Bringing the fight back to a Civil War battlefield in Fort Smith

As they did 145 years ago, Confederate soldiers routed Union cavalry at the Battle of Massard Prairie.

The battlefield, located in south Fort Smith between Ben Geren Park and Hiram Walker, was added to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places in 2001 to mark the place where on July 27, 1864, more than 900 Confederate troops defeated a group of about 200 Union cavalry troops.

On July 11 and 12, more than 30 Civil War re-enactors from the 15th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment and 22nd Arkansas Volunteers were joined by members of the 26th Texas Confederate Volunteers to set up campgrounds and provide a reenactment program.

David Alexander, a history teacher at Ramsey Junior High School in Fort Smith, told the about 80 gathered for the afternoon reenactment that the Confederate troops overwhelmed the Union forces in about 45 minutes during the 1864 battle. The Confederate forces then unsuccessfully attacked the fort at Fort Smith for two days before returning south. Alexander said the Battle of Massard Prairie was the last major conflict in the Fort Smith area for the remainder of the Civil War, which effectively ended in April 1865.

According to a marker at the battlefield, 59 men (25 USA and 34 CSA) were killed in the battle.

Cody Faber, a U.S. Park Ranger at the Fort Smith National Historic Site, said the Massard Prairie battlefield “is a reminder of the war” and all that it meant in terms of changing the face of the country and changing the way in which future wars around the globe would be fought.

“The Civil War was a sad part of American history,” Faber told the crowd after the reenactment.

Faber talked briefly about the 1865 Sharps carbine (rifle), pistols, swords — to include showing an original 1862 cavalry sword — and other weapons and equipment carried by most Union cavalry troops during the war.

The Massard Prairie Battlefield Park is located at the corner of Red Pine Drive and Morgan’s Way in Fort Smith, south of Geren Road.