Official Records
Vol XIII
Numbers 2. Reports of Major General Thomas C. Hindman, C. S. Army, of operations May 31-November 3, 1862.
RICHMOND, VA., June 19, 1863.
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Brigadier General J. S. Roane, had been placed in command of Arkansas by General Van Dorn, but without any troops. He was instructed, as the best thing possible, to endeavor to hold the line of the Arkansas River, giving up more than half the territory, population, and resources of the State. That this might be done General Van Dorn directed General Pike to send a portion of his force to Little Rock, but he refused.
General Pike had at that time one regiment of Arkansas infantry, two 6-gun (Arkansas) batteries, one Texas battery of four guns,two regiments and several unattached companies of Texas cavalry, and ten 10-pounder Parrott rifles, besides 5,500 Indian troops. There was no Federal force, other than small marauding parties, within 200 miles of him. General Roane was at Little Rock without a regiment, and Curtis' victorious army, at least 15,000 strong, was moving in that direction.
Fortunately five regiments of Texas cavalry arrived on their way to Corinth. General Roane, by permission of General Beauregard, detained them at Little Rock. About the same time, by order of the Navy Department, the Confederate ram Maurepas, Lieutenant Commanding Joseph Fry, came into White River, and the ram Pontchartrain, Lieutenant Commanding J. W. Dunnington, into the Arkansas. These accessions had the effect to retard the movements of Curtis, whose advance, when I assumed command, was 35 miles from Little Rock.
I found under General Roane eight companies of Arkansas infantry, wholly unarmed, one 6-gun battery, with but 40 men, and less than 1,500 effective cavalry, many of the Texans being unarmed and many of them sick. For this force he had about three days' subsistence and forage and less than 15 rounds of ammunition. There were no depots of supplies in the district.
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