Belle Grove Historic District - Fort Smith, Arkansas

Some of the most beautiful Civil War landmarks in Arkansas can be found in Fort Smith's unique Belle Grove Historic District.

Bounded by North Fifth, North H, North Eighth and North C Streets and located just a couple of blocks north of Garrison Avenue in downtown Fort Smith, Belle Grove preserves architecture spanning 130 years and numerous architectural styles. It was a thriving community at the time of the Civil War and the home of some of the most prosperous business leaders in western Arkansas.

The oldest home in the district is the John Rogers House, built in 1840 and modeled after the brick quarters of the fort from which Fort Smith takes its name. Rogers was one of the founders of the city of Fort Smith and ironically his house outlasted all but two of the buildings of the fort that was for a time the "little Gibraltar on the Arkansas."

Also dating from before the Civil War is the Casper Reutzel House. Built in 1850, it was the home of largest cotton shipper on the Arkansas River. Not only was the house built in an unusual half timber style, it was also loopholed for musketry to allow its inhabitants to hold off an attack.

The Belle Grove Historic District was actually within the fortifications erected by Union troops around the downtown area in 1864 and houses there were used to quarter troops. The city came under direct attack only once, but the fighting took place well away from the district.

To learn more about Belle Grove Historic District, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fsbellegrove.

Cane Hill College - An Educational Landmark in Northwest Arkansas

This old brick building on College Avenue in Canehill holds a unique place in the history of Arkansas. It was the last structure built to house Cane Hill College, one of the most remarkable educational institutions of the 19th century.

Northwest Arkansas was still the frontier in 1834. Fledgling settlements were taking root, one of the most important of which at the time was actually made up of a series of three communities located atop a ridge known as Cane Hill. Surrounded by good farm land in the shadow of the Boston Mountains, the settlement was well populated and a center of of activity by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

By the fall of 1834, the progress of the community had reached a point to allow the early settlers to think of such things as schools for their children. On October 28th of that year a group of Cumberland Presbyterians met and voted to establish Cane Hill School, which opened the following year in a two-room log building.

By the time of the Civil War, the school had progressed to become the first four-year college in Arkansas and was operating from a campus of four buildings. When most of the students of the all male school enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861, Cane Hill College closed its doors for the duration of the war.

On November 28, 1862, the Battle of Cane Hill swept across the campus as Union troops attacked Confederate forces in an important preliminary action to the Battle of Prairie Grove. Confederate artillery fired from the hill adjoining the campus and the dorm building was used as a Union military hospital after the battle. It took on more patients after the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.

By the end of the war much of Cane Hill had been burned to the ground and only one building from the pre-war college survived. The school would rebuild and go on to become the first coed college in Arkansas and shortly afterwards graduated the first five women to receive four-year degrees in the state.

The growth of Fayetteville and establishment of what would become the University of Arkansas, along with a destructive fire in 1885 ultimately led to a decision by the Arkansas Synod to close the doors at Cane Hill in 1891 and relocate the school to Clarksville where it continues to thrive today as the University of the Ozarks.

The building built to house the college after the 1885 fire still stands, however, and is a unique and special part of the heritage of Arkansas. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/canehillcollege.

The Seizure of the Arkansas Cannon in 1861

On April 17, 1861, a mob of citizens stormed aboard two steamboats tied up on the waterfront at Cincinnati, Ohio. The vessels were the Glendale and the Ohio No. 3. On board they carried a massive shipment of armament and supplies including field guns, similar to the one shown here that is on display at Fort Smith National Historic Site.

The 23 large boxes of supplies were being shipped from New York to Arkansas to fill an order placed in February of 1863 by Governor Henry Rector. Although Arkansas had not yet seceded from the Union and would not do so until May, the governor and other key leaders of the state were doing their best to prepare for the war that they felt would unavoidably reach Arkansas. A large shipment of miltiary supplies was contracted from a firm in New York for delivery as soon as possible.

The shipment aboard the steamboats included artillery carriages, ammunition, arms and field guns. There was also a large number of training manuals for use in drilling the state's raw militia.

By the arms and other supplies made their way to Baltimore and across the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to the Ohio River, the North was up in arms over the Confederate bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. A mob stormed aboard the steamboats and seized all of the military materials, which included only part of the the total order.

The shipment was soon seized by the U.S. Marshal at Cincinnati persuant to the orders of the U.S. District Attorney there. This led to a court battle over the true ownership of the cannon and other material. It ultimately was ordered to be returned to the New York firm that had shipped it. The guns were provided to New York artillery units and went on to serve against Confederate forces during the war.

To read a full 1861 account of this unusual episode, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/arkansascannon.

1863 Pro-Union Demonstration in Fayetteville

The following report from Fayetteville appeared in newspapers across the North during late January and early February of 1863. I found it interesting because it speaks well to the divided nature of the war in Northwest Arkansas. The rally took place shortly after the Battle of Prairie Grove and the successful Union raid across the Boston Mountains to van Buren and indicates a strong swing of public opinion in favor of the Union in Fayetteville. Most of the pro-secession citizens had fled the city by this point and were living as refugees elsewhere.

Union Demonstration at Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Fayetteville, Ark., Jan. 25,
An enthusiastic Union demonstration occurred here yesterday. Over 1,000 loyal citizens of Arkansas were present. Speeches were made by Dr. Johnson, a prominent Union refugee: Colonel Bishop, of the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, and others. Fifteen Home Guard companies were organized and wish to be accounted as Arkansas militia. Hundreds of citizens signed a petition to order an election of member of Congress from this State. All citizens having arms in their possession have given them up, to be used for the defence of their homes.

I'll be posting additional transcripts of reports from Fayetteville over the coming days so be sure to check back. You can also learn about the battlefields and historic sites in and around the beautiful Northwest Arkansas city by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fayetteville.

Castle Morgan - Point of Origin for many of the Sultana victims

The wreckage of the ill-fated steamboat Sultana was found some years ago buried beneath a soybean field near West Memphis. The Mississippi River has changed its course over the years since the war and now flows about two miles away from where the Sultana went down in 1865.

One of the best-known tragedies of the Civil War, the sinking of the Sultana took place when the overloaded paddlewheel steamboat tried to carry more than 2,000 released Union prisoners of war up the Mississippi from Vicksburg. A boiler explosion (or torpedo, according to one post-war confession) ignited a fire on the boat and the loss of life was horrendous. It is thought that around 1,800 men died in the fire and sinking. Another 300 died from burns and other wounds in the weeks and months after the accident.

Among the former p.o.w's aboard the Sultana at the time of the accident was a large group of soldiers from the Cahaba military prison at Old Cahawba, Alabama. Also known as "Castle Morgan," apparently in honor of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, the prison was located in a never completed cotton warehouse overlooking the Alabama River. Conditions were abysmal, but the death rate at Castle Morgan was relatively low when compared to other Civil War prisons.

When the prisoners were freed at the end of the war, they were taken first to Vicksburg.From there they embarked for home aboard the Sultana, which went down in Arkansas on April 27, 1865.

The ruins of the Cahaba prison are now preserved as part of the Old Cahawba Archaeological Site near Selma, Alabama. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/oldcahawbaprison.

Muskogee Azalea Festival's Major Weekend is Here

This one is not Civil War related (although the nearby Honey Springs Battlefield is well worth a look), but one of my favorite events in the region moves into high gear this weekend.

Saturday will be the main day for this year's Muskogee Azalea Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The annual festival is one of the finest such events in the South. Honor Heights Park, where the main festival is held, will feature carriage rides, food, activities for kids and lots more this on Saturday. The park features one of the finest settings of azaleas and dogwoods you will find anywhere. They have more than 600 varieties growing in beautiful plantings that you can explore by either walking or driving.

The festival is free to explore, although various attractions like the carriage rides do charge. Some other unique events goiing on in conjunction with the festival are trolley rides through historic parts of Muskogee, an art exhibition at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, a chili cookoff and more.

Muskogee is an easy drive from much of western Arkansas and is only an hour or so from downtown Fort Smith. If you are interested in learning more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/okmuskogeeazalea.

New Webpage Available on the Battle of Fort Smith

Continuing with my efforts to provide more information on the history of Arkansas online, I have a new webpage up on the Battle of Fort Smith. This is an extension of the pages I have put up over the last couple of years on Fort Smith and the Battle of Massard Prairie. You can check it out at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/battleoffortsmith.

This engagement took place on July 31, 1864, when Confederate forces led by Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper launched a major demonstration against the fortifications protecting the southern approaches to Fort Smith. Inspired by General R.H. Gano's successful attack at the Battle of Massard Prairie four days earlier, Cooper hoped to surprise outlying Union picket posts, capture livestock and supplies and provide an opportunity for pro-Southern families in the area to evacuate.

Moving up at dawn, the Confederate struck from multiple directions at once. One column, led by General Gano, crossed over to Massard Prairie again hoping to repeat the success of the 27th. A second small party, composed of Native American riflemen, moved down the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Poteau and Arkansas Rivers to fire into the main garrison of Fort Smith. The two largest columns, meanwhile, moved up the Fort Towson (today's Towson Avenue) and State Line roads. The advance was led by the famed Cherokee, Brigadier General Stand Watie.

The fighting went about as Cooper had planned. For the next several hours, the Confederates battled a force of Federals who came out of the Fort Smith defenses to fight. Their mission accomplished, they finally withdrew after capturing or destroying an estimated $130,000 in Union supplies.

To learn more, please visit the new page on the Battle of Fort Smith at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/battleoffortsmith.

Parley P. Pratt Grave Site - Alma, Arkansas

With the exception of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, perhaps the most widely reported episode leading up to the War Between the States was the U.S. Army's campaign against the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah.

Called the Mormon or Utah War, the anti-climactic campaign involved key officers of the U.S. Army and consisted of a long and difficult march across the Great Plains to Utah, where President Franklin Buchanan had come to believe that Brigham Young and his followers were spoiling for a war with the United States. The LDS Church members had organized a large militia force, a small portion of which was involved in one of the most tragic incidents of the 19th century.

At a place called Mountain Meadows in Southern Utah, a small force of militia joined with local Native American warriors to attack and massacre a large party of emigrants who were making their way from Arkansas to California. After suffering through an ambush and siege, the members of the Baker-Fancher wagon train were convinced to surrender on September 11, 1857. Every adult and teen in the party was then slaughtered without mercy. At least 120 died.

It has never been conclusively proved, but many researchers believe that the massacre was instigated in part by an incident that took place in Crawford County, Arkansas, in 1857. Parley P. Pratt, a key leader of the LDS Church and member of its Council of Twelve Apostles was brutally murdered by Hector McLean and six other men on the Wynn farm near present-day Alma.

McLean was the estranged husband of one of Pratt's twelve wives, a woman named Eleanor McLean. Pratt had been arrested near Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation after McLean swore out a writ against him, accusing him of theft. The items allegedly stolen were the clothes being worn by Eleanor's children. Brought to Van Buren, he appeared in court and was released. Realizing that McLean was hard on his trail, Pratt hoped to avoid violence by riding alone north into the Boston Mountains and then hitting a road back into the Cherokee Nation.

Instead, he was cornered just off today's Interstate 540 by McLean and six of his followers. Without arms to defend himself, the LDS apostle was stabbed and shot. He died about two and one-half hours later. He was buried on the Wynn farm, where the grave site is marked today by a stone memorial. His murder has been listed by some writers as one of the reasons LDS Church members in southern Utah took it upon themselves to slaughter the Arkansas emigrants.

To learn more about the assassination of Parley P. Pratt and his grave site near Alma, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/parleypratt.

Interesting Account of the Battle of Van Buren, Arkansas

The following is a report on the Battle of Van Buren (December 28, 1862) that appeared in a Maine newspaper just four days later. The speed with which reports of battles in western Arkansas reached newspapers in the far Northeast is remarkable when it is considered that just a few years before, it would have taken weeks for the news to arrive. The report was datelined Fayetteville, December 31, 1862:

January 1, 1863
Portland (Maine) Daily Advertiser, page 2.

Additional particulars of the raid to Van Buren have been received. Our army was 10 miles this side of Van Buren yesterday, and would bivouac on the mountain top last night, and expected to reach Prairie Grove again today. Gen. Schofield joined them a few miles beyond the foot of the mountain. The steamers violet, Rose Douglas, Frederick Mortrede [Nortrobe], Erie, No. 6, and Van Buren, with their cargoes of grain and provisions for the rebel army, were burned, also a large amount of army stores. The rebels burned their arsenal and ferry boats at fort Smith, to prevent them from falling into our hands; also a large quantity of provisions on the opposite bank of the river. A general conflagration was in progress when our forces left.

The raid on Van Buren clearly demonstrated the shattered condition of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi, despite the fact that it had fought a superior Union force to a draw at the Battle of Prairie Grove just a little mor than two weeks earlier. The capture of the Arkansas River town was a major blow to the prestige of Confederate forces in the area, although the Federals were unable to permanently exploit their ability to cross the mountains and withdrew back to their camps in Northwest Arkansas for the winter.

To learn more about the Battle of Van Buren, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/vanburenbattle1.

Northern View of the Battle of Cane Hill, Arkansas

The following article appeared in newspapers across the North during the weeks after the Battle of Cane Hill and provides a good idea of how the Arkansas engagement was viewed by the families of Union soldiers:

Springfield, Mo., Nov. 29. - Gen. Blunt with 5,000 federals attacked and routed about 8,000 rebels under Gen. Marmaduke at Cane Hill, Arkansas, on the 20th killing 60 and driving the balance some 12 miles. Gen. Blunt telegraphs that the enemy is badly whipped, and will not probably venture North of the Boston Mountains again this winter, and as they have consumed all the subsistence in the valley of the Arkansas, they must soon retreat to Texas. (Wisconsin Weekly Patriot, December 6, 1862, p. 5).

Reports like this led Northerners to believe that General James G. Blunt had achieved a major victory at Cane Hill, a battle that actually would prove to be a significant but preliminary action to the major engagement at Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.

In fact, the Confederate forces under General John S. Marmaduke had nowhere near 8,000 men and were actually outnumbered by Blunt's Federals. The fight actually took place on November 28, 1862, and did take place over miles of terrain, as reported by the dispatch from Springfield. Southern losses, however, were nowhere near 60 killed and the supposition by General Blunt that the campaign in Northwest Arkansas was over for the winter almost proved disastrous to him just nine days later.

To learn more about the Battle of Cane Hill, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ARCaneHill. The site includes photographs of the battlefield, Union and Confederate accounts of the battle and an in depth summary of what happened there.

The Union Fortifications of Fort Smith

After the Union troops took possession of Fort Smith in 1863, their focus turned to holding the key post.

This initially was not a problem, as the Confederate forces in the region had been driven away and were suffering from extremely low morale. The winter months, however, gave them time to reorganize and for new recruits and desperately needed supplies to arrive. By early 1864, rumors were reaching Fort Smith of Confederate plans to retake the vital city and post.

To prepare a defense against such a plan, the Federals began building an impressive line of fortifications that rings the main garrison as well as the downtown area of the city itself. Running from just below today's Fort Smith National Historic Site and National Cemetery, the defenses started on the Poteau River. From there they followed a series of ridges and hilltops around the city to the banks of the Arkansas River just north (downstream) from the downtown area.

This line consisted of rifle pits and breastworks, some of which were stockaded. The land in front of the defenses was cleared and tangled branches and tops from felled trees were used to create an additional defense against an infantry attack. At key hilltops along the line, earthwork forts and batteries were built to serve as strong points. Cannon placed in these works could sweep the approaches to the defenses and control the main roads leading into Fort Smith.

Key forts were built to control the Fort Towson Road (today's Towson Avenue), the Van Buren Road and on the grounds of the Immaculate Conception Church. The Catholic church owned a full square mile on the hills just west of the downtown area and the Sisters of Mercy strongly voiced their opposition to the construction of fortifications on church property. Their pleas reached deaf ears. The military importance of the site was obvious.

The construction of these fortifications continued through the spring of 1864. Citizens often picked up shovels and axes to join in the work, as did details from the various regiments stationed at Fort Smith.

In addition to the main line that surrounded the town, Union engineers also threw up earthen embankments against the stone walls of the main fort and placed a battery at Belle Point in front of the fort to control the river approaches to the garrison.

Very little remains of these fortifications today. Some small sections of rifle pits can still be seen and in a few places vague traces of earthworks are still visible. For the most part, though, the Union defenses of Fort Smith vanished during the late 19th and early 20th century residential and industrial expansion of the city. To learn more about Fort Smith National Historic Site, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortsmith

The Battle of Devil's Backbone, Arkansas - Mountain Fight for Fort Smith

As Union troops surged into Fort Smith on the morning of September 1, 1863, General James G. Blunt ordered his cavalry to pursue the retreating soldiers lead by Confederate General W.L. Cabell.

The Confederates were falling back on the Waldron Road, having evacuated Fort Smith without a fight, and appeared to be in full flight. Following Blunt's orders, Union Colonel William F. Cloud led the 2nd Kansas and 6th Missouri Cavalries, along with two sections from Rabb's Indiana battery, down the road leading to Jenny Lind and Waldron.

The Federals skirmished with Cabell's rear guard at Jenny Lind, sending the Confederate horsemen into a rapid retreat. What Cloud didn't know as he stormed after them, however, was that it was all part of a trap planned by the Southern general. Knowing that the Union commander would think he had the Confederates on the run and was closing in on the rear of their column, Cabell prepared an ambush where the Waldron Road crossed the Devil's Backbone, an abrupt mountain ridge that runs east to west across the horizon south of Fort Smith.

As Cloud and his horsemen rode up to the foot of the ridge, intent on catching their prey, the hunter suddenly became the hunted. The Union troopers road into a deadly trap and were ambushed by the Confederates of Monroe's Regiment who were hidden at the bottom of the Backbone:

The enemy formed in a dense growth of small timber and brush, and when our scouts came up, they let them pass through without firing a gun, but when Company C came up, they opened upon them a very heavy volley of infantry in two columns. Your son (Capt. E.D. Lines, 2nd Kansas) was killed at that time. He was in the extreme advance, (as was his custom,) and was shot by a Minnie ball, through the bowels and liver.

Following the ambush, the Battle of Devil's Backbone raged for three hours. The two forces engaged in a severe artillery duel that damaged nerves far more than it did bodies. The Confederates held their own and appeared to be on the verge of prevailing when the cannon fire finally slowed. To his shock and dismay, however, General Cabell watched as his army virtually disintegrated around him.

Not under immediate attack and having fought well so far, the Confederate lines suddenly collapsed and soldiers streamed down the backside of the ridge. Cabell could do nothing but withdraw his remaining intact units and fight a rear guard action as he pulled back to Waldron. The loss of the fight at Devil's Backbone ended his hopes of defeating the Union army in detail and retaking Fort Smith.

To learn more about the battle, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/devilsbackbone.

Fort Smith during the Civil War

Following its seizure by the state militia in April of 1861, the post of Fort Smith and the adjacent community bearing its name entered one of the most turbulent periods of Arkansas history.

Confederate troops occupied Fort Smith for the first two years of the Civil War, using it as a supply depot and base of operations. It served as a point of refuge for Southern soldiers following the disastrous Pea Ridge Campaign in March of 1862 and was the center of General Thomas Hindman's efforts to build a new Army of the Trans-Mississippi later that year in anticipation of his Prairie Grove Campaign.

Thousands of men camped on the hills and prairies surrounding Fort Smith, while quartermasters and commissary officers did their best to obtain uniforms, shoes, weapons, ammunition and food for the soldiers.

Even after Hindman withdrew what remained of his army from the vicinity in December of 1862, Fort Smith remained in Southern hands. Finally during the final days of August 1863, however, the Union army of General James G. Blunt closed in on the fort from the west. After moving into position along the nearby Poteau River to block the Federal approach, Confederate General W.L. Cabell decided he could not hope to hold Blunt in check.

Withdrawing from the Poteau River position on the night of August 31, 1863, Cabell evacuated Fort Smith and moved his his command to protect the supply wagons as they lumbered south across the mountain roads to Waldron, Arkansas.

Sending a large force of cavalry to pursue Cabell, Blunt occupied Fort Smith. For the first time in more than two years, the Stars and Stripes flew again over the walls of Fort Smith.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ARFS5.

The Southern Seizure of Fort Smith, April 23, 1861

Even as Arkansas deliberated the critical move of joining her sister Southern states in leaving the Union, the clouds of war loomed on the state's western borner.

The U.S. Army maintained a garrison at Fort Smith in 1861 and pro-secession leaders in Arkansas realized that as long as Federal troops held the fort, it would be a thorn in the side of their dreams of an independent Southern nation.

As a result, the state called out its militia and organized a military force to take Fort Smith, fully realizing that if the fort's garrison resisted, war could result even while the state was still part of the Union. Led by Colonel Solon Borland, the Arkansas troops left Little Rock and headed up the Arkansas River by steamboat. The force of infantry and artillery grew as it moved. In a final stop in Van Buren, for example, additional militiamen joined Borland's force.

Well aware that Borland was coming, Major Samuel Sturgis of the 4th U.S. Cavalry deliberated what to do. Finally deciding that he could not hope to hold the large fort with the small command at his disposal, Sturgis decided that the time had come to go. As Borland's command steamed up the river, Sturgis gave the order for his men to prepare to evacuate Fort Smith.

Major Sturgis and his men left Fort Smith at 9 p.m. on the evening of April 23, 1861, heading for Fort Washita in what is now Oklahoma. Behind they left a couple of officers including the post quartermaster, a few soldiers, the women who did the post laundry and the sick men in the hospital.

Borland's men came off their boats just 2 hours after the U.S. soldiers left, claimed possession of the fort for Arkansas and took the few men remaining there as prisoners of war. They were quickly paroled and at least one, Major Richard C. Gatlin who was visiting the post, soon resigned his commission and went on to become a Confederate general.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortsmithseizure3.

The Second Fort Smith, 1838-1871

Politics, in the 19th century as much as today, often played a role in where military posts were located and how much money went into building them. This was definitely the case at Fort Smith in Arkansas.

The original Fort Smith had been evacuated by the U.S. Army in 1824 in favor of new posts closer to the rapidly expanding Western frontier. But politics came into play and, over the objections of the army itself, the U.S. Congress appropriated money for a new Fort Smith. Army officers saw no need for the new fort, but since the money had been appropriated, they oversaw its construction.

The second Fort Smith was a magnificent piece of construction. A complex of brick and stone buildings surrounded by a five-sided stone wall with imposing bastions at its corners, the fort was one of the most beautiful of the growing nation's western posts. Because at the time no one could see the need for a major defensive work at Fort Smith, the engineers designing and building the post halted construction of the original plans and developed the citadel to serve a primary function as a supply post for troops assigned to the frontiers.

They could not then imagine the conflict that would soon divide North and South and split the United States in two.

State troops from Arkansas seized Fort Smith in 1861, even before the state left the Union, and it remained an important Confederate post for the next two years. As had the U.S. Army, the Confederate army used Fort Smith as a supply post. It played a particularly critical role in the Prairie Grove Campaign of 1862, when its storehouses served to equip and provision General Thomas Hindman's growing Trans-Mississippi Army.

Fort Smith fell to Union troops in 1863 when it was evacuated ahead of the advance of an army led eastward through the Indian Nations of today's Oklahoma by General James G. Blunt. Southern troops tried to turn the tide of the disaster at the nearby Battle of Devil's Backbone, but failed. Despite demonstrations and actually bringing the fort under fire in 1864, they never again seriously threatened Union possession of Fort Smith.

The army continued to hold the post until 1871 when it was declared surplus and turned over to the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas and its famed "hanging judge," Isaac C. Parker.

To learn more about the second Fort Smith, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ARFS4.