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Also known as the Battle of Bayou Fourche, it was a minor conflict of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Little Rock Campaign. It was fought on September 10, 1863, in Pulaski County, Arkansas, near the Bayou Fourche (present-day Little Rock), and was the culmination of a month-long offensive launched by U.S. Army Maj.-Gen. Frederick Steele on August 1, 1863, to capture the capital of Arkansas. The campaign included engagements at West Point, Harrison's Landing, Brownsville, Bayou Meto, and Ashley's Mills.
On September 10, 1863, Steele sent a cavalry division led by Brig.-Gen. John W. Davidson across the Arkansas River to advance on Little Rock while he moved against Confederate forces strongly entrenched on the north side of the river. In his thrust toward the state capitol, Gen. Davidson ran into Marmaduke and Walker's divisions commanded by Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke near the Bayou Fourche. Aided by field artillery from the north side of the river, Davidson forced Marmaduke out of his position and sent the defenders fleeing back to Little Rock, which fell to U.S. troops that evening.
C.S. Army Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, commanding at Little Rock, fell back to Arkadelphia on the 14th, and eventually reestablished his command at Camp Bragg, Arkansas. Gov. Harris Flanagin relocated the state capitol to Washington, Arkansas, where it remained for the rest of the war. The fall of Little Rock to Union forces after Vicksburg, sealed Arkansas' fate and helped to further demoralize Confederate citizens west of the Mississippi River.