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Submitted: 6/1/16 • Approved: 6/1/16 • Last Updated: 9/17/20 • R1143029-G0-S3
Skirmish near Smithville
After the March 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, Union troops moved into northern Arkansas. The 5th Illinois Cavalry under Maj. A.H. Seley occupied Smithville. On June 17, a local woman warned a patrol of the 5th that Confederate partisans led by Capt. Wiley C. Jones, a local businessman, were pursuing them. Seley ordered his men out, and they fought Jones at James McKinney’s farm on Osborn Creek. Amid “torrents of rain,” the Federals attacked, surrounding Jones and his men. Jones lost 1 dead and he and 14 others surrendered. Seley lost 2 dead and 5 wounded.
After the fight at McKinney’s farm, Capt. Wiley C. Jones was sent to the Union prisoner of war camp at Alton, Ill. He later escaped and made his way back to Arkansas. In 1864 Jones and other local men, including Capt. W.C. Sloan, enlisted in the 45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) under Col. Milton Baber. The 45th Arkansas marched into Missouri in September to serve in Gen. Sterling Price’s disastrous expedition. After the war, Jones returned to run his milling business on the Strawberry River. Jones, Sloan and Baber are all buried here, in Smithville Cemetery.
Contributed on 6/1/16
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Record #: 1143029