On April 12, 1861, the South Carolina Militia fired shots upon Fort Sumter, which marked the beginning of the Civil War. For the next five years, America experienced its great challenges as a nation, with more than 600,000 lives lost and millions of dollars in property damaged or destroyed. But what many people don’t know is that the Civil War almost began in Arkansas.
Arkansas became the 25th state on June 15, 1836. Later that year, the federal government decided to build a new federal arsenal in Arkansas’ capital city, Little Rock. Gov. James Conway and U.S. Army Major Robert B. Lee chose a site on the outskirts of the city that was the former home to a racetrack once used by a local jockey club. Congress appropriated $14,000 for the arsenal, but the final cost of the building was nearly $30,000.
The arsenal was built using timbers from Pine Bluff and rock from the Big Rock Quarry on the north side of the Arkansas River. At the arsenal’s completion, the Arkansas Gazette declared it to be “a splendid specimen of masonry.” Its signature feature: a three-story tower building. Over the next several years, 30 buildings were added to the installation.
In November 1860, U.S. Army Capt. James Totten was transferred from his previous post in Kansas to become the commander of the federal arsenal in Little Rock. Totten brought 65 troops with him, a move that caused much unrest across the state. On Jan. 28, 1861, Totten was informed by then-Gov. Henry Rector that neither reinforcements nor the removal of any weapons from the arsenal would be tolerated. Totten politely responded that he reported to the federal government and not the state of Arkansas. In the meantime, militias from all over the state began to arrive in Little Rock, prepared to halt any potential reinforcement of the arsenal.
The Little Rock City Council demanded that Rector immediately assume control of the militia groups to prevent a potential assault on the arsenal. Rector responded that he didn’t have authority over such groups. The city council then called upon the Capital Guards, a militia group headquartered in Little Rock. By Feb. 6, Rector persuaded Totten to surrender the arsenal to the Arkansas militia troops. In order to prevent a serious military conflict between southern militias and the federal government, Totten agreed.
A few days later, the Capitol Guards escorted Totten and his troops from the arsenal. Totten and his men boarded a ship to St. Louis four days later. While he waited to leave the city, Totten received a sword from the ladies of Little Rock in honor of his heroic conduct during the arsenal crisis. By avoiding conflict, Totten had earned the respect of many Little Rock citizens and his U.S. Army superiors — and possibly avoided starting a war.
In 1863, federal troops entered Little Rock and occupied the arsenal for the remainder of the war. From 1863 to its decommissioning in 1890, the arsenal became a housing complex, with weapons stores being replaced with rooms for soldiers and families. And it was under that circumstance that the arsenal became famous as the birthplace of an iconic American World War II general, Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur's father, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, was stationed in Little Rock in 1880 when Douglas was born.
Ultimately, the federal government gave the arsenal to the city of Little Rock. Its grounds were converted to a public park and all its buildings, except for the tower building, were demolished or sold.
The tower building stood vacant until the late 1930s, when Little Rock began to renovate the historic building. In 1942, the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities opened in the tower building. The museum’s name changed in 1964, to the Museum of Science and Natural History, and again in 1983, to the Arkansas Museum of Science and History. In 1997, the museum moved to a new location in the River Market, where it is now called the Museum of Discovery.
The arsenal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in July 1970, and named a National Historic Landmark in April 1994. Today, it is the home of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.
If you get the opportunity, visit the tower building and take the self-guided tour around the old arsenal grounds. It's a beautiful park that, had one federal general not kept his cool, could have been ground zero for America’s bloodiest conflict.
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