Civil War batteries of Helena, Arkansas

Battery C Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
View of Battery C
Location	Clark and York Sts., Helena, Arkansas
Area	10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built	1863 (1863)
NRHP reference #	78000615
Added to NRHP	December 1, 1978

The Civil War batteries of Helena, Arkansas are a series of four defensive earthworks erected in Helena, Arkansas by Union Army forces during the American Civil War. The four batteries played a significant role in the Battle of Helena, fought on July 4, 1863, which secured the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River for the Union. They are listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places.

Helena, Arkansas is strategically located at the southern end of Crowley's Ridge, a land formation providing significant views over the Mississippi River. It was occupied by Union Army forces in 1862, and was used by them as a staging point for supporting troops in the Siege of Vicksburg, MS, which began in May 1863. These forces constructed a ring of defenses around the city to guard the major land approaches, and control the high ground overlooking Fort Curtis its major base just west of the city. The Union Navy controlled the Mississippi, with the USS Tyler stationed nearby. The defenses built by the forces commanded by General Benjamin Prentiss at Helena included artillery batteries, rifle pits, and abatis.

Confederate leaders in Arkansas planned an offensive in June 1863 to retake Helena and cut the Union supply line, relieving the pressure on besieged Vicksburg. Under the overall command of General Theophilus H. Holmes, Confederate forces launched an attack on Helena on July 4, 1863, the same day that Vicksburg was surrendered to Union forces. Prentiss ordered the construction of these four batteries in response to increased Confederate activity in the surrounding area in late June. The coordination of the separate elements of the Confederate attack were frustrated by felled trees laid across the approach roads by the defenders, and were eventually subjected to fire from all four batteries, as well as from the supporting Navy ships. Although the Confederates successfully took Battery C, fire from the other three drove them back. An assault on Battery D reached its rifle pits, but got no further. The Confederates suffered more than 1,600 casualties, to 239 for Union forces.