Fort Southerland

Fort Southerland was one of nine Civil War fortifications constructed in 1863-64 in Camden by Confederate soldiers and slaves under the command of Camden lawyer Colonel Alexander Hawthorn. Located at the highest elevation between Willow, Locust, California, and Chestnut Streets, its six artillery pieces covered approaches into Camden from the lower Washington Road and the telegraph wire road across Two Bayou. Its irregular shape resembled a capital "b" facing south, and it was fronted by entrenchments. It was the largest of the Camden redoubts, and dirt from this location was moved by wagons to build the other forts during the Civil War. The eastern border of the fort was on the E.D. Dodson property on California Street. The fort was carved out of family property owned by the early settlers named Southerland, and Union soldiers improved the fortification during their brief occupation of Camden in April 1864.

Camden, Arkansas · United States