The Confederates Take Battery C

At Battery C atop Graveyard Hill, which commanded Helena and the rugged landscape to the west, Confederate General Theophilus Holmes saw the gateway to the city and sent General Sterling Price's infantry division, his strongest force, to seize it. Although he could hear fighting on both ends of the line, Price delayed his attack until the fog had lifted and his infantry was exposed. Captain Thomas M. Gibson of the 33rd Missouri held Battery C with an artillery crew and a handful of infantry as Confederates charged the position, drove the Union defenders into close combat, and were twice thrown back by fire from surrounding batteries, the gunboat Tyler, and Fort Curtis. On the third assault the Confederates captured the hill, but in the confusion Holmes's order to attack Battery D was misunderstood, and a Confederate brigade from Battery C rushed down the hill against Fort Curtis instead. Half the brigade was lost in the streets of Helena, Holmes was forced to withdraw, and the Confederate army retreated down the Lower Little Rock Road.

Helena-West Helena, Arkansas · United States