Fort Curtis is a partially-reconstructed American Civil War fortification in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, built in 2012 to replace the original structure destroyed during Reconstruction.

In April 1861, the American Civil War began, pitting the Union against the seceding southern states.

[1] The first year of the war saw fighting north of Arkansas in the border state of Missouri,[2] and in early March 1862, Union forces commanded by Major General Samuel R. Curtis defeated a Confederate army at the Battle of Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas.

[3] The next month, Curtis's men began a campaign that ended in mid-July with the Federal occupation of the Mississippi riverport town of Helena, located in eastern Arkansas.

[5] The Union troops defending Helena generally believed it would provide adequate defense against an assault, but Major General Frederick Steele and Arkansas military governor John S. Phelps doubted the capabilities of the defensive fortification and had opposed its construction.

[13] Major General Benjamin Prentiss, the new Union commander at Fort Curtis, expected a land assault on the town and had four additional defensive earthworks built.

[5] This partially-reconstructed American Civil War fortification is open to the public and features exhibits, historic interpretation, and cannons.