I'm more apt to believe that the Confederates at Longview were wearing CS-manufacture clothing made out of English army cloth rather than "Captured Federal", since I'm not sure just where these garments would have been captured. Outside the future encounters near Shreveport and near Camden, the Confederate arms had not been all that successful recently against the Yankees. Meanwhile, there was a fair supply of British cloth coming through the Texas depots, and a fair supply f this was being forwarded to Arkansas. (See Fred Adolphus, "Confederate Quartermaster Clothing from the Houston Depot", in Military Collector and Historian, Winter 1996). Jackets made from this material are hard to distinguish from Federal infantry and mounted service jackets at more than a couple of rods.

As for another reference on the Longview fight, I clipped the following from the Ashley County Ledger a year or two ago:

[i]
The Skirmish at Longview
By David M. Moyers, Ashley County Ledger

In the four years of civil war from 1861 to 1865, Ashley County escaped the major battles which characterized much of the Confederacy as well as some other parts of Arkansas. Yet, one unmarked battlefield does exist in the county.
Usually when local citizens saw soldiers in the Civil War era, they were foraging for supplies. As Judge Y. W. Etheridge noted in his History of Ashley County, “Up until South Arkansas was a battlefield in 1864, when the wagons of the quartermaster’s department of the Confederate army moved through the county, they were layden (sic) down with every kind of supplies available, corn, wheat, potatoes, bacon and lard, pickled meats, dried fruits, molasses, home woven cloth, hides, fish oils and such other products as the population had. Cattle for beef and horses for the cavalry, supply trains and to draw the cannon from battlefield to battlefield were impressed and paid for by military authority where not freely given.”
Yet, by 1864, the military situation had changed enough that Ashley County was the site of one minor skirmish, a small Union victory among a whole series of disasters in a major campaign.
The background for the battle was set when Union General Frederick Steele, who had occupied Little Rock on September 10, 1863, mounted an expedition to the southwest beginning on March 23, 1864. Steele’s forces were to join up with Union troops under the command of General Nathaniel P. Banks which were moving up the Red River. Those two armies would then complete the occupation of southwest Arkansas and the Confederate capital, which had been moved to Washington in Hempstead County with the fall of Little Rock, and would prepare for an invasion of Texas aimed at crushing the armies of General Edmund Kirby Smith, the Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department.
The first step in the military action which eventually led to the only Civil War battle in Ashley County began when Steele left Little Rock and General John Thayer left Fort Smith to move toward Camden. The two generals had a combined total of 13,500 men, 12,000 horses and mules and 800 wagons. They arrived in Camden on April 15 and occupied the city until April 26.
Even though the Union troops were in command of Camden from April 15 to April 26, large-scale battles in the area continued. Confederate soldiers under the command of General Sterling Price won major victories at the Battle of Poison Spring, about ten miles from Camden, on April 18 and Confederates under Brigadier General Joseph O. Shelby defeated the Union troops and captured over 800 prisoners at Mark’s Mill on April 25. After those Confederate victories, and given the possibility of a new assault on the Union positions around Camden, Steele decided to withdraw to Little Rock, abandoning Camden on April 26. He and his troops arrived back in Little Rock on May 3, after having again faced the Confederates at Jenkins’ Ferry.
By the time that Steele arrived back in Little Rock, after 40 days in which the expedition had covered 275 miles, he had lost 635 of the 800 wagons and 2,500 horses and mules, not including at least 150 wagons and several hundred horses and mules lost at the Battle of Marks’ Mill.
While complete figures are not available, the Union troops lost 1,775 in killed, wounded or missing, not including the losses at Poison Spring, Jenkins’ Ferry, or losses suffered by the various cavalry troops. The extent of those losses led James Harris Atkinson, the historian of Steele’s Expedition to Camden, to title his work Forty Days of Disaster.
Yet, even though the expedition itself was a disaster from the Union point of view, there were some Union successes, and the skirmish at Longview in Ashley County was one of those successes. This skirmish was one of a whole series of minor battles which lasted throughout the 40-day campaign.
According to Judge Etheridge, the village of Longview was established around 1840, and the port on the Saline River “was the main center of transportation for the area on both sides of the river, that is Ashley, Drew, and Bradley counties.” In addition to the river itself, roads on each side of the stream brought travelers to and from the port. On the east side of the river, a branch of the Louisiana Trace led through Fountain Hill to the Pine Bluff and Monroe, Louisiana, road. A north-south route passing through Longview connected Monticello, Fountain Hill and the Marie Saline landing on the Ouachita River, and a road from Columbia, a port on the Mississippi River in Chicot County, passed through Longview on its way to Camden and served as a westward route to Texas.
The village of Longview and its port on the Saline served as the home of a ferry which was chartered in 1850 with fees set at $1 for six horses or oxen and wagon; 75 cents for four horses or oxen and a wagon; 50 cents for two horses or oxen and a wagon; 40 cents for one animal and a wagon; five cents for a horse or footman; and ten cents for a man and a horse. The rates were also subject to change depending on the height of the river. All standard rates doubled during high water—when the water rose to within four feet of the east bank.
With the beginning of the Civil War, the port and ferry at Longview assumed even more importance because of the need to move troops from the west to the major theater of operations in the east. And, there was also some controversy surrounding the operation of the ferry.
In an issue of the Arkansas True Democrat, a Little Rock newspaper, published on July 18, 1861, a letter from “many citizens” of Union County complained about the service at Longview and at a similar ferry operated at Moro on the Ouachita River. They said that a local company of 93 men, raised at Three Creeks in Union County, had been formed and was on its way to Gaines Landing on the Mississippi River in order to travel to the eastern theater in Virginia. The ferryman at Moro, they said, “instead of receiving them joyfully and helping them on their way, charged them at their usual rates for their wagons and five cents per head for the men. The ferryman at Longview, on the Saline River, treated them in the same way—We certainly ought to have expected better things at the hands of Southern men.”
R. J. Withers, who operated the ferry at Longview, replied in a later letter to the True Democrat. He said, “The captain asked me what I would charge him for crossing his company with their wagons, etc. I replied that I had not charged other companies anything and would cross him free; he said that he did not expect me to do it for nothing—that he had paid full fare at Moro and expected to so do here. I then told him that I paid a rent of $450 for the ferry and that if he saw fit to pay me $5 (less than one-third the regular rates) I would take it and be obliged to him. He paid me that amount and nothing more was said about it. As to our patriotism in Ashley, we don’t boast much, but have already equipped and sent to the battle field over one-half of our men who are able to bear arms, and the rest of us are ready to go when needed.”
Given the importance of Longview as a transportation center, it was to be expected that the Union troops would make some attempt at the port. By the summer of 1864, the Confederates had eliminated any potential problems with the ferrymen at Longview by constructing a pontoon bridge across the river to provide faster and more reliable crossings from the eastern part of Arkansas to the Camden and western areas of Arkansas and Texas.
To Steele, who on March 27 was camped 20 miles from Arkadelphia, Confederate troops who might be in Monticello and could threaten his advance were a serious consideration. Reporting to Major General W. T. Sherman, he wrote: “It is officially reported that a large force of the enemy is fortifying at Monticello. More than half of my cavalry are dismounted, and most of the rest very poorly mounted. Artillery horses and transportation in the same condition ... We have had to haul most of our forage 30 and 40 miles for months.” Possibly foreseeing problems on his expedition to the southwest, before leaving Little Rock Steele ordered Powell Clayton at the Union post in Pine Bluff to keep a close watch on Confederate forces in the Monticello area which might threaten the expedition It was that order which eventually led to the skirmish at Longview.
The first step resulted in the skirmish at Longview began on March 27 when Colonel Powell Clayton, who commanded the Fifth Kansas Cavalry at Pine Bluff, reported to Union Brigadier General Kimball his plans to launch an attack at Mount Elba, a community on the Saline in Cleveland County, and “at which point, I will throw a temporary bridge across the Saline, and leave my infantry and part of my artillery to hold the same and act as a reserve. I will cross with my cavalry, make a feint in the direction of Camden, and move rapidly down the Saline by way of Warren to Long View, at which point the enemy have a pontoon bridge over which they cross in communicating with Camden from Monticello. I think they have some military stores also at this point. By destroying this bridge, I will cut off their communications and will be able to attack any small parties that may be between the Saline and the Washita (sic).”
Clayton then changed his plans somewhat, moving first toward Monticello, then moving toward Mount Elba, bridging the Saline, and, feinting in the directions of Camden and Princeton, marching rapidly to Longview to capture the Confederate pontoon bridge as well as any supplies that might be there, 42 miles from Mount Elba. In beginning his campaign, Clayton selected seven officers and 230 enlisted men from the 18th Illinois Infantry, a detachment of five officers and 260 men from the 28th Wisconsin Infantry, and 600 men, four mountain howitzers and two steel rifled guns from the First Indiana, Fifth Kansas and Seventh Missouri Cavalry units. In addition to the men and guns, Clayton’s forces also carried eight pontoons, mounted on wagon wheels, along with them to bridge streams as they came to them as well as a small wagon train of supplies.
Arriving at Mount Elba in Cleveland County about 4 p. m. on March 28th, the Union troops killed one and captured four of the Confederates defenders there. They then began assembling their wheeled pontoons and completed a bridge across the river by midnight.
Confederate troops at Mount Elba were returning from Gaines Landing on the Mississippi River near Eudora where they had picked up supplies to be taken to the Confederate command in Camden. With the attack on Mount Elba, many of those soldiers withdrew to the Longview area.
At daylight on the morning of March 29, the Union troops left their encampment at Mount Elba and moved rapidly toward Camden to the vicinity of Mark’s Mills. From there, Clayton sent Lieutenants Frank M. Greathouse of the First Indiana Cavalry and Grover Young of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry with 50 picked men from each unit “to move with the utmost rapidity by the way of Warren to Long View, to destroy the pontoon bridge, the enemy’s trains, etc.”
The Union cavalrymen moved rapidly, arriving on the west side of the river at Longview just after sundown. A number of Confederate soldiers were encamped on the west side of the river.
However, due to a shortage of uniforms, many of the Confederate soldiers were dressed in captured Union uniforms, and the Confederates on the west side of the river apparently thought that the Union cavalrymen were fellow Confederates and made no attempt to resist them.
The Union cavalrymen moved past the Confederate camp on the west banks of the river, and still unrecognized, ordered some of the Confederates at the main camp on the east side of the river to cross to the west where they were taken prisoners. The Union troops then cut the pontoon bridge and destroyed a Confederate supply train they found on the west side of the river.
By 9:30 the next morning, the Union lieutenants and their cavalrymen had returned to the camp at Mount Elba, reporting that they had destroyed the pontoon bridge, burned a loaded train of 35 wagons of supplies, captured a large amount of arms and ammunition, about 260 prisoners, nearly 300 horses and mules, and “a large number of contrabands.”
Clayton’s report to his superiors highly praised the two lieutenants who had commanded the raid which resulted in the skirmish at Longview. He said, “The Long View raid reflects the highest credit to Lieutenants Greathouse and Young, and for brilliancy and success is almost without a parallel. One hundred men (50 from the First Indiana and 50 from the Fifth Kansas Cavalry) marched 40 miles into the enemy’s country, captured and destroyed a train of 35 wagons loaded with stores of great value (their paymaster’s safe containing over $60,000), destroyed their pontoon bridge over the Saline River, captured and brought to Mount Elba 260 prisoners, nearly 300 horses and mules, and a large number of contrabands, all, including the march of 80 miles to Long View and back, in the surprising short space of twenty-four hours. Our loss throughout the expedition was but two killed and eight missing. The conduct of the officers and men throughout was most gallant and energetic, and deserves the highest commendation.”
True to his word, Clayton on April 6 contended both lieutenants in a dispatch to Assistant Adjutant-General Major W. D. Green. The two, he said, “are deserving of the highest praise for the masterly manner in which they created a diversion in the direction of Monticello, and more especially for their gallantry, energy, and skill in the execution of the raid to Long View and return.”
The written report that the two lieutenants prepared was not so elaborate. They wrote to Clayton, “When we came to the fork of Long View and Camden Road, which is some two miles from Long View, we took four prisoners, and learned from them that there had been a train of nine wagons and 25 men passed out a short time ahead of us. We sent a party out after them, burnt the wagons, and captured the men. We learned from them that there was a large train crossing, which had come out from Monticello that day. We moved on, and reached their camp just at dark. We charged into their camp, surrounded them, and demanded their surrender, and ordered them to fall into line. We coming on them so unexpectedly, and they being in such confusion, they obeyed immediately. There were 250 men, 7 or 8 officers. We destroyed their bridge, threw about 175 or 200 stand of arms in the river, burnt 30 wagons, which were loaded with baggage and camp equippage, also ammunition; took some 300 horses and mules. We then mounted our prisoners, and returned to our most worthy commander all O. K.”
To Union newspapers, such as the National Democrat in Little Rock, the raid on Longview was a brilliant success. Titling its story on the raid “Good News from Gen. Steele and Col. Clayton,” the “National Democrat” said: “We are furnished by Adjutant General Green with news received from rebel sources placing Price at Camden on the 28th of March, and General Steele at Arkadelphia on the 26th. Steele’s march has been a complete success so far, meeting with but little obstruction. The army is said to be in excellent health and fine spirits.”
“Col. Clayton, commanding the expedition from Pine Bluff, destroyed the pontoon bridge at Longview—burned a train of thirty-five wagons loaded with camp and garrison equipage, ammunition, quarter-master’s stores, etc., and captured over three hundred prisoners.”
“He engaged Dockery’s division, of about 1200 men, from Monticello, on the morning of the 30th ult., routed and pursued him ten miles, with a loss on his side of over one hundred killed and wounded—capturing a large quantity of small arms and two stands of colors. Our loss did not exceed fifteen in killed, wounded and missing.”
“Three hundred horses and mules and many wagons were captured. Col. Clayton by this expedition has added fresh laurels to his brow. He is worthy of all honor, and deserving the highest reward at the hands of the government. He has been in every instance successful and will be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General for valiant service to the Union cause. He justly deserves the honor.”
The Confederate reports made far few and far less elaborate mentions of the raids on Mount Elba and Longview. Major General Sterling Price, the commander of the Confederate district of Arkansas, wrote to Brigadier-General W. R. Boggs, Chief of Staff of the Trans-Mississippi Department, that General Thomas P. Dockery, who was headquartered at Monticello commanding the 12th Arkansas Battalion Sharpshooters, the 18th Arkansas, the 19th Arkansas and the 20th Arkansas, had been ordered to harass the rear flanks of the Union troop movements and attack Union supply trains. “Unfortunately,” he reported, “before Brigadier-General Dockery could execute this order he was on March 29 (30) attacked at Mount Elba by a party of the enemy from Pine Bluff and completely routed. They at the same time captured at Long View his entire train (twenty-six wagons) and about 200 prisoners.” Price made no other mention of the events at Longview in his official report.
Yet, for the Confederates, there was one bright point in the skirmish at Longview. Captain Robert H. Withers, a captain of Confederate marines, operated his own boat, the Morgan Nelson, in order to supply Confederate soldiers along the Ouachita and Saline Rivers. When the Union troops attacked at Longview, Withers went down to his boat, which was unloading corn, and floated the boat down to Horsehead, a sand bar about a mile below, and hid the ship in the willows. Judge Etheridge noted a 1925 letter from W. F. Martin of Camden, who was raised near Johnsville on the Bradley County side of the river, to Mrs. Hettie Haskew Champney of Fountain Hill which recalled the event:
Martin wrote, “Your mention of Capt. Withers whom I have known most all my life. I knew of him when he used to run a keel boat on the Saline. He was the man who brought the first steam boat in the Saline River, the Marshall, and ran the Morgan Nelson in there during the war hauling corn from up and down the Saline and Ouachita Rivers for the Confederate soldiers.”
“He had his boat there at Longview where General Dockery’s command was camped, and when Capt. Withers heard the shooting and saw so many blue coats in town, he ran down to the wharf and cut the line and let the boat drift down stream for a quarter mile or more, when he put on full steam and run her down to Horsehead bend and hid her in the willows.”
“The next morning, Bob Lowry and me were shooting doves down the river in old man Lowry’s field and we passed close to the river and heard some noise in the willows across the river, and went into the field and commenced shooting doves around some corn pens, and directly we saw a soldier peeping through the fence, and in a few minutes a hundred or more, with their guns ready to shoot us. When they saw we were only boys, they came where we were and said they thought it was a battle going on with the Yankees, and they were part of Dockery’s men who ran in the swamp when the Yankees ran into town.”
Even though the Union forces at Longview were victorious, it was not a meaningful victory in that the campaign as a whole failed. Ashley County and Southern Arkansas remained in the Confederate fold, but the rebel hold was not a strong one. On April 9, one of Clayton’s subordinates reported that he had been out on a five day scouting trip from Pine Bluff. The Union troops “went through Monticello and Long View to Hamburg, and to within 15 miles of the Louisiana line. Had a skirmish: killed two, and captured 2 lieutenants and 17 men. He reports the country this side of the Saline as abandoned by the enemy with the exception of a few straggling bands,” Clayton wrote.
The events at Longview were contrary to the general trend of Steele’s whole expedition in that Longview was a defeat for the Confederate forces. In spite of this loss, Confederate General Price noted that Steele’s forces had been foiled in their purpose. Praising his subordinates, he said, “the South is indebted for results which attest fully the patient endurance and fortitude of their troops.” [/i]