On Thursday, September 10, 1863 yet another Confederate state capital fell to Union occupation, as General Sterling Price’s Confederates withdrew to Arkadelphia and Rockport. In primarily a cavalry action, Union General Frederick Steele had driven across eastern Arkansas and toward Little Rock for the better part of a month; on September 9 Steele’s troops crossed a horseshoe bend in the Arkansas River east of Little Rock, effectively outflanking the city’s Confederate defenders.
By 5:00 p.m. of the following day the last Confederate troops were out of town, and at 7:00 p.m. civil authorities formally surrendered the capital of Arkansas to Steele. The fall of Little Rock effectively restricted Confederate Arkansas to the southern half of the state, ending plans to use Arkansas as a staging ground for efforts against Missouri.