Fort Curtis

Fort Curtis (1862-1867) - A U.S. Army post established in 1862 during the U.S. Civil War at the town of Helena in Phillips County, Arkansas. Helena was strategically located on the west bank of the Mississippi River south of Memphis, Tennessee. The Fort was named for Union General Samuel R. Curtis the first fort commander. The post was abandoned in 1867 when Union troops left Helena. Fort Curtis Reproduction in 2020 History Union forces captured Helena, Arkansas in the summer of 1862 and erected five earthworks fortifications, one of which was Fort Curtis. Two companies of the 33rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry manned the fort with three, 30 pounder Parrott cannons. The four other defenses were batteries A, B, C, and D all facing outward and covering the land approaches to the city. Fully expecting an attack by Confederate forces, the defenses included rifle pits in front of the gun batteries and a Union gunboat in the river. The forts at Helena were attacked by Confederates on 4 July 1863. The Confederates with some 7646 men attempted a simultaneous coordinated attack on all four of the gun batteries (A, B, C, and D) but command failures resulted in staggered attacks that allowed the batteries to support each other with crossfire. Only battery C fell to the Confederates and then only after three costly attempts. Union gun crews succeeded in spiking the guns of Battery C before they retreated and because logs had been placed around the battery the confederates could not get their own artillery into the battery. A murderous crossfire then was reigned down on the Confederates in Battery C. The other batteries, the fort's guns and the Union gunboat all pounded the captured battery. In the chaos, part of the Confederate force went to attack Battery B while the remainder surged down the hill toward the Fort below. Neither group was successful and their losses were heavy. By noon the Union forces had prevailed and the Confederates retreated after suffering over 2,000 dead and wounded. The fort was abandoned after the battle and was reoccupied between January and March 1865. Current Status Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. {"selectable":false,"height":"-500","width":"-500"} Location: 350 Columbia, Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. Maps & Images Lat: 34.52861 Long: -90.59111 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 203' GPS Locations: 34.52861, -90.59111 Fort Curtis 34.52904, -90.59058 Fort Curtis Marker Sources: Roberts, Robert B., Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, ISBN 0-02-926880-X, page 53 Links: North American Forts - Fort Curtis Visited: 5 Sep 2020