Friday, May 08, 2015

Helena, Arkansas -- you can't get there from here

I passed through Helena, Arkansas last month, and the odds are good that I won't visit there again in this lifetime, or any other. It doesn't seem to be on the way to anywhere I'm likely to ever be going, but I'm glad I've been there once. While in town on a beautiful Monday in April, I took time to pay a visit to one of Helena's most famous residents, the "Stonewall of the West," Patrick Cleburne. Of the seven Confederate generals to come from Helena, three are buried in the Confederate Cemetery section of Maple Hill Cemetery (Cleburne, Thomas C. Hindman, and James C. Tappan).

Patrick Cleburne
Confederate dead at Maple Hill Cemetery
The "Fagan Six," from the Battle of Helena