Union Occupation of Fort Smith

The Eleventh United States Colored Troops began as a Fort Smith regiment. Organized on December 19, 1863, it was filled by formerly enslaved men from Fort Smith, Van Buren, Dripping Springs, Kibler and Alma; some escaped from the Choctaw Nation and as far as Mississippi to enlist. White Northern officers commanded. The men loaded steamboats and built fortifications. On August 24, 1864, 265 of them guarding cattle and haymakers at Gunther's Prairie repulsed three charges by 300 to 400 Confederate cavalry, losing three dead and fourteen wounded or missing. In April 1865 the regiment was merged into the 113th.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Smith National Historic Site — steps away
  Two army forts, a federal courthouse and a basement jail on the bluff where the Poteau meets the Arkansas, from the 1817 riflemen to Judge Parker's court and its gallows.
• Fort Smith National Cemetery — steps away
  The post burial ground of the first Fort Smith, kept since 1819, holding its first commander, more than 400 Confederate dead, Judge Parker and veterans of every war since.
• U.S. Marshals Museum — 0.7 mi
  A star-shaped museum on the Arkansas riverbank, opened in 2023, telling the story of the nation's oldest federal law enforcement agency and the marshals who worked out of Fort Smith.
• Van Buren Historic District — 5.5 mi
  Eight blocks of Main Street on the Arkansas River, from Phillips Landing, with 1889 banks, a beer depot and a railroad depot, on the National Register since 1976.

More markers nearby

• Confederate Occupation of Fort Smith — steps away
• Sebastian County Seat of Justice — steps away
• Sebastian County California Gold Seekers — 0.2 mi
• Van Buren Raid — 5.1 mi