On September 10, 1863, Union troops constructed a wooden pontoon bridge across the Arkansas River north of this location, enabling Union Brigadier General John W. Davidson's cavalry division to proceed toward Little Rock while Major General Frederick Steele's Union forces continued advancing north of the river. Union troops crossed under protective artillery fire through part of the old river channel now occupied by Willow Beach Lake, while Confederates with artillery near the present water tower unsuccessfully tried to prevent the crossing. Once the bridge was completed, Davidson sent infantry to seize a levee in the opposite woods to protect the brigade as it crossed and formed, after which the brigade moved onto the river road toward Little Rock. After advancing about 1 1/2 miles, it came under heavy musketry and artillery fire at precisely noon. At sunrise that same morning, a Confederate brigade was ordered from the forks of the Brownsville and Shallow Ford roads, where it had bivouacked the previous night, to cross at the lower pontoon and move rapidly down the river to meet the enemy, who had already crossed at Terry's Ferry.