Marks' Mills Battleground State Park

For the military conflict, see Battle of Marks' Mills.

Marks' Mills Battleground State Park is an Arkansas State Park located at the junction of Arkansas Highway 8 and Arkansas Highway 97, north of New Edinburg, Arkansas. It preserves a portion of the battlefield of the Battle of Marks' Mills fought on April 25, 1864, in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of American Civil War. The battle was part of the Camden Expedition.^[3] The park is one of nine historic sites that make up the Camden Expedition Sites, a National Historic Landmark District. The battle was most known for the slaughter of black Union soldiers that were murdered as they tried to surrender.

Marks' Mills Battleground State Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location in Arkansas
Location	Cleveland County, Arkansas
Nearest city	Fordyce, Arkansas
Coordinates	33°46′52.4″N 92°15′17.5″W
Built	1961
NRHP reference No.	70000119
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	January 21, 1970[1]
Designated NHL	April 19, 1994[2]

Description and administrative history

The roadside park is shaped in an irregular four-sided shape at the junction of the two highways. It is dotted with picnic facilities shaded by pine and oak trees, and the area is in much the same condition of dense vegetative growth that the area was described as having in 1864. There are commemorative markers on the site.^[4]

The Battle of Marks' Mills was between a column of Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele's Union Army, en route from Camden to Pine Bluff for supplies, and a Confederate force under the command of Maj. Gen. James F. Fagan that had taken up a defensive position at the road junction since the last sweep of Union reconnaissance in the area on April 21. The battle was a decisive victory for the Confederates, who captured 2,000 Union troops, four guns, and 240 empty supply wagons.^[4]

The National Historic Landmark District designation was made in 1994.^[2][3][5]

See also

• List of Arkansas state parks
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Arkansas
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Cleveland County, Arkansas

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
2. "Camden Expedition Sites". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on March 1, 2007.
3. Bearss, Edward C.; Charleton, James H. (November 29, 1993). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Camden Expedition Sites" (pdf). National Park Service.
4. "NRHP nomination for Marks' Mills State Park" (PDF). Arkansas Preservation. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
5. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Camden Expedition Sites—Accompanying photos" (pdf). National Park Service. 1993.

External links

• Official website
• "Marks' Mills Battleground State Park". Tripadvisor.