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3rd Arkansas
at Wilderness and Spotsylvania
As always, the Arkansans acquitted themselves with great galantry
and bravery.
By Cal
Collier
Cal
Collier served in the U.S. Air
Force, spending some of his time at LRAFB. A native of
Virginia, he grew up on the Civil War,
and, while he was in Arkansas,
became interested in the activities of
Arkansas’ Confederate soldiers. This
resulted in his writing of three books:
They’ll Do To Tie To, a history of
the Third Arkansas Infantry which served in the Army of Northern
Virginia;
First In, Last Out, a history of the
Capitol Guards (First Arkansas Infantry), which served in the Army
of Tennessee; and
The War Child’s Children, a history
of the Third Arkansas Cavalry, which served under
Forrest and Gen.
Joe Wheeler
(called the war child because of his slight stature).
Cal was a member of the
Arkansas Civil War Centennial Commission in the early sixties, and
is a Founding Member of our Round Table.
He and
Melba
moved to Baltimore
several years ago, to be near his children in the
Washington, D.C.,
area, and his last surviving sibling. He is an active member of the
Baltimore CWRT and has made several talks to that group. He has also
spoken to the National Congress of Civil War Round Tables and the
Confederate Historical Institute on several occasions.
In 2000,
he was the recipient of our group’s Patrick Cleburne Award, given
for contributions to Arkansas Civil War history, joining
Ed
Bearss, Jerry
Russell, Don
Hamilton, and
Bill O’Donnell,
who were the previous recipients. Since that time, former
Sen. Dale
Bumpers
has also become a recipient. This commemorative Calvary Sword is
only given to those who have made a large contribution to the civil
war community.
Each May,
Cal
and Melba return to
Little Rock for his Air Force squadron
re-union, and we take advantage of those visits to add an
outstanding program to our schedule.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE
3RD ARKANSAS
REGIMENT
The 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment
was organized by companies on July 5, 1861 and mustered into
Confederate service for the duration the War. When Dr. W.H.
Tebbs and Van H. Manning, a lawyer at Hamburg, Ashley county,
organized two companies in early 1861 and marched them to
Vicksburg, where they offered them to the Confederate States at
Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate secretary of war refused to
accept them.
The two officers
then went to
Montgomery, and by persistent
entreaty, succeeded at length in securing their admission to the
Confederate Army, for the war. Manning knew Congressman Albert Rust,
then the Congressional representative for his district in southern
Arkansas, obtained the assistance of his influence, and when Rust
decided to enter the military service of the Confederacy, persuaded
him to return to his home at Champagnolle, raise eight more
companies, and follow on to some rendezvous where together they
could organize a regiment for the service during the war.; Rust did
so, and joined Manning at Lynchburg, where the regiment was
organized, really the first, regiment from Arkansas, as regular
troops of the Confederacy, enlisted for the duration of the war.
 The
regiment was ordered to the mountains of
West Virginia, where it performed arduous
and discouraging service in the campaign on the Gauley and Cheat
rivers. Hard marching under Stonewall Jackson (whom Col. Rust later
described as an impracticable old schoolmaster who said grace before
he ate and prayed before going to bed) in the Valley Campaign
followed this. The regiment was engaged in the battles of Greenbrier
and Allegheny. Under General Jackson at
Winchester, in January 1862, the 3rd
Arkansas marched to Bath
and Romney, returned to
Winchester, and was ordered thence to
Fredericksburg and assigned to the brigade of
Gen. Theophilus
H. Holmes.
Colonel Rust was promoted to brigadier general about this time, and
was transferred to a command in the western armies.
Van Manning
was promoted to the colonel of the regiment succeeding Col. Rust,
the 3rd Arkansas was engaged in the
battles of White
Oak Swamp,
June 3, 1862, in
J.G. Walker's
brigade, on July 1, 1862 participated in the battle, of Malvern
Hill, and was at Sharpsburg on
September 17, 1862 where
Col., Manning was seriously
wounded. At Fredericksburg, again in
December 1862, the 3rd
Arkansas
was assigned to Hood's Texas Brigade, with which it remained, until
the end of the war.
Here the regiment
was additionally augmented by, the incorporation of Bronaugh's 2nd
Arkansas Infantry Battalion of five,
Arkansas
companies. The regiment was not engaged at Chancellorsville, being
engaged instead, with Longstreet's Corp.
at Suffolk.
The 3rd
Arkansas
participated in the, battle of Gettysburg
with Longstreet's Corps, fighting in and
in the vicinity, of the Devil's Den, and went with that corps to
Tennessee
in, September 1863 where it fought at
Chickamauga
(where the gallant Major, Reedy was mortally wounded),
Chattanooga, Wauhatchie, and in the siege of
Knoxville,
TN.
Returning to the
Army of Northern Virginia in the spring, of 1864, the regiment
fought with the Texas Brigade at the battle of the, Wilderness, May
6, 1864, marching at the double-quick several miles that morning to
save the Confederate line and subsequently throw Grant's forces,
back. Here Col. Manning
was shot through the thigh and captured, being detained, a prisoner
of war until July 1865.
The regiment moved
on to continue the, fight at Spotsylvania, and on to
Cold Harbor. The regiment was at Deep Run on August 6,
1864; at Petersburg
during the siege by Grant,
at High
Bridge
and Farmville in 1865, and surrendered at Appomattox Court House
with General Lee
on April 9, 1865. At
Appomattox, only 144 men remained to stack
their arms instead of the nearly 1,500 mustered throughout the war.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
MEETING NOTES
The CWRT sent a note to the family of Former State Historian,
John L.
Ferguson, (who died in March) and received
a nice a thank-you card from the family.
More News From the Infirmary,
Robert F.
Shaver, long time member and supporter
passed last Tuesday.
Last month, Don
Hamilton
mentioned several times the importance the
Corinth railroad crossing played in The
Battle of Shiloh. Here is the 22 square feet as it looks today in
Corinth.
Visit
www.civilwarbuff.org
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Make us your home page
New is information
on the Places Page about
Battle of Massard Prairie
Battle of Reed’s
Bridge
Devil’s Backbone
**********************************
PROGRAMS 2006
June 27: John
C. Scott,
NPS –
The Pea Ridge Story
including
Dr.
Doug
Scott’s recent
archeological survey of the battlefield
July 25: Dr.
Bobby Roberts
River War in Arkansas
August 22: Don
Nall
The Drummer Boy
September 26:
Michael
B.
Dougan
Snarling cormorants of newspaper filth:
" The Civil War Press of
Arkansas."
October 24: Fred
Williams
Federal Occupation of
Little Rock
November 28:
TBA
Election of Officers
December 2006 –
No meeting Scheduled in December
We Who Study
Must Also Strive To Save!
Confederate Memorial Day honors
fallen soldiers at Camp Nelson By
John N.
Felsher
Staff Writer
Standing in a damp field wearing a gray greatcoat, boots, a cavalry
hat and a belt buckle emblazoned with “CSA,”
E.J.
Hart looks like a figure who stepped out
of a history book.
HONORING THE WAR DEAD:
Rick Meadows, left, and
E.J.
Hart decorate
Camp Nelson
Confederate
Cemetery
on Confederate Memorial Day Wednesday.
A colonel in the 58th North Carolina Cavalry, a Civil War
re-enactment unit, Hart
often attempts to recreate or at least make people remember
history. On this chilly morning, mildly reminiscent of the
dreadful winter of 1862-63, Hart and
Rick Meadows, a Cabot
history buff, placed flowers at the foot of the memorial at
Camp Nelson
Confederate
Cemetery
Wednesday.
On April 26, Confederate Memorial Day, the two men paid homage
to the soldiers who fought on both sides of the most divisive
conflict in American history. They also honored all American
soldiers who fought in wars before or since. Both Hart and
Meadows claim family members who fought on one side or the other
during the Civil War.
“Confederate soldiers were American veterans, too,”
Hart said. “They fought for their homes. The
Confederate flag is not a racist symbol. It’s a symbol of our
heritage.”
Nearly 1.2 million American soldiers died during the Civil War,
more than all other American wars combined. Just the Union Army
suffered nearly as many casualties as American forces in both
the European and Pacific theaters combined during World War II.
Because of poor or nonexistent medical treatment, disease
probably killed more Civil War soldiers wearing either blue or
gray uniforms than bullets and cannonballs. At
Camp Nelson
during the winter of 1862-63, disease destroyed a Confederate
army before it even fired a shot in anger.
A typhoid epidemic and other diseases ravaged the 25,000 poorly
supplied soldiers gathered to defend
Little Rock from an anticipated attack by
Union troops. One of the first to die,
Brig. Gen. Allison
Nelson, commanded a combined army of
Texas and
Arkansas
soldiers. He fell to illness on Oct. 7, 1862. His troops buried
him at Mount
Holly Cemetery
in Little Rock.
The new commander, Brig. Gen.
Henry E.
McCullough, moved the unit from
present-day North Little Rock
to a bivouac at Camp
Hope two miles east of
Austin. He renamed the
cluster of tents “Camp
Nelson.”
Disease continued to besiege his bedraggled soldiers much worse
than any Union army could. Before the cold, wet winter of
1862-63 ended, he lost more than 1,500 soldiers from typhoid,
measles and other diseases. Sickness incapacitated many of the
starving, weak gray-clad survivors.
In contrast, the 40-day Union campaign to take
Little Rock
during the summer of 1863 cost the Federals 137 battle
casualties. The Confederates listed about 64 combat casualties
before surrendering the city on Sept. 10, 1863.
Before retreating from Little Rock,
surviving Confederate forces at
Camp Nelson
buried the men where they could, often in communal trenches.
Many other graves remain scattered throughout surrounding
property. Stones or rotting crossed sticks marked a few graves,
but most remained unmarked.
In 1898, a group of Arkansas Confederate veterans searched the
woods and discovered about 500 graves, most of them holding
unknown soldiers. One veteran,
James M.
Gately, donated a parcel of land four
miles southeast of the new
village
of Cabot.
The aging veterans reburied the remains at what became
Camp
Nelson
Confederate
Cemetery, today the only
all-Confederate cemetery in
Arkansas.
In 1905, the Arkansas Legislature appropriated $1,000 to build a
monument at the cemetery. Today, people can see the aging
12-foot tall obelisk and the headstones at the cemetery off
Cherry Road. After most of the
veterans died, nature reclaimed most of the cemetery.
For the past three years, Hart cut
the grass and maintained the cemetery grounds at his own
expense. Each Confederate Memorial Day, he places flowers at the
monument to honor the soldiers who served.
Confederate Memorial Day actually pre-dates the federal holiday.
As early as 1862, Union
and Confederate officers began noticing a grieving widow of a
Confederate soldier and her child placing flowers at unmarked
soldier graves. Other women took up the act of caring. Before
the war ended, the idea spread through many women’s groups.
In 1874,
Georgia
officially declared April 26 as a public holiday to honor its
war dead. On April 26, 1865, three weeks after Gen.
Robert
E. Lee’s
surrender at Appomattox,
Va.,
Gen. Joseph
E. Johnson
surrendered his army in North Carolina,
the last Confederate field army to fight the
Union. Some other states celebrate Confederate
Memorial Day on different dates. In 1867,
Nella L.
Sweet
wrote a hymn called “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” and
dedicated it to “the ladies of the South who are decorating the
graves of the Confederate dead.”
In 1868, Gen.
John Logan,
national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil
War veterans group, proclaimed May 30 as “Decoration Day.” He
chose that day as a time when flowers would be in bloom across
the country. His organization placed flowers on the graves of
both Union and Confederate
dead. In 1873, New
York
became the first state to make Decoration Day official.
Until after World War I, the “war to end all wars,” most
Southern states ignored the May date, preferring to honor their
dead on their own dates. After the horrors of that war ceased,
people began using the May date to honor soldiers who fought in
all wars.
The term “Memorial Day, wasn’t used until about 1882. It didn’t
come into widespread use until after World War II. In 1967,
federal law changed the name of the commemorative day, but the
U.S. Congress did not declare Memorial Day an official holiday
until 1971.
Celebrating The Heritage
The 9TH
annual Confederate Heritage Day ceremony was held April 15th
on the State Capital grounds, directly in front of the Confederate
Memorial. Sponsorded by the Central Arkansas Civil War Heritage
Trail and the Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans,
this heritage event was the largest held in the state.
Heritage Day is a celebration of three separate events:
Arkansas
Confederate History
and Heritage Month
Honoring the Arkansas
soldiers who died during the war years of 1861-1865 will be read at
the Confederate monument located at the northeast corner of the
capitol grounds. A bell will be rung following each name.
An estimated 60,000 Arkansawers enlisted in Confederate units and
that at least 6,800 are known to have been killed or died of disease
during the War.
Confederate Memorial Day
Confederate Memorial Day is a day celebrated in Southern states to
remember Confederate dead. It is generally held on the last Sunday
in April.
Immediately after the war ended in 1865, Southern women began the
tradition of scattering spring flowers on the graves of soldiers,
both Confederate and Union, buried
in their hometowns.
In 1868, the
United States
officially picked up the same tradition for the dead of all wars and
it became the national Memorial Day, now held on the last Monday in
May.
Confederate Flag Day
Confederate Flag Day was designated by
Arkansas
state Statute 69-110 and establishes the day as the Saturday
immediately preceding Easter Sunday.
Flag Day commemorates the wide variety of flags used by the
Confederate States government and the military units.
This was the ninth year that all three events have been combined
into one, and one large event with over 40 reenactors and over 100
spectators some dressed in period clothes. At least 16 different
patterns of flags were on display. Flags of
Arkansas
units and of the Confederate government and its army during the War.
Among the organizations that took part in the event are the Arkansas
Reenactors, Children of the Confederacy, United Daughters of the
Confederacy, Order of Confederate Rose, Sons of Confederate Veterans
and Military Order of Stars and Bars.
COMING TO
ARKANSAS
Sam
Davis
Youth Camp
Harriet,
Arkansas,
July 10-16, 2006
http://samdavis.scv.org/
In a survey conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis
in 2000, 65% of college to pass a high school equivalent American
history test:
- Only 23% correctly identified
James Madison
as the “Father of the Constitution”.
- Yet, 98% knew that “Snoop Doggy Dog” is a rapper.
- Just over half, 52% knew that
George Washington's
Farewell Address warned against establishing permanent alliances
with foreign governments.
- Yet, 99% correctly identified Beavis & Butthead.
In 1864, Major-General Patrick Cleburne prophetically warned: If the
South should lose, it means that the history of the heroic struggle
will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by
Northern school teachers, will be impressed by all of the influences
of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors and
our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.
You can send a child to the Sam Davis Youth Camp for one week this
summer. This fee includes room, meals, and educational materials.
The Camp will permit our next generation to discover the values that
made our Confederacy a great nation.
To register a sons or daughters send a check payable to The Sam
Davis Youth Camp, and mail to:
Sam
Davis
Camp
Post Office Box 59,
Columbia,
TN,
38402.
When your registration has been received and processed, you will
receive a confirmation by mail, followed by details regarding camp
facilities and scheduled activities. Registration Deadline: June 1,
2006
Co-Ed Camp: Monday, July 10 - Sunday, July 16, 2006 at the Shepherd
of the Ozarks
Christian
Center, located near
Harriet,
Arkansas; Boys Camp: Mid-June 2006 in
North Carolina. The cost for room, board,
and all activities and needed supplies is $495.00 for each camper.
Visit the camp website at http://samdavis.scv.org.
VISIT THE BATTLEFIELDS
WHEN YOU CAN...WHILE YOU CAN
SEE YOU TUESDAY NIGHT
for
Cal Collier
The battle goes on...
Help if you can...
GOD BLESS
AMERICA
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