{"id":870,"slug":"poison-spring-battle-site-arkansas","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Poison Spring is the massacre inside the victory — April 18, 1864, the Camden Expedition's foraging party ambushed by Marmaduke and Maxey, the First Kansas Colored Infantry destroyed. The Confederate win was complete; the atrocity was the Black soldiers killed after surrender — the war crime that stained Arkansas's most complete Confederate victory.","The battle ended the expedition — Steele abandoned Camden and went back to Little Rock; the Red River Campaign's Arkansas wing was done. The state park is the memorial — the interpretive trail on the ground where the wagons were, the site that was slow to tell the massacre's part. The spring that gave the battle its name is the park now — the ambush site where the victory and the war crime are the same ground.","The file keeps Poison Spring: the 1864 ambush, the First Kansas Colored massacre, the Camden Expedition's end, and the state park.","Poison Spring is the archive's war-crime file — the Confederate victory that was a massacre."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Poison Spring is the archive's war-crime file — the ambush and the murdered prisoners.","A battlefield keeps its atrocity — the file's suggestion being that Poison Spring's hold is the two truths: the tactical victory and the surrendered soldiers killed, the site that can't be told without both."]}],"name":"Poison Spring Battle Site","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","BATTLEFIELD","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","CIVIL_WAR","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"Poison Spring Battle Site is a historic site in Chidester, Arkansas, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. The archive files it under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"1801 E Street S.E.","city":"Chidester","county":"Ouachita","state":"Arkansas","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":33.701947,"lon":-93.023799,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 19AR01, source row 377. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":67.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Poison Spring Battle Site is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Poison Spring Battle Site's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"On April 18, 1864, Confederate forces massacred Black Union soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, killing many after surrender. The documented date is 1864-04-18. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Poison Spring Battleground State Park'. The record keeps it — history, not lore.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1864-04-18","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Poison Spring Battleground State Park","url":"https://www.arkansasparks.com","publisher":"Arkansas State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[{"name":"Battle of Poison Spring","type":"MASSACRE","date_start":"1864-04-18","date_end":null,"description":"On April 18, 1864, Confederate cavalry ambushed a Union foraging column at Poison Spring — and after the battle, murdered many of the wounded and captured men of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry. Roughly 300 Union dead, most killed after surrender, made it one of the war's worst atrocities; 'Remember Poison Spring' became a Black regiment's rallying cry.","evidence":"MASSACRE","source":{"name":"Poison Spring Battleground State Park","url":"https://www.arkansasparks.com","publisher":"Arkansas State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},{"name":"Poison Spring Battleground State Park","url":"https://www.arkansasparks.com","publisher":"Arkansas State Parks","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The 1864 battlefield—where the USCT were massacred.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 19AR01, source row 377. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"place_type","existing_value":"HISTORIC_SITE","incoming_value":"BATTLEFIELD","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The 1864 battle where the USCT was massacred—one of the war’s worst atrocities.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"full_description","existing_value":"Poison Spring is the Ouachita County battlefield—the April 18, 1864 fight where the documented USCT massacre is preserved.","incoming_value":"Poison Spring is the Ouachita County battlefield where Confederate forces overran a Union forage train in April 1864, killing Black soldiers of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry—many after surrender. One of the war’s worst documented atrocities.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 19AR01, source row 377. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"Lore enrichment; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":4}}