Battle of Fayetteville event planned for April 18

The annual observance commemorating the 163rd anniversary of the Battle of Fayetteville will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Headquarters House Museum grounds at 118 E. Dickson St. in Fayetteville. The Washington County Historical Society observes the anniversary of the 1863 Civil War battle every April. Admission is free.

The event will feature cannon and musket demonstrations, tintype photography for visitors, a display of Union Col. M. LaRue Harrison’s Bible and a program on the First Arkansas Federal Cavalry and Infantry. Jacob Spillars will perform fiddle tunes from the era. The day’s program will conclude at 3:45 p.m. with the reading of the names of those killed in the battle. This will be followed by the playing of “Taps” on bugle to conclude the program around 4 p.m.

The Battle of Fayetteville on April 18, 1863, contested the Union army’s hold on the city when it clashed with advancing Confederate forces east of the site of Union headquarters at Judge Jonas Tebbetts’s home, which is now Headquarters House Museum. The Confederates marched up Dickson Street toward the house but pulled back under fire. The Union victory demonstrated that Arkansas soldiers fighting for the Federals would support its cause. The military situation remained unstable enough that Union troops pulled out of town a week later and went to Missouri where they stayed until September before returning to resume control of Fayetteville.

Washington County Historical Society
March 30, 2026

Contact: Dave Edmark

479-530-7241

dedmark@uark.edu