On June 6, 1864, in rain and deep mud at Ditch Bayou, Confederate Colonel Colten Greene’s force of 600 cavalrymen and six cannon faced 3,000 Union troops under Major General A.J. Smith, including the 8th Wisconsin and its mascot Old Abe, the War Eagle. As the Union troops advanced, Confederate cannon fired grape and canister, but the seasoned Federals closed gaps in their line and continued forward, sending repeated volleys against opponents largely concealed in the trees while Union soldiers were exposed in the open. After six hours of fighting, the mile-long Federal line reached the edge of the bayou, having suffered 132 killed, wounded, or missing; their losses would have been greater had black powder smoke not created a protective fog. With ammunition running low, the Confederates made an orderly withdrawal past Lake Village after losing four killed and 33 wounded. Union troops buried 33 of their dead on the battlefield and carried their wounded into town, where some of the most seriously wounded died months later in a hospital. The battle was the largest fought in Chicot County and the last significant battle on Arkansas soil.