Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War raise the flag at the American Civil
War Memorial ~ June 8, 2008
...let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who
shall have bourne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves... LINCOLN 4 March 1865
The North South Cenotaph celebrates the binding together of the states separated during the
American Civil War and memorializes all lives lost during the conflict. At the war's end, in 1865,
there were thirty six states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia & Wisconsin. The North South Cenotaph will be constructed of
stones sent from each of these states.
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ARKANSAS - Cane Hill College Brick sent by Alan Thompson, Museum Registrar, Prairie Grove
Battlefield State Park, Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Cane Hill Collegiate Institute, commonly known as
Cane Hill College, was chartered in 1852. The school grew quickly and by 1858 the campus
contained several buildings including a two-story brick teaching facility. Cane Hill College closed
in 1861 after most of the students left to take up arms. Following the Battle of Cane Hill on
November 28, 1862, the Union General James G. Blunt elected to stay in the area. The men
looted the college, taking books from the library and one came away with a three-foot-long
telescope. “Buck and Ball,” the regimental newspaper of the 11th Kansas Infantry ran a notice
stating “The occupation of Cane Hill and vicinity by the Federal army was followed by acts of
pillage disgraceful to the perpetrators and calculated to bring discredit upon the whole army and
upon the cause for which the army is fighting. It is scarcely necessary to say that such acts are
strongly reprobated by Gen. Blunt and the officers of the army generally. The severest
punishment will be inflicted upon the perpetrators of these outrages as soon as they can be
detected.” The camps were searched and while most of the offenders were punished, some of
the loot went undetected and the culprits escaped punishment. However the telescope was
difficult to conceal. It was spotted by the inspectors and returned to the college. The trooper from
the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry that took it was tied to a tree for three hours for poaching the
eyepiece. On November 12-13, 1864, the college and most of the Cane Hill area was burned. As
Confederate troops returned to Arkansas from “Price’s Missouri Raid” they passed through Cane
Hill and left their sick and wounded in private homes. Blunt, who was pursuing the Rebels,
followed them to the Arkansas River and then returned to Cane Hill and destroyed it. The brick is
dedicated to the soldiers, Blue and Gray, who were engaged in the Prairie Grove Campaign of
1862.
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Cane Hill Battlefield Driving Tour - Cane Hill, Arkansas
Alan Thompson of the Northwest Arkansas Civil War Heritage Trail organization tells me that the
first of the interpretive panels for the new Cane Hill Battlefield Driving Tour should be ready any
day now.
An important preliminary of the Battle of Prairie Grove, the Battle of Cane Hill was fought on
November 28, 1862, when Union troops attacked a Confederate force camped at Cane Hill.
Actually a series of communities, Cane Hill was an important landmark in Northwest Arkansas at
the time of the war and was a strategic objective for both sides because of the numerous road
connections it offered.
The Northwest Arkansas Civil War Heritage Trail group has started an effort to establish a
driving tour of the extensive battlefield. This is a noteworthy effort and will expand the public's
opportunity to explore another major battlefield of the Civil War in Arkansas. With Pea Ridge
National Military Park and Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, the new tour will bring to three the
number of major battlefields that can be explored in Northwest Arkansas.
The effort is an expensive proposition. Each of the interpretive panels for the stops on the tour
cost $1,500. If you are interested in supporting a worthwhile historic preservation effort, I
strongly urge you to consider this one. As I've mentioned before, I am donating proceeds from
my new book, The Battle of Massard Prairie, Arkansas, to the project. If you are interested in
donating, you can contact Alan Thompson at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. Their number
is 479-846-2990 or you can email the park at prairiegrove@arkansas.com and just put Attn:
Alan Thompson in the heading.
The Burying Ground at Old Cane Hill
By W. J. Lemke
Courtesy of Washington County Historical Society
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On a cold day, November 27, 1961, a dozen or more of our WCHS members made the sorrowful trek to the
Old Cane Hill Burying ground, to pay a last tribute to Dr. Fount Richardson, who was a charter member and twice
president of our Society. His services to his home town, state and nation have been told in the press. He was
highly honored by the medical profession. FLASHBACK published the history of his illustrious forebears - the
pioneer Buchanans. He now sleeps at old Cane Hill among his kith and kin.
I stood on that wind-swept hill, before the funeral cortege arrived from Fayetteville, and looked north. Down
below was the road by which the Federal troops approached Cane Hill - just 99 years ago to the day. Among the
defenders of the little college town were Fount Richardson's grandfather and many of his kinfolks.
I looked south. And there, on the nearest hilltop, was the campus of Old Cane Hill College, of which Fount
Richardson's grandfather, the Rev. F. R. Earle, was president for a quarter century - long, long ago. And all
around are the home sites of Washington County's first families - the Buchanans, Pyeattes, Carnahans,
McClellans, Yates, Edmistons and many more.
I have visited more than a hundred old cemeteries in our county, but my visits to the Cane Hill burying
ground always affects me strangely. I am conscious of the fact that history was made here - that this is hallowed
ground. And I think of the third act of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" - the graveyard scene.
Instead of Wilder's imaginary characters, I see real people. I pass Samuel Carnahan and hear him tell how
the first Sunday School in Arkansas was organized in his home. Nearby I see the tall figure of the Rev. Guilford
Pylant, pioneer preacher, and he tells me once again of the violence he witnessed on the border in the early
days.
An argument on my left is between Thomas Garvin and William Hagod, both soldiers of the American
Revolution. They finally decide to let two of General Washington's officers - Capt. Jacob Pyeatt and Lieut. John
Carnahan - settle the argument. Pyeatt and Carnahan sleep in the Bean cemetery up the road but occasionally
visit the Cane Hill burying ground to see their numerous kin.
I seat myself on an old vault and presently the occupant greets me. He is James Coulter who died when he
was only 24. We give each other the Masonic grip. He tells me again about his friends who had this marble
monument made in Ohio and shipped to the Arkansas frontier in 1857. He reads the verse inscribed on the
marble slab.
Sixty feet away I see three shadowy figures who are trying to attract my attention. I excuse myself to young
Jim Coullter and walk over to the triple arched tombstone in the Buchanan family plot. Yes, there they are -
three young soldiers whom I know well. They are the Buchanan brothers - William, Pleasant and James - who
were killed in a war-time ambush slaying on Feb. 21, 1864. They can't tell me what happened that night,
because they were murdered in their sleep. Almost in sight of their home at Cane Hill..
Watching us from the neighboring lot is the dignified white-bearded figure of the Rev. F. R. Earle,
Confederate soldier and president of Cane Hill College. Beside him is his wife, Amanda Buchanan Earle. Major
Earle always talks to me, about his war experiences and about his college. He tells me that Mrs. Earle taught
painting in the college and that some of her paintings are still in a closet in the Earle House in the village of Cane
Hill. Some time I'll go and see them.
I did not know Major and Mrs. Earle when they were alive,. But I did know their daughter, Ellen Earle
Richardson. I was present when our historical society cited her as a "Distinguished Citizen," at the home of her
parents in historic Cane Hill. Also, I was present when she was laid to rest beside her parents in the Cane Hill
burying ground. Mrs. Richardson gave me my first instruction in pioneer history and I will always remember her.
And now her son, Dr. Fount Richardson, has joined her, and all the other illustrious dead on the wind-swept
hill at old Cane Hill.
For more wonderful history of Cane Hill and Washington County Arkansas
visit our friends
at Washington County Historical Society
Click on link below
WCHS
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