The Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board

18th Arkansas Regiment, No. 2

The second 18th Arkansas Regiment is the one we usually think of when we see the designation “18th”, as it bore this designation through most of the war. This is the one usually identified as the 18th (Carroll’s) Arkansas Infantry.

The 18th Arkansas was organized at DeValls Bluff, Arkansas, on April 2, 1862, composed of ten companies from Arkansas, Dallas, Jefferson, Ouachita, Prairie, St. Francis, and Saline Counties. Capt. David Williamson Carroll, commanding Company K, was elected colonel.

The great measles epidemic of 1862 that swept through the ranks, killing hundreds of soldiers, may have originated in this regiment. At least, the first known deaths occurred in the 18th Arkansas. As the regiment marched to Fort Pillow, then to Corinth, death followed it like some kind of Typhoid Mary. By the time the 18th Arkansas Regiment settled into camp at Corinth, Mississippi, at the end of April 1862, the epidemic was raging throughout the army. The 18th Arkansas was decimated. Losses were so severe that a special election was held to replace the depleted ranks of its officers and non-commissioned officers. Colonel Carroll resigned, too ill to continue in service, and was succeeded by Col. John N. Daly. The regiment had lost so many men that when it fought at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862, it went into the fight with only a little over 300 men. It emerged from the battle with 43 men. The 18th Arkansas made a gallant charge across open ground and succeeded in reaching the enemy’s breastworks before the withering fire literally melted the regiment away. Colonel Daly led the charge on foot, and was mortally wounded. Capt. William Nelson Parish, commanding Company H, and one of the few officers left standing, was seen rallying the regiment to continue the charge before he, too, was shot down. He survived the battle, however, and when he recovered from his wounds was meritoriously promoted to lieutenant-colonel.

Colonel Daly died of his wounds on October 5, 1862, and was succeeded by Col. Robert Hamilton Crockett, of Arkansas County. Sorely depleted after the events of April to October 1862, the 18th Arkansas was field-consolidated with the 14th and 23rd Arkansas Regiments in February 1863. It went into garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and was captured when that place surrendered on July 9, 1863. The men were paroled and sent home, while the officers were sent to prisons in the North—all except for Lieutenants James W. Hellums and George P. Atkins, of Company K, who made a daring escape from the Union transport by jumping into the Mississippi River between Napoleon and Helena, and swimming ashore.

The paroled men were eventually consolidated into the 2nd Consolidated Arkansas Regiment, and spent the rest of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Army. They were stationed at Marshall, Texas, when the war ended.

I guess next I need to address the very confusing histories of the 19th Arkansas Regiment(s).