However, at Camden Steele was beset by a lack of supplies. After using their initial supplies Steele formed foraging parties in order to search the area for usables. A gristmill was erected in order to make flour and bread out of the grain they had captured along the way. However, the foraging parties were attacked by guerilla Confederates, a style of fighting that was becoming more and more used by the Confederate armies around that time. Eventually a supply train was being sent down from Pine Bluff, but that fateful supply train marked the unknowing end for Frederick Steele.
Luckily for the Confederates, the Federal reaction was as uncoordianted as it was powerful. The fighting got to the point that the Federals were fighting not as a collective group but as single units, something which Cabell tried his best to take advantage of. However, the timely apperance of Shelby's calvary as a flank nearly ten miles around the battle allowed the Confederates to claim the battle of Marks' Mills as a victory. The final numbers were about 300 Confederate casualties, including kills, wounds, and MIAs, compared to the 1,500 Union losses, as well as the loss of the supply train.
These heavy losses forced Steele to return to Little Rock, and eventually, along with charges of laziness and overindulgence in Little Rock, lead to he and his army's removal from the Arkansas area and his replacement by General Joseph J. Reynolds.