During the battle, the unit made several charges against the Union lines but was repeatedly repulsed by artillery fire.

Later that year, it was part of the abortive Confederate defense of Little Rock before retiring to Camp Bragg near Camden.

After the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, such issues came to a head and a movement formed that framed secession as the only way to preserve slavery.

[9] In February 1862, a Union advance led Price to abandon Missouri for Arkansas, where his men, as part of a larger Confederate force were defeated at the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7 and 8.

The unit did not reach the camp of Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons, to whose brigade the battalion was assigned, until November 28.

On June 12, Clark's brigade left Fort Pleasant to begin an expedition to the Mississippi River for the purpose of harassing Union Navy shipping.

[29] Later that year, Clark's brigade was transferred from Fort Pleasant back to Little Rock, to build fortifications around the city.

The 8th Missouri Infantry was then sent into Louisiana to reinforce the Confederates under the command of Major General Richard Taylor who were resisting Banks.

The division left Shreveport on April 3 to join Taylor, and it became engaged in the Battle of Pleasant Hill six days later.

[26] Banks had halted part of his retreating army to make a stand,[30] and pursuing Confederate troops encountered the Union position.

[32] Parsons's division and that of Brigadier General James Camp Tappan hit Colonel Lewis Benedict's Union brigade, shattering it in the process.

[33] The 58th Illinois Infantry Regiment counterattacked, driving back part of the Confederate right flank.

[34] The withdrawal began in an orderly fashion, but Parsons's and Tappan's divisions panicked as night fell, and it became a rout.

[35] Meanwhile, the Confederates to the left of Parsons and Tappan had failed to make any meaningful progress against Union breastworks, and the battle ended with nightfall.

[36] Banks could claim victory as he had repulsed the Confederate attacks, but after consulting with his subordinates he decided to withdraw to Grand Ecore.

This decision was made in part because some of Banks' subordinates had lost confidence in him earlier in the campaign; one had even briefly entertained ideas of a mutiny.

With Banks out of the way, General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, prepared to concentrate his forces against Steele.

With little food remaining and in the knowledge that Banks had retreated, Steele's command left Camden on April 26 with hopes of reaching Little Rock.

[40] As Parsons's division moved forward to attack, it was joined by Colonel Lucien C. Gause's brigade, that was to align with Clark.

[41] Clark and Gause assaulted the Union line at a point held by the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment.

[38] Jenkins' Ferry was the regiment's last major action; it spent the rest of the war at camps in Arkansas and Louisiana.