The information on these  pages was edited and graciously  given to the Edward G. Gerdes Arkansas Civil War page by Bryan R. Howerton, who we thank so much.    He can be reached and thanked at this email address!  "Bryan R. Howerton"

This short-lived regiment was organized at Camp Borland, near Pocahontas, Randolph county, Arkansas, in November 1861, and mustered out the following month.

Beginning about May 1861, Pocahontas and the nearby strategically important Pitman’s Ferry became an important Confederate military depot, and also served as the headquarters of the Military District of Northern Arkansas.  During the initial call-up of troops for State and Confederate service in May and June of 1861, most of the new regiments were ordered to Pitman’s Ferry for organization and training.  Virtually all the regiments stationed here were sent east of the Mississippi River in September and October of 1861, leaving the “gateway to Arkansas” defenseless.  A second round of recruiting for new regiments was just getting underway when Colonel Solon Borland, depot commander, received vague reports of enemy movements in Missouri.  Although this movement of Union troops eventually headed southwest, culminating in the battle of Pea Ridge the following spring, the initial reports seemed to indicate a possible movement on Pitman’s Ferry.  On November 5, 1861, Colonel Borland issued an appeal for volunteers in the surrounding counties to hastily organize companies for the defense of Pitman’s Ferry until new regular Confederate regiments could be organized and dispatched.

Some two dozen of these emergency companies were organized in Greene, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence and Randolph counties, including the areas now encompassed in present-day Clay, Cleburne, Sharp and Woodruff counties.  They converged on Pocahontas and Pitman’s Ferry, beginning about November 9, and were mustered into Confederate service for a period of thirty days.  Few records of these hastily-organized and short-lived companies have survived.  It appears that three thirty-day regiments were organized from these companies.

The First Arkansas Regiment, 30-Day Volunteers (infantry), seems to have been formally organized on November 23—at least that is the date of the appointments of the field and staff officers—under command of Colonel James Haywood McCaleb.  A Second Arkansas Regiment, 30-Day Volunteers (infantry), may not have completed its organization—only the records of one battalion of this regiment have survived.  A Third Arkansas Regiment, 30-Day Volunteers (cavalry), almost surely never completely organized—only the rosters of two mounted companies, under Captains Reves and Hooker, have survived.  Five or six other companies appear to have never been assigned to any regiment.

The period of enlistment for these emergency companies expired from mid-December to early January, about the time that the new regular regiments arrived, and they were discharged and sent home.  Most of the volunteers subsequently enlisted in various regiments organized in the third round of troop mobilization in March and April of 1862.

The companies comprising the First Arkansas Regiment, 30-Day Volunteers, included:

Company A—Capt. A. G. Kelsey—Randolph and Lawrence counties.
Company B—Capt. John W. Peter—Sharp, Independence and Izard counties.
Company C—Capt. M. Shelby Kennard—Independence county.
Company D—Capt. Thomas S. Simington—Randolph county.
Company E—Capt. Joshua Wann—Sharp county.
Company F—Capt. Israel Milligan—Sharp and Izard counties.
Company G—Capt. Daniel Yeager—Sharp county.
Company H—Capt. James Campbell Anderson—Greene and Clay counties.
Company  I—Capt. Beverly B. Owens—Independence county.
Company K—Capt. L. W. Robertson—Lawrence and Sharp counties.

2001 -copyright -The above information may be used for non-commercial historical and genealogical purposes only and with the consent of the page owner may be copied for the same purposes so long as this noticeremains a part of the copied material. EDWARD G. GERDES

If you have any questions or comments or if you would like to have more information about the Civil War and Pension Records of the men who served in these Companies, contact Bryan R. Howerton or Jeri Helms Fultz