The Arsenal Crisis

In the winter of 1861 the U.S. arsenal at Little Rock was held by 65 Federal troops under Captain James Totten. On January 28 Governor Henry Rector told him no reinforcements would be allowed and that the weapons could not be removed or destroyed. Totten replied that he took his orders from Washington. By February 5 volunteer companies from nine counties, among them Phillips, Jefferson, Prairie and White, had reached the city. On February 6 Totten agreed to give up the arsenal rather than risk bloodshed, and on February 12 the garrison sailed for St. Louis.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old State House Museum — 0.7 mi
  The oldest standing state capitol west of the Mississippi, where lawmakers met from 1836, enslaved people were auctioned in the east wing and Arkansas voted to secede.
• Mosaic Templars Cultural Center — 0.7 mi
  The state museum of African American history on the site of the Mosaic Templars of America headquarters, a Black fraternal order's 1913 building on West Ninth Street.
• Arkansas State Capitol — 1.5 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.
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site — 1.8 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.

More markers nearby

• The Camden Expedition — steps away
• BISHOP CHARLES HARRISON MASON — 0.8 mi
• Pulaski County County Government — 0.9 mi
• Fort Steele — 0.9 mi