DeValls Bluff was strategically important to both the Union and Confederate armies as a major White River port and as the head of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad. After its fall 1863 occupation, it became a key Union supply depot as well as a haven for refugees, both freedmen and white. During 1864, mounted Confederates operated around the town, attacking the railroad and Union troops on the nearby prairie. After the war ended, the Freedmens Bureau had an office in DeValls Bluff, aiding the newly freed African-Americans in the area.