Apparently I didn’t read the first Flashman novels when I worked at the library.
Flashman almost in Arkansas! When he flees the steamboat Sultana (Which shortly after the Civil War will explode near Memphis with a loss of life larger than Titanic) Flashman chooses to swim to the further Mississippi side of the river rather than Helena, Arkansas to evade pursuit. I friend of mine at work told me how his ancestor escaped slavery in Mississippi by fording the river, his wife on his back, his children on a horse, to Helena, Arkansas. I wish Fraser were alive, I’d send him a letter. 