On the 24th of August the morning dawned hot as usual, promising another unrelenting summer day in central Arkansas. In Little Rock, at the former home of Confederate General Albert Pike, eighteen US Army paymasters were billeted. They had been in Arkansas since July, paying off the various posts as they were able. After their breakfast, four of them carrying tin boxes packed with greenbacks, crossed over to Huntersville were they boarded the morning train for DeValls Bluff.
Further down the railroad, men were going about their work in the hot sun. The prairie between Brownsville and the Bluff was prime hay country, and the army desperately needed hay for the horses and mules. As the day progressed, work was in full swing as civilian contractors cut and bailed with their horse drawn machines. The hay makers were guarded by soldiers from the 54th Illinois infantry, as well as a detachment from the 1st Nebraska Cavalry. These troops also manned the stockades or “hay stations” that were situated every few miles along the railroad. These small dirt, log, and hay bale earthworks were each guarded by two companies of the 54th. The infantry posted along the prairie watched the machines work under the mid-day sun. Near Ashley’s Station, where the tracks crossed Bayou Two Prairie, some of the guards noticed a body of cavalry approaching. Under the shimmering sun, dressed in columns of fours and wearing blue uniforms, it looked like another of the constant patrols coming back in. The guards casually turned their attention back to the hay machines. Further on down the line the work went on at three more hay stations. Insert pic 024
At DeValls Bluff the 8th Missouri was getting ready for another scout. Earlier that day a report had came in from a supposedly loyal source that a pontoon bridge was being thrown across the river near the Arkansas Post and that an attack from that direction was imminent. Colonel Geiger had been ordered to send 200 men from the 8th south to see about this. The men busied themselves getting mounts, rations, and ammunition together for a few days in the field. The other troopers in the brigade were equally busy making themselves ready for an inspection by General West. As the noon hour approached, Geiger was notified that the paymasters were coming in from the Rock on the morning train. He asked General Andrews that his men be excused from the scout for one day so the whole regiment could be paid off. Andrews agreed so the men, excited at the prospect of getting a pocketful of money, began to unsaddle and return the mounts to the stables.
At half past noon pickets outside camp spotted a rider galloping towards them. This 1st Nebraska soldier on a lathered horse, galloped past them, shouting out that the enemy was attacking. He pulled up in front of headquarters where he reported that Ashley’s Station had been captured by a large body of enemy cavalry, and they were moving east towards the Bluff. The bugle call “To Horse, To Arms” went out from brigade and regimental headquarters. Men who had moments before turned in horses and equipment scrambled to get saddles and mounts out onto the parade ground. Others, who were cleaning uniforms and arms for the inspection, were issued a quick load of ammunition and made themselves and their horses ready. In twenty minutes Colonel Geiger rode out of camp and headed his 690 men west down the railroad. Andrews ordered him to lend whatever assistance he could to Colonel Mitchell of the 54th Illinois and to at least observe the enemy.
So would begin a hot day for the Union and Confederate forces in central Arkansas. If you drive highway 70 between Lonoke and DeValls Bluff the quiet, flat countryside is broken only by the fields and power lines, the freeway off to the north. One hundred and fifty years ago this same stretch of central Arkansas with its forty nine miles of railroad track, and large hay fields, was a lifeline for the Union army in the state. On August 24th 1864 this quiet landscape was the scene of much fighting and bloodshed. If you pull off the highway and walk around the old rail bed you can imagine the scale of the attack that Shelby launched on that hot August day on the hay stations; a sense of the desperate stand of the 54th Illinois at the various hay stations under attack; of Colonel Geiger's small understrength brigade arriving too late to help the 54th, but pitching in to fight Shelby's rearguard out on the prairie.
A hot day indeed.