http://www.ashleycountyledger.com/articles/2016/01/27/history/aai7.txt
To Union newspapers, such as the National Democrat in Little Rock, the raid on Longview was a brilliant success. Titling its story on the raid "Good News from Gen. Steele and Col. Clayton," the National Democrat said: "We are furnished by Adjutant General Green with news received from rebel sources placing Price at Camden on the 28th of March, and General Steele at Arkadelphia on the 26th. Steele's march has been a complete success so far, meeting with but little obstruction. The army is said to be in excellent health and fine spirits."

"Col. Clayton, commanding the expedition from Pine Bluff, destroyed the pontoon bridge at Longview--burned a train of thirty-five wagons loaded with camp and garrison equipage, ammunition, quartermaster's stores, etc., and captured over three hundred prisoners."
"He engaged (General Thomas) Dockery's division, of about 1200 men, from Monticello, on the morning of the 30th ult., routed and pursued him ten miles, with a loss on his side of over one hundred killed and wounded--capturing a large quantity of small arms and two stands of colors. Our loss did not exceed fifteen in killed, wounded and missing."

"Three hundred horses and mules and many wagons were captured. Col. Clayton by this expedition has added fresh laurels to his brow. He is worthy of all honor, and deserving the highest reward at the hands of the government. He has been in every instance successful and will be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General for valiant service to the Union cause. He justly deserves the honor."

The Confederate reports made far few and far less elaborate mentions of the raids on Mount Elba and Longview. Major General Sterling Price, the commander of the Confederate district of Arkansas, wrote to Brigadier-General W. R. Boggs, Chief of Staff of the Trans-Mississippi Department, that General Dockery, who was headquartered at Monticello commanding the 12th Arkansas Battalion Sharpshooters, the 18th Arkansas, the 19th Arkansas and the 20th Arkansas, had been ordered to harass the rear flanks of the Union troop movements and attack Union supply trains. "Unfortunately," he reported, "before Brigadier-General Dockery could execute this order he was on March 29 attacked at Mount Elba by a party of the enemy from Pine Bluff and completely routed. They at the same time captured at Long View his entire train (twenty-six wagons) and about 200 prisoners." Price made no other mention of the events at Longview in his official report, and his statement of the number captured was much lower than the Union reports.
Only a month before the skirmish at Longview, most of Dockery's brigade was unarmed. However, on February 24, 1864, General Ross, who was commanding the area of Mississippi east of Gaines Landing, succeeded in transferring 1,400 stand of arms across the river. Those weapons went to Dockery's men who then moved to the Hamburg area prior to the conflict at Longview.

Yet, for the Confederates, there was one bright point in the skirmish at Longview. Captain Robert H. Withers, a captain of Confederate marines, operated his own boat, the Morgan Nelson, in order to supply Confederate soldiers along the Ouachita and Saline Rivers. When the Union troops attacked at Longview, Withers went down to his boat, which was unloading corn, and floated the boat down to Horsehead, a sand bar about a mile below, and hid the ship in the willows. Judge Etheridge noted a 1925 letter from W. F. Martin of Camden, who was raised near Johnsville on the Bradley County side of the river, to Mrs. Hettie Haskew Champney of Fountain Hill which recalled the event:

"Your mention of Capt. Withers whom I have known most all my life. I knew of him when he used to run a keel boat on the Saline. He was the man who brought the first steam boat in the Saline River, the Marshall, and ran the Morgan Nelson in there during the war hauling corn from up and down the Saline and Ouachita Rivers for the Confederate soldiers."

"He had his boat there at Longview where General Dockery's command was camped, and when Capt. Withers heard the shooting and saw so many blue coats in town, he ran down to the wharf and cut the line and let the boat drift down stream for a quarter mile or more, when he put on full steam and run her down to Horsehead bend and hid her in the willows."

"The next morning, Bob Lowry and me were shooting doves down the river in old man Lowry's field and we passed close to the river and heard some noise in the willows across the river, and went into the field and commenced shooting doves around some corn pens, and directly we saw a soldier peeping through the fence, and in a few minutes a hundred or more, with their guns ready to shoot us. When they saw we were only boys, they came where we were and said they thought it was a battle going on with the Yankees, and they were part of Dockery's men who ran in the swamp when the Yankees ran into town."

(Editor's note: The Morgan Nelson was a 120 foot long stern wheel wooden packet ship 21.8 feet wide with a 4.4' draft. The boat was built in Middletown, PA, and launched in 1859. The ship spent from 1862 to May, 1865, hauling supplies up river for the CSA to various points on the Mississippi, Black, Red, Ouachita and Saline rivers. In 1868, the boat was sold in New Orleans and dismantled. Capt. Withers bought another steamboat, the Carrie Poole which he operated for several years.)

One of the prisoners captured at Longview was apparently a Confederate Colonel Glenn. In September, Col. Powell Clayton wrote that Glenn passed himself off as a citizen and was released. According to Clayton, Glenn was on Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne's staff and was on his way to join him. Clayton said that Col. Glenn was supposedly in Little Rock and recommended that he be arrested.

Even though the Union forces at Longview were victorious, it was not a meaningful victory in that the Camden campaign as a whole failed. Ashley County and Southern Arkansas remained in the Confederate fold, but the rebel hold was not a strong one. On April 9, one of Clayton's subordinates reported that he had been out on a five day scouting trip from Pine Bluff. The Union troops "went through Monticello and Long View to Hamburg, and to within 15 miles of the Louisiana line. Had a skirmish: killed two, and captured 2 lieutenants and 17 men. He reports the country this side of the Saline as abandoned by the enemy with the exception of a few straggling bands," Clayton wrote.

Confederates continued to occupy the area and also reconstructed the pontoon bridge at Longview. On May 17, 1864, General Steele wrote to Mayor Gen. E. R. S. Canby, "The enemy is reported to have bridges on the Saline at Jenkins' Ferry, Mount Elba and Long View, and a considerable force of infantry at these points." He theorized that the troops plan to raid the railroad between Little Rock and Devall's Bluff, adding, "I could easily prevent this but for the want of calvary and calvary horses. More than one-half of my calvary are dismounted." He requested that about 600 troops from the Third Iowa, which had been in Memphis, be ordered to Little Rock immediately.

In July, 1864, Brig, General C. C. Andrews, who was stationed in Devall's Bluff with 6,000 federal troops, wrote to President Abraham Lincoln that Dockery's forces were in Hamburg. "From all I learn the rebel and conscripts are in high spirits. There is an unusual enthusiasm among them. I learn on fair authority that the explanation of this unusual feeling is that the rebel leaders have represented that by prolonging the war and successfully resisting the Federal authority a little longer, they will defeat your election, help elect McClellan or some such man, and gain better terms of peace