Ark. Civil War markers briefly recall tragedy

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Civil War ended 150 years ago. Its ghosts linger on aluminum.

Scattered across the state, 113 aluminum plates, new historical markers erected in or planned for 62 counties, convey in 533 characters an event to be remembered.

Old times here should not be forgotten. Because they’re unforgivably grim. Old times such as:

How the Civil War almost started in Little Rock.

How a steamboat disaster on the Mississippi River killed about 1,800 people.

How soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry were slain in Ouachita County as they lay wounded on the batt lefield .

Where to begin? With Mark Christ of the state’s Historic Preservation Program. From his office in downtown Little Rock, he can visualize a marker very nearby. It’s underneath the Main Street Bridge, where the CSS Pontchartrain once docked on the north shore of the Arkansas River.

The ship was burned when Little Rock fell to Union forces in 1863. One of its cannons is now in the front yard of the Old State House.

Like the river, we meander. It’s easy to do.

The markers come by way of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, created by the Arkansas Legislature in 2007. The Historic Preservation Program has plugged along since, working with local organizations to get at least one marker in every count y.

Thirteen counties are without. They are Bradley, Calhoun, Crawford, Franklin, Hot Spring, Howard, Lafayette, Lawrence, Montgomery, Newton, Polk, Sevier and Sharp.

The commission goes out of business on Dec. 31. Christ said he’s cautiously optimistic those counties will generate local sponsorship for markers by then.

Markers are made by Sewah Studios in Marietta, Ohio. Their manufacture supports the idea that the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past — Sewah Studios made historical markers for the Civil War centennial 50 years ago. Christ called that “a spirit of continuity.”

Thirteen lines of 41 characters each isn’t much, but perhaps is right for the age of Twitter.

“I prefer to think of it as haiku,” Christ said.

The first historical haiku was erected in 2011 behind the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History near downtown Little Rock. It’s titled “The Arsenal Crisis.”

A close examination of the marker The Sultana Tragedy shows it has only 12 lines. That’s not much for America’s worst maritime disaster.

The locations of the Civil War sesquicentennial markers can be found at arkansascivilwar150. com .