Heat and humidity are the hallmarks of an Arkansas summer. The summer of 1863 was no different. Union troops stationed at Helena described it as "hell in Arkansas."
It was on this date--the Fourth of July--in 1863 that a fierce Civil War battle took place at Helena. Because of what was happening elsewhere in the country, the battle received little attention outside the state. After all, the Battle of Gettysburg had been fought in Pennsylvania on July 1-3. And the siege of Vicksburg, Miss., had ended July 4.
Writing for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Michael Taylor notes: "For the size of the forces engaged (nearly 12,000), the Confederate attack on the Mississippi River town of Helena was as desperate a fight as any in the Civil War with repeated assaults on heavily fortified positions similar to the fighting that was to be seen in 1864 in Gen. Ulysses Grant's overland campaign in Virginia and Gen. William T. Sherman's Atlanta campaign. It was the Confederates' last major offensive in Arkansas (besides cavalry raids and the repulse of the Camden Expedition) and the final Confederate attempt to seize a potential chokepoint on the Mississippi."
Union forces had occupied Helena in July 1862. This was an important location on the Mississippi River because of Helena's high position on Crowley's Ridge. Helena's leaders have done an outstanding job in recent years of creating parks with interpretive markers that explain the role the city played during the Civil War. I rarely take a group to the Arkansas Delta without going high atop Graveyard Hill, which was the Union's Battery C during the Battle of Helena. One of these days, I'll go there on the Fourth of July.
"From the Confederate point of view, the Battle of Helena was a tragic waste," Taylor writes. "The bloody attack turned out to be a cruel and pointless irony, coming as it did on the day Vicksburg fell. Confederate Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes' army clearly brought with it to Helena a fighting spirit, but morale suffered badly after such a repulse. The fierce riverside battle was the unsuccessful culmination of the last major Confederate offensive in Arkansas. Soon after, only cavalry raids and guerrilla activity would trouble Union forces north of the Arkansas River, and the state capital, 10 weeks later, slipped from Confederate control. For the Union, Helena represented the long-awaited crack in the Arkansas Confederates' facade."
Subsequent Independence Days have been quieter in Arkansas. During the decade I spent working in the governor's office, the Fourth of July meant trips to northeast Arkansas for the parades and picnics that are homecoming celebrations with former residents coming back from hundreds of miles away. The Portia picnic in Lawrence County became a victim of population losses in the Arkansas Delta, but celebrations at Piggott and Corning in Clay County have continued.
A reporter for Jonesboro television station KAIT-TV, Channel 8, once noted: "From politicians to a monkey on a pony to firetrucks and beauty queens, the annual ride through the town is an integral part of Piggott's Fourth of July celebration. ... It wouldn't be the Fourth without speeches, and candidates are always in town. Things that roll, from giant tractors to hot rods and classic cars, are a popular part of the parade. Cowboys and cowgirls on horses finish up the parade with a person wielding a scoop shovel cleaning up after them."
Following the parade, people head to the picnic grounds at Liberty Park. There are food vendors, music groups, a carnival and then a fireworks display once it gets dark. The routine is much the same west on U.S. 62 at Corning. The parade rolls in the morning and then thousands of people head to Wynn Park for a day of celebration. The entertainment today at Corning is being supplied by J.R. Rogers and the Secret Agent Man. A Ford F-150 truck will be given away at 10 p.m. once those in attendance have had their fill of fireworks, barbecue and carnival rides.
These types of citywide Fourth of July celebrations once were more widespread than they are now. The people of Cave City, for instance, now save their energy for a watermelon festival later in the summer. The Cave City Chamber of Commerce notes in its history of what's billed as the "home of the world's sweetest watermelons" that "the Fourth of July picnic was once a major attraction, bringing folks from all over the surrounding country. One of the earliest references to a Fourth of July picnic at Cave City was in the Sharp County Record newspaper in July 1899. Another interesting mention of the picnic in 1902 related that 'the rents for swings and lemonade stands will be used toward buying a windmill to draw the water from the cave.'
"An article from the Record dated July 1928 states that the town had been celebrating the Fourth of July each summer for 35 years, which would have put the tradition starting as far back as 1893. The town celebration of the Fourth of July continued for many years but fell out of favor in the past few decades."
Beginning in the 1940s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed large impoundments on rivers across the state. That meant a change in tradition for thousands of Arkansans. Rather than staying in town for a picnic, the Fourth of July became a day for going to the lake. From Beaver to Greers Ferry to Ouachita, those lakes will be crowded on this day when the nation celebrates its independence.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 07/04/2018