Union forces defeated the Confederate Army 125 years ago
with relative ease at the site of the Battle of the
Bayou Fourche, along Fourche’s Creek east of Little
Rock.
But four actors portraying Union infantrymen had a
difficult time Saturday competing with bulldozers
for the attention of on-lookers at a dedication of a
monument to the 1863 Battle of Little Rock.
About 50 people turned out to view the dedication ceremony,
held just east of the Little Rock Regional Airport.
The main attraction for the ceremony – in addition to the
3-by-4 foot granite monument – was a demonstration
of Civil War dress and battle techniques by four
actors in full Union uniforms.
In the background, bulldozers and backhoes noisily plowed
dirt and gravel for a $25 million Fourche Creek
flood control project, at times drowning out an
explanation of the battle and the gunshots of a
20-musket salute to the monument.
Site an important one.
Frances Jernigan, president of the Civil War Roundtable of
Arkansas, which raised the money for the monument,
said the re-enactment was one of many that are held
each year by various groups. The Bayou Fourche site
was an important one in the Union campaign for
Little Rock, she said.
“We thought this was an important site for a monument
because it was one of the last lines of defense for
the South in the Battle of Little Rock,” she said.
“After this, the Confederate Army was pushed down to
the Military Road area south of the city.”
The inscription on the monument, which is to be placed on
the bank of the Fourche, reads: “In this vicinity on
September 10, 1863, an invading federal column under
Gen. Frederick Steele defeated Confederate forces
under Gen. John Marmaduke in the Battle of Little
Rock.”
The leader of the Union re-enactors was Dr. Gregory Urwin,
a professor from the University of Central Arkansas
in Conway. Besides having to strain to speak over
the roar of heavy equipment, he had to wear a heavy
wool uniform in the hot afternoon sun.
Urwin gave a short explanation of the battle, and then he
and his troops saluted the monument by firing their
muzzle loaders at the far side of the creek. The
re-enactment grew more similar to the actual battle
as the burned casings of the gunpowder wads were
carried by the wind into the face of the crowd.
But that wasn’t the complaint of the day.
“It was all right, but I would have enjoyed it better
without the 20th century interruptions”
by equipment, said Phil Parrish, a Civil War buff
from Conway.
***Transcription and photograph copy provided by Lonnie
Spikes, 2010.
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