Napoleon, Arkansas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Napoleon, Arkansas
Napoleon from the northern bank of the Arkansas
Location	Desha County, Arkansas
Founder	Frederick Notrebe
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Napoleon was a river port and the county seat of Desha County, Arkansas, from 1838 to 1874. It was located at the confluence of the Arkansas and the Mississippi rivers. The town was badly damaged during the American Civil War and then finally abandoned after most of it had washed into the Mississippi.

History

In 1852, Bolivar County, Mississippi, established Wellington as its county seat, nearly opposite Napoleon, on the east bank of the Mississippi River. There would have been a natural rivalry between business and civic leaders in Desha County, Arkansas, and Bolivar County for river-related commerce at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers.

North of Napoleon, the river followed a sharp curve east into Mississippi along what was then called "Beulah Bend" (now Lake Beulah). During the American Civil War, Confederate soldiers would move east by foot from Napoleon, hide in a wooded area near the bend, and then fire on passing Union ships. The bend was so tight that the same cannon could be used on ships as they entered and then left Beulah Bend.

Following one such ambush in 1863, a Federal gunship led by William Tecumseh Sherman landed at Wellington and burned the town. Seeking to permanently avoid the ambush point at Beulah Bend, Union commander Thomas Oliver Selfridge ordered a channel dug across the peninsula around which Beulah Bend flowed. The soft land and strong river current enabled the "Napoleon Channel" to be cut in just a day. The Napoleon Channel improved the Mississippi River for shipping, as it removed 10 mi (16 km) from the navigable route. Unfortunately, the diverted river currents caused by the Napoleon Channel caused both Wellington and Napoleon to be completely submerged within a few years.

Legends

The town was the subject of a chapter in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, in which $10,000 had been hidden behind a brick in a building. Twain says he learned of the money's being hidden but, when he tried to retrieve it, discovered the entire town has been washed away in earlier floods. Twain reports that the early explorers De Soto, Marquette and Joliet, and La Salle visited "the site of the future town of Napoleon, Arkansas" in their pioneering journeys.

Images for kids

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  Sketch of the Township Including Napoleon and the Circumjacent County by Major Stephen Long, c. 1849

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  Major Stephen Long

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  1860 Map of Napoleon

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  Napoleon Arkansas 3

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  State historical marker