Clark County Artillery (Wiggins’ Battery)

Second Arkansas Light Artillery.

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"

The Clark County Artillery was organized at Arkadelphia, Clark county, Arkansas, in May 1861, by Franklin Roberts, a 40-year-old Arkadelphia watchmaker.  A total of 94 men, mostly from Clark county, with a few from neighboring Hot Spring county, joined the company at its organization, and elected Franklin Roberts as captain; Peter E. Greene, first lieutenant; William C. Adams, second lieutenant; and W. T. Crouch, third lieutenant.  After completing its organization, the Clark County Artillery marched to Little Rock, where they enlisted in the Confederate service, July 15, 1861.

Roberts’ battery initially had a hard time getting into action.  It was ordered to Pitman’s Ferry, near Pocahontas in northeast Arkansas, a major Confederate depot and troop staging area, where the men expected to be sent across the Mississippi River with Hardee’s brigade.  However, the depot commander, Colonel Solon Borland, put a “hold” on the battery’s orders, and kept them at Pitman’s Ferry, while the rest of the troops marched off to Kentucky.  Colonel Borland feared a Federal attack on Pitman’s Ferry, and desperately wanted to keep this light artillery battery with him.  (For background information about the situation at Pitman’s Ferry, refer to the 1st Arkansas 30-Days Volunteers page on this website.)  After a couple of months, General Hardee finally gained the release of the Clark County Artillery from garrison duty at Pitman’s Ferry, and the battery was ordered east of the Mississippi, where it would spend the rest of the war.

On May 25, 1862, Captain Roberts resigned, and Jannedens H. Wiggins, who had risen from first sergeant to first lieutenant, was appointed as captain.  The battery would hereafter be known as Wiggins’ Battery, and the compiled service records of the men are filed under this designation at the National Archives.  The battery was equipped as “horse artillery,” a fully-mounted and extremely mobile light battery tasked to accompany and support cavalry units, and was assigned to General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  In order to support the rapid, fluid movements of Forrest’s cavalry, Wiggins’ battery often operated in three widely separated two-gun sections.  On June 27, 1863, disaster struck the Clark County Artillery when the section commanded by Captain Wiggins was cut off by Federal cavalry at Shelbyville, Tennessee.  The isolated 30-man section was over-run and captured.  The enlisted men were sent to the U.S. military prison at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, Illinois.  For reasons not yet fully researched, the men of the Clark County Artillery appear to have been singled out by the Federal authorities for harsher than normal treatment.  They were not included in the general parole of prisoners in April and May of 1865, but were held well into the summer of that year before finally being released.  Captain Wiggins was sent to the officers’ prison on Johnson’s Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, and was exchanged before the end of the war.

The battery received two augmentations of men to replace its losses during the war.  On July 23, 1862, a number of men from Captain Thomas M. Austin’s disbanded Arkansas light battery were assigned to the Clark County Artillery.  In late 1862 a number of men were transferred in from the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment.

The battery continued to operate in sections, each commanded by a lieutenant, for most of the rest of the war.  For a time the battery was attached to the 14th Georgia Artillery Battalion.  The battery suffered heavy losses during the last months of the war.  Captain Wiggins, just out of prison, found his battery in North Carolina, where it was eventually cut off from the main body of the Confederate army and forced to surrender.  About 160 men served with the Clark County Artillery during the war.  Captain Wiggins and ten of his men were all that remained when they surrendered at Newton, North Carolina, April 19, 1865.

On September 21, 1907, a reunion of the survivors of the Clark County Artillery was held at Arkadelphia.  Only four men—Ed Browning, Dave Dickinson, Ben Johnson and Sam Rudisill—showed up.  “To those who had the pleasure of witnessing the meeting and listening to the many adventures and escapes, to the real fun and deprivations, to the sad deaths and home-coming as told by these few survivors, it was a treat which seldom falls to any one so many years after the scenes of the conflict had passed.”—The Southern Standard, Arkadelphia, October 10, 1907.
 
 

Adams, William C— Second Lieutenant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Allison, Albert—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Anderson, Joseph A—Private; enlisted at Shelbyville, Tennessee, March 18, 1863.

Anderson, Richard Augustus—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Andrews, Francis Marion—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ault, Jacob J—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bacon, E C—Private; enlisted at Oxford, Alabama, April 25, 1864.

Ballew, Joseph M—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Barry, Andrew L —Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bass, St. John A—Private; enlisted at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, October 7, 1861.

Berry, David W—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Berry, James H—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Blake, A A—Musician; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bourland, D Henderson—Musician; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bourland, Gabriel L—Third Corporal; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Brown, J Larkin—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Brown, William A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Brown, William Allen—Private; enlisted at Clarksville, Arkansas, October 7, 1861.

Browning, William Edward—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bruce, William W—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bryant, James P—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Bunch, William A—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment.

Burt, J L—Private; enlisted April 1, 1863.

Callaway, Ab H—Private; no further information.

Callaway, J Wylie—Third Sergeant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Callaway, Joseph W—Private; enlisted at Chattanooga, Tennessee, August 28, 1862.

Callaway, Peter T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Callaway, Thomas M—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Campbell, William T—Fourth Sergeant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Carter, George B—Private; transferred from 1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment, June 17, 1862.

Carter, John C—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Coggins, S H—Private; no enlistment information.

Conyers, J D—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry, 1862.

Cronin, D J—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Crouch, W T—Third Lieutenant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Crow, J W—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Crow, W J—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Dawson, G T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, May 12, 1862.

Dawson, James Rufus—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, May 12, 1862.

Dawson, Robert C—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Denton, George Washington—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Denton, Warren J—Private; transferred from 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles.

Dickinson, David K—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Dodd, William F—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Douglas, Joseph—Private; transferred from 1st Arkansas Infantry, 1863.

Duke, William M—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Dwyer, J D—Private; enlisted at Springville, Alabama, August 12, 1862.

Eason, Isaac Newton—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Eason, Thomas N—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Edwards, Robert R—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Edwards, Thomas—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ellis, Thomas M—First Corporal; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Fairbairn, George A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Fitzpatrick, Martin—Private; transferred from 5th Arkansas Infantry, August 17, 1862.

Fowler, Murray—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Gaither, David M—Private; enlisted at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, October 7, 1861.

Gaither, Eli—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Gary, C E—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Gary, Thomas L—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Grant, T P—Private; transferred from 10th Confederate Cavalry, December 1, 1864.

Graves, George H—Private; no information.

Graves, Nathan—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Greene, Peter E—First Lieutenant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Gresham, W H A—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Guice, Arthur L—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Haistin, T W—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Hale, Samuel A—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Ham, C Eli—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Harris, Thomas A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hart, William Henry—Private; enlisted at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, October 7, 1861.

Hawks, F N—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hay, John William—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Hearn, Rufus D—Second Corporal; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hemphill, Thomas G—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hitchcock, Leonidas P—Musician; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hogan, J F—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Horne, Hugh James Perry—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Horne, William Savage—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Hudson, Wesley—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Jackson, Z B—Private; enlisted at Gadsden, Alabama, August 18, 1863.

Jarman, Thomas T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Johnson, Benjamin Franklin—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Johnson, David A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Johnson, J P—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Johnston, Richard A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Johnston, S A—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Jones, William R—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Killough, J N—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Langford, John H—Private; enlisted at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 24, 1862.

Lawson, Matthew Lyle—Private; transferred from 4th Alabama Cavalry.

Lee, E H—Private; no information.

Lester, Finley C—Private; transferred from 51st Alabama Mounted Infantry.

Logan, W G—Private; enlisted at Pitman’s Ferry, Arkansas, September 11, 1861.

Lyman, T David—Private; no information.

McClure, W K—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

McCollum, J T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

McDaniel, John R—Fifth Sergeant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

McDermott, Thomas E—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Maughan, Mitchell D—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Maynard, William—Private; enlisted at Arkadelphia, Arkansas, October 7, 1861.

Meeks, Wesley—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Middleton, John W—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Morehead, James T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Morehead, Thaddeus F—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Mountain, Thomas M—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Mull, John W—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Murdock, F Carson—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Newsom, Alfred—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Norton, James A—Private; enlisted in Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

O’Baugh, James A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ogle, Samuel J—Fourth Corporal; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Overton, Lloyd F—Second Sergeant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Patterson, Thomas—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Paulk, John J—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Paulk, William—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Paulk, William J—Private; enlisted at Cedar Bluff, Alabama, September 1, 1863.

Philbin, John H—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Plant, John W—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Randle, Edwin Daniel—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Reames, Rhodes E—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Reynolds, George Washington—Private, transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Riorden, John—Private; no information.

Roberts, Franklin—Captain; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Roden, James Calvin—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Rogers, Edwin O—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Rogers, Erastus T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ross, D T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ross, John D—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Rudisill, Samuel A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Ryals, William M—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Ryan, Benjamin L—Private; no information.

Sample, C G—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Shackleford, J S—Private; enlisted at Corinth, Mississippi, April 8, 1862.

Shea, Michael—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Shickles, M V—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Singleton, John R—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Skillern, William F—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Smith, J D—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Smith, John J—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Smith, John Newton—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Stell, John Wesley—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Story, James W—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Succop, Henry—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Taff, E A—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Tenny, John—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Thompson, Andrew R M—Private; transferred from 1st Arkansas Infantry, May 26, 1862.

Townsend, William A—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Tucker, James—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

Turner, Leonard—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Uink, William—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Vaden, John B—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Wagoner, John—Private; enlisted at Oxford, Alabama, May 5, 1864.

Weir, William Henry—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Welch, John—Private; transferred from Austin’s Arkansas Battery, July 23, 1862.

White, George Washington—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Wiggins, Jannedens H—First Sergeant; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Wilson, Daniel J—Private; transferred from 1st Alabama Cavalry.

Wilson, W B—Private; enlisted at Oxford, Alabama, August 11, 1862.

Wingo, A—Private; no information.

Wingo, Napoleon Bonaparte—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

Yuess, William T—Private; enlisted at Little Rock, Arkansas, July 15, 1861.

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 me Jeri Helms Fultz