Gen. Frederick Steele’s Union army left Little Rock on March 23, 1864, intending to join a second army in Louisiana and invade Texas, but after reaching as far as modern-day Prescott he turned toward Camden in search of supplies for his starving army. After Steele lost a supply train at Poison Spring on April 18, a wagon train from Pine Bluff arrived on April 20 with 10 days’ rations, and he sent it back with 1,400 soldiers to obtain more supplies. As Confederates approached, the column took roads near today’s Fordyce on the way to Pine Bluff. East of here at Marks’ Mills, Confederate Gen. James Fagan placed an ambush with 4,000 cavalrymen in two divisions. On April 25, 1864, they attacked the Union column from two sides, and after a desperate five-hour battle the Union lost about 1,500 men killed, wounded, and captured, along with hundreds of wagons. Fagan lost 293 men in what may have been the greatest Confederate triumph west of the Mississippi. The defeat at Marks’ Mills forced Steele to abandon Camden and retreat to Little Rock, and he lost 2,750 men in the Camden Expedition.