Two Civil War sesquicentennial markers will be unveiled and dedicated during the annual Civil War weekend at Historic Washington State Park on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015. The first will be at 10AM at the Old Washington Cemetery north of Washington on US Highway 278. The second will be at 11AM at the 1836 Courthouse at Historic Washington State Park.

The marker at the Old Washington Cemetery remembers the 19 total companies that Hempstead County sent of men to serve in the Confederate Army. Some are buried in the cemetery and other places across the country. The marker also remembers the 75 unknown Confederate soldiers from Missouri and Texas who are buried in the local cemetery. The majority of them died in the hospitals in Washington during the Civil War.

The marker at the 1836 Courthouse remembers the time when the building served and housed the Arkansas Confederate legislature for a special session from September 22—Oct. 2, 1864. After the fall of Little Rock in September 1863 to federal forces, Confederate Arkansas Governor Harris Flanigan and the state government relocated to Washington, Ark., until the end of the war in May, 1865.

The signs have been financed in part with tax funds from the State of Arkansas and the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission in association with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment of the Humanities, Historic Washington State Park, and the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation.

Historic Washington State Park, a restoration village preserving one of Arkansas’ most prominent 19th century towns, is located on US 278 nine miles north of Hope and can be reached by taking exit 30 off Interstate 30.

For more information visit Historic Washington State Park or call (870)983-2684.

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