County of site: Iron County
Location of site: Main St. (old MO Hwy 21) & MO Hwy W, Pilot Knob
Marker erected by: State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission
Date Erected: 1953
The Person:
"John Wynn Davidson (1824–1881)
John Wynn Davidson was a United States army officer who led the cavalry contingent of the Union army that captured Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 1863 and who subsequently feuded with Major General Frederick Steele about Federal policy in the state.
"John Wynn Davidson was born on August 18, 1824, in Fairfax County, Virginia, the son of William B. Davidson and Catherine Davidson. His father was a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole wars in Florida, and his grandfather was a general officer in the American Revolution. John Wynn Davidson followed his father into the army, graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1845. He served frontier duty in Kansas and Wisconsin before fighting in California during the U.S.-Mexican War as a second lieutenant in the First Dragoons. Davidson fought Indians in New Mexico and California, suffering wounds in a fight with Jicarilla Apaches, before being promoted to captain in 1855.
"Davidson was serving at Fort Tejon, California, when the Civil War broke out, and he remained loyal to the United States. He was commissioned a major in the Second Cavalry on November 14, 1861, and transferred to assist in the defenses of Washington DC. He was made a brevet brigadier general of volunteers on February 3, 1862, and fought in the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia before transferring to command the District of St. Louis, Missouri, in August. In 1863, he was in command of the Army of Southeast Missouri and participated in the pursuit of John Sappington Marmaduke’s Confederates during their failed raid into Missouri in in May. The veteran’s regular-army discipline did not sit well with his volunteer soldiers, with one trooper writing home that “our men are very much put out with Gen. Davidson and some of them are trying to kill him, in which undertaking I hope they will be successful.”
"In July 1863, Davidson led his 6,000 troops into Arkansas in response to a rumor that Major General Sterling Price was marching toward Missouri following the Battle of Helena. Though this turned out to be untrue, Davidson’s advance continued, and he coordinated with an infantry force from Helena (Phillips County) in the campaign to capture Little Rock under the overall command of Major General Frederick Steele. Steele’s 6,000 foot soldiers played little role in the combat operations of the campaign, and Davidson’s cavalry fought the enemy at Brownsville (Lonoke County) on August 25 and Bayou Meto on August 27 before commencing the final assault on Little Rock on September 10, where he ordered his men “to make a dash upon he city and capture it,…though it cost us one of our regiments.” Brushing aside Confederate defenders in the Engagement at Bayou Fourche, Davidson’s troops raced into Little Rock and accepted the city’s surrender that evening. Davidson apparently smoothed things over with his troops during the Little Rock Campaign, and the men of the First Iowa Cavalry later presented him with a ceremonial sword.
"Steele appointed Davidson as military governor of Little Rock, but the two did not get along, in part because of Davidson’s resentment at being superseded by Steele as commander of the Little Rock Campaign and also because of Davidson’s disagreement with what he saw as Steele’s conciliatory policy toward rebellious Arkansans. Davidson was replaced by Brigadier General E. A. Carr on January 31, 1864, but his assessment of Steele’s leadership to the Senate Committee on the Conduct of the War helped lead to Steele’s eventual removal from command of the Seventh Army Corps.
"Davidson later led the cavalry of the Department of West Mississippi and, on March 13, 1865, he was made brevet major general of both volunteers and the U.S. Army. Following the war, he reverted to his regular army rank and served in the inspector general’s office and as a professor of military tactics at Kansas Agricultural College before taking command of the African-American Tenth Cavalry Regiment, where he received the nickname “Black Jack.” Davidson served in Texas and the Indian Territory before being commissioned colonel of the Second U.S. Cavalry on March 20, 1879. He was in command at Fort Custer, Montana, when his horse slipped on ice and fell on him. He died on June 26, 1881, while recuperating in St. Paul, Minnesota. Initially buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, his remains were moved to Section Two in Arlington National Cemetery in 1911." ~ Encyclopedia of Arkansas
The Place:
"Fort Davidson, the earthen redoubt here, was defended by over 1,000 Federals under General Thomas Ewing against some 12,000 Confederates under General Sterling Price, Sept. 27, 1864. As a result of the engagement here at Pilot Knob, Price lost over 1,200 men to Ewing's some 200, and was halted in his drive to St. Louis. The fort, built 1863, named for gen. J. W. Davidson, is owned by Clark National Forest and is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service." ~ State Historical Society of Missouri
"A Civil War fortification, Fort Davidson was built by Union forces about 300 yards from the base of Pilot Knob Mountain. The hexagonal earthwork fortress was the target of the Battle of Pilot Knob in 1864 during General Sterling Price’s Expedition through Missouri.
"Fort Davidson was a tempting target and the troops began to bombard the fortress. Led by Union Brigadier General Thomas Ewing, the Union troops, though outnumbered by more than ten-to-one, the managed to repulse repeated Confederate assaults on their earthwork fortress. The fort occupied a strong defensive position, with hexagonal walls nine feet high and ten feet thick, surrounded by a dry moat nine feet deep. Two long rifle pits ran out from the walls, while a reinforced board fence topped the earthworks. Access could only be had through a drawbridge on the structure’s southeastern corner." ~ Legends of America