Families living outside Leetown, Arkansas first heard shots fired on the far side of Little Mountain as half of the Confederate Army of the West marched eastward on Ford Road to link up with the other half of the Confederate army nearing Elkhorn Tavern. To delay that junction, a small Federal force opened fire across the fields of Wiley Foster's farm. The fighting intensified as Texas and Arkansas regiments moved south from Foster's farm to Samuel Oberson's wide cornfield. Later in the afternoon, the action bogged down in a thick 100-acre woods belonging to Elizabeth Morgan. As darkness fell, the Confederates near Leetown pulled back, marching behind Big Mountain to rejoin their commander on the Telegraph Road.