ARKANSAS DAMNED YANKEES

UNION ARKANSAS REGIMENTS

FIRST ARKANSAS CAVALRY

Organized at Cassville and Springfield, M0, Summer 1862. Mustered in at Springfield 7 August 1862. Primary recruitment places Washington Co., Carroll Co., and Benton Co., AR; Barry and Green Cos. in M0. Service mainly in northwest Arkansas. Mustered out 20 August 1865. Total enlistments: 1,774.

SECOND ARKANSAS CAVALRY

Organized at Helena, AR and Pilot Knob, M0, July 1862. Mustered in at Helena, July 1862. Primary recruitment places Sebastian Co., Crawford Co., and Phillips Co., AR; Barry and Green Cos., in M0. Service mainly in northern Arkansas. Mustered out 20 August 1865. Total enlistments: 1,477.

Organized and mustered in at Little Rock, AR, February 1864. Primary recruitment places Conway, Yell and Pulaski Cos., in AR. Service in northern and central Arkansas, garrison duty at Lewisburg, AR and participation in the Camden campaign. Mustered out 20 August 1865. Total enlistments: 1,421.

Organized at Little Rock, AR, December 1863. Primary recruitment places Pulaski, Yell and Sebastian Cos. in AR. Service in central Arkansas and the Camden campaign. Mustered out 30 June 1865. Total enlistments: 1,464.

Organized at Fayetteville, AR and Springfield, M0, January to August 1863. Mustered in 31 August 1863. Primary recruitment Washington Co., AR. Service in northern Arkansas area and the Camden campaign. Mustered out 10 August 1864. Total enlist- ments: 183.

Organized at Springfield, MO and Fort Smith, AR, October 1863 to March 1864. Primary recruitment places Johnson, Sebastian and Yell Cos. in AR. Service in Fort Smith area, Little Rock, Clarksville and Lewisburg, AR. Mustered out 8 August 1865. Total enlistments: 1.000.

Organized at Batesville and Fort Smith, AR, January to May, 1864. Organization not completed, regiment transferred to Second Arkansas Infantry 28 October 1864. Service in north central and northwest Arkansas. Total enlistments: 165.

Organized at Helena, AR, 20 July 1862. Moved to St. Louis, MO October 1862. Heavy loss from disease. Mustered out 31 December 1862. Total enlistments: 379.

NOTE

Adjutant General Albert W. Bishop's Report of 1866 describes the progress of Union sentiment in Arkansas. Early in the war, "there was a substantial want of concert of action among Union men, and they quietly submitted to what they could not prevent, or fled for security to the caves and hills." After Pea Ridge, "the Union men of Arkansas began to appear within Federal lines." They assembled themselves at Cassville, Missouri, in sufficient numbers for M. La Rue Harrison of the 36th Illinois Infantry to organize them into a company and attach it to the 6th Missouri Cavalry. As more men joined, Harrison applied for authority to raise the First Arkansas Cavalry, and other units followed.

Bishop does note the majority of sentiment in Arkansas was "dis- loyal," or loyal to the Confederate States of America, and he notes, "a citizen of the State (of Arkansas) could do no act so odious to the majority as enlisting in the federal army. It was regarded as the clearest evidence of treason, and for a time there was a strong disposition not to accord 'Arkansas federals' the rights of prisoners of war."

Besides in northern and western Arkansas, there seem to have been nests of Federal sentiment in the Batesville and Conway County areas. Groups of Batesville men trooped off to Helena in General Curtis' wake in the summer of 1862 and died like flies from disease.

Bishop says "more than 10,000" men served in Arkansas regiments, so it appears the names of many are unrecorded both in his record and in the compiled service records.

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