A Crisis in Command

Texan General Ben McCulloch, commanding this half of the Confederate army, formed his division of some 7,000 men just out of sight behind distant trees before a planned charge into Oberson's cornfield. Known to his troops as "Old Ben," he rode alone to the woods' edge for a final scout and was shot dead by Yankee skirmishers behind a rail fence. No Confederate soldier or officer saw him fall, and after minutes passed with no word, second-in-command General James McIntosh took over, only to die while leading a charge out of the woods at the head of the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles into heavy Federal fire. With no leader to give orders for more than an hour, the momentum that might have led to a swift Confederate victory at Leetown was lost.

Arkansas · United States