Arkansas's Bloodiest Civil War Crossing
Forest Rd 9010, Leola, AR 72084
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free state park; no admission charge
Access
Limited Access
Natural ground, river access, uneven terrain near the Saline River
Equipment
Photos OK
Civil War Battlefield · Red River Campaign · National Register of Historic Places · Arkansas State Park
On April 30, 1864, General Frederick Steele's Union forces were retreating from Camden, Arkansas, through flooded terrain, when Confederate troops caught them at the Saline River ferry crossing near present-day Leola. The resulting engagement lasted through the day and ended in a technical Union victory — Steele successfully crossed the bulk of his army — but at a cost that made tactical success nearly indistinguishable from defeat.
By proportional casualties, Jenkins' Ferry stands among the Civil War's most damaging single engagements. Confederate forces had pursued Steele from Camden following the Federal retreat after failing to hold southwest Arkansas. The Saline River, swollen with spring flooding, narrowed the Union army's options severely. Steele used the ferry site as a bridgehead, establishing a defensive perimeter while troops crossed on pontoon bridges.
The battle falls within the Red River Campaign of 1864, a strategic Federal effort to extend Union control into Texas via Louisiana and Arkansas that ultimately failed. Jenkins' Ferry is one of several engagements in the campaign's Arkansas theater — Poison Spring and Marks' Mill preceded it in the same spring.
Jenkins' Ferry Battleground State Park was established to preserve the 67-acre site, which includes the approximate location of the pontoon bridge and the ground on which the Federal forces organized their defensive line. The park provides interpretive exhibits, a picnic pavilion, a swim area, and a boat launch on the Saline River. Contact: (501) 844-4176.
Sources
Civil War battlefields develop paranormal reputations in proportion to their casualty counts. Jenkins' Ferry — among the most proportionally costly single engagements of the war — generates accounts consistent with this pattern.
The pre-analyzed data for the location references orb phenomena at the site, auditory echoes interpreted as residual battle sounds, and disembodied cries from the river area. These are the standard categories of battlefield paranormal report: visual anomalies photographed in the field, sounds without source that overlap with the sounds of historical combat, and distress calls from the water that visitors attribute to the men who drowned or were wounded during the Saline crossing.
No specific investigation records, media coverage, or first-person witness accounts specific to Jenkins' Ferry State Park were located in non-aggregator sources during research. The battlefield's paranormal reputation exists in the same channel as its historical one: significant, documented, and largely visited by people who come for the history rather than the phenomena.
The park's interpretive exhibits provide the essential framework for understanding what happened on April 30, 1864. Whether the Saline River retains anything of that day in the way battlefield accounts suggest is a question the exhibits don't address.
Walk the 67-acre Jenkins' Ferry Battleground State Park along the Saline River, thirteen miles south of Sheridan on Arkansas Highway 46. Interpretive markers describe the April 30, 1864 engagement. The river access, picnic pavilion, and boat launch are available. The battlefield's terrain — a flooded river crossing under fire — is evoked through the historical markers.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPCamden, AR
On April 18, 1864, a Union foraging column of approximately 1,800 men — including the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry — was ambushed by 3,600 Confederate troops at Poison Spring, Arkansas, during the Camden Expedition. The Confederates routed the Union column and then massacred wounded and surrendering Black soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry during and after the battle, killing or mutilating over 200 men. Documented evidence including period accounts record post-battle killings. It is the worst documented atrocity involving Black Union soldiers in Arkansas Civil War history.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPPrairie Grove, AR
The Battle of Prairie Grove (December 7, 1862) produced nearly 2,700 casualties as Union General James Blunt and Confederate General Thomas Hindman fought to a bloody standstill across Washington County farms. The Borden family farmhouse stood at the center of the worst fighting; the family returned to find hundreds of bodies stacked in their yard. Confederate forces withdrew that night and never mounted another major offensive in northwest Arkansas.
Hammond, OR
Battery Russell is one of nine concrete coastal-artillery emplacements built between 1897 and 1906 to defend the mouth of the Columbia River as part of Fort Stevens. Completed in 1904 and named for Civil War Brig. Gen. David A. Russell, the battery mounted two 10-inch M1888 'disappearing' rifles. It was decommissioned in 1944. On the night of June 21-22, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced offshore and fired roughly 17 shells in the direction of the fort — the first foreign attack on a mainland U.S. military installation since the War of 1812. The site is preserved within Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, Oregon.