LITTLE ROCK - An oil portrait of Lt. William Rector, son of Arkansas Gov. Henry Rector, for whom Rector, Ark., is named, will make its debut Thursday, July 3, at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History in Little Rock.

The portrait recently was donated to the museum by a relative. William Rector was killed July 4, 1863, at the Battle of Helena. The portrait joins the display of a rare piece of Civil War-era artillery. The event is in time for the Independence Day weekend and coincides with the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Helena.

The un-wheeled tube of one gun from a pair of 1851 Alger Cadet Guns will be on display in Arkansas for the first time. Produced for the Arkansas Military Institute by Cyrus Alger & Co. of Boston, the rare Civil War-era artillery is on loan to the MacArthur Museum from the Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia.

The "six-pounder" artillery piece, so-called for the weight of the projectile it fired, was intended only for use in the instruction of cadets at the Arkansas Military Institute at Tulip (Dallas County).

"When Civil War came, the cadets formed an infantry company," says Stephan

McAteer, the museum's executive director. "Because of equipment shortages in

the Confederate army, the cadet guns were commandeered, and the former students took them into battle. This gun left the state in 1861 and only came home last year when our staff went to Virginia to oversee its return."

The cadets, commanded by their superintendent George D. Alexander, served as

Company I of the Third Arkansas Infantry Regiment. Nicknamed "The Tulip

Rifles," they participated in the battles at Harper's Ferry (W. Va.),

Chickamauga (Ga.) and Gettysburg (Pa.). Of the 150 men who served in the unit, only 13 survived to the end of the war. The Arkansas Military Institute never reopened, and the once-prosperous community of Tulip withered.

Of the 10 light artillery guns Alger's foundry produced from 1848 to 1852,

four were sent to the Virginia Military Institute, a pair to the Arkansas

Military Institute and four more to the Georgia Military Institute. Only

seven survive.

Located at 503 E. Ninth Street in downtown Little Rock's historic MacArthur

Park, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History was created to

preserve and interpret the state's military heritage from its territorial

period to the present. The museum preserves the contributions of Arkansas

men and women who have served both in peacetime and in war.

Those who want more information may call 501-376-4602 or visit ArkMilitaryHeritage.com. The museum is a program of Little Rock Parks and Recreation.