FORT HINDMAN, or ARKANSAS POST, Battle of. After General Sherman's failure at Chickasaw Bayou (26-31 Dec. 1862), his army and Admiral Porter's fleet returned to Milliken's Bend, where, 4 Jan. 1863, Gen. J. A. McClernand superseded Sherman in com mand and moved against Fort Hindman, situated on the north bank of the Arkansas River, 50 miles from its mouth, commanding the approach to Little Rock and protecting the valley of the Arkansas. The fleet, three ironclads and six gun boats, entered White River, and from it passed through a cut-off to the Arkansas, 9 January. The army of 29,000 men landed about four miles below the fort, a large square-bastioned work, on high ground, at the end of a horse shoe bend in the river, mounting 18 guns, and garrisoned by about 5,000 men, under command of Gen. T. J. Churchill. A line of rifle-pits surrounded it. The ironclads began the attack on the 10th, and the entire fleet, gradually moving up, shelled the Confederates out of the rifle-pits and back into the fort. On the 11th
the navy opened a furious fire upon the fort, McClernand's artillery joining in the fire from the land side. Churchill's guns were silenced, and McClernand ordered a general assault. After a severe contest the fort was carried with a loss to the Union army of 134 killed, 898 wounded and 29 missing. The naval loss was 6 killed and 25 wounded. The Confederate loss was 60 killed, about 80 wounded and 4,791 captured. On the 12th McClernand received peremptory orders from General Grant to re turn to Milliken's Bend with his entire com mand. The prisoners were sent to Saint Louis, the fort was dismantled and blown up and ate fleet and troops went down the Arkansas to Napoleon, on the Mississippi. Consult 'Official Records' (Vol. XXII) ; Greene, 'The Missis sippi' ; Mahan, 'The Gulf and Inland Waters' ; Maclay, 'History of the Navy) (Vol. II) ; The Century Company's 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War' (Vol. III).