The northwestern part of Arkansas, at the beginning of the war, was very strongly against secession and in favor of the state remaining in the Union, but the southern and cotton growing part of the state, where slaves were numerous, was very much in favor of secession. May father’s oldest brother, John Campbell, was a delegate from our county to the convention that was called in the spring of 1861, and the convention was in session two or three months before they finally succeeded in forcing the state out of the union, My uncle and a gentleman named Murphy were the two last delegates to give in and vote in favor of secession.
My father volunteered under the Governor’s call on July 2, 1861 and was Captain of and raised the first company that was raised in Seacy County for the Confederate service, and they were mustered into service during the month of July in the 14th Arkansas Infantry and participated in the battle of Pea ridge, March 7th and 8th, 1862, and the battle of Iuka, Miss(issippi) and the battle of Corinth, Miss(issippi). On the retreat from Corinth, my father was left in a hospital, sick, at Holly Springs, Miss9issippi), and fell in the hands of the Federals and we never knew positively what became of him. He is reported to have died at Oxford, Miss(issippi), Dec. 30, 1862. His company surrendered at Port Hudson July 8, 1863.
When my father’s company was being raised for the Confederate service, I was only 16 years old, but said to the volunteers that when I went to the army I would go to the Union army and fight for our old flag and the Union, but after my father and a great many of our neighbors and relative went into the southern army the sentiment gradually changed in our section of the country until a great many people that had been strong for the Union reluctantly consented to go with the state and into the Confederate army. During the winter of 1861 the Union men throughout our section of the state formed and organized a secret society among themselves with signs and expected protection from the Union army when they invaded our state, but the confederate Government learned of this secret organization and they organized the militia in the northwestern part of Arkansas and arrested more than one hundred Union men and carried them in chains, under guard, to Little rock, the capital of the state, and where they permitted them to volunteer to go into the southern army and were sent to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and placed under command of General Marmaduke, of Missouri, who at the time commanded a brigade at that point.
I was in the militia and served thirty days and made the trip to the capital of the state, 110 miles from where we lived, with the Union men, and while my sympathy was with the Union prisoners and my assistance in helping them with rations and preparing poles to assist them in making tents for protection from the cold rain and weather, by doing so I won their sympathy and regard ever afterwards and that of all their families (as they wrote their families how I had assisted them), but hearing of the great battle of Pea Ridge and of the heavy battles around Richmond and the victories won by the Confederate army, under the Governor’s call for troops in May 1862, I volunteered in a mounted regiment, afterwards called Shaller’s regiment, in the Confederate service and was mustered into service May 22, 1862, and after the company was fully organized we were put into the regiment and were thrown into a brigade under Gen. McBride of Missouri, and in our first short campaign, we went east into Izard County, to Wild Haws, and succeeded in getting between the Union troops that were located at Batesville and a regiment or two that was going to re-inforce them from Springfield, Missouri.
The first day that we were in this brigade I was detailed with Major Dick Wickersham, who still lives at Lebanon, Mo., on the advance guard and in the afternoon we captured a mail carrier with a heavy mail from soldier’s wives in Missouri whose husbands were located at Batesville, Arkansas, I think, under Gen. Curtis. This was on Sunday in July 1862 and on Monday morning Gen. McBride with a small scouting party went out to reconnoiter and ran into the Federal pickets that came near capturing him and running him out from under his hat, and we at once formed a line of battle across the road and into the timber while our officers rode up and down in front of us, encouraging us and telling us to shoot low and to fall with our faces to the enemy, but the Union troops didn’t show up as they were expected tp, and after laying in line for some time we got up and fell back about three miles, forming another line of battle along the main road in heavy timber, behind a creek bank and after we had waited there one or two hours and no enemy appeared our orderly sergeant came down the line and asked for volunteers to go on a scout to locate the enemy and I was the first man in our company to volunteer.
As I was riding a wild young mare, only three years old, that was hardly bridle-wise and a farmer’s saddle and had an old, long heavy squirrel rifle, my enthusiasm for a fight was considerably cooled off when we rode about three miles along a rocky, white flint, gravel road with heavy timber and brush on each side, looking out for the enemy. And when our advance guard of four road up to the top of the ridge and said to us that there was a heavy force just over the ridge a short distance from us, our Lieutenant Colonel, Cloud, who was in command of the scouting party of thirty men, suggested that we had better retreat, but our curiosity and enthusiasm were so aroused that we said to him that we would not retreat until we saw the enemy and with this, we formed a line and galloped to the top of the hill and fired on about two companies of well armed, well mounted Union troops that were engaged in watering themselves and horses at a spring on the side of the road in open ground.
Our volley fired into them was such a surprise that they immediately mounted their horses and dashed away, but as we did not follow them, they soon halted and turned around and gave us our first initiation of facing Federal guns and hearing the bullets whiz through the air a long distance off, but I never never realized, until my first experience, how it makes a man shrink up to hear leaden missles coming near him and striking trees within a foot of him and while the volley hit a few of our horses, none of us was seriously hurt or wounded, but as soon as we commenced to retreat, going down a long, gravel slantwith our horses running at full speed and I trying to carry a long heavy gun in my right hand and trying to hold a wild run-away horse with nothing but a snaffle bit on my bridle, I was thrown off and fell flat on my back in the rocks and had my right arm broken and my gun broken off at the breech, but I succeeded in getting on my feet and grabbing up my broken gun with my left hand and with my saddle pockets on my shoulders, which contained my clothing, went into the brush and escaped being captured. I had an old fashioned red blanket fastened on my saddle with a surcingle and when I got up out of the road I saw my mare 200 or 300 yards distant running like the wind and could distinguish her from all the other horses on account of my red blanket.
As soon as the scouts went back to report to Gen. McBride, and in the meantime he had received another message that another force was approaching from Batesville, he decided at once to retreat and the whole army went away and left me in the woods with my arm and gun broken and afoot. I succeeded in making my way back through the timber to where we had started from and round that the army had left, but the Lieutenant Colonel, who was in command of the scouts, was in the rear watching to see if we were being followed and discovered me running along in the hot, dusty road and wading the creek in my stocking feet and I had by this time thrown away my gun and in wading through the creek, I carried my shoes in my left hand and my saddle pockets on my right shoulder and followed my command in a dog trot seven or eight miles, until my cousin, who had caught my mare in the meantime, learned that I was back there and he and a small squad was detailed to meet me. I was so tired and my arm by this time had swollen to such an extent and I was out of breath and was unable to mount my horse when I had an opportunity of doing so.
We marched back to White River to a place called Mt. Olive, up the river from Batesville, where we had been in camp, and my arm had no attention from a doctor until the following morning, when it was swollen out of all proportion and was so painful that I could neither eat or sleep, and when it was thoroughly bandaged with splints on both sides the pain was so excruciating and so much more severe than I had ever experienced that I thought I would die, but after 48 hours of this acute suffering the Captain succeeded in getting me a furlough and sending me home with my ardor for war thoroughly cooled out. My arm was broken right in the wrist joint and it was three or four months before I was able to use it again.
In the meantime the regiment moved west to Marshall, the county seat of Searcy County, where I was raised, and as I was unable to be in the service my Captain succeeded in getting me a discharge, as I was then only 17 years old and not quite subject to conscription, and was glad to get back home with my mother where I assisted in making a crop for her and the rest of the family in 1863, but the crop was no more than finished in July 1863, when the conscript officers, with squads of cavalry, were searching every valley and mountain throughout northwestern Arkansas for men subject to conscription; so I volunteered once more in the fall of 1863 in Major Lesley’s Battalion of McCray’s Brigade, but we were on detached service in northwestern Arkansas and had our winter quarters in Wiley’s Cove in Searcy County, near where I had been raised.
When the company in which I volunteered this time was organized I was elected Second Lieutenant of the company, running against a prominent citizen who had seen service in the Mexican War and had been an Orderly Sergeant in the militia that arrested the Union men in the winter of ’61, but I succeeded in beating him by four votes and I suppose I felt as much elated over my election as some men would on receiving a commission as Brigadier General, and my enthusiasm on being a commissioned officer of the company and reckless, fool-hardiness carried me into lots of difficulties and hard places that I might have avoided had I been so disposed.
During the fall and winter of 1863 northwestern Arkansas was overrun with deserters, guerillas and thieves who claimed that they belonged to Marmaduke’s and Shelby’s commands, but the commands were south of the Arkansas river and the Federal troops all up and down the river and they were cut off from their commands for some reason and were scouting through our country the same as they were in southwest Missouri, stealing horses and robbing loyal citizens. They became so bold and so reckless that the battalion to which I belonged was compelled to protect the country and our friends from the depredations of these Missouri guerillas and, as a consequence, there was a very bitter feeling worked up and continued between members of our battalion and this band of desperadoes parading under the name of Confederate soldiers, but as a matter of fact over-riding all laws of decency and were more after plunder and money than serving their country.
After the winter was spent and some of these people had been arrested and on account of being Free Masons or some other excuse they were released, but finally they grew so bold in their operations that there was nothing left for us to do but defend ourselves against the depredations of these people and the feeling became so strong and bitter that every time one of these guerillas was arrested or captured he was shot or hung.
Early in January 1864, our battalion broke camp and the unarmed and dismounted men under Adjutant Joseph Stephenson, of the battalion, started east to join McCray’s command, while Major Lesley with part of three companies of his best armed, best mounted men, went on an expedition to Clinton, Van Buren County, and accompanied Col. Witt who commanded a regiment of recruits for the southern army, to Dover, Ark(ansas) and saw him safely across the Arkansas river at Dardanelle (Arkansas). On our return from this expedition we learned that the Union troops were occupying our winter quarters at Marshall, the county seat of our county, and that the Missouri guerillas had attacked our unarmed men and killed and wounded twenty-six defenseless Confederate soldiers and the remainder was scattered in every direction. Under these conditions our Major left the battalion in the mountains hid out from the Federals and the Missouri guerillas and went to McCray’s headquarters alone, but in his absence the commanding officer of the battalion got in communication with the Federal troops and surrendered the command and almost every man to a man volunteered and went into the Union army at Lewisburg, Ark(ansas). I think a good proportion of them was attached to the 3rd Arkansas Cavalry, but of this I am not sure.
As soon as the command was gone out of the country, I met Capt. Mankins of Wood’s Battalion, recruiting a company for that command, who was with Marmaduke south of Little Rock, and the company was organized in February, 1864. As soon as this company was organized, which was composed of a few boys from Missouri and the balance from northwestern Arkansas, we went on a scouting party and together with Capt. Rutherford, of McCray’s command, we succeeded in getting in between a foraging party sent out from Batesville up White river and came up on them about sun rise on a morning in February, 1864, where they were engaged in extracting honey from a lot of bee hives that they had taken the night before (Feb 19, Waugh’s farm). There were 35 wagons with six mules to each and 150 cavalrymen as an escort, but we so completely surprised them and went at them so rapidly that a number of them surrendered. We captured al the wagons and teams and a number of the teamsters and quite a number of good horses and 50 or 75 prisoners. We destroyed the wagons and took all the blankets and provisions that we could carry and got away as soon as possible. We “swapped” clothing, shoes and hats with the prisoners before sending them back to Batesville for exchange and I don’t remember to have ever
Seen such a great change in the appearances of a lot of men as these exhibited after they were stripped of their new uniforms, new hats and new shoes and clothed in rags that we traded with them, and I don’t presume they would have traded even, if we had consulted them. They were all sent back and exchanged for citizens that were held in the prison at Batesville. I succeeded in getting a fine Remington revolver from a teamster in this expedition and the finest, heaviest and best blanket I ever saw that I carried with me through the balance of the war and took it home with me after the surrender.
After this expedition we at once marched south and our Captain, though a native of Missouri, had his family in Texas, and in order to be nearer his family he decided to join his company with Gen. Gano who then was at Lanesport on Red river, on the Texas border. Gen. Gano sent 400 of the 30th Texas cavalry, with half of our company, the best mounted and the best armed men, on an expedition against Roseville, Arkansas, where there was a large amount of cotton and Federal stores guarded by about 300 of the 5th Kansas U.S. Cavalry. This was a hard expedition as we marched night and day and arrived at Roseville early Monday morning and completely surprised the command and came near capturing their camp guards. We succeeded in capturing their blankets and guns. Col. Battle dismounted about two thirds of his command and they made a gallant charge on the town with Infield rifles. But the Kansas troops were so well armed that they jumped into the houses and behind bales of cotton and fired on us from every window and from every position where a man could conceal himself and after thirty or forty minutes of hard fighting the Confederates retreated, leaving a few dead and wounded and I saw in the papers afterward where they stated twenty-two prisoners, but I do not know our total loss.
On our return from this expedition we were ordered to join Wood’s Battalion which was in front of Steele’s army, marching from Little Rock to Camden where they had been skirmishing and fighting daily for a week and after Steele occupied Camden we were immediately in contact with the scouting parties from Camden and after about two weeks we succeeded in running in be- (???) ( tween them. Their) wagons were all heavily loaded with provisions and forage that had been sent up the White river. We captured this train after a short but severe engagement where both parties lost quite a number of men, killed and wounded. Our battalion was detailed to guard the wagon train and take it out to Price’s headquarters, which we succeeded in doing. In this engagement there was quite a number of colored troops, and a few prisoners and a number killed in the road where I noticed the teamsters drove the heavy freight wagons over the bodies of colored men laying in the road. The ambulances connected with this expedition were stalled in the timbers with the mules still attached to them, but we succeeded in working this entire train out with our prisoners and getting away safely. On the following day the colored prisoners were taken away a little distance from camp and hung, mu brother John, who was with me in the army, accompanied the detail that hung the prisoners.
Shortly after this expedition Gen Steele retreated from Camden and as our battalion was located at headquarters, we were the first troops to enter Camden and ferry across the Washita river and following Steele’s retreating army and we were engaged in skirmishing constantly with them until we reached the Saline river where they were delayed in putting in their pontoon bridges and where their well armed infantry was concealed in the under brush and where we had to go through open fields to attack them. This was about the 30th of April and Gen. Kirby Smith with his infantry, who had been engaged in an expedition against Gen. Banks, overtook Steele’s army and we had a severe engagement before Steele finally succeeded in getting away. Steele’s army lay in thick woods and underbrush and timber while our infantry marched across open fields to attack them. The day before this engagement began, it commenced to rain and rained continually during the evening and night and this battle was fought in the Saline river bottom where the mud was knee deep and where it was almost impossible to use artillery. I was personally all over this battle field in the evening after the battle was fought in the forenoon, and I think that every horse attached to our artillery, of which there was four or five pieces engaged, lay dead or wounded in mud and water and the dead of our army in some places was thick enough to walk on and in every direction where our lines were formed you could distinguish the position of our forces by our dead.
Soon after this engagement our battalion was sent to southern Arkansas to rest our horses and recuperate and we remained there for a month when we were ordered to Princeton, Arkansas, 40 or 60 miles south of Little Rock where we were on out-post duty for the balance of the summer until we started on Price’s raid to Missouri; and after crossing the Arkansas river at Dardanelle, we marched steadily toward southeast Missouri, going through Clinton and Mt. Olive on White river and Pocahontas on Black river and after crossing Current river we marched straight for Pilot Knob.
As Wood’s Battalion was a part of Clark’s Brigade and Marmaduke’s Division, we camped on the night of Sept 27th, 12 miles south or southeast of Pilot Knob, but we realized when we went into camp the night before that we might expect trouble on the following day. But the report had come to us that evening that Gen. A.J. Smith, with an army corps, had landed somewhere on the Mississippi river and this information, together with the fact that we were encouraged to believe that all we had to do was to make a strong demonstration round the other fort and it would surrender, but on the morning of the 28th, as we rode towards Pilot Knob, and as we entered Ironton, and Arcadia, citizens and women that stood at the gates as we passed, warned us that we were going up against a strongly fortified position and where we might expect strong resistance.
Our division marched up through Ironton and dismounted on the south side of Shepard mountain and about 10 am on the 28th, we formed a line of battle and marched up the mountain side to the extreme crest or top of Shepard mountain where our artillery was brought into position by twenty or more span of mules hitched to each piece and caisson. After we were in line there was not a gun fired from our side until Fagan’s Division, on the opposite side of the fort, was formed and in line and ready for the assault, when at a given signal, both armies moved in line of battle to the assault, on the fortifications.
There was not a gun fired after this assault started until our army was well down off Shepard mountain and emerged from the underbrush within 250 yards of the fortifications, when all of a sudden the artillery from the fort, as well as the small arms, opened fire on our lines and as I remember distinctly, casting my eyes up our line to the left, I saw our boys pitching forward, as we advanced every step, like wheat before the reaper. The first volley and the first fire was such a shock to our lines that just as we arrived at a dry creek running down the valley and around the fort, our command temporarily halted, and laid down.
At the first volley from the fort Sam Goff, of Company F, of our battalion. Who was the next man to me on my left, was shot through the hips and fell screaming by my side; and immediately on laying down, Dick Stokes, of Company A, had his right arm shot off with a shell between the elbow and wrist. He lay right by my side and just as the shell went through his arm he raised up and sat on his feet, his hand hanging onto his arm by a small piece of skin, a large section of a shell struck the ground by my side where he had been laying and as it entered the ground it threw dirt all over my face and shoulders.
Just at this time, looking across the valley, I saw Fagan’s Division of Arkansas troops with their banners flying and marching gallantly towards the fort and I heard someone say; “ Look at Fagan’s boys, forward!” I immediately jumped up from my position and putting my eye on the old flag floating from the staff on the fort, I went forward in a run and did not realize that the ditch was so deep that I couldn’t go across it, as I had expected to be the first man on top of the fortifications and was looking every moment to see the white flag go up. When I realized I was almost alone, I dropped down on the ground and when the sharpshooters commenced shooting at us, there were five of our battalion near the fort, Capt Paine of Co. E, Wood’s Battalion, and our bugler, whose name was Lee, and two other privates of Company E, Henry Ruff and his son, and myself and these were the only men of our battalion that had approached near the fort.
In going down off Shepard mountain our battalion came from the south and just missed the southwewt corner of the stockade which was full of horses and mules, and the stockade was made of timber, split and set on end, about seven feet high for a corral for their stock, and when we realized we could not get into the fort the Captain said to us: “Boys, we will be captured if we remain here, “ and five of us ran 200 yards to the stockade, the only place we could go for protection. When I got back to the stockade I learned from some officer that our battalion was on the north side of this same stockade laying in the bed of the creek where they were well concealed by a bank breast high, and I made my way around the stockade and rejoined my company by crawling under a water gate that was across the dry creek, but every time we put our heads under the gate, the sharpshooters from the fort fired at us.
Twelve or fifteen of us that had been separated from our command in the charge and gone around this stockade, were gotten together by Lieutenant Spense, of Company A, of our battalion, who cursed us as we attempted to go under the water gate for dodging the bullets that struck the rocks around our heads every time we attempted to go under the water gate, but we had no sooner gotten under the gate and crossed the road and found our companies and command, when the Lieutenant, who stood up straight near my feet, was shot be a sharpshooter who put a minie ball through him above the waist band, but did not kill him, but it cooled his ardor at least temporarily and he was the worst scared man, when they went to move him off of the field, that I had seen in the engagement.