Qualla: Battle of Poison Spring https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Poison Spring https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring Battle of Poison Spring: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit Hog Farm, CC BY-SA 4.0. Colonel James M. Williams had a simple mission: collect 5,000 bushels of corn and bring it back to Camden. His men were starving. Union forces under Major General Frederick Steele had occupied the small Arkansas town as part of the Camden Expedition, but by mid-April 1864, rations had been cut to one-quarter of normal. Soldiers boiled bark and roasted weeds. When word reached Steele that corn lay stored on farms along the road to Washington, he sent Williams out with 198 wagons and a mixed force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment -- African American soldiers, most of them formerly enslaved in Arkansas and Missouri -- formed the backbone of the escort. Confederate Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith had already issued an order regarding such men: give 'no quarter to armed negroes and their officers.' What happened on the morning of April 18 near a place called Poison Spring would become, in the words of historian Gregory J. W. Urwin, 'the worst war crime ever committed on Arkansas soil.'

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: Hog Farm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Poison Spring: Hunger and Desperation on the Camden Road https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. By April 1864, the Confederacy was losing the war, but in southwestern Arkansas, the situation was peculiarly reversed. Steele's Union force held Camden, yet they were the ones slowly starving. Guerrillas had poisoned wells with dead animals. Banks's Red River campaign had collap...

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-hunger-and-desperation-on-the-camden-road.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Poison Spring: The Trap at the Spring https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit Hog Farm, CC BY-SA 4.0. Confederate Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke had set his trap carefully. His men formed a roadblock along the route back to Camden, while Major General Samuel B. Maxey's division -- Texans under Colonel Charles DeMorse and Choctaw soldiers under Colonel Tandy Walker -- prepare...

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: Hog Farm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-the-trap-at-the-spring.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Poison Spring: An Orgy of Barbarism https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit Hog Farm, CC BY-SA 4.0. The third Confederate assault broke the Union line. Crawford's brigade outflanked the 1st Kansas Colored while Cabell's men drove into their center. As Black soldiers fell back through the wagon train, Confederate troops began murdering wounded men on the ground. The sight of the...

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: Hog Farm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-an-orgy-of-barbarism.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Poison Spring: Vengeance at Jenkins' Ferry https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit Hog Farm, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Confederates captured 170 wagons, 1,200 mules, and four cannons. Steele's position was now untenable. A week later, another foraging column was destroyed at the Battle of Marks' Mills, where more than 100 African American noncombatants were reportedly murdered. Steele abandon...

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: Hog Farm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-vengeance-at-jenkins-ferry.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Poison Spring: Eighty-Four Acres of Hallowed Ground https://qualla.com/battle-of-poison-spring/ Photo credit Hog Farm, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today, Poison Springs Battleground State Park preserves 84 acres of the site where 301 Union soldiers fell. The park sits along the road from Camden, part of the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. For de...

Read more: Battle of Poison Spring on Qualla

Image: Hog Farm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/v/z/battle-of-poison-spring-wp/9vvz-battle-of-poison-spring-eighty-four-acres-of-hallowed-ground.mp3 0:06 6 full