Chalk Bluff in the Civil War (Battle of May 1-2, 1863)

The retreat across the St. Francis was an engineering job. M. Jeff Thompson and two majors oversaw a floating log bridge about twice the river's width, held together with grapevines and rope, and a log raft for the artillery. The rear guard made its stand at Gravel Hill on May 1, repulsing a late-afternoon attack by the Second Missouri State Militia. That night the infantry crossed, Thompson made about twenty raft trips with the guns, and the horses swam. By sunup on May 2 nearly everyone was over and the bridge was cut loose.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum — 6.9 mi
  The Piggott house and barn where Ernest Hemingway visited his in-laws, the Pfeiffers, and worked on A Farewell to Arms in 1928, kept with the family's own Stickley furniture.

More markers nearby

• Chalk Bluff Crossing and Town — steps away
• Chalk Bluff in the Civil War (Raids of March-April 1863) — steps away
• Chalk Bluff in the Civil War (Skirmish of May 15, 1862) — steps away
• Chalk Bluff — steps away