September 15, 2007

Artist James Fortenbury executed this painting of the so-called Battle of Palarm, a skirmish of the Reconstruction-era conflict known as the Brooks-Baxter War. In May 1874, a force of forty Brooks supporters was dispatched on board the boat Hallie to intercept a flatboat of weapons headed down the Arkansas River and intended for Baxter forces. When the captain of the Baxter boat refused to stop, the Brooks forces opened fire, killing several and damaging the boat so that it drifted aimlessly in the water. The captured vessel was towed to Little Rock (Pulaski County) and moored behind the state capitol.