Battle Of Arkansas Post Essay

The Battle of Arkansas Post
The Battle of Arkansas Post was fought on the days of January 9-11 it was a combined land-river assault staged by the Union as an attack on the confederate Fort Hindman or Arkansas Post. The Confederacy used the fort to launch attacks on ships in the northern shipping yards which lead to the capture of The Blue Wing which was a northern ship that carried munition that was meant for General T. Sherman's command. To make a bad situation even worse rumours were floating around that a new powerful ironclad ship was being built at Little Rock. While organizing an attack on Vicksburg, Mississippi Union leaders thought it wise to take care of the problem to the south Arkansas Post. In the very first week of 1863 Union

After a couple days of fighting at least one-fourth of the Confederate soldiers stationed at the fort surrendered a numbered that remained unbeaten west of the mississippi until until 1865 in Galveston, Texas where 20,000 men surrendered to General Edmund Kirby Smith. After General T. Sherman suffered a severe wound at a battle command of his troops was passed on to John Alexander McClernand a politician McClernand was a prominent politician and lawyer in Illinois ,and was under orders from Union General Ulysses S. Grant to make his way down the mississippi and attack fort Vicksburg. After Sherman mentioned the idea of an assault on Fort Hindman McClernand was enthusiastic about the assault on Fort Hindman and recruited 10,000 men to fight in the battle. However the commander of the gunboat fleet ,David D. Porter, Porter was not overly fond on McClernand and refused to give him any ships unless he could be the commander of the fleet and Sherman led the infantry assault himself. So a 10,000 man operation quickly became a 30,000 man operation supported by 50 transports and nine gunboats and was led by three top commanders. The post was under the control of Confederate General Thomas Churchill a very skilled commander who led a devastating flank