Civil War
The Prairie Grove battle reenactment occurs in early December each even-numbered year.
Conflict touches lives. During the Civil War, Arkansas played a major role in the Trans-Mississippi Theater as the Union tried to hold Missouri in the Union and cut off Texas from the south. Walk the fields and streets where events unfolded, revisit the soul of the past, and learn valuable lessons for the future.
Jacksonport State Park
(click for map)
During the Civil War, this river port was a strategic control point for the White and Black rivers. Because of this crucial location, at the confluence of these major water routes, the town of Jacksonport changed hands several times during the conflict. At the end of the war, General Jeff Thompson, "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy," surrendered over 5,000 troops at Jacksonport.
Historic Washington State Park
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Washington, Arkansas, was a hotbed of Southern sympathizers and a major center of commerce in southwest Arkansas during the Civil War. Notable generals and lawmakers came from Washington, and the town's 1836 courthouse served as the Confederate capitol of the state in the last years of the Civil War. A National Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places site, the town of Washington today is one of America's premier 19th-century restoration towns.
Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park
(click for map)
Identified by the American Battlefield Protection Program as one of the most intact Civil War battlefields in the nation, Prairie Grove provides a view of a major Civil War battle just as Union and Confederate troops saw it in a day of fierce fighting on December 7, 1862. Exhibits and artifacts, walking tours, driving tours, monthly events and a dramatic, bi-annual Civil War reenactment reveal the details and the emotion of this last battle for the highland route to Missouri.
