



If you’re hoping to stay close to Chalk Bluff Park, we’ve got you covered. Because travel is all about investing in experiences, not things! Plus when you lock in your package with us, you’ll have plenty of cash leftover to splash out on other amazing Milwaukee sights. Book your getaway to Milwaukee with Orbitz and get ready to tick this attraction off your bucket list. If you’ve always wanted to see Chalk Bluff Park, now is the perfect time. Park features include picnic facilities and rest rooms.Stop dreaming and start traveling. Marmaduke was almost caught at Chalk Bluff but a successful delaying action and the construction of a makeshift bridge by famous Missouri raider Jeff Thompson, the "swamp fox of the Confederacy," allowed Marmaduke and his forces to escape to the safety of Arkansas. Unwilling to risk his command in an all-out assault on Cape Girardeau, and with a second Federal force under Brigadier General William Vandever arriving with reinforcements Marmaduke chose to retreat. Bad weather hampered Marmaduke’s forces and McNeil managed to retreat to the safety of the fortifications at Cape Girardeau. On April 17, Marmaduke led a force of over five thousand men across the border into southeast Missouri to strike the Union army under Brigadier General John McNeil at Bloomfield, Missouri. Holmes, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, that a second, larger raid would rally Southern sympathizers and possibly capture parts of Missouri. Marmaduke had led a successful raid in January, 1863, on Springfield, Missouri and convinced Lt. Francis River after a failed raid into Missouri. Marmaduke successfully got his forces across the St. The most notable action was the Battle of Chalk Bluff, where Confederate Brigadier General John S. On April 20, Confederate cavalry surprised and routed a Union encampment across the river from Chalk Bluff. Two weeks later on March 24, Union cavalry returned to Chalk Bluff pursuing retreating Confederates. They burned buildings and stores of corn in Chalk Bluff and destroyed a uncompleted ferry boat. On MaUnion cavalry captured the ferry after a three-hour fight. The town was the site of several small Civil War battles during 1863. The town faded into oblivion after away after 1882 when the railroad bridged the river downstream at the new town of St. Around 1840 Abraham Seitz established a ferry to transport traffic across the river around which the town of Chalk Bluff grew.

Francis River, which forms the Arkansas-Missouri Border, is an almost insurmountable bluff about seventy feet higher than the bottom on the other side - a formation called Chalk Bluff. Since Crowley's Ridge provided the only natural route for north-south travel across the lowlands of northeastern Arkansas, a Native American trail and later a military road crossed the river here. This narrow rolling hill region rises 250 to 550 feet above the alluvial plain of the Mississippi River lowlands for approximately 150 miles. The most notable geological feature in the northeast Arkansas and Bootheel of Missouri area is Crowley’s Ridge. The battle and the town's history are interpreted though markers placed along walking trails. Marmaduke retreated from an unsuccessful raid into Missouri. The town of Chalk Bluff, now long gone, was the site of several skirmishes during the Civil War, the most significant of which was the May 1 to action as General John S.
