April 19, 2007

West Point graduate Samuel Ryan Curtis first entered Arkansas history as a Union general during the Civil War. He commanded the Union army at the 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, and later that year, his forces occupied Helena (Phillips County). In 1864, about the time this photo was taken, he stopped the Confederate movements in Missouri known as Price’s Raid. Curtis returned to civilian life after the war and died shortly thereafter in 1866.