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Arkansas Penitentiary
Located on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds, at Little Rock, Arkansas.
This ground was once occupied by the Arkansas Penitentiary which was used
as
a prison during the war between the states by both Union and Confederate forces.
This marker is erected by General T.J. Churchill Chapter United Daughters of
the
Confederacy, in memory of the Confederate soldiers imprisoned here.
First Penitentiary
A big fired occurred in August, 1846, when the state penitentiary
burned. It had been constructed only a few years before, on the site
of the present capitol. The fire was set by some prisoners trying to
escape.
As the flames mounted the cries, prayers and curses of the convicts
in their cells mingled with the roar of the fire in a gripping scene
of horror. Men rushed out to the prison from the city. But by the
time they got there the uprising had been subdued, and the prisoners
released with no loss of life. Three or four Kentucky cavalrymen who
happened along turned in promptly to help the guards.
The penitentiary was rebuilt in the late 1840's, and in the '50's
stone walls were put around it. During the War between the States it
served as a military prison.
Pulaski County |
Structures
| Old
State House One |
Two |
Three
| Four
| Five
| Six
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