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[398] fort; Gen. Fagan was to attack the southern fort; and Gen. Price was to assault and capture the centre fort — the attack to commence simultaneously at day-light. About day-break the first gun fired was by the battalion of sharpshooters belonging to Parsons' brigade, who encountered an outpost of the enemy. Price moved in column of division, the 9th Missouri Infantry in advance. The hills were high, the ravines deep; but the men pressed forward in good order, the enemy shelling them at every step of the march. When the last ridge was reached, the command was halted, and the men rested and closed up, ready for the assault. They were now within two or three hundred yards of the fort. By this time the firing had commenced on the right and left, and it was known that Fagan and Marmaduke were at work. The command was given by Gen. Price to charge with fixed bayonets. The troops moved in gallant style, at the run, over and through fallen timber and roughly constructed abatis, up hills, and into gullies. They were never checked once, and were soon in possession of the fort. Price's division had done the work assigned it. Heavy guns from the gunboat in the river now commenced playing upon the captured fort. The men sheltered themselves, as well as they could, and awaited further orders. Meanwhile Fagan had moved against the southern fort, and when within two hundred yards of it, had commenced a fire of small-arms, which provoked such a heavy response of artillery, that his men were compelled to fall back. Twice was the assault repeated, and with the same , result. Marmaduke met with no better success. Gen. Holmes, seeing the failures of Fagan and Marmaduke, ordered two regiments of Parsons' brigade to attack the southern fort in the rear. The movement was attempted; but under the fire of the gunboat and the cross-fire of the other two forts, and that of the whole infantry force of the enemy, it was impossible to advance. Fagan and Marmaduke having withdrawn their forces, it became necessary to attempt the withdrawal of Price's division. With the whole force of the enemy concentrated upon this division, and separated as it was from any support, its retreat was one of mortal peril at every step. It was accomplished with heavy loss. The battle was lost; six hundred Confederates had been disabled, and about four hundred taken prisoners. Gen. Holmes the next morning commenced his march back to Little Rock. The white flag had been run up at Vicksburg; all hope of the connection of the Trans-Mississippi with the eastern portions of the Confederacy was at an end; and Gen. Holmes had made the first step of the retreat which, at last abandoning Little Rock, was to surrender to the enemy the most valuable portion of Arkansas. 1
1 An esteemed correspondent writes us these personal incidents of the Battle of Helena:
Gen. Holmes is a brave man, and was under the hottest fire. After the centre fort had been captured, and the heavy fire from the gunboat and the two other forts had been opened on it, Gen. Holmes was standing on the parapet, eagerly looking for Fagan, who was his favourite, to plant his colours on the fort he was attacking. While thus standing, Gen. Parsons, who was sheltering himself in the fort, bawled out: “Come down, General! you will be hit. Don't you hear the shot whistling around you?” “I have the advantage of you, Gen. Parsons, I am deaf, and cannot hear them.” Another incident of the battle should be recorded as a just tribute to the memory of a brave man. At the battle of Prairie-Grove, Lt. Richard Spencer, of the 9th Missouri Infantry, was taken sick, and was unable to engage in the fight. While at Jacksonport en route for Helena, he was again taken sick. At Prairie-Grove his colonel had accused him of cowardice, and said that his sickness was a mere excuse to keep out of the fight. When the command left Jacksonport, the surgeon of the regiment advised Lieut. Spencer to remain in hospital, which he refused to do. On the march, the surgeon noticing that he was quite unwell, repeatedly urged him to ride in an ambulance, which he declined. Once on the march it became necessary to detail an officer to remain in charge of some baggage, and Spencer was detailed for the purpose. He refused to obey the order, and told his colonel that he had been accused of cowardice for not going into the former fight, and that now he was determined to go if he had to drag his body into action; that he had rather die than live under such an imputation. He was finally excused from remaining with the baggage. Scarcely able to walk, he marched to Helena, led his company into the fort, and was shot dead through the head.
1866.
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