Capt. Wiley C. Jones

Wiley Jones's war included a prison and a river. After his capture at Smithville on June 17, 1862, the Confederate captain remembered being held in St. Louis for about six weeks and then at the Alton, Illinois, prison camp for about three months. He was moved to Memphis, where he escaped by swimming the Mississippi, and rejoined his regiment at Pocahontas. In 1863 he helped organize Baber's regiment, which became the 45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) and served until the end of the war. After the war Jones went back to milling on the Strawberry River.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Powhatan Historic State Park — 10 mi
  A river port and county seat on the Black River whose 1888 courthouse, 1873 jail, log house and academy still stand where they were built, with a state archives branch in the same park.
• Davidsonville Historic State Park — 15 mi
  The ghost-town site of Arkansas's first post office, courthouse and federal land office, on the Black River, with open-frame outlines of the courthouse and a dogtrot house.
• Old Independence Regional Museum — 28 mi
  A Batesville museum in a 1936 WPA sandstone National Guard armory, telling the story of the twelve counties that once formed Independence County, with a research wing for local records.

More markers nearby

• Skirmish Near Smithville — steps away
• Skirmishes in Lawrence County — steps away
• The Civil War in Lawrence County — steps away
• Oldest Town Site in Arkansas — 15 mi