ARCRAWFO-L Archives
Archiver > ARCRAWFO > 2002-03 > 1017268271
From: Kay Haden <>
Subject: Re: Crawford County- Civil War Story told in 1893-Van Buren Press
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:31:11 -0600
In-Reply-To: <00f301c1d5e3$07616380$aea84441@pavilion>
Fran, the article is so interesting - not too long at all.
To the List - this article raises a question, the answer the which I've
been searching for some time. Did the Union Army have an actual
prison/jail in Ft. Smith? If so, does anyone know if any records exist for
that facility. It would seem there was such a place based on this man's
story and my own. My husband's gg grandfather who lived near Springfield
MO is said to have been held in prison in Ft. Smith for some time near the
end of the War. It is tradition that he was to be hung but the end of the
War came first. We have a letter from one of his sons to the other,
relating the story and the efforts by two of the sisters to try and have
their father released - the teen-age girls rode horseback from Springfield
to Ft. Smith by themselves.
Thanks for any ideas about where to look for records,.
Kay Haden
At 02:59 PM 3/27/2002 -0800, Fran Warren wrote:
>I apologize for the length of this article but it will be continued in the
>newspaper for the following week. If you are interested and I find the
>article I will transcribe it and post it as well.... let me hear from you if
>this item is too lengthy...
>
>Van Buren Press
>Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas
>July 22, 1893
>
>A WAR SKETCH
>
>Adventures of a Confederate Soldier in the Vicinity of Van Buren, Ark. (by W
>P Black)
>
> From Muldrow Register:- By request of friends I have concluded to give to
>the public an adventure of the last war, which took place in the vicinity of
>Van Buren, Ark., in August 1864, which I shall recite to the best of my
>recollection.
>
>Our command, consisting of Wright's, Marlen's, and Whitson's companies, on
>Frog Bayou, Crawford County, Arkansas, Captain Wright in command. About 3 o'
>clock one afternoon I called for volunteers to go to Van Buren and capture
>Colonel Tom Bowen, who was in command of the U S forces at that place. My
>object in capturing him was to to hold him for an exchange for John Norwood
>and others who were at that time under sentence of death at Fort Smith, and
>thus, save the lives of some good boys.
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