Arkansas Civil War

One hundred and fifty years ago, the American Civil War made its way to Arkansas’ doorstep. As noted in the last column, the first shots in anger were fired within the borders of the State: the first shots were fired on February 16 1862 at Sugar Creek while the first battle raged the following day at Dunigan’s Farm- both of which were fought in extreme North Arkansas. As U.S. General Curtis chased Confederate General Price in a Southerly direction, a dispatch is sent from the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi Headquarters District, Department Number 2, then-stationed at Jacksonport, Arkansas.

The proclamation notes that citizen soldiers are to rendezvous at either Little Rock, Jacksonport, or Pocahontas, depending on where that particular solder hails. It continued that, “The enemy has invaded your state- his army powerful, disciplined, flushed with success, and he comes with hatred in his heart. He seeks to subjugate your soil- to desolate y our homes and to wrest from you and degrade all you hold dearest in life.”

To be sure of the young men of Arkansas heed his warning and proposal, Van Dorn attached a stigma to any able-bodied man who refused to service his state in the time of her need: “You must arm, organize, and rush to meet him. All who claim manhood should now attack this insolent invader, or forever renounce the respect of men and the love of women.”

A set of Special Orders were dispatched by General Earl Van Dorn: “All armed companies that have been mustered into service will repair at once to Jacksonport. The enemy is now threatening Pocahontas- then march without delay. Let each company take with them two wagons and provisions sufficient to subsist them to Jacksonport.”

One hundred and fifty years ago, the State mobilized to meet the advance of the invading army from the North. Arkansas was now under attack for exercising her Constitutional right of secession and the United States, as seen through the eyes of the 1862 Arkansawyer, was attacking her citizens without provocation.

Refusing to be lured farther south, General Curtis stopped 16 miles short of Fayetteville, and dispersed his four divisions to outlying areas to find what subsistence the opposing army had left behind. The First and Second division under General Franz Siegel encamped four miles Southwest of Bentonville. Col Jefferson C Davis was assigned a position where Sugar Creek intersected the Springfield-Fayetteville road. The Fourth commanded by Gen Eugene A Carr took position at Cross Hollows. Each had to be within supporting distance of the other as well as the primitive mountain roads would allow. Curtis superior Major Henry Halleck approved the northeast AR dispositions and was satisfied with his subordinate’s keeping the Confederates out of MO. This enabled Halleck to direct all the state’s military resources elsewhere, and Gen Grant demonstrated he wasn’t one to squander them.

General Earl Van Dorn received word at his Pocahontas HQ from General Sterling Price, imploring him to take command in northwest AR. Since his proposed operation against St Louis, depended on those troops, he decided to go at once leaving Col John S McCarver in charge during his absence.

The 250 mile journey was made on horseback except for a steamboat trip down Black River to Jacksonport. (Two miles up stream from Newport) They arrived at Price’s camp on March 1st, and were greeted with a double salute for the Confederacy and the state of MO.

The next morning Gen Price entertained Van Dorn and his staff with a breakfast of stewed kidneys followed by a generous dinner. On the morning of March 3rd the party took a chilly ride across a ridge to Gen McCulloch’s HQ. The Texas general impressed Col Dabney H Maury who recognized in McCulloch and his staff “the stern seriousness of soldiers trained to arms.”
When informed of the widely separated enemy encampments, Van Dorn resolved to attack at once. If he could destroy them in detail the way to St Louis and glory might soon follow. Orders were drawn up for a northward march to begin the next morning.

Writers Earl Hess and William Shea offer the following assessment on this shorted sighted and impulsive man: “He expected his Army of the West to travel light, move fast, and strike the enemy without warning, that is, to operate essentially as a cavalry squadron stalking a band of irregulars…. He was without a staff of his own other than Maury and Sullivane. He was unfamiliar with the capabilities and personalities of his new subordinates, some of whom had little training or experience. He knew nothing of the two very different military organizations awkwardly joined under his command or the supply systems that kept them in the field. He was ignorant of the primitive frontier roads he must use, or the rugged terrain he must traverse, and he ignored the obvious fact the winter weather still gripped the Ozark Plateau. ….Had Van Dorn spent a week in the Boston Mountains preparing himself and his men for the ordeal ahead, things might have turned out differently.”

On the morning of March 2nd, the remaining units from the Columbus KY garrison supporting the river batteries evacuated silently through Gen Grants screen, southward to Corinth MS. All but two of the 140 guns were taken south to Island NO. 10 as that place and Fort Pillow, just above Memphis were now the guardians to the MS River.

Also on this on this day there was a light skirmish upstream from Memphis as advance units of Federals tested the landward defenses at New Madrid MO.

About this time at DuValls Bluff AR the 18 AR Infantry came together as an organized unit before shoving off to Fort Pillow TN. Most of the staff positions were filled by Pine Bluff men as well as two companies to a great extent. Company E was composed of Arkansas Countians commanded by Captain Felix Roberson.

Captain Robert H Crockett seemed to have refused a reenlistment bounty in favor of a honorable discharge. He enlisted as a Private in E-18th AR on February 24th.

Farther east General Hardees’s AR troops began their retreat westward from Murfreesboro on February 28th, and halted at Shelbyville TN and remained in a defensive position for over a week. Their primary duty was to guard a great quantity of supplies gathered at that point.

Over in VA, the Third AR Infantry marched into the Aquia Creek encampment of the First AR on February 28th. It appeared they were to replace the 12 month enlistees of the latter who were about to be discharged and furloughed. Early in March they bade farewell to the veterans who had been campaigning under Gen Thomas J “Stonewall” Jackson in another sector of VA.

Major Calvin Collier noted in “They’ll Do To Tie To”, “Subsequent to their return to Arkansas, the First Regiment re-enlisted almost to a man and saw many grim campaigns in TN and GA….”

Commemorate Black History Month With The Sons of Confederate Veterans!

The following is a long-lost note regarding the United States Senate session on March 2, 1861 as it relates to the history of the Puritans by Texas Senator Louis Wigfall:

“…then Cromwell had to run them [the Puritans] out of England; and then they went over to Holland, and the Dutch let them alone, but would not let them persecute anybody else; and then they got on that ill-fated ship called the Mayflower and landed on Plymouth Rock. And from that time to this, they have been kicking up a dust generally, and making a mess whenever they could put their fingers in the pie. They confederated with the other states to save themselves from the power of old King George III; and no sooner than they had gotten rid of him than they turned to persecuting their neighbors. Having got rid of the Indians, and witches, and Baptists, and Quakers in their country; after selling us our negroes for the love of gold, they began stealing them back for the love of God. That is the history as well as I understand it.”

Commemorate Black History Month With The Sons of Confederate Veterans!

Arkansas Confederate Pensions

Surname: Davis
Given Name: G. W.
Application Number: 7402
Widow Surname:
Widow Given Name:
Company:
Regiment: Bates’
State Served From: Texas
Division: Infantry
Pension County: Miller
Death Date:
Application Year: 1905
Widow Death Date:
Comments: rejected / (Negro)

LITTLE ROCK—The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission has approved an application for an Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Historical Marker at the Inn at the Mill in Johnson, ACWSC Chairman Tom Dupree announced today.

The historical marker will be located at the Inn at the Mill and will discuss the destruction of gristmills in northwest Arkansas during the war, including the Sutton Mill, which stood on the site the inn now occupies.

The Inn at the Mill, City of Johnson, Rep. Jon Woods and Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism are sponsoring the marker.

Through the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Historical Marker Program, the ACWSC works with local partners to help tell the stories of how the Civil War affected communities around the state. The Commission hopes that there will be at least one marker in each of the state’s 75 counties by the end of the sesquicentennial commemoration in 2015.

The application for the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission Historical Marker Program can be downloaded at http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/historical-markers/markers.aspx.

For more information on sesquicentennial plans, visit http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/ or e-mail acwsc@arkansasheritage.org.

The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is housed within the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The AHPP is the Department of Arkansas Heritage agency responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources. Other agencies are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Old State House Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Historic Arkansas Museum.

On this day in Arkansas during the Civil War one hundred and fifty years ago, 2-22-1862: Confederates evacuate Fayetteville, Arkansas. Because of constant pressure by U.S. troops under the command of General Curtis from out of Missouri, Generals Price and McCulloch both agreed that now was not the time for battle. Though the two generals rarely agreed, this one instance they did.

Because of the constant pressure by U.S. forces, as the Confederates evacuated Fayetteville, many shops and homes were burned to prevent the invading Yankees use of them. Even stores of ammunition were disposed of to prevent the invading U.S. forces from using it. This was an act that would eventually haunt the Confederate forces at Pea Ridge, who were forced to withdraw from the field of battle from running out of ammunition!

Thus one of the many ironies of the War Between the States in Arkansas!

Wayside panels will direct visitors to the site of Confederate General Thomas Hindman’s home confiscated and used by General Curtis on his arrival as his official quarters and the site of Saint Catherine’s Convent used as shelter for “Contrabands” at first and then as a hospital after July 1863.

The flagship of the project, Fort Curtis, is a reconstruction of the original fortification. Begun in August 1862 and completed in October, Fort Curtis stood on the block now occupied by the First Baptist Church and the Horner-Gladin House. It was an earthen fort, as were all Civil War era fortifications, constructed by laborers drawn from the ranks of soldiers and “Contrabands” alike.

The reconstruction is a faithful rendition of the original in ¾ scale and is the only replica of its kind known in Arkansas. Though obviously shifted from its original site, it still offers a panoramic view of Batteries A, B, C, and D plus the red brick, ante-bellum Moore-Hornor House just west, used by General Salomon as his quarters. The fort will begin its life as an educational historic replica in May 2012, under the auspices of the Delta Cultural Center, with a 24-pounder and a 32- pounder as well as a firing, display Parrott gun. As funds progress, the entire complement of seven cannon will be installed, as will be a simulated well, wooden flagpole with 35- star American flag, and garrison tents.