Thank you for your responce. And what you say is all true. But, I was questioning from Steele's perspective. I don't believe that General Steele would have had as detailed perspective in his day as we do today looking back in hindsight.

One false impression that most students of history of armies and manuvers have is that while an army is intended to fight an enemy, the Generals do not wish to lose all their army in doing so.

The Confederates defenses had been prepared for over two years. The route that Steele had to take to approach Little Rock had in fact been anticipated by the Confederates for those two years and their entire battle plans had been formulated with this in mind. The route Steele took, in fact had to take, was in fact a bottleneck.

I am given the impression that Steele, from the quotation that I posted, thought that those fortificatiions were strong enough that he did not wish to attack them head on and suffer unnecessary casualities. The second thought is that Steele's suppy lines were exposed to confederate cavalry and were too lengthy to defend while he sat for very long at Brownsvillle. The third point is, was he discussing and expecting re-enforcement from Vicksburg (Smith's Division)? If so, was he in fact moving to meet those re-enforcements and simply took advantage of an oppertunity that presented itself when the Confederates unexpectedly collapes?

Steele in his perspective could not have anticipated the total collapes of Price's army no matter how demoralized he may have believed that army to have been. No commander can every count on that as a planning factor.

As I already pointed out had Steele been facing a 1st class army and a bold commander he would have been in trouble moving that far to the South and leaving his suppy line complete exposed guarded only by a single brigade of infantry and the sick and wounded. It was a bold out of character move for Steele to manuver to the south of Little Rock and cross the Arkansas River for the sole purpose of attacking Little Rock.

What if he had lost? That should always be a planning factor for any commander. How do I save my army if things don't go as planned? In crossing the Arkansas River, Steele would have effectively been cutting his lifeline to his supply base at Brownsville, if anything had gone wrong. He was totally relying on what he was carrying with him at the time to supply his needs.

Tactically it would have made good military sence for Steele to have been in the process of changing his base of operation to Pine Bluff rather than attacking the defences of Little Rock, if he was expecting re-enforcement from Vicksburg.

1st; He would have shorten and improve the security of his supply line by using the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers, instead of overland.

2nd; He would have been able to have used the Pine Bluff to Benton road as a route of advance against Little Rocks supply lines and forced the Confederates to abandon Little Rock without a shot every being fired.

3rd; His base of suppies at Brownsville could have easily fallen back to the protection of DeVal's Bluff where they could have been supplied or withdrawn by boat down the White River.

4th; Steele was not sure whether Price was going to be re-enforced by Kirby Smith and how soon. If Kirby Smith was to re-enforce Price at Little Rock, Steele would have been in serious trouble of possibly being flanked and cut off at Brownsville.

5th; Steele was not an overly aggressive commander as his Camden Expedition later proved. He was tenative in most of his military exploits. So why do I believe that he was a bold and aggressive commander at Fouche Bayou?

So to me this make sence that the Battle of Fouche Bayou and the total collapes of the Confederate Army was unforeseen in Steele's planning. That this results was NOT his intended plan of operation when he started his army on a swing around south of Little Rock. He was not planning to capture Little Rock when he started out on that September morning, but it fell into his hands anyway.

These are just some thoughts about Steele and the Battle of Little Rock. Mainly I was wondering if anyone had seen any confirmation that Smith Division of 4,000 men had been discussed, or maybe even ordered from Vicksburg to re-enforce Steele?