forces made contact and the Battle of Prairie Grove began. Hindman's and Herron's men fought inconclusively in the morning, before Blunt arrived in the afternoon and joined the fighting. While neither side gained a major advantage, the Confederates withdrew after nightfall. The fighting at Prairie Grove ensured that Missouri and northwestern Arkansas remained under Union control.
A portion of the Cane Hill battlefield, about , was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 as the Cane Hill Battlefield. The Arkansas Civil War Centennial Commission erected a highway marker near the battle site to interpret the fighting. While the town of Cane Hill was a regional cultural center at the time of the battle, it has since greatly declined.