Battery K, 1st Missouri Light Artillery Regiment, 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent), Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1863, "Batteries A, B, C, and D (Battle of Helena)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Helena&oldid=1141530720, Battles of the American Civil War in Arkansas, Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War, Union victories of the American Civil War, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 14:50. He was elderly and handicapped, and ran too slowly. [21], The Union troops in Helena were commanded by Major General Benjamin Prentiss and consisted of the Thirteenth Division of the XIII Corps. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. #7 of 8 things to do in Helena Historic Sites Write a review About Suggested duration 2-3 hours Suggest edits to improve what we show. With the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi were cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. McWhirter, Cameron. Brough once again stayed their executions until the Arkansas Supreme Court could again review the cases. Men and women migrated to Northern factories or joined the military, creating a labor shortage in the cotton fields and lumber mills. Livingston, Kelly, and Madison Peek. [69][b], With Price's men shredded, Fagan's men exhausted, and the cavalry not making any progress, Holmes decided to order a withdrawal at 10:30 am. The research below is a comprehensive historical analysis of every major league baseball player born in Arkansas. For historic sites related to the battle, see. On Oct. 31, a grand jury indicted 122 black men and women for offenses ranging from murder to night riding. The converging attack would be difficult, and the generals interpreted Holmes' order to begin the attack at "daylight" differently. 1808-11-10 Osage Treaty / Treaty of Fort Clark, Osage Nation cedes territory in Missouri and Arkansas to the US. [75] Price then ordered Parsons to attack Battery D, but was informed that McRae had already been ordered to do that. The fear is instilled by people who continue to voice the hatred of slave owners of 257 years ago and they dont see it as the source of belligerent race rations. In June 1863, Confederate Commander Theophilus Holmes sought to take pressure off of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by attacking the Union-held town of Helena, Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022. The violence even claimed those who had nothing to do with the union efforts, such as brothers David Augustine Elihue Johnston, Gibson Allen Johnston, Lewis Harrison (L. H.) Johnston, and Leroy Johnston, who were returning to Helena from a hunting trip when they were attacked and killed on October 2. One hundred years ago this week, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history unfolded in Elaine, Ark., a small town on the Mississippi. The death toll was listed at 23, and many others were seriously injured. Gov. [43] Meanwhile, on the Lower Little Rock road, Brooks ran into trouble, taking fire from Battery K, 1st Missouri Light Artillery Regiment and Tyler. Creating an account gives you access to all these features. All Rights Reserved. The charges ranged from murder to nightriding, a charge akin to terroristic threatening (as defined by Act 112 of 1909). All the white people had to do was stay away from the church while the meeting was going on. [45], Price's attack had been delayed. Scipio A. Jones. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 31 (Autumn 1972): 201219. If Elaine residents need something, they must drive to Helena, 30 minutes away - past silver metal silos with angled tops, modest one-story houses, John Deere tractors and the Lake View community, where a number of trailers and motor homes are parked along Old . Mulder, Brandon. 10. As they surrounded his house, another man inside, Charlie Robinson, tried to run away. In Little Rock and at the headquarters of the NAACP in New York, efforts began to fight the death sentences handed down in Helena, led in part by Scipio Africanus Jones, the leading black attorney of his era in Arkansas, and Edgar L. McHaney. Low Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in the Elaine Riots. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 285313. There is no danger of any lynching. Seventy-nine-year-old Ed Coleman had remained at home with his wife when people fleeing Hoop Spur came to his house and warned them to leave. In 2 U.S. Cities Haunted by Race Massacres, Facing the Past Is Painful and Divisive. NPR, December 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1137090651/elaine-massacre-tulsa-race-riot (accessed December 12, 2022). The county was named for Sylvanus Phillips, and the settlement was renamed (1821) for his daughter. HELENA-WEST HELENA -- Hard on the banks of the Mississippi River, the World still turns, one page at a time. It is impossible to establish an accurate death toll. Military reports were intentionally vague. (WMC) - Arkansas State Police were on the scene of a homicide investigation Tuesday night in Helena-West Helena. The committees narrative appeared in newspapers all over the country. Arkansas governor Charles Hillman Brough told a St. Louis, Missouri, audience during the war that there existed no twilight zone in American patriotism and called Wisconsin senator Robert LaFollete, who opposed the war, a Bolshevik leader. Holmes noted that the defenses of Helena were stronger than he expected, but carried on with the attack anyway. The main attack broke through Battery C, but Union troops fended off the attackers and sealed the breach. When he returned home, 150 men came to ransack his house, seizing his union meeting minutes and his Masonic lodge books. The descendants of the wealthier white perpetrators, they insist, have profited, and continue to do so, from the suffering and loss that their families endured in 1919. On September 10, Union troops took Little Rock. The Elaine Race Riot. Masters thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers (now Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University), 1927. Holmes planned and executed three different failed attacks on the town. In a final act of disrespect, they tied her dress over her head and left her body on the side of the road for several days. The military placed several hundred African Americans in makeshift stockades until they could be questioned and vouched for by their white employers. This article is about the U.S. city. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Helena is the seat of Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (1965). People often say they believe in God and that he doesnt make mistakes, yet they refuse to acknowledge we are all created equal by him. For additional information: Anthony, Steven. According to Christ, Prentiss lost 220 of the 4,129 men he took into battle: 57 killed, 127 wounded, and 36 missing. Helena, Arkansas - Wikipedia Red Summer 1919: Tree honoring black victims cut down in alleged crime A Rural Town Confronts Its Buried History of Mass Killings of Black Americans. The Guardian, August 18, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/18/a-rural-town-confronts-its-buried-history-of-mass-killings-of-black-americans (accessed February 22, 2023). [55] Walker's men spent the rest of the morning primarily skirmishing with Clayton's cavalry and firing at long range. A couple in Garland County is suing Officer Ryan Wingo in Garland. The economy, traditionally based on cotton and lumber, became increasingly industrialized after World War II, especially at West Helena (founded 1909, incorporated 1917). Whitaker, Robert. [44] Brooks' men became disorganized and did not reform until 8:00 am. [48] The 43rd Indiana Infantry Regiment had been facing Fagan's Confederates, and was reinforced by parts of the 33rd Iowa Infantry Regiment and the 35th Missouri Infantry Regiment, under orders from Salomon. By days end, countless black women, men and children had been slaughtered. [68], Fagan's men resumed the attack upon hearing the fighting on Graveyard Hill, and drove the 43rd Indiana and part of the 33rd Iowa from the final Union line in front of Battery D, but were unable to take the Battery itself,[69] having been hit by crossfire while maneuvering through a ravine. The governor, who was reported as saying he was going to Elaine to obtain correct information, accepted the authority of the committee in return for its commitment that no lynchings would take place in Helena (Phillips County). [59], Holmes lost 1,636 of the 7,646 men he had taken into the battle: 173 killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing. Washington is where we met. Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. Stockley, Grif, and Jeannie M. Whayne. The Elaine Riot of 1919: Race, Class, and Labor in the Arkansas Delta. PhD diss., University of WisconsinMilwaukee, 2019. [53] Bledsoe's two guns were driven off, but neither side could defeat the other. They now verified that the planters had gone to the Hoop Spur church to destroy the union and that the posse had killed their own men, instead of the black people who had been accused. Once there, Holmes provided further orders for the advance: Walker was to screen Fagan's movement to Helena with part of his command, while Price continued on to Helena from Switzer's. The city was a Union supply depot during the American Civil War, and the Battle of Helena (July 4, 1863) was a futile attempt by the Confederates to capture it. Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and a Story of Reconciliation. The white power structure in Phillips County formed a Committee of Seven, made of influential planters, businessmen, and elected officials, to investigate the cause of the disturbances. 14 Best Things to Do in Helena-West Helena (Arkansas): Arkansas Welcome Center Phillips County Museum Fort Curtis Delta Cultural Center Robert Nighthawk Gravesite Quapaw Canoe Company King Biscuit Time Marker Sonny Boy Williamson's Boarding House Helena Confederate Cemetery Pillow Thompson House Freedom Park Frank Frost Gravesite Ultimately, the Ware defendants were freed by the Arkansas Supreme Court after two terms of court had passed, and the state of Arkansas made no move to re-try the men. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.28. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The murders, thefts, violence and terror continued long after the troops had gone and the convicted men had been released. Richard Hall asked my father to come to Mississippi to visit him. Major League Baseball Players Born in Arkansas Still others described the barbarism of cutting off the ears or toes of dead negroes for souvenirs and the dragging of their bodies through the streets of Elaine. Gerald B. Lambert, the founder of Listerine, who owned 21,000 acres near Elaine, saw white men spread throughout the woods, firing at any suspicious person. Evidence shows that the mobs of whites slaughtered African Americans in and around Elaine. The Helena time zone is Central Daylight Time which is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Confederate infantry deserted in large numbers, their morale shattered. The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30-October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. Union troops captured the city in July 1862, and had been using it as a base of operations. The Nevada County Depot in Prescott was photographed circa 1960 with the Reader Railroad engine in the foreground. He also told how soldiers brought a suspected union leader to his company store for interrogation, poured kerosene over his body and tossed a match. ; and in the plantation region of the Arkansas Delta. [7], On June 9, Holmes learned that the strength of the Union forces in Helena was about 3,000 or 4,000 men, and decided against an attack. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.