Civil War In Arkansas

This Week in the Civil War

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 22: Virginia ratifies secession.

On May 23, 1861, voters in a Virginia convention ratify an ordinance for the state's secession from the Union as a divided nation lurched toward all-out war. South Carolina had been the first state to secede in December 1860. It was followed afterward by six other Southern slave states, including North Carolina on May 20. Virginia initially was among states seeking a way out of the crisis and delegates initially opposed secession in February 1861. But the Confederate artillery attack on federal troops at Fort Sumter, S.C., in April joins other developments in shifting the mood on the political landscape. In late May, Richmond replaces Montgomery, Ala., as the capital of the Confederacy and its president, Jefferson Davis, arrived there to great fanfare on May 29, 1861. Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina secede this month, bringing to 11 the number of Southern states forming the Confederacy.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 29: Lincoln's troops off Virginia, shots fired.

President Abraham Lincoln, moving to enforce a previously declared blockade on Southern seaports, bolsters Union forces at Fort Monroe near Hampton, Va., one key to his strategy to cut supply lines to secessionists and dominate the coast between Virginia and the Carolinas.

Both sides are on edge. A correspondent for The Associated Press reports from Fort Monroe in late May that the area bristles with Union troops: "A force of 7,500 men, including a few regulars and 4 pieces of artillery, formed to-day ... near the mouth of the James River, about ten miles from Fortress Monroe." The dispatch adds: "The rebel battery fired four shots ... and though over three miles distant, the shot fell but little short, indicating that the guns of the rebel battery are of the heaviest calibre." Other dispatches report a number of runaway slaves are streaming to the fort from the Virginia countryside and Union commanders are holding them as "contraband of war." One escaped slave is quoted in a May 27 dispatch of the Boston Journal as saying: "We heard that if we could get in here we should be free, or, at any rate, we should be among friends."

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, June 5: The business of war, an early confrontation.

The New York Tribune, echoing the uncertainty of Northerners and Southerners alike, speculates on the shape and scope of the looming war and the Union strategy as the hot summer approaches: "During the coming Summer our troops will doubtless be chiefly employed in holding the forts, navy yards, and arsenals now in our possession in the seceded States; in fortifying and protecting the national Capital and ... (in) being prepared to protect loyal and punish rebellious citizens." But such newspaper speculation doesn't foresee the grinding July battles on the horizon, nor the length and final cost of the conflict, adding "when autumn shall usher in invigorating breezes, heavy columns will descend into the rebel territories ... till our flag waves in triumph ..." Other dispatches report Washington is well garrisoned with troops from the North and special provisions have been made for the feeding of such a fighting force. The secretary of war requisitions rail cars from the North to transport troops toward Manassas Junction, northern Virginia, for battles to come. In southern Virginia, an early battle erupts June 10 when Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler sends forces from Hampton and Newport News toward Confederates stationed at Little and Big Bethel, Va. The federal forces attack along a road, are turned back and one commander is killed as Union forces withdraw. There are reports of at least 1 Confederate killed and others wounded.

Civil War Flag Exhibit In Rogers | The Arkansas Toothpick - The ...

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Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (1828-1864)

"I am with the South in death, in victory or defeat. I never owned a Negro and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions.

In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the constitution and the fundamental principles of the government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed."

"If this cause that is so dear to my heart is doomed to fail, then I pray heaven may let me fall with it, while my face is turned toward the enemy and my right arm battling for that which I know to be right."

The Rogers Historical Museum has developed a new four-panel community exhibit on the flags of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Made possible in part by a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage, funded by your 1/8 cent conservation tax, Amendment 75, Rally Around the Flag is an Arkansas Heritage Month exhibit and an official part of the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial. Now on view at the Rogers Adult Wellness Center, this community exhibit will continue to circulate to other local venues including the Rogers City Hall and the Center for Nonprofits. At the completion of the exhibit’s tour to local venues, the museum will make it available to other Arkansas museums or libraries for the cost of transportation and insurance. For more information on this and other Rogers Historical Museum community exhibits, call 479-621-1154 or visit the community exhibits page of the museum website, www.rogersarkansas.com/museum. For information on borrowing the exhibit when it becomes available, contact Gaye Bland at 479-621-1154 or gbland@rogersark.org.

Dr.

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The Civil War in Arkansas, a curriculum for students of Arkansas history ; 1999-2000 school year

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The aftermath of the civil war, in Arkansas

The Flags of Civil War Arkansas