Black pioneer expelled by state honored at Capitol

Arkansas kicked Peter Caulder — along with other free black people — out of the state in the mid-1800s. Now it’s honoring him.

The black pioneer’s name was etched Friday onto the War of 1812 Memorial Fountain on the southeast lawn of the state Capitol beside the names of dozens of other soldiers who fought the British in the early 19th century.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson also proclaimed Friday as Peter Caulder Remembrance Day, and the Arkansas chapter of the U.S. Daughters of the War of 1812 honored Caulder with a ceremony at the foot of the monument.

Billy Higgins, a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith professor, spoke briefly about Caulder at the ceremony. Higgins wrote a book, A Stranger and a Sojourner: Peter Caulder, Free Black Frontiersman in Antebellum Arkansas, about Caulder’s life.

“Peter Caulder is a genuine hero of mine,” Higgins said in an interview, noting it was gratifying to the see the subject of his book celebrated.

The War of 1812 Memorial Fountain was erected on the Capitol grounds in 1917 to honor veterans of the war who had ties to Arkansas — many of whom homesteaded in the Natural State after the conflict. At the time, only a few soldiers were known.

Over the past century though, researchers have discovered that more than 700 who fought in the War of 1812 had Arkansas ties. Because of the size of the monument, only about 60 names are displayed.

Caulder is among three names to be added to the monument since the early 2000s, when the site was refurbished.

Caulder was born in South Carolina in 1795, joining the 3rd U.S. Rifles in 1814 after British troops burned Washington, D.C.

The Army listed Caulder, who was of African descent, as a “colored man,” and several U.S. Censuses labeled him “mulatto.”

Caulder and several other black soldiers came to Arkansas down the Arkansas River with an elite rifle regiment assigned to man the westernmost military outpost, which later became Fort Smith.