Welcome to the e-newsletter of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. Newsletters will be sent out periodically to keep readers up to date on recent activities of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, which is housed in the Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend.

For more information on the commission’s activities, or to subscribe to the e-newsletter, visit the ACWSC web site at www.arkansascivilwar150.org.

IN THIS ISSUE:

ARKANSAS CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMISSION ANNOUNCES PODCAST SERIES

HELENA SITE ADDED TO UNDERGROUND RAILROAD NETWORK TO FREEDOM

ACWSC REGIMENTAL SITE ADDS KENTUCKY, U.S., U.S.C.T. REGIMENTS

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ARKANSAS CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMISSION ADDS PODCASTS TO WEBSITE

       LITTLE ROCK—The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission has added podcasts about the state’s Civil War history to its website and will include additional materials in coming months, ACWSC Chairman Tom Dupree announced today.

       “These first podcasts deal with some of the issues surrounding Arkansas’s secession from the Union and how the people of the state felt about them,” Dupree said. “The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission will continue to add podcasts that will explore little-known aspects of the state’s involvement in the Civil War.”

       The podcasts are being created in cooperation with the School of Mass Communication at the University of Arkansas. The initial offerings include:

* Michael B. Dougan, former professor of history at Arkansas State University, on the personalities at the secession convention and on the Arkansas Army

* James J. Johnston, a retired Foreign Service officer and Searcy County historian, on the Arkansas Peace Society

* Stephan McAteer, director of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, on the 1861 Arsenal Crisis.

The podcasts can be accessed at http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/podcasts/.

       For more information on sesquicentennial plans, visit www.arkansascivilwar150.com or e-mail acwsc@arkansasheritage.org.

       The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is housed within the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The AHPP is the Department of Arkansas Heritage agency responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources. Other agencies are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Old State House Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Historic Arkansas Museum.

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FREEDOM PARK FIRST ARKANSAS SITE TO JOIN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD PROGRAM

      In January, the National Park Service designated Helena-West Helena’s Freedom Park for inclusion on the department’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Freedom Park, scheduled for completion in July 2011, is a part of the community’s on-going efforts to increase Civil War tourism throughout Helena-West Helena and Phillips County. It is the first site in Arkansas to receive the prestigious and historical designation. 

      The National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program “coordinates preservation and education efforts nationwide and integrates local historical places, museums, and interpretive programs associated with the Underground Railroad into a mosaic of community, regional, and national stories.”

      Freedom Park will be one of 29 Civil War interpretive sites located throughout Phillips County. The park will include five major exhibits that will explore the African-American experience in Civil War Helena. The exhibits follow the journey of the African-Americans from fugitive slave to freedom; and for some, enlistment in the Union Army and participation in the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation exhibit will be the centerpiece of the park.

      In 2005, a long-term strategic plan for the county was introduced and outlined options for economic development. The Civil War was identified as one of the county’s most significant cultural heritage resources. Over the next three years, citizens and organizations came together, committed to formulating a plan focusing on the community’s heritage in an effort to make Helena and Phillips County a Civil War tourism destination.

      In July 2009, the Helena-West Helena Advertising and Promotion Commission; the Delta Bridge Project Tourism, Recreation and Quality of Life Goal Team; Southern Bancorp Capital Partners; and the Delta Cultural Center, a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, publicly introduced the Civil War Helena Interpretative Plan.

      The plan, created by Mudpuppy and Waterdog, Inc., of Versailles, Ky., incorporates the interpretation of 29 historic Civil War sites located throughout Phillips County. The objective of the plan is to give a voice to those who were affected by the Civil War in Helena and Phillips County – Union and Confederate, black and white, soldier and civilian, and men and women.

      The comprehensive plan details the development of a viable tourism industry that could emerge as a primary source of economic development. Data included in the plan estimates that the tourism generated by the development of the community’s Civil War resources “would generate $9 million in local revenue.”

      For more information on the Helena-West Helena Civil War Interpretive Plan, visit www.deltabridgeproject.com/strategicplan.html or contact Cathy Cunningham with Southern Bancorp Capital Partners at 870-816-1152.

      (This article provided by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.)

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NEW REGIMENTS ADDED TO ACWSC WEBSITE

      The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission has added several regiments to its list of every Union and Confederate regiment that served in Arkansas between 1861 and 1865.

      The new regiments were from Kentucky, served in the regular U.S. Army, or served in regiments designated as United States Colored Troops. The database of units that served in Arkansas can be accessed at http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/civil-war-sites/regiments/.