Chapter 11:
- Arkansas regiments -- their organization and commanders -- a brief narrative of their service.
The Second Arkansas infantry, organized by the State military board, June, 1861, elected John Rene Gratiot, of Washington, colonel; David Provence, lieutenant-colonel; S. B. Ward, major. The regimental staff was chosen as follows: Granville Wilcox, of Van Buren, adjutant; Malcolm Simms, of Hempstead, quartermaster; Elias B. Moore. of Fayetteville, commissary. The company organization after the election of Colonel Gratiot, who had been captain of Company A, was as follows, so far as is now recalled:
Company A, Hempstead county, Capt. Daniel W. Jones; Company B, Washington county, Capt. S. K. Bell; Company C, Crawford county, Capt. T. B. Brown; Company E, Sebastian county, Capt. John Griffith; Company F, Crawford county, Capt. James Stuart. Colonel Gratiot, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and a graduate of the military academy at West Point, served during the Mexican war as lieutenant of artillery, and then, resigning his commission and studying law, settled at the town of Washington, Hempstead county, in 1848, but did not enter actively in the practice of the profession His sister, wife of Bernard Hempstead, resided there. The family was of French extraction.
On the call for troops to resist invasion he offered his services, which were gladly accepted, and he was successively made captain and colonel of the first regiment organized for State service. How he commanded his regiment at Oak Hills, and what splendid service was rendered [285] by his men in that engagement, has already been related. His regiment went through the Kentucky and Georgia campaigns, and was more than decimated in the bloody battles east of the Mississippi river.
The Second Arkansas Mounted Riflemen was organized in the summer of 1861, with James McIntosh, colonel; Ben T. Embry, lieutenant-colonel;—Brown, major; W. D. DeBerry, surgeon; W. A. C. Sayle, assistant surgeon. Colonel McIntosh was educated at the United States military academy. He was impetuous to a degree that scorned all caution. Being ordered by General McCulloch into the Indian Territory against the Creek chief, Hopoeithleyohola, he dispersed the Indian Federal organization. It is said his regiment was deployed in groups of two for five miles, when he at its head began the attack upon the Indian camp. He was speedily promoted to brigadier-general, and Embry became colonel. The captains were Gibson, Parker, King, Arrington, Harris Flanagin, Witherspoon, Brown and Gamble. General McIntosh was killed at the battle of Elkhorn Tavern, or Pea Ridge. The regiment was ordered to Mississippi and was reorganized at Corinth, when Capt. Harris Flanagin was elected colonel; Maj. J. A. Williamson, lieutenant-colonel; Capt. James P. Eagle, major. Colonel Flanagin being elected governor of the State, Williamson became colonel and Eagle, lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Williamson lost a leg at the battle of Resaca, May, 1864, and J. T. Smith, appointed colonel, was killed in battle July 28th, James P. Eagle then succeeding him as colonel of the regiment. Ten years afterward, Colonel Eagle was speaker of the house of representatives, and after another decade was elected governor of Arkansas, as which he served two terms. Captain Witherspoon became attorney-general. The regiment took part in the battles of Oak Hills and Elkhorn, and in the Kentucky campaign under E. Kirby Smith. Among its battles were Richmond, Ky., Murfreesboro, Jackson, Miss., Chickamauga, [286] Resaca, Atlanta, Ezra Church, Lovejoy's Station, Jonesboro, Moore's Station, Franklin, Tenn., Nashville, Sugar Creek, and Bentonville, N. C. It surrendered with Johnston, April 26, 1865, at Greensboro, N. C.
The Third Arkansas State regiment, cavalry, which served in the brigade of Gen. N. B. Pearce at Oak Hills, was commanded by Col. De Rosey Carroll, a planter advanced in years, and an ardent Southerner. He came to the State from near Huntsville, Ala, and was originally from Maryland. Company A was commanded by Captain Carroll; B, by Captain Lews; C, by Captain Armstrong; D, by Captain Perkins; F, by Captain McKissick; G, by Captain Walker; H, by Captain Parks; I, by Captain Withers. Upon orders of the military board transferring the
