On July 4, 1863, Confederate General Theophilus Holmes launched a three-pronged attack on the small Union garrison at Helena in brutally hot weather. Union defenses centered on Battery A, Battery B, Battery C, and Battery D, while Fort Curtis within Helena and the U.S. gunboat Tyler on the Mississippi River provided crucial support in defeating the assault. More than 7,600 Confederate soldiers, mainly from Arkansas and Missouri, attacked 4,000 Union defenders. Only the attack against Battery C succeeded at first, but Union counterattacks and the shells of the Tyler broke it. The Confederate attackers lost 1,636 men killed, wounded, missing, or captured, while Union forces lost 239 men.
