Skirmish Near Smithville

The reports of the June 17, 1862, fight disagree. Major A. H. Seley's three companies of the Fifth Illinois Cavalry attacked Captain Wiley Jones's mounted company in heavy rain at a farm about four miles west of Smithville. Seley reported one Union man killed, two mortally wounded and five slightly wounded; General Curtis reported two killed and four wounded. Regimental rosters name just one Union death, Private Marvin Welker, and no Confederate dead. The Union camp's location is still argued over. The attack began after a Union-sympathizing woman warned Seley's foragers that about 100 Confederates were behind them.

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

• Capt. Wiley C. Jones — steps away
• Skirmishes in Lawrence County — steps away
• The Civil War in Lawrence County — steps away
• Oldest Town Site in Arkansas — 15 mi