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The Skirmish at Terre Noire Creek, sometimes called the Skirmish at Wolf Creek or Skirmish at Antoine, an engagement during the Camden Expedition of the American Civil War, was fought on April 2, 1864. The action occurred about east of Terre Noire Creek along a defile near the towns of Hollywood, Arkansas (sometimes known as Spoonville or Witherspoonville) and Antoine, Arkansas. A Confederate States Army cavalry brigade under Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby attacked a Union supply train of more than 200 wagons accompanying Union Army Major General Frederick Steele's force which was attempting to reach Shreveport, Louisiana to join with Major General Nathaniel Banks's force in the Red River Campaign with the objective of occupying Shreveport and controlling western Louisiana. The wagon train was guarded by the Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry Regiment, the Fiftieth Indiana Infantry Regiment and the Ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The skirmish was one of the earlier engagements associated with Steele’s attempt to push southwest from Little Rock, Arkansas to join Banks, who was expected to reach Shreveport in early April. Although the Union force drove off the Confederates with minimal loss to their supplies, and only a small number of casualties, the Union column suffered delays which they could ill afford and also were forced to change their line of march. Steele's force was quickly running short of provisions on their slow march, which was delayed by rain as well as Confederate harassment, and could only get more supplies through difficult foraging in a sparse territory or by having them delivered to them from their bases at Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Arkansas or Fort Smith, Arkansas. The Union's tactical victory in skirmishes at Terre Noire Creek did not ultimately contribute to a successful campaign as Steele was forced to divert his march toward Washington, Arkansas and head for Okolona, Arkansas and then Elkin's Ferry, Arkansas, further to the east. Ultimately, he had to move back to the southeast and occupy Camden to seek supplies from foraging and his depots. Finally, on April 27, 1864, Steele had to retreat to Little Rock after learning that Banks had been defeated and was in retreat while Confederate reinforcements were headed toward his force from Louisiana.〔Worthan, Jacob. (''Skirmish at Terre Noire Creek'' ). In The Central Arkansas Library System, ''Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture''. Retrieved July 30, 2015.〕 == Background == When Ulysses S. Grant was appointed lieutenant general and general in chief of the Union Army on March 9, 1864, he decided to put all Union armies in motion against the Confederate forces continuously until the war was won.〔Foote, Shelby. ''The Civil War: A Narrative''. Vol. 3, ''Red River to Appomattox''. New York: Random House, 1974. ISBN 978-0-394-74622-7. pp. 13-15.〕 He specifically wanted to send armies to press the main Confederate armies near Richmond, Virginia and Atlanta, Georgia and to tie down a large Confederate force, including reserves in Mississippi and Alabama, at Mobile, Alabama.〔Foote, 1974, p. 15.〕 Previously, however, President Lincoln had acceded to a plan by Major General Henry Halleck, then general in chief, to have Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, a leader of the Democratic Party, extend Union control over western Louisiana and Texas by defeating the forces of Confederate General E. Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department, who had his headquarters and a major supply depot at Shreveport.〔〔Kerby, Robert L. ''Kirby Smith's Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863– 1865. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, Reprint. Originally published New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. ISBN 978-0-8173-0546-8. p. 292.〕〔Eicher, David J. ''The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 978-0-684-84944-7. p. 643.〕 Grant did not approve of this plan because the forces in the Trans-Mississippi already were cut off from the rest of the Confederacy and could not influence the outcome of Grant's major campaigns.〔〔〔 Grant could not stop the campaign up the Red River but only could urge that it be completed quickly so that Banks's force could be used to attack Mobile, which Banks himself actually preferred to do, at least at first.〔Foote, 1974, p. 25.〕〔Kerby, 1972, p. 293.〕 The port was a more important objective in itself and its defense would tie down Confederate troops that otherwise could be used and Union forces elsewhere east of the Mississippi River.〔Foote, 1974, pp. 16-17.〕 Banks's plan in March 1864, as conceived by Halleck, was to advance to Shreveport, Louisiana along the Red River where he could be supported by Union gunboats commanded by Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. Major General Frederick Steele would move a large force from Little Rock, Arkansas to join Banks at Shreveport. The original plan had Banks then moving his force into Texas. President Abraham Lincoln agreed to this plan because he was concerned that Napoleon III of France, who might be sympathetic to the Confederacy, was setting up a puppet regime under Maximilian I in Mexico.〔 In furtherance of the plan, Halleck assigned 10,000 men from Major General William T. Sherman's army at Vicksburg, Mississippi temporarily to Banks.〔 Under the circumstances involving politics and a plan set in motion before he was in charge, Grant could not stop the campaign but he ordered Banks to go no further than Shreveport, to leave Steele to control the territory, to return to New Orleans for further assignment against Mobile and to send Sherman's troops back to him by mid-April if it appeared that Shreveport could not be taken by the end of that month.〔 During the Fall of 1863 and Winter of 1863-64, Banks had tried to attack along the Texas coast but was unable to hold any significant territory.〔Foote, 1974, p. 26.〕 As spring approached, he agreed to get back to Halleck's plan to take control of Texas by moving up the Red River via Alexandria, Louisiana and Shreveport. Banks's enthusiasm for the campaign grew as he became aware of the cotton that could be seized for the government and the manufacturing plants that had been set up in Shreveport and Texas that could be captured or destroyed and political advantages which could be gained in permitting Louisiana to return to the Union if most of it could be occupied and ten percent of the citizens took an oath of allegiance under Lincoln's Ten-Percent plan.〔Foote, 1974, pp. 26-27.〕〔Johnson, Ludwell H. ''Red River Campaign: Politics & Cotton in the Civil War''. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-87338-486-5. First published Baltimore; The Johns Hopkins Press, 1958. pp 37–48.〕 Banks had 20,000 men available for his campaign in mid-March. He would meet the 10,000 men from Sherman's force, under Major General Andrew Jackson Smith, at Alexandria on March 24, 1864, a week behind schedule, but a day before his own troops arrived.〔Foote, 1974, p. 28.〕 Steele was scheduled to bring 15,000 troops from Arkansas.〔 Steele had started on this journey to the southwest bound for Shreveport on March 23, almost two weeks after Halleck wanted him to begin. Since Steele never made it to Shreveport, he called his campaign from Little Rock to Camden and back again the Camden Expedition, which name has been attached to it since then.〔Foote, Shelby. ''The Civil War: A Narrative''. Vol. 3, ''Red River to Appomattox''. New York: Random House, 1974. ISBN 978-0-394-74622-7. p. 77.〕 Steele actually opposed participation of his troops in the Red River Campaign because of the difficulty in marching across the wet Arkansas roads, "destitute of provision", and the likelihood his flanks would be exposed and his depots would be inadequately defended from guerrilla attack.〔Foote, 1974, p. 62.〕〔Johnson, 1993, p. 170.〕〔Eicher, 2001, p. 652.〕 He proposed a demonstration against Arkadelphia, Arkansas or another location to the southwest of Little Rock in order to hold Confederate troops in Arkansas.〔Foote, 1974, pp. 62-64.〕 On March 15, however, Steele received a telegram from Grant telling him to cooperate with Banks and to march on Shreveport.〔〔Foote, 1974, p. 64.〕 Steele left Little Rock with 5,000 infantry and artillery and 3,000 cavalry on March 23, 1864.〔 On March 17, Steele had ordered Brigadier General John Thayer to bring 4,000 troops to meet Steele's force at Arkadelphia on April 1.〔Johnson, 1993, pp. 170–171.〕〔Johnson, 1993, p. 171 gives the number of effectives in Steele's and Thayer's forces as 10,400 men, although he notes that Brigadier General Frederick Saloman reported after the campaign that he started with 5,226 effectives.〕 A Union cavalry force of 2,000 at the Union base and depot at Pine Bluff, Arkansas under Colonel Powell Clayton was to watch the Confederate force at Camden, Arkansas.〔〔Foote, 1974, p. 65.〕 Because of expected supply problems over the projected time of the march, Steele placed his men on half-rations from the outset.〔 Confederate Major General Sterling Price commanded the Confederate District of Arkansas at Camden.〔 Price had five cavalry brigades available because Price's infantry had been sent to Louisiana to help in the opposition to Banks's force.〔Johnson, 1993, p. 172.〕 Due to rain-soaked roads, Steele's force did not complete the march to Arkadelphia until March 29.〔Johnson, 1993, p. 173.〕 Steele waited 3 days at Arkadelphia for Thayer but Thayer's force did not arrive during that time.〔 Meanwhile, on March 25, Confederate Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby left Camden to pursue Steele. Two other Confederate cavalry brigades under Colonel Colton Greene and Brigadier General William Lewis Cabell moved out of Camden on March 28 to get in front of Steele's column. The three brigades were under the overall division command of Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke who traveled with Greene's brigade.〔〔Josephy, Jr., Alvin M., ''The Civil War in the American West''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1991. ISBN 978-0-394-56482-1. p. 211.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Skirmish at Terre Noire Creek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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