Refugee Children / Supplies Destroyed

Refugee Children / Supplies Destroyed (HM2A0W)

Location: Sheridan, AR 72150 Grant County
Country: United States of America
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N 34° 14.174', W 92° 31.823'

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Refugee Children


Many African Americans fleeing slavery were with Gen. Frederick Steele's Union army as it retreated to Little Rock. As army wagons became stuck in the thick mud, so too did wagons with refugee children. Some were abandoned by desperate parents; others were rescued by Union soldiers with "on one shoulder a rifle, on the other a black child." At least one refugee child would stay with the Chapple McElroy family near here, who found an abandoned youth they named Tom. Tom McElroy lived with them into the 1870s, later owning a farm southwest of Benton.

Supplies Destroyed


As Union Gen. Frederick Steele's army struggled along the muddy roads between Jenkins' Ferry and Little Rock, the starving mules hauling its wagons began to collapse from exhaustion. Steele ordered many wagons burned after their contents were moved to other wagons. Despite that effort, more wagons were destroyed as the teams hauling them collapsed. A 33rd Iowa Infantry soldier wrote: "all over the swamp, near the road, were the burning wagons and their scattered contents." Steele's army lost 635 wagons and tons of supplies in the Camden Expedition.
Details
HM NumberHM2A0W
Series This marker is part of the series
Tags
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Year Placed2015
Placed ByArkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, Friends of Jenkins’ Ferry Battlefield, Arkansas Humanities Council, Department of Arkansas Heritage, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Sunday, August 5th, 2018 at 10:01pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)15S E 543247 N 3788449
Decimal Degrees34.23623333, -92.53038333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 34° 14.174', W 92° 31.823'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds34° 14' 10.44" N, 92° 31' 49.38" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)870
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling South
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 9323 AR-46, Sheridan AR 72150, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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