Batesville during the Civil War - Batesville, Arkansas - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

On May 2, they (General Curtis's Army of the Southwest) advanced to Poke Bayou, about sixteen miles above Batesville, and rested until evening. The Union force entered Batesville about five o’clock the next morning and captured “a half dozen Confederates, who were not aware of our presence until summoned to surrender. A large amount of sugar, rice and other stores fell into our hands.”

The two ferries across the White River were seized. Col. Coleman was encamped in the woods on the south side of the river, out of range of the Union shells. The Union troops occupied Batesville but were not able to cross the river to attack the enemy, as there were but two or three small flatboats available.

Coleman soon made his appearance with more than 100 men, who posted themselves behind trees, logs, and an old store house. They opened a rapid fire from the south side of the river, but at too long a range to be effective. Curtis ordered that a howitzer be brought up, and the battery fired a few accurate shells across the river: “They were observed to carry away four of their number, either killed or wounded, while no one was injured on our side.”

Among the killed was Lieutenant Colonel Douglas McBride, son of General James H. McBride. His body was left unburied by the Confederates, who hastily retreated from the vicinity. Several days afterward, he was buried by a detail of Union soldiers.

In this exchange of fire, which can barely be called a skirmish, much less a battle, the citizens of Batesville witnessed the first violence of the war at home. As reported by Mrs. Burton Arnold, Sr., a descendant who had heard eyewitness accounts of the affair: “More people came out of town and went to the river to watch the battle than there were soldiers who took part in it.” The massive Army of the Southwest bivouacked in Independence County for almost two months before moving southeast to Helena (Phillips County).