Arkansas Civil War

Major General Earl Van Dorn arrived at Little Rock on the evening of January 28, and took a room at the luxurious Anthony House, the Capital city’s leading hotel. He was assigned by the Secretary of War to command the Trans-Mississippi District on January 10th, as previously stated.

The next day he issued his first general order by which he formally assumed the command. He then ordered all officers and men on furlough to return to their regiments. Immediately afterward he called upon Governor Rector for ten more companies of infantry and four artillery companies from Arkansas. In doing so, he inadvertently got the wholehearted co-operation of the governor by explaining the new troops would guard the state from invasion and assist in driving the enemy from MO. The governor like many others was displeased at the removal of Arkansas troops to Kentucky in ’61. But it proved to be a promise Van Dorn couldn’t keep. In three months he unforeseeably had to take them east of the Mississippi.

Among Van Dorn’s appointed staff officers were two Virginians, West Pointer’s with over 15 years service in the old army. Major William L Cabell was Chief of the Quartermaster Department. During the previous summer he served in that capacity for Gen Beauregard during the battle of Bull Run. He would later rise to prominence in Arkansas as a hell-for-leather cavalry general. Colonel Dabney H Maury graduated from the University of Virginia in 1842, studied law, but entered West Point (USMA) rather than establish a legal practice. When he resigned his commission in 1861, this Mexican War veteran and esteemed Military Academy instructor entered Confederate service as a captain of cavalry, but in early 1862 was promoted and assigned as Chief of Staff to Gen Van Dorn. Kentucky native and former cavalry captain William N R Beall was appointed to the USMA from Chicot County Arkansas in 1844. As with so many of the young officers of his day, his service was primarily on the frontier skirmishing with Indians or attending to Kansans border disturbances. He impressed Van Dorn as a man born to military life. The general would twice recommend Beal for a colonelcy. Instead Congress confirmed him as a Brigadier General on April 11, 1862.

The three men were aggressive to a mature level and provided an excellent nucleus to assist an army commander. It was probable President Davis was instrumental in furnishing these three professionals, but his friend Gen Van Dorn would demonstrate a need for a dynamic staff to stabilize his battlefield performance.

January 26, 1862 was a special day for Central Arkansas because the western section of the Memphis and Little Rock railroad was completed. Its terminal point was on the north side of the Arkansas River at Huntersville Station.

A brief ceremony took place 11 miles from that site with the honor of driving the last spike given to Mr. William E Woodruff of Little Rock, one of the directors of the railroad company and the oldest representative of the press in Arkansas, having founded the Arkansas Gazette in 1819. Then followed a short speech by Christopher C Danley, current editor of the newspaper who envisioned a larger circulation implemented through this mode of transportation. Soon the mail from Memphis would arrive seven hours earlier then usual. With trains leaving Huntersville every morning at eight o’clock, traveling time to Memphis would soon be reduced to 24 hours as opposed to normal 36 hours, which was surely encouraging to Mr. Danley.

Nine years had passed since the railroad had been chartered, yet there still remained a gap of 45 miles in the road between the White and St Francis Rivers. Even so the railroad was of great benefit, because it connected Little Rock and its environs with the White River at DeValls Bluff which unlike the Arkansas stayed navigable at all seasons.

It is Mardi Gras time again in Ouachita Parish! February 11 is the date to mark on your calendars for the Monroe/West Monroe Krewe of Janus Mardi Gras parade. We are hoping for a big turnout this year as we had a down year last year due to conflicting dates with sesquicentennial events that were unavoidable. This year’s parade will coincide with the Army of Trans Mississippi’s leadership workshop being held at the Clarion Inn in Monroe, La. The workshop will be ending at 2:30 so bring your CONFEDERATE UNIFORM and head for the parade gathering site as soon as it is over.

There are a few things that need to be said about our parade. While, overall, parade goers are Confederate friendly there will always be some narrow minded people who will say things to our folks that are out of line. The response to these individuals is to smile and wave, smile and wave. Do not give them fuel to use against us. We do not buy insurance for the parade and couldn’t afford to if we were required to buy. As a result of this NO THROWS of beads, candy, or anything else is allowed by our unit. No exceptions. Remember, this is a Confederate unit portraying Confederate people, please come in period dress or uniform. Kind of looks odd in a bunch of Confederate soldiers when some guy with a flag is wearing blue jeans and a checked shirt. Also the owners of the float are asking that there be no smoking on the float due to worries about their flags getting burned. One last thing. If you decide to have a little too much to drink and can’t control yourself or you cause an embarrassing situation that endangers our participants you will be ejected from our unit and you can find your way back the best you can.

We do hope that you will come and join the Monroe and West Monroe camps for a fun night of marching, shooting, and hearing the shouts of Rebels! Rebels! as we meander the 4 miles of parade route through the Twin Cities. Bring plenty of rounds for your musket as we traditionally fire 60 to 70 times over the course of the evening. If you don’t have a musket stick your favorite Confederate flag on an 8′ pole and join the flag corp. We will have transportation waiting at the end of the parade to get you back to your vehicles.

The parade will begin at our usual spot across from the West Monroe health unit. To get there from I-20, get off on the Stella-Mill street exit and go south until you reach the first red light, this is New Natchitoches Road. Take a left at this light and go for about 300 yards and there we will be. I feel sure you will recognize our unit. Please come fill our ranks with enthusiastic Confederate soldiers and ladies.

Any questions, please contact me at 318-376-2898 or tcrusader@juno.com.

Thomas E. Taylor
Northeast Brigade Commander
Louisiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans

The Arkansas Toothpick endorses several Civil War events throughout the next few months. Soldiers and Living Historians from Arkansas are highly encouraged to attend the following events officially released by the 2nd Arkansas Batl’n Volunteers.

If you are interested in reliving the Civil War during the 150th Anniversary, contact Captain Guy Taylor, 2nd Arkansas Infantry, CSA (870) 794-6262 or by email: gtnoshot@yahoo.com

The next Arkansas Civil War event will be the annual living history at Arkansas Post on January 28, 2012 at the Arkansas Post State Park located near Gillet, Arkansas. Note: this is the State Park, NOT the National Park. The event will consist of military drill, artillery demonstrations, static as well as dynamic exhibitry, and infantry demonstrations. Meal will be provided to living historians and there is no cost to the public to attend this event.

The annual Arkansas Post event is a time to reflect on the Battle of Arkansas Post in January, 1863 that turned the tide of the War in the Trans-Mississippi. Also the location of an American Revolution Battle, Arkansas Post is a great place to relive Arkansas History from its beginning.

The National Memorial Park is located near the State Park and has original rifle pits and a great interpretative center.

There will be a Battalion Drill to prepare for the 150th Shiloh at Old Washington State Park on February 18, 2012. Living Historians planning on attending the 150th Shiloh with the 2nd Arkansas Batl’n are urged to attend this event but not required. Anyone interested in reenacting is likewise urged to attend this event to become familiar with Civil War military drill.

More information on the 150th Shiloh will appear here on arkansastoothpick.com, as this will be the largest Civil War reenactment EVER west of the Mississippi! Arkansas was directly affected by this battle in April, 1862 and therefore will be highly visible on this website.

Next week’s column “One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago…” will feature information on General Van Dorn taking control of the Army of the Trans-0Mississippi in Late January, 1862, setting the wheels in motion that will come to a grinding halt in April at the bloodiest day in American History up until the day at Shiloh!

The annual conference of the Arkansas Living History Association is coming up soon on March 2-4, 2012! The pre-registration fee is $40 per person by February 1. Register now to take advantage of this low price. After February 1, the registration fee is $60. Attached is the registration form and schedule for the conference. A downloadable version can be found at www.arkansaslivinghistory.com/downloads. Information on the conference hotel in Fayetteville is also included. The discounted rate of rooms will be held till February 10. Now is the time to register for this exciting upcoming conference. Hope to see all of you there on the first weekend in March. For more information contact Pody Gay at pgay@springdalear.gov.

Note: This lecture was based on Dr. Shea’s recently-published “The War We Have Lost” in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly:

I could go on for several hours about topics, other topics that need to be explored besides leadership, besides the destruction caused by both armies despite the horrendous impact of guerilla warfare, despite the multi-racial, multi-cultural nature of the war here, but lucky for you, I have a time limit , and so all I would do now is just throw out a few topics , other aspects of the Civil War in Arkansas and surrounding states that really cry out for attention. These are fascinating topics.

When I focus on military events, which there is nothing wrong with, I am a military historian, but our focus on military events most of the past century and a half as obscured the fact that this was a Civil War, this was a revolutionary social and demographic experience . Here are some of these examples.

What about someone exploring the long-obscured role of that sizable white Unionist population in Arkansas. Why did they believe what they believed? Why did they hold on to these beliefs? What was their role in the war and so forth.

We need someone to look at the rapid, in fact, the surprisingly rapid dissolution of slavery in Arkansas during the Civil War- the fact that organized military campaigns, by General Curtis and General Blount of the Union Army, to end slavery in the points in Arkansas where they could reach and to do so months before Abraham Lincoln even considered the possibility of issuing the Emancipation Proclamation or anything like that. This has just gotten lost in the shuffle. There were thousands and thousands of newly-freed black men, women, children assembling in places like Fayetteville and Helena where Union Armies were present in 1862 before the Emancipation Proclamation. Refugee camps were being set up and the men at least were actively being encouraged to make a few dollars, get a new set of blue clothes, pick up a rifle, and join the fight. No one has ever documented that in Arkansas.

Twenty years ago I was researching the Battle of Pea Ridge at the National Archives in Washington. I had an interesting time because no one had explored the Civil War in Arkansas there and every time the archivist would lift open the top of a cardboard box of Union or Confederate records, not only would there be billows of dust, but I swear on occasion bats would fly out. I don’t think, in fact, when I was undoing one bundle of documents, I believe it was letters bound up in a ribbon. When I pulled on the ends of the ribbon, it simply disintegrated, and he said that we were probably the first people to look inside this box at the records of the Union Army of the South West since the records had been put there in the 1880s. In the process of rummaging through box after box of stuff, I found in one box three huge old fashioned ledger books- the kind that merchants used to keep their accounts in, and there was actually stamped on the cover “such and such mercantile company”, either Clarendon or Newport , Arkansas. It was when the Union Army was marching through the Delta to Helena in 1862, and I thought, “What’s this?” and I began flipping them over and I realized what I was looking at. It was some officer in the Union Army had been given the task of interviewing every runaway or refugee and family members that arrived within the reach of the Union Army as it moved through the Delta.

As people would show up they would be sent to his tent and he would get their names, where they were from, ages, who they had belonged to (the family of ownership) and so forth, and then he would write out what were called “Freedom Papers”. Unofficially, done entirely by the Army, no politicians in Washington, Abe Lincoln nor anybody else was involved. The Union Army, as it was crashing through Arkansas during the Summer of 1862, was ending slavery as it proceeded, and this has gotten very little attention.

What’s also gotten very little attention is that there exists in Washington a cardboard box with these ledger books with the names of these people- often first names only: Jupiter, Sam, sometime family names but always the names of the owning family. Again, as far as I know, I am the only person from Arkansas ever, or any historian, to have even seen them since they were put in those boxes a hundred and thirty years ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t do anything with them; I was there looking for military records as I flipped through and said, “Man this is amazing stuff! Some genealogist would kill for this!” Then I put it back, closed the box, and they disappeared into the vault of the National Archives.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Arkansawyers were buckling down for a potential invasion of the state from Missouri. As with any war, among the chief concerns is the potential for treasonous activity in civilians aiding the enemy. The War Between the States west of the Mississippi River was no exception.

North West Arkansas was known for its pro Union sentiment. Peace Societies were beginning to appear for the “purpose of giving aid and comfort to the enemy; that upon the approach of Lincoln’s troops the houses of the members were to be distinguished by a mark on the doorfacing [sic] and were to be unmolested…” The 1862 edition of the True Democrat continued, “that arms from the Federals in Missouri had been placed in their hands with which to fight against the South; that besides the oath already known, there was another and reasonable one, in which the members swore hostility to the Southern Confederacy and that the leaders were abolitionists.”

As the propaganda heated up on both sides of the conflict, Arkansas newspapers were feeling the unceasing economic impact of the illegal Federal blockade initiated by Lincoln. Most advertisers pulled their support from the newspapers for lack of funds to pay for their ads, leaving the print media almost exclusively at the mercy of subscribers:

“The public printing, owing to the reduction in prices made at the last session of the General Assembly, and the great increase in the cost of paper and labor, has become an expense to us instead of a profit… Even if the paper was no so high priced, we shall be compelled to economize, because of its scarcity… we are forced to reduce our issues within paying limits, and strike off only the number of sheets for which we are paid.”

One of the most important parts of genealogy is locating the land and property records of your ancestors. These records can contain valuable information on a family including relationships of family members.

The land records for which you are searching are usually in the courthouse of the county in which the family lived. Make Sure that you are searching the correct County as county lines often changed. It is important that you search ALL the names related to your surname in a given period of time. This is because in the index it may not list your ancestor.

This is an example from a recent search… When looking at the Grantor (Person Selling the land) Grantee (persons receiving land or Property) index there was a listing for a William Caldwell (Grantor) and a Andrew Caldwell et.al. (Grantee). My search was for a George W. Caldwell a new genealogist would often disregard this information as unrelated. After going to the indicated property book and it stated that William Caldwell was transferring said Property to Andrew, George W., and John his SONS. On the following page was a deed transferring a slave to Mary Caldwell WIFE of William.

This is an example of why every available record within a given time period should be pulled for a surname. Failure to pull every record would have left important Genealogical information buried in the Property Records.

The Bureau of Land Management has the original records available online at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx These pages also contain the Military Warrants and these can be a huge benefit to genealogical Research.

Next Week: Family Units Follow Every Clue