Arkansas Civil War

Commemorate Black History Month With The Sons of Confederate Veterans!

French immigrant J W Bocage came to Chicot County before statehood and studied medicine before moving to Pine Bluff. In the 1880’s he preserved much of that city’s early history and in his reminiscences, wrote about the Independence Day 1840 celebration declaring;

“An immense barbecue was prepared. Buck’s tavern cooking was represented in superior style. Col James Scull own cooks unequaled in the culinary art in this or any other land, who occupied the first position. Mary John, the memory of whose splendid dinners at the Post of Arkansas will never be forgotten by the few survivors of her day, was on the grounds superintending.”

The mention of Mary John is significant because she was a successful business woman of color. Born a slave in Spanish LA during the last half of the 1780’s she was given the name Marie Jeanne by her master. In 1806 at Arkansas Post, she was sold to Jean Larguier for $800 by Marie Languedoc. In April of 1811, she was then sold to James Scull of Arkansas who was in the legal profession.

In Arkansas County Deed Book F, P. 447-48 manumission for Mary John is recorded on Sep 13, 1840 in Jefferson County with Hews Scull bearing witness. Somewhere in the mire of legalese, James Scull acknowledges a receipt of $800 for her freedom. This monumental turning point in her life occurred just two months after the holiday event.

The paper trail continues five years later with the following documentation beginning again in the adjoining county down the Arkansas River:

“We present Terence Farrelly and Lewis L Refeld as guardians of Mary John for keeping a public tavern at the post of Arkansas, County of Arkansas.

A true bill J S Smith
Witness: Richmond Peeler
foreman J W Smith
Minutes of Grand Jury (Ark. Co.)
W Doroaty

Commencing April Term A.D.1846

The need for a guardian likely points to the admission that points that people of color were not protected by the law. The speculation that she was too illiterate to operate a business successfully doesn’t hold up at this late date of operation.

The Federal Census of 1850 reveals Mary John, a black female, as the head of household #49 in Arkansas Township, age 62 and born in Arkansas. By now, the reader may yearn for more then a litany of Federal and County records to tell about an unusual person who rose above the condition of slavery to become a business owner who hosted some leading political and business figures during their AR River passage to or from the Capital.

As a finale to the paper trail, the probate office indicates Mary John died intestate (no will) in May 1857. Greater insight into the lifestyle and holdings of a free hosteler of color in the 1850’s is precluded by the absence of the inventory, appraisement or estate sales record. No mention was made if she was survived by any legal heirs. The record showed claims totaling $334.12 in favor of 2 women and eight men, mostly farmers were made against her estate. A $500 bond was posted by the administrator, William Refeld, with Gates C Taylor and John Maxwell as sureties.

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The Arkansas Historical Association has extended the deadline for submissions for the Charles O. Durnett Award for the best paper on a Civil War Arkansas topic to March 1. Details are below.

Charles O. Durnett Award

The Arkansas Historical Association announces the Charles O. Durnett Award competition. Entries must be postmarked no later than March 1 to be eligible.

The Charles O. Durnett Award, which consists of $250 and a framed certificate, is presented for the best manuscript article on some aspect of Arkansas’s Civil War history-whether military, social, economic, or cultural. Entries should be based, at least in part, on original research in primary sources. They must not have been submitted elsewhere or published previously.

Anyone, whether professional or amateur historian, is eligible to submit a manuscript. The winner will be determined by a three-person panel selected by the Arkansas Historical Association’s president and will be announced at its annual conference in April.

Manuscripts should be no longer than thirty-five pages and must be documented. Text, including quotations and notes, should be double-spaced. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively. Since manuscripts are evaluated anonymously, only the full title of the essay should appear at the top of the first page of the manuscript. On a separate page the following information should be included: title, author’s name, complete address, and telephone numbers or email address.

Entries must be submitted in triplicate-photocopies must be clear and easily readable. All articles will be considered for publication in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.

Entries should be postmarked by March 1 and sent to:

Arkansas Historical Association
Department of History
Old Main 416
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR 72701
479/575-5884
E-mail: dludlow@uark.edu

The first shots of the War in Arkansas come on February 16, 1862 as Federal Commander Samuel Curtis attacked Confederate General Sterling Price at Big Sugar Creek in extreme North West Arkansas, only miles from Elk Horn Tavern situated atop Pea Ridge; the engagement at Pott’s Hill left over a dozen Confederates killed and one Union soldier dead.

The official gateway to Helena’s Civil War experience will be the Civil War Visitors’ Center located just north of Freedom Park. The Hanks’ 1820 family home, known for years as Estevan Hall, has been secured for this purpose and plans have been drawn to remove obvious modern features and restore the structure and grounds to near Civil War era features. The site of Helen Keller’s parents’ wedding, this elegant greeting station will offer tour information, maps, and historical background to the twenty-seven highlighted locations in the city.

On a frigid February 10, Federal General Samuel R Curtis moved his Army of the Southwest from Lebanon MO toward Springfield. General Sterling Price, who had occupied the city long before, now called in all outlying troops from different points. He had sent numerous warnings southward about his opponent’s proximity but chose to remain in position till the last minute. He was under the impression he’d receive aid from AR when the weather improved.

On the 12th Price’s outer security was driven in with the pickets reporting the Federals advancing in force. Knowing he could not hope to win a battle against Curtis’s superior force, Price had no choice but to retreat and join the Confederate command in northwest AR. His retreat commenced on the night of the 12th on the main road to Fayetteville, by way of the old Wilson’s Creek battlefield. Curtis entered Springfield the next morning and raised the stars and stripes over the courthouse.

It was about this time General Van Dorn wrote the MO general promising to take only a portion of McCulloch’s force in his quest to seize St Louis. As a further indication of not being informed of the serious situation Price was in, he implied the latter should cooperate in a joint effort in moving against St Louis.

When the Union forces gained a foothold in TN with the collapse of Fort Henry, people all over AR were startled with the realization that the capture of the TN forts would open a dreaded highway of invasion down the Mississippi River. Across the state meetings were held for public discussion. These gatherings more then anything else exposed the reason many men had not already volunteered for military service; fear their families would not be properly cared for in their absence.

Newspapers got into the act by indulging in a great deal of advice as to what citizens should do in case of invasion. Planters were told to get ready to burn their cotton. Also suggestions were given to destroy food supplies at the last possible moment.

General Grant’s penetration of the mid-south with a combined land and water assault on both the TN and Cumberland Rivers was designed to outflank both Polk’s army at Columbus KY, and Gen William Hardees’s forces at Bowling Green. After taking the two river strongholds, a forceful thrust from there to the Mississippi state line would prompt the evacuation of both KY and TN. Thus Grant would complete his strategy of recovering two states. And he would do so without having to fight either opponent, as skillfully pointed out by authors Major Calvin L Collier and Floyd R Barnhill Jr. in their book, The Fighting Fifth.

At the fall of Fort Henry he wired his theater superior an exuberant message that ended optimistically with: “I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th and return to Henry”. He then asked Admiral Andrew H Foot to take the fleet back north on the TN river and into the Ohio for repairs at Cairo, then east to the Cumberland River where they would steam south to Fort Donelson. Land forces would slog across the inhospitable 12 mile strip that separated the two streams and take position around the stronghold.

The Department Commander of the upper south ranging from the Appalachians to the Mississippi, full general General Albert S Johnston, had to call in Generals Simon B Buckner and John B Floyd from as far away as Alabama. Their troop strength was needed to shore up the Cumberland River fort and accounted for the largest part of the approximately 15000 stalwarts in the trenches.

Among the Arkansas infantry regiments to serve at that fatal location were the Seventh and Twelfth regiments, and the evacuees of Col James M Gee’s Fifteenth.