The Ouachita County Historical Society in Camden, Arkansas, is set to showcase the Battle of Poison Spring. Living history demonstrations will be held Friday and more than 100 Civil War reenactors will stage the battle Saturday at Poison Springs Battleground State Park in Camden.
This April 1864 battle is infamous for the Confederates' slaughter of black soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, the first black soldiers to fight in the Civil War. Ouachita County Historical Society president Kathy Boyette says the attack happened as Union Army Major-General Frederick Steele tried to get hundreds of foraging wagons to gather up supplies from farmers in the countryside.
“They were coming back fully loaded and they were ambushed by the Confederates. Fighting in that battle were those same Texas soldiers and Indians and the First Kansas. They were particularly brutal, likely a revenge for the Battle of Honey Springs in the Indian Territory,” Boyette said, who has been involved with the historical society for 16 years.
Boyette says it’s not just reenactment soldiers who will be set up at the park.
“We’ll have sutlers there who sell the goods that were sold during that Civil War time. A lot of people ask about a sutler, and they think I’m saying a ‘settler.’ A sutler was actually a merchant who followed the troops and sold them necessary items,” Boyette said.
The 152nd anniversary of the Battle of Poison Spring is set for April 15 and 16. The reenactment begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by a vintage dance at Poison Springs Battlefield State Park, Arkansas Highway 76, Camden.
Boyette says the historical society is currently transforming a well-preserved fortification overlooking the Ouachita River to create a Civil War interpretive center and museum for Camden.
