OK all you super detectitives out there I have a real mystery to solve.

In a recently published book titled "Remembering Arkansas Confederates and the 1911 Little Rock Veterans Reunion" by Ray and Steve Hanley, I was stunned to see on the bottom of page 29 a Photograph of the last 6 surviving confederates of the Battle of Arkansas Post. The caption under this picture states it was taken in 1920 at Arkansas Post and identifies one of the men in the picture as a Felix Allen.

But that is not the mystery. The mystery in my mind is that they are stand behind a large naval cannon that was supposed to have been used by the Confederates during the battle.

Now according to records, two of the three guns, one of them the famous "Lady Baxter" on the old Statehouse lawn, that was used by the Confederates at Fort Hindman, which had come from the CSS Ponchartrain, had been recovered from the Fort Hindman well and refurbished for use at Fort Pleasent at Pine Bluff.

Both of these guns were removed from Fort Pleasent and sent to Little Rock in August 1863 as part of those defences. And were captured by the federals in the Little Rock Arsenal in September 1863. The Federals threw them into the Arkansas River where at least the "Lady Baxter" was recovered after the war for use during the Brooks-Baxter war.

Now if the caption of the picture is correct then this gun is that second known surviving artillery piece from the Battle of Arkansas Post. Appearently it was also recovered from the river and moved at some point back to Arkansas Post.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT GUN?

Could it have been washed into the Arkansas River during the 1927 flood?