Fort Curtis stood over Helena from 1862 to 1867 and was named for General Samuel Curtis, the first Union commander of Helena. The Confederates tested it once, during the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863, when a single gun at Fort Curtis fired in the predawn hours of Independence Day to signal Union soldiers to take their battle stations. Manned by the 33rd Missouri Infantry, who had been trained to operate artillery, the fort signaled the beginning of the battle and served as the Union army's last line of defense. After taking Battery C, the Confederates attacked Fort Curtis but could not capture it, and the battle ended in a decided Union victory. For the rest of the war, Fort Curtis remained a symbol of Union power over Helena. After the Civil War ended in April 1865, the army removed the fort's huge guns and shipped them out of Arkansas. Although an 1866 inspection found the fort in good repair, its usefulness had passed, and when the Union army left Helena in 1867, it was abandoned. The fort was eventually leveled, with its walls perhaps used as fill, and the First Baptist Church three blocks north of the site now stands near where Fort Curtis once stood.