Confederates Fall Back Before Union Assault

Confederates Fall Back Before Union Assault. Shelby Withdraws to Cane Hill. As James Blunt's First Division of the Army of the Frontier massed in front of the Confederate artillery at the Cane Hill Cemetery, General John Marmaduke ordered J.O. Shelby's Rebels to (unreadable) through the hamlet of Boonsboro. As the Southerners fell back, Captain Henry Hopkins of the Second Kansas Cavalry placed his Trophy Battery on the high ground to the left of where you are standing and opened fire, hitting the Cane Hill College building. The Yankees moved forward but were stalled by fire from the cannon of Charles Carroll's Arkansas Cavalry, which fired from the high ground east of Jordan Creek behind where you are standing. Marmaduke's army began a hurried retreat toward Cove Creek. ,

“We got a glimpse of the rebels, about a mile off, and Robb [Rabb] had turned his battery, and the rebels skedaddled off in a ‘little less then no time.’ We filed around through several fields, and finally brought up in the lower part of Cane Hill.” , Private John Howard Kitts, Eleventh Kansas Infantry Regiment, “After falling back about half a mile, we found the remainder of this division formed and ready to protect us. By order of the general we took position on the hill, bringing our guns in battery … awaiting and expecting to witness brilliant charges from the foe; but as before, he depended on dislodging us with his long-range guns.” , Brigadier General J.O. Shelby, C.S.A., “One [shell] exploded in the room [of the college] in which was kept Mathematical, Astronomical, Philosophical, Geographical, etc. etc. instruments. That one shell destroyed thousands of dollars worth of instruments.” , Silas H. Marple, Eleventh Kansas Infantry Regiment

, Cane Hill College was chartered in 1852, one of the earliest institutions of higher education in Arkansas, and was housed in a two-story wood-frame building constructed in 1854. The college closed with the onset of the Civil War in 1861 and Kansas cavalrymen burned the structure in 1864. A new wood-frame building was erected in 1868 and served until it burned in 1885. The current brick building was constructed in 1886 but dwindling finances forced Cane Hill College to close in 1891. The building later served as a public school., [Captions] , . (Bottom left) Captain Henry Hopkins commanded the Kansas Trophy Battery, which received its name after its capture by Blunt's troops at the battle of Old Fort Wayne in the Indian Territory on October 22, 1862. Courtesy of the Steven L. Warren Collection , . (Top center) Cpl. Emmett MacDonald's Missouri cavalrymen attempted to halt the Union troops streaming through Boonsboro but were soon forced to fall back with the rest of the Confederate force. Courtesy of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield , . (Bottom right) Left: This large wood-frame building was built to house Cane Hill College after the original building was burned during the Civil War. This building burned in 1885, the victim, according to local legend, of a bootlegger who torched it after being asked to leave town. Courtesy Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Washington County Historical Society Collection (P-226A) Right: The imposing brick building that still stands today was built in 1886 and housed both grade school and high school students after Cane Hill College closed in 1891. Martin and Morrison, photographers. Courtesy Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/Martha Moore Collection (S-85-284-18)