Camden Expedition

The Camden Expedition (March 23 – May 2, 1864) was a military campaign in southern and central Arkansas during the American Civil War. It involved Union forces stationed at Little Rock and Fort Smith under the command of Major General Frederick Steele.

The United States War Department, under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, had developed a strategic goal to reassert Federal control over Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. This was part of a much larger effort to move simultaneously against Confederate forces in a number of theaters. Separate Union columns were to destroy the remaining Southern troops in South Arkansas and Northern Louisiana, then join together for an all-out push into Texas, essentially ending the war in that region.

The Arkansas phase of this Red River Campaign was entitled the Camden Expedition, an effort endorsed by Ulysses S. Grant. The plan called for Steele's force to march to Shreveport, Louisiana, where it would link up with an amphibious expedition led by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks and Rear Admiral David D. Porter, whose force was to advance up the Red River Valley; once joined, the Union force was to strike into Texas. Steele would garrison Shreveport while Banks forged ahead into northeastern Texas. But the two pincers never converged, and Steele's columns suffered terrible losses in a series of battles with Confederate forces led by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price and Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith.

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