George M. Holt

George Holt was a physician before he was a general. Born in Tennessee in 1831, he moved to Saline County in the late 1850s to practice, and in June 1862 he treated Texas soldiers sick with measles at Benton. He enrolled the companies that became the Eleventh Arkansas but did not join them, staying home as a brigadier general of the state militia. On July 25 a Third Missouri Cavalry patrol surprised him at Benton while he was visiting his family, and Private George Lucas shot him. He is the only Arkansas militia general killed by enemy forces.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pinnacle Mountain State Park — 19 mi
  A day-use state park west of Little Rock around a 1,011-foot Ouachita peak, with a strenuous summit trail, the Arkansas Arboretum and a visitor center above the Arkansas River.
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site — 19 mi
  The 1927 high school where nine Black students entered under federal troops on September 25, 1957, with a National Park Service visitor center across the intersection.
• Big Dam Bridge — 19 mi
  A 14-foot-wide walking and cycling bridge built onto Murray Lock and Dam, 90 feet over the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock.
• Arkansas State Capitol — 20 mi
  The neo-classical Capitol built from 1899 to 1915 on the old penitentiary site with state convict labor, free to enter, with the Little Rock Nine monument on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• William Ayers Crawford — steps away
• The Niloak Pottery — 0.6 mi
• 11th Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. — 1.0 mi
• The Benton Courier — 1.4 mi