Arkansas provided a number of general officers to the Confederacy, both the political appointees of the Arkansas Military Board who oversaw the raising of the state army at the beginning of the war, as well as those who rose to general officer rank in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS), the "official" Confederate army.
As part of the ongoing effort by the MOS&B to commemorate the Confederate officer corps, here are Arkansas's general officers of the Arkansas State Troops and the Confederacy.
William Nelson Rector BEALL (1825-1883)
Brigadier-General William N. R. Beall was a native of Kentucky, born in 1825. His parents moved to Arkansas, and from here he was appointed to the United States military academy at West Point in 1844. He was graduated in 1848, and was assigned to the 4th U.S. infantry as brevet second lieutenant. He served on the frontier in the Northwest until 1850, with promotion to second lieutenant of the 5th U.S. Infantry on April 30, 1849. From that time until 1855 he served in Indian Territory and in Texas, and was commissioned first lieutenant of the 1st U.S. Cavalry, March 3, 1855, and before the end of the month, March 27th, captain in the same command. He was engaged in several Indian expeditions, encountering the hostiles in several combats and skirmishes. The last of these expeditions was in 1860 against the Kiowas and Comanches. He was on frontier duty when his adopted State seceded from the Union. He then sent in his resignation as captain in the United States service and received the same rank in the Confederate States army. He served in Arkansas under General Van Dorn, who, on the 17th of March, 1862, recommended that he be commissioned colonel. On the 11th of April this request was more than granted, for Captain Beall was commissioned a brigadier general in the army of the Confederate States, and on the 23rd of the same month was assigned by General Beauregard to the command of the cavalry of the army at Corinth. On September 25th he was in command at Port Hudson, and though Gen. Frank Gardner subsequently assumed chief command, General Beall and his brigade continued to be important factors in the gallant defense of the post until its surrender. His brigade included the 10th, 12th, 15th (Northwest), 16th and 23rd Arkansas Infantry regiments, and the 1st Arkansas battalion, as well as several Mississippi and Alabama regiments, and Louisiana artillery. His Arkansas troops lost 225 in killed, wounded and missing during the long siege of Port Hudson, which was only terminated when they were forced to surrender by the capitulation of Vicksburg. On July 9th the post was surrendered, and the men were then paroled, and some of them, including General Beall, were never exchanged. General Beall was first imprisoned on Johnson’s Island.
In 1864, by virtue of an agreement between the authorities in Washington, DC and in Richmond, he was released on parole to act as the Confederate agent to supply prisoners of war. In this capacity he maintained an office in New York City and sold cotton, which was permitted to come through the federal blockade. The proceeds were mainly devoted to the purchase of clothing and blankets for the relief of Confederate soldiers in Northern prison camps. He was finally released on August 2, 1865. After the war General Beall moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and engaged in business as a general commission merchant. He died on the 26th of July, 1883, at McMinnville, Tennessee, and is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, TN.
Thomas H. BRADLEY (1808-1864)
Thomas H. Bradley, a brigadier general of the Arkansas state forces, was born in Williamson County, Tennessee, on July 25,1808, the son of Thomas and Margaret Bradley, farmers in that county. He developed into one of the leading merchants of Franklin, Tennessee. In the Second Seminole War (1835 to 1836) Bradley was a major and regimental adjutant with the 1st Tennessee Volunteers. Soon after that war he moved to Crittenden County, Arkansas, where he established a large plantation on the Mississippi River about eighteen miles north of Memphis. One of the pioneer planters and largest slaveowners in that county, Bradley prospered. Like many planters Bradley (a Democrat) dabbled in politics and served one term (from 1850 to 1851) in the Arkansas House of Representatives. A Unionist by conviction, Bradley was a Douglas delegate to the 1860 Democratic Convention.
Elected to the Arkansas Secession Convention in early 1861, Bradley was reputedly the only delegate from eastern Arkansas to oppose secession, although he was the wealthiest delegate and largest slaveholder elected. On account of his prior military experience, Bradley was named brigadier general of Arkansas State Troops by the secession convention, to command the 2nd (Eastern) Division, assembling in northeast Arkansas. (It should be noted that petty politics dictated every action of the Arkansas Secession Convention. Governor Henry Rector, a Democrat and a strong secessionist, was of a different political faction than the majority of delegates, who were members of the Johnson political machine and, though Democrats and secessionists, were bitter political opponents of the governor. The Johnson Democrats sided with anti-secessionists and Whigs to dominate the proceedings. The convention established an Arkansas army and appointed generals to that army, usurping the governor's appointment powers and arguably exceeding its authority. Two of their three appointees were simultaneously anti-secessionist and anti-Rector, the third a pro-secessionist Whig, ensuring that the patronage of appointments would be removed from the governor's power. Governor Rector objected vehemently, but eventually acquiesced in the appointments. The two anti-secessionists (Bradley and N. B. Pearce) proved so unpopular with the troops that neither of them lasted long. For an overview of this subject see Michael B. Dougan, Confederate Arkansas (University, Tex., 1976).)
Bradley’s stint in divisional command was unsuccessful. Because of his Unionist background, his "old age and feeble health," the troops in camp "had no confidence in Bradley." He quarreled with his officers, attempting at one point to court-martial future General Pat Cleburne. (Bradley had dispatched a patrol toward the Missouri border, and made no effort to support or even account for all the troops in the expedition. Cleburne and the other regimental commanders subsequently posted a sentry on Bradley’s quarters, holding him in arrest, and petitioned the Military Board and the Secession Convention for Bradley’s relief for cause and replacement.) The Arkansas Military Board relieved General Bradley of duty in July, 1861; one newspaper called him a "drunkard, a coward, and incompetent in every respect." Enfeebled and disappointed, Bradley took no further part in the war. He relocated to Memphis, where he died on September 30, 1864. Bradley is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis.
Napoleon Bonaparte BURROWS (1818-1880)
Napoleon Bonaparte Burrow was born in 1818 in Bedford County, Tennessee, the son of Banks Mitchum and Mary (Blanchard) Burrow. His father was a farmer in Bedford and Carroll counties. Entering Nashville University in 1836, the young Burrow graduated from the law department in 1839 and commenced a legal career. He settled in Huntingdon in Carroll County, and practiced law there until the outbreak of the Mexican War. A second lieutenant of the 2nd Tennessee Volunteers, Burrow fought with great distinction in Scott's assault on Mexico City. After the war he settled in Arkansas, first in Jefferson County and later near Van Buren. In both places he practiced law and was a substantial planter and slaveholder. Burrow was also active politically as a state senator from Jefferson County from 1851 to 1855, a Buchanan elector in 1856, and a delegate to both 1860 Democratic conventions. By January, 1860, Burrow was a general in command of a brigade of Arkansas militia.
A prominent secessionist, Burrow was the candidate of the ultra-secessionist "Hindman" faction to the First Confederate Senate. When Arkansas seceded, Burrow and his militia brigade (3rd Brigade, First Division) took over Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the federal garrison. His command was so criticized - one influential editor called his conduct there "extravagant and... pompously unmilitary" - that he was relieved after two weeks. The Arkansas Military Board later appointed Burrow a brigadier general and sent him to Springfield, Missouri, after the Battle of Wilson's Creek, to transfer the Arkansas militia there to regular Confederate command. The militiamen, encouraged by their commander, Brigadier General N. B. Pearce, refused to transfer, and Burrow's mission ended a fiasco. Burrow spent the rest of the war raising crops for the army. Despite his ill-fated last command, Arkansas politicians retained confidence in Burrow's abilities and recommended to President Davis that he be appointed a Confederate general, a recommendation that Davis, beset by numerous petitions of a like nature, never acted upon.
After the war Burrow resumed his farming and legal careers in Van Buren. In the latter he gained great notoriety, one contemporary stating that "as a criminal lawyer ... in the state, he stood at the head of his profession." General Burrow died of pneumonia at Alma in Crawford County, Arkansas, on May 23, 1880, while returning to Van Buren from a legal case. He is buried in the Alma City Cemetery.
William Lewis CABELL (1827-1911)
Brigadier General William L. Cabell, known as "Old Tige", was born in Danville, Virginia on January 1, 1827, the third child of Gen. Benjamin W. S. and Sarah Eppes Cabell, who lived to see seven sons and two daughters grown. (Six sons held prominent positions in the Confederate army. The other, Dr. Powhatan Cabell, died from the effect of an arrow wound received in Florida just before the Civil War began.) General Cabell was graduated at the military academy at West Point in 1850, entered the United States army as second lieutenant, and was assigned to the Seventh U.S. Infantry. In June, 1855, he was promoted to first lieutenant and made regimental quartermaster of that regiment. In March, 1858, he was promoted to captain in the quartermaster department and assigned to the staff of Gen. Persifer F. Smith, then in command of the Utah expedition. When the war became inevitable, Captain Cabell repaired to Fort Smith, Arkansas, and from there went to Little Rock and offered his services to the governor of the State. On receipt of a telegram from President Davis he went to Montgomery, Alabama, then the Confederate capital, where he found the acceptance of his resignation from the United States army, signed by President Lincoln. He was at once commissioned major, Confederate States Army, and under orders from President Davis left on April 21st for Richmond to organize the quartermaster, commissary and ordnance departments. Later he was sent to Manassas to report to General Beauregard as chief quartermaster of the Confederate Army of the Potomac, in which position he assisted in designing what became the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag, now commonly recognized as the Confederate battle flag. After Gen. Joseph E. Johnston assumed command, Major Cabell served on his staff until January 15, 1862, when he was ordered to report to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, by whom he was assigned to General Van Dorn, with headquarters then at Jacksonport, Ark. He was next promoted to the rank of brigadier general and put in command of all the troops on White River in Arkansas, where he held the enemy in check until after the battle of Elkhorn Tavern, March 7th and 8th, 1862. After that battle the army was transferred to the east side of the Mississippi. The removal of this army, which included Price's Missouri and McCulloch's Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas troops, and his own command, devolved on General Cabell, and was performed within a single week from points along White River. Van Dorn's army proceeded, after reaching Memphis, to Corinth, and General Cabell was assigned to command a Texas brigade with an Arkansas regiment attached. He led this brigade in several engagements around Corinth, and commanded the rear of the army on the retreat from Corinth to Tupelo. After Bragg had moved into Tennessee, Cabell was transferred to an Arkansas brigade, which he commanded in the battles of Iuka and Saltillo in September, at Corinth on October 2 and 3, 1862, and at Hatchie Bridge on the 4th. He was wounded leading the charge of his brigade on the breastworks at Corinth and also at Hatchie Bridge, which disabled him for duty in the field. What was left of his command was temporarily assigned to the First Missouri brigade under General Bowen, and he was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi department to recover from his wounds and inspect the staff departments of that army. When his strength was sufficiently restored he was, in February, 1863, put in command of northwest Arkansas, with instructions to augment his forces by recruits from every part of the State. In this he was very successful, organizing one of the largest cavalry brigades west of the Mississippi, which he thereafter commanded in more than twenty battles. He took a prominent part in the engagements at Poison Spring and Marks' Mills, in April, 1864, commanding two brigades of Fagan's division. In his report of the campaign ending at Jenkins' Ferry, General Marmaduke wrote that, "To speak of the quick perception and foresight or the reckless bravery of Shelby, the élan and chivalrous bearing of Cabell, inspiring all who looked upon him, or the perseverance, untiring energy and steady courage of Greene, would be telling a twice-told tale." During the 1864 raid into Missouri under General Price General Cabell was captured in battle near the Little Osage river, October 25, 1864, and was taken to Johnson's island, Lake Erie, and later to Fort Warren, near Boston, and held until August 28, 1865.
After his release from the POW camp in August, 1865, General Cabell returned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He moved to Dallas, Texas in 1872, and served four terms as mayor of that city. He was a U.S. Marshal from 1885 until 1889, and then became vice-president of what became a part of the Southern Pacific Railroad system. From 1893 until 1907, General Cabell was one of the supervisors of the Louisiana State Lottery and of its successor, the Honduras National Lottery. He was appointed as a lieutenant-general of the United Confederate Veterans, commanding the Trans-Mississippi department, and became an honorary commander-in-chief of the UCV. General Cabell died in Dallas on February 22, 1911, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery there.
Thomas James CHURCHILL (1824-1905)
Thomas J. Churchill was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky and was educated at St. Mary's College and Transylvania University, where he studied law. After the Mexican War, in which he served as a 1st lieutenant of the 1st Kentucky Rifles, he settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was the postmaster in 1861. In 1861, Churchill raised a company of volunteer cavalry in Little Rock, and led this unit in the state militia's expedition to seize the federal arsenal at Fort Smith. Upon the State's formal secession from the Union in May, 1861, Churchill recruited and was elected the colonel of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles, and rendered notable service with this regiment at the battles of Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. Churchill was commissioned as a brigadier general to rank from March 4, 1862. After fighting at Richmond, Kentucky under General Kirby Smith, General Churchill was assigned to command the defense of Arkansas Post, which he was finally forced to surrender after being overwhelmed in one of the most one-sided battles of the War. Following his parole and exchange, General Churchill served briefly as a brigade commander in Cleburne's Division of the Army of Tennessee, but was soon transferred back to the Trans-Mississippi where he commanded the "Arkansas Division" in the Red River Campaign against Union General Nathaniel Banks. After defeating Banks in northwest Louisiana, Churchill marched his division north to unite with General Sterling Price's Division and participate in the attack against Union General Frederick Steele at Jenkins' Ferry. Churchill was promoted to Major General on March 18, 1865 while still serving in the Trans-Mississippi Department.
After the War, General Churchill returned to Little Rock. After the overthrow of the carpetbag government in 1874, he was elected State Treasurer, in which post he served from 1874 until 1880, when he was elected Governor by a huge majority. Subsequently a claim for alleged shortfalls in his accounts while treasurer was pressed by the state Attorney General, and a judgment was entered against him for a substantial sum, which he made good. The shortage was attributed to poor bookkeeping, and it appears certain that General Churchill did not profit personally.
Tom Churchill died in Little Rock on May 14, 1905, and is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery there.
Patrick Ronayne CLEBURNE (1828-1864)
Pat Cleburne, one of only two foreign-born officers to attain the rank of major general in the Confederate service, was born March 17, 1828 in Bridgepark Cottage on the River Bride, ten miles west of Cork, Ireland. After a three-year enlistment in Her Majesty's 41st Regiment of Foot, he purchased his discharge and emigrated to the United States in 1849, landing at New Orleans. Educated as an apothecary (pharmacist), he first worked in Cincinnati but soon took up residence in Helena, Arkansas, where he became a partner in a drugstore, and then studied law. By the outbreak of the Civil War he had become successful in the legal profession, and had accumulated considerable property. He was elected colonel of the 15th Arkansas in 1861, and was promoted brigadier general to rank from March 4, 1862. The month following he led a brigade at Shiloh and later commanded a brigade at Perryville and a division at Richmond. His promotion to major general dated from December 13, 1862.
Cleburne rapidly established a reputation as a superb combat officer on every battlefield of the western army. He further distinguished himself at Murfreesboro, and received a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress for saving the trains of the Army of Tennessee after the Chattanooga campaign. A savage fighter of the Bedford Forrest stamp, his death at the battle of Franklin, on November 30, 1864, in the forefront of his division, was a calamity to the Confederate cause perhaps only exceeded by the demise of Stonewall Jackson. Perhaps the best division commander of the Confederacy, Cleburne was eulogized by his friend and former commander, William J. Hardee: "When his Division defended, no odds could break its lines; When it attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught."
General Cleburne was the first to suggest (in a circular letter) the emancipation and arming of the Confederacy's slaves and their muster into military service. His proposal, now known as "Cleburne's Memorial", was squelched by his superior officers at the time it was proposed, but was belatedly put forth by the Confederate government at the end of the war.
First buried near Columbia, TN, Cleburne's remains were removed to his adopted home town of Helena, Arkansas, in 1870, where he is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Maple Hill Cemetery.
References:
Symonds, Craig L., Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War, Univ. of Kansas Press, (1997)
Thomas Pleasant DOCKERY (1833-1898)
Thomas Pleasant Dockery was born in North Carolina, probably in Montgomery County, on December 18, 1833. His father, Colonel John Dockery, soon moved to Tennessee, and subsequently to Arkansas, where he established a large plantation in Columbia County, and where he was instrumental in constructing the first railroad in the state. The younger Dockery went into the Confederate Army as colonel of the 5th Arkansas State Troops, which he commanded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, and later becoming colonel of the 19th Arkansas Infantry. He participated in the battle of Corinth, and recrossing the Mississippi River with General Sterling Price, was for a time in command of a subdistrict in Arkansas. He commanded the 2nd brigade of General John S. Bowen's division at Vicksburg, where he was captured and paroled; and was commissioned brigadier general on August 10, 1863. In 1864, directing a brigade of Arkansas regiments, he took part in the battles of Jenkins' Ferry and Marks' Mills, during the campaign which arrested the advance of the Federal General William Steele. General Dockery signed the instrument of surrender for the remaining Confederate troops in Arkansas in May, 1865.
His property swept away by the war, General Dockery afterwards took up the profession of civil engineering, and lived for some years in Houston, Texas. His death occurred in New York City on February 27, 1898. His body was taken to Natchez, MS, the residence of his two daughters, for burial.
James Fleming FAGAN (1828-1893)
James Fleming Fagan was born in Clark County, Kentucky, on March 1, 1828, and the family moved to Arkansas when he was ten. When he was a youth his father was one of the contractors to build the State House at Little Rock, soon after the admission of the State, and died there. His mother, Catherine A. Fagan, then married Samuel Adams, former treasurer of State, in December, 1842. As president of the senate, Mr. Adams succeeded to the governorship in 1844, upon the resignation of Governor Yell, who became a volunteer colonel and fell in the war with Mexico. On the death of his stepfather, Fagan took charge of the farm and family home on the Saline River. Though a Whig, he repeatedly represented the Democratic county of Saline in the Arkansas General Assembly. He served through the war with Mexico in Yell's regiment, returning home a lieutenant, and was among the first to raise a company at the beginning of the Confederate war, being chosen captain of his company, and on regimental organization elected colonel of the 1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment, serving initially with the Confederate Army of the Potomac in Virginia, then returning to Tennessee to participate in the battle of Shiloh and the subsequent campaigns of the Army of Tennessee.
On September 12, 1862, Colonel Fagan was promoted to brigadier-general in the provisional army of the Confederate States. He commanded a brigade composed of the Arkansas regiments of Colonels Brooks, Hawthorn, Bell and King, in the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863, in all 1,339 men, and lost 435 in the determined assaults of his command on Hindman's Hill. His gallantry in this bloody engagement was warmly commended by Gen. T. H. Holmes. General Fagan's command was operating in southern Arkansas during the Federal campaign against Shreveport in 1864, and after Banks' defeat at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, General Fagan, in command of a cavalry division comprising the Arkansas brigades of W. L. Cabell, T. P. Dockery and W. A. Crawford, was ordered to operate against the Federal expedition of General Steele at Camden. He was highly successful, General Smith reporting that "Fagan's destruction of Steele's entire supply train and the capture of its escort at Marks' Mills precipitated Steele's retreat from Camden." In the last great maneuver in the Trans-Mississippi, Price's raid to the Missouri River, Fagan, who had been commissioned major-general on April 24, 1864, commanded the division of Arkansas cavalry, including the brigades of Cabell, Slemons, Dobbin and McCray, and "bore himself throughout the whole expedition," said General Price, 'with unabated gallantry and ardor, and commanded his division with great ability." At the last he was in command of the District of Arkansas, and as late as April, 1865, he was active and untiring in his efforts, proposing then an expedition for the capture of Little Rock. General Fagan's first wife was a sister of Gen. W. N. R. Beall, and after her death he married Miss Rapley of Little Rock, a niece of Maj. Benjamin J. Field, brother of the first wife of former Governor Henry M. Rector.
Not paroled until June 20, 1865, his post-bellum career was devoted to planting and politics. His acceptance of the office of United States marshal from President Grant in 1875, and that of receiver for the Land Office two years later, possibly caused his defeat in 1890, when he was a candidate for state railroad commissioner. General Fagan died at Little Rock on September 1, 1893, and he is buried there in Mount Holly Cemetery.
Edward W. GANTT (1824-1905)
Edward W. Gantt was born in 1829 in Maury County, Tennessee, the son of John E. Gantt. By 1850 he was a lawyer in Williamsport in Maury County. An early secessionist, Edward and his brother George were delegates to the 1850 "Southern Rights" Convention in Nashville. Moving to Washington in Hempstead County, Arkansas, in 1854, Gantt became a lawyer and active Democratic politician. Gantt was elected three times as district prosecutor, elected to the U.S. Congress in 1861 (not taking his seat), and to the First Confederate Congress. Gantt had also married into a prominent Dallas County family.
Preferring field duty to legislative drudgery, Gantt raised the 12th Arkansas Infantry and on July 29,1861, was elected its colonel. In the fall of 1861 the regiment was stationed at Columbus, Kentucky, as part of the Confederate garrison there. At the Battle of Belmont on November 7, 1861, the 12th was only lightly engaged, but Gantt was commended for his bravery by his brigade commander. On December 5, 1861, Gantt was ordered to New Madrid, Missouri. He took command of a brigade of two Arkansas regiments garrisoning Fort Thompson, part of the Island No.10 defenses. Gantt, "a fine officer.. .. [who was] extremely popular with the men" but also "ambitious" and a womanizer, avidly sought promotion. In early 1862 General P G. T. Beauregard appointed Gantt acting brigadier general, with the promise to ask the president for formal appointment to that rank. The Union army of Major General John Pope began an attack on Fort Thompson on March 13, 1862. The next night the garrison was evacuated across the Mississippi River into Tennessee by order of Major General John P. McCown, the Island No.10 commander. In the evacuation the garrison left behind thirty-three pieces of artillery and huge quantities of scarce ordnance supplies. Gantt and his command surrendered on April 7, 1862, near Tiptonville, Tennessee, with the rest of the Island No.10 garrison. Exchanged in August, 1862, Gantt returned to his home in Arkansas and awaited further assignment to duty. However, rumors had circulated about his alleged misconduct at Island No.10 (mostly rumors about his drinking), and the Confederate authorities declined to give Gantt another assignment.
In the fall of 1863 Gantt, an original secessionist, experienced a change of heart and turned Union loyalist. He fled to the Union lines and from there appealed to his fellow southerners to lay down their arms. His appeals, which were widely circulated, denounced "Jefferson Davis, negro slavery, secession, and the Confederacy in good round terms."
After the war Gantt, a "lawyer of ability," was a noted Arkansas "scalawag," serving the Reconstruction authorities as state prosecutor for the Little Rock area and, from 1865 to 1866, as supervisor of the Freedmen's Bureau for southwest Arkansas. In 1873 Gantt was appointed by the governor to prepare a digest of the state laws, on which he labored until his death from a heart attack on June 10, 1874, in Little Rock. He is buried in Tulip, in Dallas County, Arkansas.
Daniel Chevilette GOVAN (1829-1911)
Daniel Chevilette Govan was born in Northampton County, North Carolina on July 4, 1829, but was brought up in Mississippi, and attended the University of South Carolina. Joining in the gold rush to California in 1849 with his kinsman, Ben McCulloch, who was also to become a Confederate general officer, Govan returned to Mississippi in 1852, and then moved to Helena, Arkansas, in 1861, where he engaged in planting. Raising a company, which became part of the 2nd Arkansas Infantry, he became the regiment's lieutenant colonel, and subsequently was made colonel of the 2nd Arkansas regiment, and was present in the first day's battle of Shiloh. Sickness prevented his participating on the second day. In the Kentucky campaign, the 2nd Arkansas was in the brigade of General Liddell, and participated in the battle of Perryville. At Murfreesboro, still in Liddell's brigade, Colonel Govan led his regiment and during a part of the day the brigade. At Chickamauga he led the brigade, Liddell acting as commander of a division. He again commanded his brigade at Missionary Ridge and on the retreat, sharing prominently in the timely victory at Ringgold, and winning from his division commander, Pat Cleburne an evaluation as one of the commanders of whom General Cleburne said, "Four better officers are not in the service of the Confederacy.". On December 29, 1863, he was promoted to brigadier-general, his command consisting of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Arkansas regiments of infantry. Throughout the Atlanta campaign he handled his brigade so admirably as to merit favorable mention from his division and corps commanders and from Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who especially mentioned the gallant conduct of his brigade at Pickett's Mill. On the 1st of September, while Hardee with one corps was holding a position of no great strength in order to protect Hood's retreat from Atlanta, he was attacked by five corps of Sherman's army. Fortunately, the attacks were not simultaneous along the line, and Hardee was able to shift troops to the threatened points in time to repel assaults. About the middle of the afternoon an angle held by Govan's Arkansas and Lewis' Kentucky brigades, troops that had no superiors in the army, were assailed by an overwhelming force. They held to their line until the dense masses of the Federal troops poured over the works, and by force of numbers drove back the brave defenders. A large part of Govan's brigade fought until the dense volume of Federal troops overran them and took physical possession of the men and their weapons. What was left of the brigade, charging with Granbury's Texans and Gordon's Tennesseeans, succeeded in establishing a new line, which was held until night put an end to the conflict. General Govan, captured that day, was soon exchanged and followed the fortunes of the army of Tennessee to the last. He led his brigade through the hardships and disasters of the Tennessee campaign at Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville, and in the final campaign in the Carolinas commanded his own and Granbury's brigade, which had been consolidated. No officer of the Army of Tennessee enjoyed to a greater degree than General Govan did, the esteem of his men and of his superior officers.
Surrendering with General Joseph E. Johnston in 1865, General Govan returned to his plantation near Helena, Arkansas, where he continued to live until 1894, when he accepted from President Cleveland a post as Indian agent in the state of Washington. The last years of his life were spent in the homes of one or another of his fourteen children in Tennessee and Mississippi. He died in Memphis on March 12, 1911, and is buried in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
Alexander Travis HAWTHORN (1825-1899)
Alexander Travis Hawthorn was born near Evergreen, in Conecuh County, Alabama, January 10, 1825, and was educated at Evergreen Academy and Mercer University in that state. He then studied law at Yale University for two years, from 1846 to 1847, and located in Camden, Arkansas, where he commenced his practice. When the 6th Arkansas Infantry was organized in 1861, he was elected its lieutenant colonel. By the spring of 1862 he had been appointed colonel of the gallant regiment, which he led at the battle of Shiloh, up to that time the greatest conflict of arms that the New World had ever seen. The soldiers of the South stormed and captured the camp of the victors of Fort Donelson, drove them in complete rout to the protection of their gunboats, and, had not the advance been stayed, would probably have annihilated the army of Grant before Buell could get to its assistance. After Shiloh, the 6th Arkansas was reorganized and re-elected officers in accordance with the April 25, 1862 Conscription Act. Hawthorn was not re-elected, and was reassigned to Arkansas in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. When the large army of Grant and his powerful fleet were besieging Vicksburg, General Holmes was ordered by Kirby Smith to create a diversion, if possible, in favor of Pemberton, by attacking the strong post of Helena, Ark. This was done, but without success. During the joint campaign against Banks and Steele, in April, 1864, Hawthorn, who on the 28th of February, 1864, had been commissioned brigadier-general, led a brigade (consisting of the 29th, 34th, and 35th Arkansas regiments) in the division of General T.J. Churchill, and made a gallant fight at Jenkins' Ferry, April 30th, during a fierce engagement of several hours' duration. He continued in command of his brigade, under General Churchill, until the close of hostilities.
General Hawthorn emigrated to Brazil after the demise of the Confederacy, but returned to the United States in 1874 and engaged in business in Atlanta. Six years later General Hawthorn entered the Baptist ministry and was ordained, after which he lived in Texas until his death, on May 31, 1899, in Dallas. He is buried in Marshall, Texas.
Thomas Carmichael HINDMAN (1828-1868)
Thomas Carmichael Hindman was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 28, 1828, and served with conspicuous heroism in Mexico as a 2nd lieutenant in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry. Upon his return from the war he was admitted to the state bar. After serving a term in the Mississippi legislature, he was elected and re-elected to Congress from Arkansas in 1858 and 1860, although he did not take his seat after his second election. Hindman was extremely active in Arkansas politics, and led the opposition to the well-entrenched "Family", or Johnson Democrats, that had dominated the state's government from 1836 to 1860. He was instrumental in securing the secession of his adopted state. Hindman entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 2nd Arkansas Infantry, raising the regiment at his own expense, and was promoted brigadier general from September 28, 1861, and major general from April 14, 1862.
Following MG Earl Van Dorn's removal of the Confederate Army of the West from Arkansas in April, 1862, Hindman was appointed to the command of the Trans-Mississippi District, where he had to again raise an army from scratch, Van Dorn having taken all troops and military supplies across the Mississippi with him. Using draconian methods, Hindman raised a new army for the state's defense by means of mass conscription and impressment, and halted Union General Samuel Curtis' expedition toward Little Rock in the summer of 1862. Hindman then turned his attention to shoring up the state's defenses, establishing a fort at Arkansas Post to protect the southern end of the Arkansas River, and moved his army northwest in an attempt to drive Federal forces out of northwestern Arkansas. Hindman's ruthless methods raised many cries of outrage against him, and he was relieved of the command of the Trans-Mississippi Department by General Theophilus Holmes, retaining tactical command of the troops in Arkansas. He fought the drawn battle of Prairie Grove in December, 1862, and subsequently was reassigned to the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Hindman commanded a division at Chickamauga, at Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta campaign, in which he was so severely wounded as to incapacitate him for further field duty. After convalescing, he served in the District of North Mississippi until the end of the War.
Hindman moved to Mexico upon the downfall of the Confederacy, but returned to Arkansas in 1868 and resumed his law practice. On September 28, 1868 he was assassinated in his home at Helena, Arkansas, by an unknown assailant. This act was probably inspired by Hindman's determined and outspoken stand in opposition to the existing carpetbag regime. He is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery, at Helena.
James McQueen McINTOSH (1828-1862)
James McQueen McIntosh was born at Fort Brooke (now Tampa), Florida, in 1828. He was the son of Colonel James S. McIntosh, U.S.A., who was mortally wounded at the battle of Molino del Rey in the Mexican War. Appointed to West Point from the state of Florida, young McIntosh was graduated last in the class of 1849. Thereafter he served on the frontier and was promoted captain of the 1st Cavalry in 1857. He resigned his commission on May 7, 1861, and was first appointed captain of cavalry in the Regular Confederate Army; shortly afterwards he became colonel of the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles which he commanded in the battle of Wilson's Creek. On January 24, 1862 he was promoted brigadier general in the Provisional Army of the Confederacy. Commanding the cavalry of General Ben McCulloch's wing of General Earl Van Dorn's army on the Leetown battlefield near Elkhorn Tavern on March 7, 1862, McIntosh met his death within a few minutes of General McCulloch. After leading a brilliant charge of cavalry, McIntosh rushed into the thickest of the fight, again at the head of his old regiment, the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles, and was shot through the heart. His body, with that of General McCulloch,was conveyed by wagon to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he now lies buried in the National Cemetery.
Evander McNAIR (1820-1902)
Brigadier-General Evander McNair was born near Laurel Hill, Richmond County, North Carolina on April 15, 1820. His parents moved to Mississippi the following year, eventually settling in Simpson County. At the age of 22, McNair set himself up as a merchant in Jackson, MS. During the Mexican War he was a member of Company E, 1st Mississippi Rifles, of which regiment Jefferson F. Davis was colonel. Moving to Old Washington, Arkansas in 1856, McNair continued in the mercantile business and after Arkansas seceded from the Union in June, 1861, he raised a battalion of seven companies of infantry. McNair's battalion was augmented to regimental size and designated as the 4th Arkansas Infantry.
He became colonel of the 4th Arkansas Infantry regiment on August 17, 1861. The first experience of this regiment in battle was at Wilson's Creek, Mo., where the Confederates gained a signal victory. At the battle of Pea Ridge, when General McCulloch was killed and Col. Louis Hebert captured, Colonel McNair took command of the brigade. When Price and his army of the West crossed the Mississippi to the support of the Confederate army that had just fought the battle of Shiloh, the Arkansas troops formed a part of his force. On July 31st, Bragg and Kirby Smith met at Chattanooga and planned the Kentucky campaign. Price and Van Dorn were left to confront Grant in north Mississippi. Bragg took Churchill's division, consisting of the brigades of McCray and McNair, and then sent them to Kirby Smith, who with his wing of the army pushed rapidly into the bluegrass region, utterly defeating the Union army at Richmond. In the desperate battle that here occurred, McNair's brigade turned the enemy's right and contributed to the rout that followed. On November 4, 1862, Colonel McNair was commissioned brigadier-general. His brigade embraced the following Arkansas troops, the 1st and 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles (dismounted), the 4th and 30th Arkansas infantry regiments, the 4th Arkansas infantry battalion, and Humphreys' battery of artillery. On the 31st of December, McNair's brigade took part in the brilliant charge of McCown's division, which, aided by Withers and Cheatham, drove the Federal right a distance of between three and four miles, bending it back upon the center, until the line was at right angles to its original position. In May, McNair's brigade was sent from the army of Tennessee to reinforce the army forming under Joseph E. Johnston for the relief of Vicksburg. These troops were in the subsequent movements and engagements around Jackson, Miss. At Chickamauga, McNair's was one of the eight brigades which, under Longstreet's direction, rushed through the gap in the Federal line and put one wing of the Union army to rout. In this battle McNair was wounded. He and his brigade were sent back to Mississippi after the battle of Chickamauga, and in 1864 he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi department, in which he continued to serve until the close of the war, serving in Price's 1864 raid to the Missouri River.
After the war, General McNair moved from Arkansas to New Orleans, and subsequently to Magnolia, Mississippi, and ultimately to Hattiesburg. He died in Hattiesburg on November 13, 1902 at the home of a son-in-law, and is buried in Magnolia.
Dandridge McRAE (1829-1899)
Dandridge McRae was born in Baldwin County, Alabama, on October 10, 1829. He was graduated from South Carolina College in 1849; he then took up residence in Searcy, Arkansas, where he was admitted to the bar, and was for six years clerk of the county and circuit courts. In 1861 he was inspector general of the state on the staff of Governor Rector, and was one of the first to enter Confederate service as major of the 3rd Battalion of Arkansas Infantry.
He raised a regiment, which was mustered in as the 21st Arkansas Infantry, and was elected its colonel. This regiment was assigned to the brigade commanded by Gen. Ben McCulloch. In the summer of 1861 the command was led into Missouri, joining Price in time to participate in the battle of Wilson's Creek. General McCulloch in his official report speaks in very high terms of the services of Colonel McRae in this battle, saying: "He led his regiment into action with the greatest coolness, being always in the front of his men." At the battle of Pea Ridge, fought in Arkansas in March, 1862, McRae's regiment and its gallant commander again acquitted themselves so handsomely as to win from General Van Dorn high commendation for their good conduct. During the remainder of 1862, McRae was engaged in operations in Arkansas. He was commissioned brigadier-general on the 5th of November, 1862. During the siege of Vicksburg in the spring and summer of 1863, General Holmes, being ordered by the department commander, Kirby Smith, to make a diversion in favor of Vicksburg, boldly undertook the almost impossible task of capturing Helena McRae's brigade on this occasion acted well its part in the desperate battle, which ended in the repulse and retreat of the Confederate army. During the campaign between Price and Steele in Arkansas at the same time that Banks was conducting his ill-starred Red River expedition, McRae's brigade formed a part of the force under Price, which impeded the march of Steele, and being reinforced after the defeat of Banks, turned upon the Union army of Steele, forced its retreat from Camden, and drove it back to Little Rock after the battles of Marks' Mills and Jenkins' Ferry. throughout the year of 1864, McRae's brigade was active in the marches and battles of northern Arkansas and Missouri.
Resigning his commission in 1864, General McRae returned to his home in Searcy and resumed his law practice. Elected deputy secretary of state in 1881, General McRae subsequently became a one-man state chamber of commerce, serving as commissioner to various expositions, and as president of the state bureau of information. He died at Searcy on April 23, 1899, and is buried there.
Nicholas Bartlett PEARCE (1828-1894)
Nicholas Bartlett Pearce was born on July 20, 1828, in Caldwell County, Kentucky, the son of Allen and Mary (Polly) Morse Pearce. His early education included a stint at Cumberland College in Kentucky. Appointed to West Point, he graduated in 1850 twenty-sixth in a class of forty-four. Commissioned lieutenant in the 7th Infantry, Pearce was stationed in western Arkansas and Oklahoma for the bulk of his army career. In 1858 he resigned from the army in order to go into business with his father-in-law, a merchant in Osage Mills, Arkansas. He settled into his new community very quickly and soon won election to colonel of the local militia.
In May, 1861, the Arkansas Secession Convention appointed Pearce brigadier general of Arkansas state forces, to command the 1st (Western) Division. One source has it that "no more unpopular appointment could have been made by the convention," for Pearce, an opponent of secession, had "heaped abuse" on Governor Rector and "every prominent man in the state who favored secession."' His short tenure as general was controversial. In July, 1861, Pearce led a brigade of militia, 2,200 strong, into Missouri to help drive back a Union army nearing the Arkansas border. At the August 10,1861, Battle of Wilson's Creek, Pearce's brigade performed valiantly, repulsing the Union diversionary attack and then helping to defeat the main Union army. After the battle, Arkansas authorities attempted to transfer his brigade to Confederate service. Pearce resisted the transfer, and in August furloughed the men to their homes. The unit was disbanded; Pearce's combat role in the war was at an end.
On December 13,1861, Pearce was appointed a major in the Confederate Commissary Department. One week later he was assigned to duty as chief commissary of western Arkansas and the Indian Territory. By 1863 he was chief commissary of the District of Texas. In this post suspicious observers charged that Pearce was too intimate with war profiteers. Pearce also served on the Texas Military Board and as chief quartermaster at San Antonio, Texas. On June 21,1865, Major Pearce was paroled at Houston, Texas.
After being paroled Pearce traveled to Washington, D.C., and obtained a pardon from President Andrew Johnson. In 1867 Pearce returned to Osage Mills, rebuilt his residence, mill, and store, and resumed his business career. In 1872 he joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Arkansas. In 1874 he resigned his teaching post and returned to Osage Mills. From 1870 to 1884 he was employed by a wholesale house in Kansas City. Later he was employed as an expert land examiner in Texas (where he had moved because of his wife's health). General Pearce died on March 8,1894, in Dallas, at the home of his daughter-in-law, and is buried in Whitesboro, Texas.
Albert PIKE (1809-1891)
Albert Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 29, 1809. He was a many-sided character who is best remembered for his accomplishments as a brilliant teacher, poet, author, lawyer, editor, and exponent of Freemasonry, rather than as a brigadier general of the Confederacy, which he only incidentally became.
He received his early education at Newburyport and Framingham, and in 1825 entered Harvard College, supporting himself at the same time by teaching. He only went as far as the junior class in college, when his finances compelled him to continue his education alone, teaching, meanwhile, at Fairhaven and Newburyport, where he was principal of the grammar school, and afterward had a private school of his own. In later years he had attained such distinction in literature that the degree of master of arts was bestowed upon him by the Harvard faculty. In 1831 he went west with a trading party to Santa Fe. The next year, with a trapping party, he went down the Pecos River and into the Staked Plains, whence with four others he traveled mostly on foot until he reached Fort Smith, Arkansas. His adventures and exploits are related in a volume of prose and verse, published in 1834. While teaching in 1833 below Van Buren and on Little Piney River, he contributed articles to the Little Rock Advocate, and attracted the attention of Robert Crittenden, through whom he was made assistant editor of that paper, of which he was afterward for two years the proprietor. He was admitted to the bar in 1835 and studied and practiced law until the Mexican War, when he mobilized his Little Rock militia unit as Company E of the 1st Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment and was present at the battle of Buena Vista under the command of the famous Colonel Charles May. Pike resigned from the militia upon his return from Mexico and dedicated himself to his law practice. In 1848 he fought a duel with Gen. John S. Roane on account of something said by him in his story of that battle, which the governor considered as reflecting unjustly on the Arkansas regiment. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States at the same time with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. In 1853 he moved to New Orleans, having prepared himself for practice in the courts of Louisiana by reading the "Pandects," of which he translated the first volume into English. He also made translations of many French authorities. He wrote, besides, an unpublished work of three volumes upon "The Maxims of the Roman and French Law." In 1857 he resumed practice in Arkansas. He acted for many years as attorney for the Choctaw Indians, and in 1859, assisted by three others, he secured for them an award by the United States Senate of $2,981,247. He was the first proposer of a Pacific railroad convention, and at one time obtained from the legislature of Louisiana a charter for a road with termini at San Francisco and Guazamas.
An avowed Whig and anti-secessionist, he was a prominent lawyer and large land owner in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1861, and cast his lot with the South rather than desert his friends and his property. He was appointed as the Confederate commissioner to the tribes of Indian Territory. As such he brought the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws and part of the Cherokees into alliance with the Confederate States. On August 15, 1861, he was commissioned brigadier-general in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and at the battle of Pea Ridge he commanded a brigade of Indians. Pike's Civil War career was unfortunate, to say the least, and ultimately resulted in his arrest by General Hindman and the remark by General Douglas Cooper that he was "either insane or untrue to the South." With the Indian troops Pike fought at Elkhorn Tavern, and their dubious conduct reflected, perhaps unjustly, on Pike. (Some of Pike's Indian troops were reported to have scalped Union dead at the Leetown battlefield at Pea Ridge, others broke and ran when exposed to federal artillery fire.) He later alleged they had been recruited only for service in defense of their own territory. In his defense, it must also be noted that Pike had little opportunity to work with or drill his Indian troops.) When the deaths of Generals McCulloch and McIntosh left him as the senior surviving Confederate officer at Leetown, Pike was ineffective in rallying or reorganizing his troops. He returned with his regiments to the Indian Territory where he continued to quarrel with the Confederate command in Little Rock. After much acrimony Pike resigned his Confederate commission on July 12, 1862; and his resignation was accepted on November 5, 1862.
Pike lived in semi-retirement during the balance of the war, and after it ended, he was regarded with suspicion by both parties to the conflict. He was indicted for treason by the United States authorities, but was subsequently restored to his civil rights. After the war he resided in Memphis, Tennessee, and edited the Memphis Appeal in 1867. The next year he moved to Washington, D. C., and practiced in the courts until 1880. During the remainder of his life he devoted his attention to writing legal treatises and expounding the morals and dogma of the Masonic Order. He was the highest Masonic dignitary in the United States, and was author of several valuable Masonic works. He died in the house of the Scottish Rite Temple, Washington, DC on April 2, 1891, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery there.
Lucius Eugene POLK (1833-1892)
Brigadier-General Lucius Eugene Polk was born at Salisbury, N. C., on July 10, 1833. His family moved to a plantation near Columbia, TN when he was two years old. Polk graduated from the University of Virginia in 1852 and was living in Helena, Arkansas at the opening of the civil war, when he enlisted as a private in the Yell Rifles in 1861, but was soon made first lieutenant in Company B, Fifteenth Arkansas, Cleburne's regiment. Serving in the west under Hardee, his regiment was, with other troops of that command, transferred to the east side of the Mississippi early in 1862. At Shiloh, Polk conducted himself with great gallantry and received a wound. On the 11th of April he was commissioned colonel of his regiment. At Richmond, Ky., he was severely wounded early in the fight, but was back with the army in time for the Murfreesboro campaign. He was commissioned brigadier-general on the i3th of December, 1862, and participated with conspicuous gallantry in the battle of Murfreesboro, in command of Cleburne's old brigade. For his part in this fierce conflict he was mentioned in terms of high praiseby Cleburne, Hardee and Bragg. At Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, Polk's brigade maintained its reputation for valor and efficiency. At Ringgold gap, when Cleburne saved by his splendid fight the artillery and trains of Bragg's retreating army, Brigadier-General Polk was included with Lowrey, Govan and Granbury in a very high testimonial of merit. Cleburne said of them: "Four better officers are not in the service of the Confederacy." One might well be proud of such commendation from the "Stonewall of the West." In the spring of 1862 came the fierce and protracted grapple of the armies of the West, which, beginning at Dalton, had but little cessation until Hood retired from the trenches of Atlanta on September 1st. Polk's command bore an honorable part in the marching, entrenching and fighting of this wearisome campaign. At Kennesaw Mountain, not far from where his illustrious kinsman, Leonidas Polk, lost his life, Gen. L. E. Polk was severely wounded in the thigh by a cannon ball and was too badly crippled for further service in the field. He retired from the army with the admiration and regret of officers and men, who so well knew his worth, and made his home on the family plantation near Columbia in Maury county, Tennessee. In 1884 he was elected a delegate to the national Democratic convention at Chicago. On January I, 1887, he was elected to the State senate of Tennessee. Two of his sons served in the Spanish-American War, and one of them was subsequently a member of Congress. General Polk lived quietly until his death at his home in Columbia on December 1, 1892. He is buried in St. John's Churchyard at Ashwood, near Columbia, Tennessee.
John Selden ROANE (1817-1867)
John Selden Roane was born in Wilson County, Tennessee, January 8, 1817. Educated at Cumberland College in Kentucky, he followed an elder brother to Arkansas, and in 1844 was elected to the state legislature, and became its speaker.
On the opening of the war with Mexico, he was made lieutenant-colonel in the Arkansas regiment of which Colonel Yell was commander. At the battle of Buena Vista, in repelling a furious charge of the Mexican lancers, Colonel Yell was slain and Roane succeeded him in command. After the close of the war he returned to Arkansas, again entered the field of politics, and became governor of Arkansas in 1849, serving until 1852. His administration was notable for his advocacy of a state system of roads and educational facilities. He was always very jealous of the honor of his native State. The versatile and eccentric Albert Pike, who in the Mexican war had been an officer in the regiment of the dashing Col. Charles May, wrote an article on the battle of Buena Vista in which he commented on the Arkansas troops at that battle in terms which Governor Roane considered derogatory to the military character of his regiment. Thereupon he challenged Captain Pike to a duel. The challenge was accepted and the duel fought, but with no harm to either antagonist.
Roane does not seem to have been among the first to spring to arms in defense of the South, and was known as an opponent of secession. He entered the military service of the Confederate States, and on March 20, 1862, was made brigadier-general. When Van Dorn at the bidding of the Confederate government took his army across the Mississippi, leaving Arkansas and Missouri almost defenseless, he assigned Brigadier General Roane to the command of Arkansas. Roane had been governor of the State, was amiable and popular, as well as brave and zealous for the South. The task before him was one that might appall even a man of great military experience. There were no troops at that time in the State, except a few companies of militia, badly organized and poorly armed. Besides these, there were a few thousand Indian, and mixed Indian and white, troops in the Indian Territory under General Albert Pike. But they were unreliable and had to be treated with great consideration. Under these circumstances, with the people discouraged and hence apathetic, and the governor and State officers about to abandon the capital, things were in a desperate state. General Roane could do nothing except keep what forces he had together, the best he might. This he did until General Hindman came, and bringing order out of chaos, succeeded by his peculiar administrative ability in restoring for awhile the fortunes of the Confederacy in that quarter. General Roane and his brigade took an active part in the battle of Prairie Grove and in all the fighting and marching in the Arkansas division of the Trans-Mississippi department. He served in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas until the end of the war, principally in garrison and on detached duty. Paroled at Shreveport, Louisiana, June 11, 1865, General Roane retired to his home at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he died on April 8, 1867. He is buried in Little Rock.
Daniel Harris REYNOLDS (1832-1902)
.Daniel Harris Reynolds, a native of Ohio, was born at Centerburg, December 14, 1832. He was educated at the Ohio Wesleyan University, settled in Somerville, Fayette county, Tennessee, in 1856, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. In May of the latter year he moved to Arkansas and settled at Lake Village in Chicot county. Although a Northerner by birth, he was all Southern in sentiment. There were many others like him in the South. When Arkansas was about to secede from the Union, he raised a company for Confederate service and was elected its captain May 25, 1861, receiving his commission from the Confederate government on June 14th of the same year. This company was attached to the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles under Col. T. J. Churchill, and shared in the battle of Wilson's Creek, in which the Union general, Lyon, was defeated and slain. This regiment was engaged in many skirmishes in Missouri and Arkansas until ordered to the east side of the Mississippi in the spring of 1862, when the army of Van Dorn was brought over to reinforce the Confederate army near Corinth. On the 14th of April, 1862, Captain Reynolds was promoted to major, and on May 1st, to lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. This command was part of the Army of Kentucky under Kirby Smith in east Tennessee and Kentucky in 1862, and with Bragg until that officer retired from the command of the Army of the Tennessee. Gen. Bushrod Johnson, in his report of the operations of his division in the battle of Chickamauga, says: "I especially noticed the faithful toil and heroic conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, of the First battalion of dismounted rifles, McNair's brigade, who was conspicuous in his efforts to preserve our lines and encourage and press on our men. For hours he, with many other officers, faithfully and incessantly labored in this duty." From the day of this battle, September 20, 1863, dates his commission as colonel in the army of the Confederate States. Just before the opening of the Dalton-Atlanta campaign he was commissioned brigadier to rank from March 5, 1864. He followed bravely the fortunes of the Army of Tennessee up to the battle of Nashville and the retreat from that disastrous field. On this retreat the brigade of General Reynolds formed part of the splendid rear guard which did its duty so bravely as to win the praises even of the enemy. He was so badly wounded at Bentonville as to necessitate the amputation of one of his legs.
Paroled at Charlottesville, Virginia, on May 29, 1865, General Reynolds returned to his home in Lake Village, Arkansas and resumed his law practice. He served one term in the Arkansas state senate (1866-67), after which he resided in Lake Village until his death there on March 14, 1902. He is buried in Lake Village Cemetery.
Albert RUST (1818-1870)
Albert Rust was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, in 1818. Emigrating to Arkansas about the year 1837, he settled in Union County, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He served in the state legislature from 1842 to 1848, and from 1852 to 1854. In 1854 he was elected to Congress. He was defeated for re-election in 1856, but ran again in 1858 and was successful, serving until March 3, 1861.
As colonel of the 3rd Arkansas Infantry, a regiment which he had recruited, he took part in the Cheat Mountain campaign in Western Virginia under General Robert E. Lee in the autumn of 1861. He served under Stonewall Jackson the following winter, and was appointed brigadier general to rank from March 4, 1862. Rust was initially assigned to a command back in Arkansas where he led the Confederate forces in the skirmish at Hill's Plantation. He served at Shiloh, and then commanded a brigade in Van Dorn's Army of the West in the battle of Corinth the next October. Following the defeat at Corinth and the subsequent reorganization of the Army of the West, Rust was sent back across the Mississippi in April 1863 with orders to report to General Sterling Price. Thereafter he served under General Hindman in Arkansas, and under Generals Pemberton and Richard Taylor in Louisiana.
His fortune swept away by the war, General Rust moved from his former home at El Dorado, Arkansas, to a farm on the north side of the Arkansas River in the vicinity of Little Rock, where he died on April 4, 1870. Although contemporary newspaper accounts of the funeral record that he was buried in Mount Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, his grave cannot now be identified. No less an authority than the Biographical Directory of the American Congress states he was interred at El Dorado, but this is incorrect. General Rust is buried in an unmarked grave within a few yards of the Confederate monument in Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock, however a memorial marker in his name is placed in the Confederate section of the adjacent Little Rock National Cemetery.
James Camp TAPPAN (1825-1906)
James Camp Tappan, the son of parents from Newburyport, Massachusetts, was born in Franklin, Tennessee, on September 9, 1825. Educated at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and at Yale, from which he was graduated in 1845, he studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi and was admitted to the bar in 1846. Removing to Helena, Arkansas, he served two terms in the legislature of that state, the last as speaker. He was also elected a circuit court judge. His New England antecedents notwithstanding, Tappan promptly offered his services to the Confederate cause, and in May 1861 was commissioned colonel of the 13th Arkansas Infantry. He was commended by General Leonidas Polk for his dispositions at the battle of Belmont, and led his regiment at Shiloh where it participated in repeated charges on the celebrated "Hornets' Nest." Colonel Tappan then took part in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and fought at Richmond and Perryville. Appointed brigadier general on November 5, 1862, he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department. In 1863 he commanded a brigade under General Sterling Price. He fought with great credit at Pleasant Hill in the Red River campaign of 1864 against Banks, and his division (Churchill's) was thereafter immediately sent against Steele. He participated in the battle of Jenkins' Ferry and took part in Price's last raid into Missouri.
Returning to Helena after the war, General Tappan resumed his law practice and again served in the legislature, twice declining the Democratic nomination for governor. At the time of his death in Helena, March 19, 1906, he had been for many years dean of the Arkansas bar. He is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Helena.
James YELL (1811-1867)
James Yell, major general of Arkansas state forces, was born on March 10, 1811, in Bedford County, Tennessee, the son of Piercy Yell and the nephew of future Arkansas Governor Archibald Yell. The younger Yell was born in reduced circumstances, yet through his own unaided efforts practically educated himself. After gaining his majority Yell taught school for three years and served one term as Bedford County magistrate. Induced by his uncle, Colonel Yell, he moved to Arkansas in March, 1838. Settling in Pine Bluff, he began a remarkable career as a jury lawyer. Yell was styled the "Apollo of the bar" because of his commanding form and handsome face. He also was politically active, serving as Jefferson County's state senator from 1842 to 1845 In 1856 Yell was the Whig-American party candidate for governor; and in 1861 he was an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the Confederate Senate. A Bell (Whig) Elector in 1860, Yell was nonetheless an active secessionist. Elected to the Arkansas Secession Convention, Yell assumed the leadership of the secessionist delegates and sponsored the original ordinance of secession, which was narrowly defeated in the Secession Convention's first session. Ironically, he led the supporters of Governor Rector, who had been his political foe not a year before.
Yell was a general in the state militia before the war started. The secession convention elected Yell, the chairman of its military committee, as major general of the newly formed two-division "Army of Arkansas." His military career was short. He commanded five to six thousand state troops in northeast Arkansas in the summer of 1861, troops that were in training and never saw active duty. The governor soon desired to transfer Yell's troops from state to Confederate authority, but Yell protested. Yell went so far as to deliver a speech to the troops, urging them not to transfer to Confederate service unless they themselves voted so. The Arkansas Gazette, while admitting that Yell "is a man of personal courage," thought that Yell should be shot for his conduct, but that "his sublime ignorance entitled him to an acquittal on a plea of lunacy." The Arkansas Military Board (Yell had written the bill creating the board) removed Yell from command on July 23,1861, and he took no further active part in the war. Disillusioned, he spent his time denouncing the Confederate government as "a fraud and a failure" and used his legal talents to help arrested Unionists. Much of the remainder of the war he spent with relatives in Texas.
After the war he returned to his Pine Bluff home, where he died of pneumonia on September 5, 1867. It is said that his death was hastened by the burden of his debts, Yell having advanced large sums of his personal fortune to pay and equip Confederate troops. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Bellwood Cemetery in Pine Bluff, his gravesite marked by a brick sepulcher that has long since crumbled away.
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