New York Times US
GUERRILLA WARFARE IN ARKANSAS.
Col. FITCH, who was in command of the expedition which captured the rebel batteries below St. Charles on June 23, issued the following proclamation:
To the Inhabitants of Monroe County, Arkansas:
Guerrilla bands, raised in your vicinity, have fired from the woods upon the United States boats and transports in White River. This mode of warfare is that of savages. It is in your power to prevent it in your vicinity. You will therefore, if it is repeated, be held responsible in person and property. Upon a renewal of such attacks, an expedition will be sent against you to seize and destroy your personal property.
It is our wish that no occasion for such a course will arise, but that every man shall remain at home, in pursuit of his peaceful avocations, in which he will not be molested unless a continuance of such barbarous guerrilla warfare renders vigorous measures on our part necessary.
G.N. FITCH,
Colonel Commanding United States forces.
To which Gen. HINDMAN responded as follows:
HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT,
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 25, 1862.
COLONEL. -- A copy of your proclamation of the 23d inst., addressed to the citizens of Monroe County, has come into my hands. I have the honor to inclose you a copy of an order recently issued by me, authorizing the formation of companies to operate at will, in the absence of specific instructions, against the forces of the United States Government, and accepting all such into the service and pay of the Confederate States. They are recognized by me, as the commander of this department, as Confederate troops, and I assert as indisputable the right to dispose and use those troops along the banks of the White River, or wherever else I may deem proper, even should it prove annoying to you or your operations.
I have thought it but just that I should furnish you with a copy of my order that you may act advisedly; and I respectfully forewarn you that, should your threat be executed against any citizen of this district, I shall retaliate, man for man, upon the Federal officers and soldiers who now are, and hereafter may be, in my custody as prisoners of war.
I have the honor to be. Colonel, very respectively, your obedient servant, T.C. HINDMAN,
Major-General Commanding.
Col. G.N. FITCH, commanding United States forces at St. Charles.
The following is the general order referred to in the above dispatch:
HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT,
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 17, 1862.
GENERAL ORDERS No. 17. -- I. For the more effectual annoyance of the enemy upon our rivers and in our mountains and woods, all citizens of this district, who are not subject to conscription, are called upon to organize themselves into independent companies of mounted men of infantry, as they prefer, arming and equipping themselves, and to serve in that part of the district to which they belong.
II. When as many as ten men come together for this purpose, they may organize by electing a Captain, one Sergeant and one Corporal, and will at once commence operations against the enemy,* without waiting, for special instructions. Their duty will be to cut off Federal pickets, scouts, foraging, parties and trains, and to kill pilots and others on gunboats and transports, attacking them day and night and using the greatest vigor in their movements. As soon as the company attains the strength required by law, it will proceed to elect the other officers to which it is entitled. All such organizations will be reported to these headquarters as soon as practicable. They will receive pay and allowances for subsistence and forage for the time actually in the field, as established by the affidavits of their Captains.
III. These companies will be governed, in all respects, by the same regulations as other troops. Captains will be held responsible for the good order, conduct, and efficiency of their men, and will report to these headquarters from time to time.
By command of Major-Gen. HINDMAN.
* These italics are in the original.
The following is Col. FITCH's reply to HINDMAN's letter:
HEADQUARTER's UNITED STATES TROOPS,
ST. CHARLES, Ark., June 28, 1862.
Major-Gen. T.C. Hindman, Commanding C.S. Forces at Little Rock, Ark.:
SIR: Yours of the 25th inst. was placed in my hands, under a flag of truce, this P.M., together with a copy of your General Order No. 17, dated 17th inst. You advise me that you have been placed in possession of a copy of my proclamation of the 23d inst., to the citizens of Monroe County, Arkansas, notifying them that they will be held responsible in person and property for any injury that themselves, or those raised in their midst might thereafter inflict, in the name or under the guise of that savage warfare, outlawed by the civilized world, known as guerrilla warfare.
You will permit me to suggest that your objections to my proclamation name with ill-grace from you, when accompanied with your own order above referred to, which order is but an encouragement to rapine and murder upon the part of those in this State, if there be such, so lost to all sense of honor as to avail themselves of your permission to commit such depredations. You must be aware that your captains of tens will soon become little else than highway banditti, more terrible to citizens of your own State than to soldiers and sailors of the United States. It was doubtless in pursuance of the policy indicated in your order that your troops who defended this place on the 17th fired upon a part of the crew of the Mound City, who were scalded by an accident to the machinery of that boat, while helpless in the river, into which they had sprung to relieve their tortures. It is believed that no troops of a civilized country would have dared to adopt such a course without being assured of their being sustained by their commanding officer, especially after the world knew that, when a similar accident happened to a Confederate gunboat, during the late naval engagement before Memphis, the United States soldiers and sailors had risked their lives to rescue those from the Mississippi, who, from the same cause, had sought relief by jumping overboard.
Your threat will not deter me from executing to the letter of my proclamation in every case in which my judgment dictates its propriety or necessity.
Very respectfully,
G.N. FITCH, Colonel Commanding.