The Day 200 Wagons Vanished: How Camden's Corn Turned to Catastrophe

Two hundred wagons of corn rolled five miles from Camden and vanished under Confederate fire - did the starving Union column make it back in time? The Day 200 Wagons Vanished: How Camden's Corn Turned to Catastrophe In this episode, we follow the Camden Expedition’s critical week in April 1864, tracing the decisions, movements, and logistics that turned a coherent campaign into a desperate scramble for supplies. What sequence of events left Steele isolated and his army starving? Person: Major General Frederick Steele Date: April 18, 1864 Location: Five miles from Camden, Arkansas Event: Foraging expedition sent to retrieve corn Topic: Camden Expedition logistics and the Poison Spring ambush - Steele left Little Rock on March 23, 1864, as part of a two-pronged plan that depended on a simultaneous Red River advance. - His column of 8,500 men reached Camden on April 15, 1864, only to find the city stripped of supplies and unable to serve as a depot. - Banks’s Red River campaign was defeated at Mansfield four hundred miles away, cutting off the planned convergence without Steele’s immediate knowledge. - On April 18, Colonel James M. Williams led 1,200 men to forage twenty miles out, returned with two hundred wagons loaded with corn, and turned toward Camden. - Five miles from the city, Brigadier General Samuel B. Maxey’s Confederate force ambushed the foraging column, shattering the supply mission. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].