Jackson Guards Memorial

The Jackson Guards Memorial, now located at Jacksonport State Park in Jacksonport (Jackson County), is a statue of a Confederate soldier dedicated in 1914 to honor the Jackson County men who served in Company G of the First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry (CS) during the Civil War.

In 1914, the aging veterans of the Jackson Guards, a Confederate infantry company raised in Jackson County in 1861, worked with the Lucien C. Gause Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to raise funds to purchase a monument recognizing the soldiers. Veteran William E. Bevens, aided by James S. Jones, John R. Loftis, and Launcelot Minor, led the fundraising campaign, which included selling copies of Bevens’s memoir of the war for a dollar a copy.

Acknowledging “the zealous and untiring effort of Veteran W. E. Bevens” and his three colleagues, the UDC chapter announced in November 1914 that the project was successful and that the monument would be dedicated on November 25. Clare Phillips and Lady Elizabeth Watson, descendants of “distinguished soldiers of the Confederacy, were chosen to unveil to our eyes the life-size statue of the young soldier.” Watson was the granddaughter of Major General James F. Fagan.

At the dedication of the monument at the Jackson County Courthouse in Newport (Jackson County), the Reverend W. Palmer Chalmers gave an invocation, followed by local school children singing “The Bonny Blue Flag” and comments from Bevens. The monument was unveiled following a keynote speech by Junius Jordan, superintendent of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) schools, and the ceremony concluded with children singing a chorus of “Dixie.”

The Jackson Guards Memorial is a six-foot-tall marble statue of a Confederate soldier standing at “arms rest” atop a ten-foot-tall marble base. It is unusual among Arkansas’s Confederate monuments in that it features a full roster of the initial troops who served in Company G engraved on the base.

The south side of the base is inscribed “C S A” above a carving of crossed Confederate flags and a carving of crossed swords, followed by the inscription: “THE JACKSON GUARDS WERE ORGANIZED AT JACKSONPORT, / JACKSON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, BY CAPT. A. C. PICKETT, / A PROMINENT LAWYER OF JACKSONPORT, SUNDAY MORNING, / MAY 5, 1861. THE COMPANY WAS MARCHED TO THE / PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THERE PRESENTED WITH / A BEAUTIFUL SILK FLAG, MADE BY THE FAIR LADIES / OF JACKSONPORT. THE PRESENTATION SPEECH / WAS MADE BY MISS MARY TOM CALDWELL, / ASSISTED BY MISS PAULINE HUDSON AND / MISS FANNIE BOARD. THE SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE / WAS MADE BY PRIVATE S. S. GAUSE OF THE COMPANY. / THEY WERE THEN MARCHED TO THE STEAMBOAT, / MARY PATTERSON AND WITH CAPT. MORG BATEMAN, / THE OWNER AND COMMANDER, THEY TOOK PASSAGE / FOR MEMPHIS, TENN. AND FROM THERE WENT TO / RICHMOND, VA. THEIR DESTINATION AT THAT TIME.” Below that is “THE ORIGINAL MUSTER ROLL OF CO. ‘G’ FIRST ARK REG. INF OF / JACKSON GUARDS,” with a list of the company officers of the Jackson Guards. The dates “1861 1865” are inscribed below that, followed by a list of Company G’s non-commissioned officers, and the bottom of the base is inscribed “CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.”

The north, east, and west sides of the monument contain a list of the enlisted men, including enslaved men who were brought with the company, who were part of the Jackson Guards; it is marked with symbols that show if the soldier was wounded, discharged, killed, transferred, died, furnished a substitute, or detailed away from the unit.

The west side of the base also features a “LIST OF BATTLES IN WHICH COMPANY G, 1ST ARK. REG. / ENGAGED IN FROM 1861 TO 1865. / FIRST BATTLE OF MANASSAS / BLOCKADE OF POTOMAC AT EVANSPORT / SHILOH – FARMINGTON / CORINTH – PERRYVILLE / MURFREESBORO – CHICKAMAUGA / MISSIONARY RIDGE – RINGGOLD GAP / 74 DAYS FROM DALTON TO ATLANTA / JONESBORO – SPRING HILL / FRANKLIN – NASHVILLE / BENTONVILLE.”

The Jackson Guards Memorial was moved to Jacksonport State Park, probably during the Civil War Centennial commemoration, in the 1960s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1996; the National Register nomination stated: “The Jackson Guards Monument is significant for its association with the turn-of-the-century movement in Jackson County to commemorate its soldiers who fought for the South in the Jackson Guards.”

The National Park Service on August 18, 2015, approved a request to move the monument a short distance from its place near the 1872 Jackson County Courthouse to accommodate construction of a new visitor’s center at the state park.

For additional information:
“Jackson Guards Memorial.” National Park Service Gallery. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/92aeedc4-1742-4e94-a5ee-e900506630b2 (accessed October 10, 2024).

“Monument to Soldiers.” Arkansas Gazette, December 6, 1914, p. 27.

Slater, John. “Jackson Guards Memorial.” National Register of Historic Places registration form. On file at Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas. Online at https://www.arkansasheritage.com/docs/default-source/national-registry/ja0496s-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=71b2bd8e_0 (accessed October 10, 2024).

Sutherland, Daniel E., ed. Reminiscences of a Private: William E. Bevens of the First Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1992.

“To Unveil Monument.” Batesville Daily Guard, November 20, 1914, p. 2.

Mark K. Christ
Central Arkansas Library System