Skirmish at Quitman

This skirmish took place in conjunction with the early stages of Major General Sterling Price’s Missouri Raid.

Following up on a report that stated that a forty-man Confederate detachment crossed the Arkansas River at Dardanelle (Yell County) on August 29, with a supply of ammunition intended for Brigadier General Joseph Orville Shelby’s command, Colonel Abraham H. Ryan of the Third Arkansas Cavalry (US) ordered a patrol led by Captain Archibald D. Napier of Company I and First Lieutenant George P. Carr of Company G.

On September 2, 1864, this force skirmished with men from Colonel Allan R. Witt’s Tenth Arkansas Cavalry (CS), approximately eight miles from Quitman (Cleburne and Faulkner counties). Napier and Carr apparently drove off the Confederate force, but there is no report on the fate of the supplies.

Ryan reported no Federal casualties in the engagement. Confederate losses included seven killed and five captured. Prisoners included Captain Andrew A. Livingston and four enlisted men, all from the Tenth Arkansas Cavalry’s Company A.

For additional information:
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1, Vol. 41, part 1. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1893.

Robert Patrick Bender
Eastern New Mexico University–Roswell