ROGERS — Samuel Curtis, a major general in the Union Army, established in February 1862 one of the largest Union camps in Arkansas, an occasion that will be honored next week with a marker from the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission.
It will be the first, and so far only, Civil War sesquicentennial marker in Benton County, said Angela Kabaiko, a commission spokesman.
“I expect there will be others later on,” Kabaiko said.
Placement of the marker is part of activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the war.
At A Glance
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg took place 150 years on July 1-3, 1863. As many as 51,000 soldiers from both armies were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the three-day battle. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for Gettysburg's Soldiers National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.
Source: Civil War Trust
A dedication ceremony is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday at the intersection of 46th Street and New Hope Road, the site of the camp. A program hosted by the commission will be presented at the Rogers Historical Museum, 322 S. Second St., following the dedication.
“General Curtis named the camp after his commanding officer Maj. Gen. Henry Halleck, commander of the Southwestern District of the Missouri Command in St. Louis. Curtis had three battalions, about 36,000 men in the camp that stretched 5 miles from Cross Hollow to Osage Springs. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve heard it was the largest Union post in Arkansas during the Civil War,” said John Burrows, assistant museum director.
Halleck was appointed general-in-chief of all union forces in July 1862, a position he held until demoted in 1864 and replaced by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
Local historians can’t confirm Camp Halleck was the largest camp in Arkansas. Gale Hall, a local historian, said he didn’t know about Camp Halleck, but knew Cross Hollow was the winter camp of the Confederate Army.
Curtis’ push into Arkansas was the first time Union troops entered the Confederate states, according to soldiers’ letters.
“The Union Army first stopped at Sugar Creek, then continued south in an effort to cut off Confederate forces at their Cross Hollow winter camp,” Burrows said.
There were a number of skirmishes between the Union and Confederate forces, but no major battles in February.
When Confederate troops learned Curtis was continuing to move south, they fled the winter camp.
“The weather was cold and miserable,” Burrows said. “Before fleeing, the Confederates, under the command of Gen. Sterling Price, burned buildings and destroyed whatever they could to slow the Union troops down.”
In a letter to his father, dated Feb 24, 1862, Union soldier T. Jones described the location of Camp Halleck.
“…We are encamped in the edge of a beautiful prairie on the north side and the land is rolling and dry and is very rich. We are in sight of mountains to the south of us…”
“Back then you could see a long way because there were no structures to block the view,” Burrows said.
Curtis learned of a large force of Confederates massing at Pea Ridge, and returned to Sugar Creek for a better vantage point, which led to the Battle of Pea Ridge on March 6-8, 1862, the largest Civil War battle fought in Arkansas.