Battle of Poison Spring

Other Names: Poison Spring massacre

Location: Ouachita County, Arkansas

Campaign: Camden Expedition (1864)

Date: April 18, 1864

Principal Commanders: Col. James M. Williams [US]; Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke and Brig. Gen. Samuel Bell Maxey [CS]

Forces Engaged: Brigade (1,100 men) [US]; Marmaduke's and Maxey's Divisions [CS]

Casualties and losses: 415 total (US 301; CS 114)

Result(s): Confederate victory

Brief Description:

Dwindling supplies for his army at Camden forced Maj. Gen. Fred Steele to send out a foraging party to gather corn that the Confederates had stored about twenty miles up the Prairie D'Ane-Camden Road on White Oak Creek. The party loaded the corn into wagons, and on April 18, Col. James M. Williams started his return to Camden. Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke's and Brig. Gen. Samuel B. Maxey's Confederate forces arrived at Lee Plantation, about fifteen miles from Camden, where they engaged Williams. The Rebels eventually attacked Williams in the front and rear forcing him to retreat north into a marsh where his men regrouped and then fell back to Camden. The Union lost 198 wagons and all the corn. On April 20, Steele's men received a supply train from Pine Bluff carrying 10 days' rations, but when the wagons went to return to Pine Bluff, they were captured and their escort destroyed in the Battle of Marks' Mills.