the last struggle for the
River.
The
fall of Vicksburg was imminent in July, 1863, and seeing this the
Confederates determined to make one last herculean effort to retain a hold upon the
Mississippi and prevent the
Confederacy from being divided.
General Holmes collected a force of about nine thousand Confederates and advanced through
Arkansas upon Fort Curtis, the principal defense of
Helena.
There
General Prentiss opposed him with a garrison of but 4,129.
in the early dawn of July 4, 1863,
Holmes hurled his forces upon the battlements of Fort Curtis.
He was met with a resistance entirely beyond his expectations.
Not only were the
Confederates mowed down by the fire from the
Fort, but the gunboat
Tyler lying in the
River enfiladed the columns pouring through the ravines to support the attack.
It was impossible to withstand the deadly rain of shell and shrapnel, and the order was given to withdraw.
On the field were left two thousand dead and wounded Confederates.
Most of the dead were buried by the victorious Federals, and more than a thousand wounded were taken prisoners.
Fort Curtis was named for
General Samuel Ryan Curtis, who assumed command of the Federal District of
Southwest Missouri at the close of 1861.
the
battle at Pea Ridge, or
Elkhorn, Arkansas, near the
Missouri border, March, 1862, was a Confederate reverse and was followed by the transfer of the principal Confederate commands which fought there to other fields, leaving
Curtis in control.
After a stubbornly contested March across
Arkansas he arrived on the
Mississippi, July 13, 1862, and began to fortify
Helena.
From that time it was held by the
Federals undisputed until the attack of
General Holmes.
The day of the repulse at Fort Curtis,
Vicksburg surrendered to
Grant;
Port Hudson, Louisiana, on the east bank, yielded to
Banks five days later, after a siege of six weeks, and the
Mississippi passed forever from the control of the
Confederacy.
