The Camden Expedition

The expedition began as part of someone else's plan. General-in-chief Halleck wanted Banks to march from New Orleans and meet Admiral Porter's fleet on the Red River, take Shreveport and then enter Texas, and Steele's column was to push south from Little Rock in support. Steele left on March 23, 1864, with about 13,750 men on half rations from the first day. He waited three days at Arkadelphia for Thayer's Frontier Division from Fort Smith, then went on without it; the two commands joined on April 5. A United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter co-sponsored the marker.

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 Arsenal Crisis — steps away
• BISHOP CHARLES HARRISON MASON — 0.8 mi
• Fort Steele — 0.9 mi
• Pulaski County County Government — 0.9 mi