Chalk Bluff in the Civil War (Skirmish of May 15, 1862)

Two Union privates won this fight by swimming. On May 15, 1862, Colonel Edward Daniels brought six squadrons of the First Wisconsin Cavalry to Chalk Bluff, where Lieutenant Colonel William Jeffers, whom a local paper called the Captain of the Swamps, had been recruiting. With no guards on the Arkansas bluffs, two privates swam the St. Francis under fire and brought the ferryboats back. The Wisconsin troops crossed and drove Jeffers's men out. Estimated losses were 3 killed and 6 wounded for the Union, 11 and 17 for the Confederates. Jeffers raised the Eighth Missouri Cavalry that August.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum — 6.8 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 in the Civil War (Raids of March-April 1863) — steps away
• Chalk Bluff — steps away
• Chalk Bluff Crossing and Town — steps away
• Chalk Bluff in the Civil War (Battle of May 1-2, 1863) — steps away