Entry Type: Event - Starting with P

Pike-Roane Duel

aka: Roane-Pike Duel
The Pike-Roane Duel was fought in 1847 between Albert Pike and John Selden Roane. Albert Pike was originally a Bostonian who left the Northeast to explore the West and eventually ended up in Arkansas on an expedition. He decided to stay, practicing law and becoming a prominent Arkansan. John Selden Roane, born in Tennessee, moved to Arkansas to study law and eventually was elected governor. Both Pike and Roane fought in the Mexican War in the 1840s. Pike was so disappointed with the Arkansas regiment’s performance in the Battle of Buena Vista (including events leading to the battlefield death of former Arkansas governor and congressman Archibald Yell) that he wrote a letter on March 8, 1847, to the editor of …

Pilot Knob, Missouri, to Gainesville, Scout from

aka: Expedition from Patterson to Bloomfield and Pilot Knob, Missouri
On May 10, 1864, Captain Herman J. Huiskamp led a force of forty-six men of Company D, Sixth Missouri Cavalry Regiment (US), from the Union base at Pilot Knob, Missouri, headed to Gainesville (Greene County) in Arkansas to disrupt the operations of Confederate soldiers and guerrillas in the area. Four days later, they linked with troops of the Third Missouri State Militia Cavalry (US) under Captain Abijah Johns, and then left Patterson, Missouri, to continue toward Arkansas. The combined force rode toward Chalk Bluff (Clay County) on the St. Francis River, but on May 16, “when within two miles of that place, [Huiskamp’s Sixth Missouri troopers] took a right-hand road leading through a swamp in the direction of Gainesville.” The …

Pine Bluff Expedition (February 26–28, 1865)

aka: Skirmish at McMilley's Farm
  Following the fall of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to Union forces in October 1863, Union commanders at the Pine Bluff garrison began expeditions aimed at scouting and securing areas around the city to remove remaining Confederate forces. Ordered to command an expeditionary force to scout the area north of the Arkansas River between Pine Bluff and a farm near the Wabbaseka (Jefferson County) area, Captain George Suesberry moved a force of sixty men from Pine Bluff to that area. During the movement, there was a brief engagement with Confederate forces. Late in the evening of February 26, 1865, Capt. Suesberry moved his force of sixty men across the Arkansas River to the northern bank with the intent to continue …

Pine Bluff Expedition (January 15–18, 1865)

Ordered to lead an expedition to repair downed telegraph lines from the Union-held city of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), Lieutenant Charles Temple of Company M, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, moved his Union forces along the roads and farms around Pine Bluff from January 15 to January 18, 1865, returning to the Thirteenth Illinois Headquarters in Pine Bluff. During the expedition, there was no hostile contact with Confederate forces. On Sunday, January 15, 1865, Lt. Temple, along with an escort of thirty soldiers from the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry and a telegraph repair crew, began a movement along the Little Rock Road to repair telegraph lines that had been cut. The party advanced some twelve miles, at which point it discovered a break …

Pine Bluff Film Festival

The Pine Bluff Film Festival was inaugurated in 1994 by local residents who wanted to honor the legacy of the silent film era and help revitalize downtown Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). Since that time, the annual event screened silent classics (often accompanied by a symphony orchestra), hosted world-famous guest stars, expanded to two theaters, implemented a silent film competition, and encouraged film and theater restoration. It was hosted each year by two world-renowned cultural experts from New York who were with the festival since its inception. The festival was recognized internationally as one of the oldest silent film festivals in the United States and the only one that regularly presented silent films with full orchestral accompaniment. The festival originated with …

Pine Bluff Lynching of 1866

In 1866, a mass lynching of twenty-four African Americans allegedly occurred in the Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) area. The only source for this event is a single letter; no other documentation, such as a newspaper report, has been discovered that would confirm it. If the lynching actually occurred, it would be one of the largest mass lynchings in Arkansas history. Pine Bluff had a large Black population by 1866. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation provided that the slaves of the rebellious Confederates would be freed starting in January of the following year. Federal troops, encountering thousands of newly freed slaves, established refugee centers called contraband camps across Arkansas. By May 1863, there were more than 3,600 “contrabands” (refugees) …

Pine Bluff Lynchings of 1892

On February 14, 1892, John Kelley (sometimes spelled Kelly) was lynched in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) for the murder of W. T. McAdams. At the time, Pine Bluff was the second-largest city in Arkansas. The black population in Jefferson County was seventy-three percent, and there were a number of prominent African-American landowners and merchants. The city boasted a black newspaper, as well as the state’s only college for African Americans, Branch Normal School (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). According to the Arkansas Gazette, on the night of February 9, John Kelley and several accomplices allegedly murdered W. T. McAdams, an agent for the Obest Brewing Company and a highly respected Pine Bluff citizen. At 10:30 p.m., McAdams …

Pine Bluff to Arkansas Post, Expedition from

The October 13–18, 1864, Civil War expedition from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) was undertaken by the Federals to look for Confederate troops and to seize livestock for the Union base at Pine Bluff. On October 13, 1864, Brigadier General Powell Clayton ordered Colonel Albert Erskine of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry take 300 men and ride to Arkansas Post to determine if any Confederate soldiers were in the area and to search for livestock to feed the thousands of troops at Pine Bluff. Erskine was to cover the prairie on the north side of the Arkansas River initially, then have some of his men cross the river at South Bend on the way back “so as …

Pine Bluff to Bass’s Plantation, Expedition from

A March 17–20, 1865, expedition from the Union base at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) came close to capturing a notorious guerrilla chieftain who was active in southeastern Arkansas. Captain Gurnsey W. Davis of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment led a detachment of 100 men out of Pine Bluff on March 17, 1865, crossing to the north side of the Arkansas River and heading northeast, passing through several plantations before fording Five Forks Bayou and riding through “about five miles of horrible swamp road.” They ended up at the Creed Taylor plantation, where they learned that guerrilla leader Captain Marcellus Vaugine, who had ambushed a scouting party of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry at Clear Lake near modern-day England (Lonoke County) a …

Pine Bluff to Bayou Bartholomew, Scout from

A detachment of Federal soldiers embarked on a scouting expedition into southeastern Arkansas in early April 1865 in search of Confederate soldiers and cattle to feed the garrison at Pine Buff (Jefferson County). Captain John H. Norris of Company M, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment, led seventy-five men out of Pine Bluff on the morning of April 1, 1865, and headed south on the road toward Monticello (Drew County). After riding twenty-three miles, they turned toward Napoleon (Desha County) and camped at Allison’s farm late that night after traveling another dozen miles. The next morning, they rode to Green Mount (Drew County), “scouting the country well on each side of the main road from one to five miles.” After crossing Bayou …

Pine Bluff to DeValls Bluff, Scout from

aka: Skirmish at Pine Bluff (February 11, 1865)
The scouting expedition in February 1865 between Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) and DeValls Bluff (Prairie County) was typical of many such operations carried out by the Union army during the duration of the war. Facing minor organized resistance, the Federal troopers easily defeated the small guerrilla bands opposing them. Skirmishes such as this were typical in the last days of the Civil War in Arkansas. Captain John Norris of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry received orders to depart Pine Bluff on February 9 and proceed to DeValls Bluff. Accompanying the captain were seventy-five men, as well as a number of horses deemed unfit for active service. Although the area between the two Union posts was regularly patrolled by Confederate and guerrilla …

Pine Bluff to Douglas’ Plantation, Scout from

The Civil War scout from Pine Bluff to Douglas’ Plantation on a rainy night apparently started as a cattle raid but ended in sharp skirmishes with Confederate troops. Captain Gurnsey Davis of the Union’s Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment left Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) at the head of fifty men of his regiment, riding down the south side of the Arkansas River in an apparent search of cattle to feed the Union garrison. Rain was “falling in perfect torrents,” so when the Federal horsemen arrived at Douglas’ Plantation around 10:00 p.m. on February 21, they sought shelter in an old cotton shed. Having spotted signs of as many as sixty Confederate riders on their way down and being warned by an …

Pine Bluff to Monticello, Scout from

Shortly after Union forces drove Confederate troops out of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on September 10, 1863, a delegation of citizens from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) requested that soldiers be stationed in their city to protect property and prevent local men from being conscripted into the Confederate army. Within a week, the Fifth Kansas and First Indiana Cavalry regiments set up a base in Pine Bluff from which they would conduct frequent scouting expeditions in search of Confederate troops and guerrillas in the region. Lieutenant Hugh D. McCarty of the Fifth Kansas led twenty men out of Pine Bluff on such an operation on January 13, 1864, and headed south. They traveled as far as two miles beyond Monticello (Drew …

Pine Bluff to Monticello, Scout from (March 21–23, 1865)

Union soldiers from the base at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) conducted a raid on Monticello (Drew County) on March 21–23, 1865, in search of weapons and Confederate soldiers. Captain John H. Norris of Company M, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment, led 112 men and two officers out of Pine Bluff on the afternoon of March 21, 1865, and headed south. Passing through Cornerville (Lincoln County), they turned west about nine miles from Monticello so that they would make their approach from that direction. Monticello was manned by the “Old Man’s Company,” a home guard made up of men who could not be conscripted but who would “return deserters, enforce conscript laws, and furnish, in any manner they can, military information for …

Pine Bluff to Mount Elba, Scout from (October 24–27, 1864)

The October 24–27 scout to Mount Elba (Cleveland County) was one of many forays undertaken by Union troops from the Union base at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to seek intelligence on the locations and numbers of Confederate forces in southern Arkansas. Captain Adolph Bechand of Company B, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment, set out on the evening of October 24, 1864, leading twenty-six men on a scouting expedition. They camped that evening after traveling fifteen miles, then set out the next day toward Mount Elba. About a mile and a half from there, they took the Cornersville Road to within a few miles of Vance’s Ferry, pitching camp that night two miles north of Cornersville (Lincoln County). The scouts resumed their …

Pine Bluff to Noble’s Farm, Scout from

The May 4–6, 1865, scout from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to Noble’s Farm was undertaken by members of a Union regiment to attack a band of bushwhackers but instead resulted in the capture of several Confederate soldiers. A pair of Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment officers led fifty-man detachments from the Federal base at Pine Bluff on May 4, 1865, with orders to capture Captain R. A. Kidd “and his lawless band of robbers.” Captain Edward Brown of Company I left at 3:00 a.m. to scout along the south side of Bayou Bartholomew, while Captain George W. Suesberry of Company L left at 6:00 a.m. to search along the north side of the bayou. Suesberry learned around 10:00 a.m. that Kidd …

Pine Bluff to Rodgers’ Plantation, Scout from

aka: Skirmish at Rodgers’ Plantation
The April 25, 1865, Union scouting expedition from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to Rodgers’ Plantation showed that the Civil War was far from over in Arkansas even as the Confederate armies in the east surrendered. Captain Samuel W. Mallory of the Sixty-fourth U.S. Colored Troops (USCT), who was provost marshal at the Union garrison at Pine Bluff, accompanied a small detachment of twenty-six men led by Lieutenant John C. Kennedy of Company G, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment, that left Pine Bluff on the morning of April 25, 1865. Arriving at John Taylor’s plantation around 11:00 a.m., the Illinoisans encountered a pair of Union officers who informed them that Confederate lieutenant J. H. Dixon and seven of his men were moving …

Pine Bluff to Simpson’s Plantation, Scout from

The December 27–28, 1864, scouting expedition from Pine Bluff to Simpson’s Plantation was undertaken to find cattle to feed the soldiers and civilians at the Union base at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) but also involved several altercations with bushwhackers. Captain Guernsey W. Davis of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment led 100 men from the Union garrison at Pine Bluff south from the base on December 27, 1864, “in search of beef cattle.” They soon encountered a group of bushwhackers who fled at the Federals’ approach. Davis “ascertained” that three of the guerillas were Kit Flyn, James Bloom, and John T. Brent, and that “they, with others of the same profession, make a kind of headquarters” at the home of one …

Pine Bluff, Action at

The Action at Pine Bluff was fought on October 25, 1863, when Brigadier General John Sappington Marmaduke’s Confederate cavalry division attacked the small Union garrison under Colonel Powell Clayton that had occupied Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) following the capture of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on September 10, 1863. The purpose was to return the strategic initiative to the Confederacy. Marmaduke led a force of some 2,000 Rebels out of Princeton (Dallas County) on October 24 to assault the 1,200 to 1,500 Union troopers of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry and the First Indiana Cavalry, which were posted at Pine Bluff with their six artillery pieces. Marmaduke planned for Colonel Robert C. Newton’s division to approach Pine Bluff from the southeast while …

Pine Bluff, Affair near

  The Federal army expended considerable energy in maintaining control of Jefferson County and the surrounding area after the occupation of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in late 1863. By 1865, patrols to discourage guerrilla bands who routinely created havoc were dispatched on a regular basis. These patrols, such as the one dispatched on March 4, 1865, were often on a mission to repair vital telegraph lines. At noon on March 4, thirty troopers of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry under the command of Captain John H. Norris left Pine Bluff with orders to repair the area telegraph lines. After being hampered by high water, they discovered that the telegraph wires were intact. Earlier, Norris had received information that Confederate guerrillas were …

Pine Bluff, Reconnaissance from

The July 13–14, 1864, reconnaissance from Pine Bluff was conducted to determine the locations of Confederate troops in the area and gather forage for the horses and mules at the Union garrison at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). Colonel Powell Clayton, the commander at Pine Bluff, had sent a scouting party toward Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) on July 5, which returned four days later after learning that Confederate troops under Brigadier Generals William Cabell, James Fagan, and John Sappington Marmaduke were on the move. Clayton dispatched a forage train protected by 500 Union soldiers on July 11. They ran into Confederate pickets about a dozen miles from Pine Bluff and, after a brisk skirmish, turned back empty handed after a warning …

Pine Bluff, Seizure of U.S. Subsistence Stores at

The capture of Federal army supplies at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) marked one of the first military actions in the state during the Civil War. Occurring before Arkansas officially left the Union, this seizure of supplies was not an operation of the Confederate army but rather of volunteer troops. With the secession of South Carolina in late 1860 and other Southern states in early 1861, Arkansas called a secession convention to determine if the state would follow. The Little Rock Arsenal was seized by volunteer forces in February 1861, before the convention could meet. After the convention convened in March, the first session ended with a vote to remain in the Union and a proposal to send the question to …

Pine Bluff, Skirmish at (January 9, 1865)

aka: Pine Bluff Expedition (January 7–9, 1865)
Federal outposts across Arkansas continued, in early 1865, to send out regular patrols to ascertain the movements and intentions of the enemy in an effort to keep organized resistance to a minimum. This engagement took place on January 9, 1865, during a Federal effort to capture a number of mules held by Confederate forces near Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). On January 7, Captain John Toppass of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry (US) received orders from his superiors to launch a scouting expedition to capture mules held nearby by the enemy. Organizing a group of 150 men, including fifty troopers from the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry and 100 from the Seventh Missouri, the patrol departed from Pine Bluff at 7:00 p.m. the same …

Pine Bluff, Skirmish at (July 22, 1864)

With the return of the Union forces to Little Rock (Pulaski County) after the Camden Expedition, Confederate forces took the initiative in southern Arkansas. While Federal units held Little Rock, Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), and other settlements along the Arkansas, White, and Mississippi rivers, Confederate units operated with ease between these settlements. Confederate forces took advantage of the relative isolation of Federal outposts to operate unchecked in the countryside between occupied cities. Union commanders responded by sending out patrols to disrupt Confederate organizational efforts. The Ninth Kansas Cavalry served in the District of the Frontier until July 2, 1864, when the unit received orders transferring it to Little Rock. The Kansans did not make a positive impression on their new …

Pine Bluff, Skirmish at (July 30, 1864)

By the summer of 1864, Federal forces held Little Rock (Pulaski County), Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), and several other posts along the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. While most Confederate forces in the state were concentrated south of the Arkansas River, small units operated behind Union lines in an effort to disrupt and harass Federal occupiers. This skirmish is typical of the type of action fought during this period of the war in the state. Communication between Union commanders in Little Rock and the garrison at Pine Bluff relied on a telegraph line stretching between the two cities. On July 29, 1864, Second Lieutenant James Teale of the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry led forty men from Pine Bluff to repair the telegraph …

Pine Bluff, Skirmish at (June 17, 1864)

aka: Skirmish at Monticello Road (June 17, 1864)
A brief encounter between forces near Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), this skirmish is typical of the majority of fighting in the state. Two patrols from opposing forces brushed against one another in an effort to gain intelligence, leading to a short fight. Colonel Powell Clayton of the Fifth Kansas Cavalry commanded the Union post of Pine Bluff and regularly sent out patrols to gather information about Confederate movements in the area. Three patrols returned to Pine Bluff on June 16, 1864, one of which reported a Confederate cavalry brigade camped near “Connersville” (probably Cornersville in Lincoln County) and enemy pickets watching the road to Monticello (Drew County). These were the only Confederate forces reportedly in the area. One of the …

Pippin, Essex (Execution of)

Essex Pippin (sometimes listed as Pipkin), a nineteen-year-old African American man, was hanged at Vanndale (Cross County) on October 11, 1901, after being convicted of raping two women. On July 29, 1901, a man reportedly raped a Black woman named Leah Wooden and then attacked Mrs. Allen Taylor, described in contemporaneous newspaper accounts as “a respectable white woman, who is the wife of a prominent farmer living near Wynne” in Cross County. Essex Pippin, who lived about a quarter mile from Vanndale, was soon arrested and rushed to the state penitentiary in Little Rock (Pulaski County) by local lawmen to protect him from “lynching at the hands of a rapidly forming excited populace,” providing “a narrow escape from death by …

Pitman’s Ferry, Skirmish at (April 1, 1862)

The April 1, 1862, Skirmish at Pitman’s Ferry took place as Brigadier General Frederick Steele moved his division of the Union army from southeastern Missouri to join Major General Samuel Curtis’s Army of the Southwest in Arkansas. On March 19, 1862, Steele ordered Colonel William P. Carlin to establish a base at Doniphan, Missouri, or Pitman’s Ferry on the Current River to gather supplies for his division as it moved into Arkansas. Pitman’s Ferry, located on the Southwest Trail, was a major route for travel between Arkansas and Missouri and would be the site of four skirmishes in 1862—on April 1, July 20, October 27, and November 25. Carlin led his own Thirty-eighth Illinois Infantry along with the Twenty-first Illinois …

Pitman’s Ferry, Skirmish at (October 27, 1862)

On October 27, 1862, Union Colonel William Dewey surprised Confederate Colonel John Q. Burbridge’s Brigade at Pitman’s Ferry (Randolph County). Dewey’s rapid combined-arms attack temporarily won control of the ferry and allowed for the reconnoitering of the Pocahontas (Randolph County) area. This was the last major Civil War engagement in Randolph County. The location of Pitman’s Ferry on the Current River made it an important possession for the antagonists in Arkansas. Settled by William Hix about 1803, the location served as the key entry point from Missouri on the Southwest Trail (also called the Military Road, Congress Road, or the Natchitoches Trace) into northeast Arkansas. Purchased by Dr. Peyton Robinson Pitman before Arkansas statehood, Pitman’s Ferry had a strategic importance …

Plane Crash of January 14, 1936

On the evening of January 14, 1936, an American Airlines twin-engine Douglas airliner crashed into a swamp near Goodwin (St. Francis County), killing all seventeen people aboard, including Arkansas’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) state administrator, William Reynolds Dyess. Dyess and Robert H. McNair Jr., the WPA’s director of finance and reports for Arkansas, were returning to Little Rock (Pulaski County) after conferring with agency officials in Washington DC. They were among fourteen passengers on the plane, known as the Southerner, along with pilot Jerry Marshall, co-pilot Glenn Freeland, and stewardess Perla Gasparini. The plane left the Memphis, Tennessee, airport at 7:04 p.m. The last contact with Marshall was at 7:18 p.m. as the plane headed to Little Rock. At about …

Plum Bayou Project

The Plum Bayou Project was part of a New Deal plan designed to help rural residents receive federal relief and assistance during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Located approximately seventeen miles north of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), Plum Bayou was one of several similar communities built in the Arkansas Delta. During the Great Depression, the federal Resettlement Administration—later the Farm Security Administration (FSA)—experimented with programs designed to give assistance to rural farm families. Rexford G. Tugwell, head of the Resettlement Administration, believed that sending farmers into the cities with no job prospects was an untenable situation and certainly no answer to the farmers’ desperate plight. Instead, he focused on developing resettlement projects designed to move farmers barely surviving on …

Plum Point Bend, Engagement at

The Engagement at Plum Point Bend was fought on May 10, 1862, as the rams of the Confederate River Defense Service attacked the U.S. Mississippi Flotilla, whose vessels were shelling the Confederate fortifications at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. Two U.S. gunboats were sunk during the spirited engagement. Following the capture of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River on April 8, 1862, the U.S. Mississippi Flotilla continued downstream to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and then to an area between Plum Point on the Tennessee side of the river and Craighead Point near Osceola (Mississippi River) on the Arkansas side, from which the fleet’s mortar boats could pound the extensive Confederate works at Fort Pillow. The USS Cincinnati towed Mortar Boat No. 16 …

Plumerville Conflict of 1886–1892

During the late 1880s, electoral politics in Conway County turned violent, resulting in serious injuries and several deaths. In the Plumerville (Conway County) community, actions such as voter intimidation and the theft of ballot boxes were flagrant and seemingly condoned by public officials. The violence became widely known and was the subject of a federal investigation after the assassination of a congressional candidate, John Clayton. A pattern of local political affiliations and latent hostilities toward other factions developed and remained well into the twentieth century. While the political conflict renewed itself after the 1884 election, the underlying causes date back to the pre–Civil War days. Conway County was a small version of Arkansas in terms of geographic culture and economics. …

Pocahontas Expedition

The Pocahontas Expedition was an attempt to gather intelligence regarding the location of Confederates in northeastern Arkansas. During the expedition, Union soldiers conducted a raid in Pocahontas (Randolph County) on August 24, 1863, that resulted in the capture of Brigadier General Meriwether “Jeff” Thompson of the Missouri State Guard, thus temporarily hampering Confederate actions in the region. While the Union army struggled to win control of the northern half of Arkansas during the Arkansas Expedition (Little Rock Campaign) from mid-July to August 1863, Confederate regulars and guerrillas continually struck targets and occupied cities in northeastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri. Consequently, Union forces in Missouri raided Arkansas to disrupt guerrilla activities and challenge invading Confederate commands. In August 1863, Union Brigadier …

Poe, Harry (Trial and Execution of)

Harry Poe was the first person legally executed in Garland County, Arkansas. On January 18, 1910, Harry Poe, an African American teenager, allegedly raped Lena Adams, a younger white girl. A Garland County court convicted Poe of rape on March 1, 1910, and sentenced him to death. Several residents of the county believed that Poe was innocent and attempted to save his life. On September 2, 1910, Harry Poe was executed. The details of Poe’s life before the alleged rape are unclear. Available newspapers variously listed his age as seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen, and provided no details about his life before the incident. Census records do not provide any likely matches for Harry Poe. A writer for the Arkansas Democrat described him in overtly racist language as “a thick-lipped, low-browed, bestial type of negro.” On January …

Pointer, John (Execution of)

On April 3, 1874, a young Native American man named John Pointer was executed in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) for allegedly murdering a white man named Blue in Choctaw Territory in 1872. Although there was some doubt as to how thorough authorities were in pursuing defense witnesses, Pointer was eventually executed for the crime. According to historian Jerry Akins, Pointer was an eighteen-year-old Seminole man “of middle size and good countenance.” According to Pointer’s story, he and his brother and Sam McGee were near the Canadian River in the Choctaw Nation when McGee declared that he intended to kill someone. When they met a drover named Blue, McGee said he would kill him, and the Pointer brothers tried to dissuade …

Poison Spring, Engagement at

The Engagement at Poison Spring was an April 18, 1864, battle in which Confederate troops ambushed and destroyed a Union foraging expedition. After black Union troops had surrendered, many were killed by the Confederate troops. After capturing Little Rock (Pulaski County) and Fort Smith (Sebastian County) in September 1863, Federal forces held effective control of the Arkansas River, and both Confederate troops and government were concentrated in the southwestern part of the state. In the spring of 1864, many of the Union troops were involved in the Arkansas leg of a two-pronged attack to gain control of northwestern Louisiana and eastern Texas. Union Major General Frederick Steele moved his troops south from Little Rock on March 23, 1864, for what …

Polio

The poliovirus terrorized the United States for many years, and Arkansas was no exception. Infection with the virus either went unnoticed or caused poliomyelitis, commonly called polio, which resulted in paralysis that sometimes ended in death but more often left its victims permanently handicapped. As the disease often affected children, it was also called infantile paralysis. While the large urban centers of the country dealt with polio epidemics early in the twentieth century, Arkansas had only a few intermittent cases. The Arkansas Gazette, however, reported frequently on the disease, keeping its readers informed of efforts to combat, cure, and curtail its devastating effects in other areas. After the first significant numbers were reported in the state, Arkansans reacted to the …