Battle of Backbone Mountain

Arkansas calls the September 1863 fight the Battle of Devil's Backbone, and it was fought on a Ouachita ridge about four miles southwest of Greenwood, Arkansas; the Oklahoma Historical Society's own listing notes that both actions named on this stone happened across the state line. The Union column was led in the field by Colonel William F. Cloud, about 1,500 men of Kansas and Missouri cavalry with an Indiana battery, against roughly 1,250 of Cabell's Arkansas horsemen. Cloud lost 16 men and Cabell 65, and the win helped keep Fort Smith in Union hands.

What the plaque says

Battle of Backbone Mountain On Sept. 1, 1863, Confederates under Brig. Gen. W.L. Cabell ambushed a Union force com- manded by Maj. Gen. J.G. Blunt but were driven off after a three hour battle. Later on July 27, 1864, the Choctaw Bat- talion led by Capt. Jack McCurtain defeated a Federal cavalry force here. Oklahoma Historical Society 190-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center — 8.7 mi
  A Mississippian ceremonial center on the Arkansas River, about 850 to 1450, whose burial mound was mined in the 1930s, now run in consultation with the Caddo Nation and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
• Sequoyah's Cabin Museum — 23 mi
  The log cabin near Akins where Sequoyah, who gave the Cherokee language its syllabary, settled in 1829, kept since 2016 by the Cherokee Nation inside a stone shelter of 1936.

More markers nearby

• Fort Coffee — 6.4 mi
• Skullyville — 6.6 mi
• Walker's Station — 6.6 mi
• Dwight Mission — 28 mi