PINE BLUFF - The 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Pine Bluff will be celebrated today throughout the city with events, guest speakers and actors in period costumes.
The commemoration coincides with the “Bash on Barraque,” an annual event featuring music, historical tours and family activities.
Bash on Barraque begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Barraque and Pine streets in downtown Pine Bluff.
From 2-4 p.m., Civil War Memorial tours will be conducted. Tours will begin at the Donald W. Reynolds Center at Second Avenue and Pine Street. Tour highlights include Civil War monuments and grave markers.
From 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., a symposium on the Battle of Pine Bluff will be hosted at the Harbor Oaks Restaurant at 1 Harbor Oaks Drive at the Pine Bluff Regional Park.
Featured speakers will be Marion Glover, a retired educator and historian; Mark Christ, director of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program in Little Rock; and Ronnie Nichols, a Civil War historian who was a chief consultant on the feature film Glory.
The film tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which was the first black regiment raised in the North.
Lori Walker, project director with the Pine Bluff Economic and Community Development Department, which organized today’s events, said that focusing on black Civil War soldiers who fought in the Battle of Pine Bluff is the top goal of the celebrations.
“They made a huge mark,” she said. “Many people don’t realize that, and it’s exciting to think that they will be spotlighted in a great way.”
During the Battle of Pine Bluff, Union Col. Powell Clayton dispatched 200 black men to haul enough water from the Arkansas River to enable the Union garrison to hold out for at least 48 hours if it was cut off from its water supply, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Fifteen of the former slaves who had guns also engaged in combat against the Confederate attackers, the encyclopedia said.
The Battle of Pine Bluff was fought Oct. 25, 1863, when Brig. Gen. John Sappington Marmaduke’s Confederate cavalry division attacked the small Union garrison that had occupied Pine Bluff after the capture of Little Rock on Sept. 10, 1863, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
Confederate soldiers were unsuccessful in the attack - they had 40 dead and wounded men in the effort - but they were able to capture some 300 contraband men, women and children, the encyclopedia said. In addition, the Confederates seized 250 mules and horses and destroyed hundreds of bales of cotton that had been taken to Pine Bluff for sale to the Union Army.
Sandra King of Pine Bluff said she and her children have been looking forward to today’s events for several weeks. Her sixth-grade son has been studying the Civil War in school and has grown interested in it, King said.
“It’s great to have the kids see history with hands-on events,” King said. “And I think it’s important to remember our history - otherwise, we will probably be repeating it someday.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/26/2013