From April 7 to April 15, 1864, the Battle of Prairie D'Ane unfolded during the Camden Expedition as Confederate General Sterling Price took personal charge of 5,000 men at Prairie D'Ane, then faced Union General Steele's advancing command after Thayer and the Frontier Division arrived late on April 9. On April 10, Steele's force moved from the Cornelius Farm into the prairie on the military road, where the open grasslands exposed the enemy and fighting and cannon fire began and continued into the night as Confederate troops held the high ridge. On April 11, hungry Union troops spent the morning hunting rabbits or resting in camp before the larger Union force advanced in the afternoon in a battle line stretching for miles across the prairie; fighting followed, then the Union troops withdrew at dark. During the night, Price pulled Marmaduke's Division back to Prairie DeRoane while seeking a stronger defensive position eight miles east of Washington, the Confederate state capital and supply center. On April 12, the Union army advanced against defenses along the Washington Road, and after further action the smaller Confederate force abandoned its works as Steele turned his wagon train east and hurried toward Camden. On April 13, Thayer's rearguard at Moscow Church repelled attacks by Dockery's mounted infantry and Tandy Walker's Choctaw troops, which then disengaged and withdrew. On April 14, Steele's army struggled through muddy creek bottoms toward Camden, and Marmaduke's outnumbered division reached the head of the column but could not long delay the advance into the state's then second largest city. On April 15, Steele's army entered Camden hoping to find food for about 13,000 hungry soldiers and 12,000 horses and mules that carried cavalry and pulled 800 wagons and artillery, but that hope failed. Bloodier fighting followed later in the Camden Expedition at Poison Spring, Marks' Mills, and Jenkins Ferry, yet Prairie D'Ane was the turning point.