Seven Confederate Generals

The seven men came from a county where, by the 1860 census, 8,941 of 14,877 people were enslaved, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Helena was the largest Arkansas town on the Mississippi, and slavery was entrenched in its economic life. White support for the Confederacy was never unanimous, the encyclopedia adds, and after the Emancipation Proclamation hundreds of freedmen joined the Union army. In 1864 two Indiana Quaker missionaries opened an orphanage and school near Helena that became Southland College, the first institution of higher education for African Americans west of the Mississippi.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Elaine Massacre Memorial — steps away
  A memorial dedicated in 2019 in Helena for the Black people killed by white mobs and troops in the 1919 Elaine Massacre, the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history.
• Delta Cultural Center — 0.3 mi
  A state museum in downtown Helena where King Biscuit Time, the longest-running daily blues radio show, is broadcast live from the Visitors Center.
• Freedom Park — 1.1 mi
  An outdoor Delta Cultural Center site on the ground of a Civil War contraband camp, where thousands of people who had escaped slavery sheltered and men enlisted.
• Mississippi River State Park — 11 mi
  A state park and gateway to the St. Francis National Forest, where the river, Crowley's Ridge and the Delta meet, with a Trail of Tears site at the Mississippi and St. Francis confluence.

More markers nearby

• Judge Jacob Trieber — steps away
• Helena, Arkansas — steps away
• Phillips County, Arkansas — steps away
• Phillips County Court House — steps away