The Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board

Flippin's 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry

I want to assemble a sketch of a unit that Bryan Howerton has refer to several times,Flippin's 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry, I believe I may have information on some of the companies if I can determine a list of company commanders.

On September 16, 1863, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the state capitol, Governor Flanagin issued General Order No. 6 from Arkadelphia, which called into service the militia regiments of the counties of Clark, Hempstead, Sevier, Pike, Polk, Montgomery, La Fayette, Ouachita, Union, and Columbia in order to resist the Federal army. The Governor's order directed the regiments to march to Arkadelphia at the earliest possible day. Companies were to be mounted and commanders were to compel persons evading the call to come to the rendezvous. The intent was to form companies of twelve-month mounted volunteers. In describing this call in a letter to General Holmes dated October 18, 1863 from Washington, Arkansas, the new Confederate state capitol, Flanagin stated that he issued the order calling out the militia, as an experiment, expecting to get volunteers. The order succeeded so well as to get companies organized in the counties where the call for the militia was enforced which resulted in seven companies being collected under the call.Flanagin also stated that "the troops raised by the State are more than double all the troops raised by volunteering, or by the conscript law, within the past few months".

On October 26, 1863 Governor Flanagin directed Adjutant General Peay to:

"visit Lewisville, in La Fayette County, and see Captain Ford, who has been raising a company of mounted riflemen under the State. I have been informed that this company has been sworn into the service of the Confederate States. If so, the only thing to be done is to communicate this fact to General Fagan. If the State troops which can be raised in La Fayette County are already raised you are authorized to disband the militia. If convenient, I would like for you to go to Union County. Captain Holloway has been raising a company of mounted riflemen in that county. If his company is organized, you can disband the militia of that county. If the colonel is inefficient, and Captain Holloway has not got his company formed, let him swear his men in and get the militia together, and compel those who are liable to the conscript law to go into the State or C. S. service".

The election of officers of these new volunteer companies lievied from the Militia Regiments was recorded in the Arkansas Military Department Records, List of Commissioned Officers of the Militia 1827–1862, Arkansas History Commission, Microfilm Roll 00000038-8, Page 303.

I can trace many of the companies listed on Page 303 of the List of Commissined Officers to what became Trader's/Pettus Battalion of State Troops, which evolved into 3rd Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry, State Troops, which eventually evolved into Newton's, 10th Arkansas Cavalry.

I suspect that some of the companies that do not show up in Trader/Pettus' battalion may belong to Lieut. Col. Henry D. Flippin's 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry.

I have compiled all the references to this unit that I could finid on this message board below:

Flippin's 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry

The Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board - Archive
Re: Reserve Corps
By:Bryan Howerton
Date: 4/20/2005, 11:50 am
In Response To: Reserve Corps (Robert Butler)
Lieut. Col. Henry D. Flippin commanded a battalion composed of home guards and irregular mounted troops. Sometime in 1864, his command was mustered into service as the 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry. There are no known muster rolls or other records of this battalion. What little information I've been able to find indicates that the battalion was comprised of men from Calhoun, Dallas and Ouachita counties, for sure, probably men from Bradley and Clark counties, and possibly men from Columbia and Hempstead counties. Flippin's Battalion was active in opposing Steele's Camden Expedition.

Re: Arkansas Regiment
By:Bryan Howerton
Date: 12/3/2004, 9:31 pm
In Response To: Arkansas Regiment (Barbara Rushing)
Barbara, unfortunately there are no records from Col. Henry Flippin's battalion (sometimes referred to as 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry). By piecing together brief and cryptic references from other sources, I believe that Flippin's battalion was organized sometime in the winter of 1863/64 from various independent home guard companies in south Arkansas. The names of those few men who can be identified as members of the battalion indicate that they were either too old or too young for regular Confederate service, and seem to be mostly from Bradley, Calhoun, Columbia, Dallas, and possibly Lafayette, counties.

Re: Companies Raised in Ouachita County
By:Bryan Howerton
Date: 10/15/2004, 9:58 pm
In Response To: Re: Companies Raised in Ouachita County (Frank Arey)
Frank, the 1st Arkansas Battalion Reserve Cavalry has got to be the most obscure outfit ever. There is no reference to it in the Compiled Service Records or the O.R. I first became aware of it several years ago in a handful of references in various Goodspeed's South Arkansas biographical sketches. Later, I ran across a few pension applications from men who served in the battalion. Based on this very limited information, I think that Lieut. Col. Henry D. Flippin's battalion was comprised of four to six mounted companies from Bradley, Dallas and Ouachita counties; mustered into service sometime in late 1863 (possibly in State, rather than Confederate, service); and may have been peripherally involved in the Camden Expedition actions. The companies may have been originally organized as home guard companies. That's the extent of my knowledge of this battalion -- not much to show for 20 years of looking. My hope is that someone out there is sitting on some as yet unknown information about this unit.

Companies Raised in Ouachita County
By:Bryan Howerton
Date: 10/14/2004, 10:38 pm
Additionally, I believe that a company or two of the very obscure 1st Battalion Arkansas Reserve Cavalry (Lieut. Col. Henry D. Flippin) was recruited in Ouachita County.

Re: Battle of Jenkins Ferry, AR
By:Bryan Howerton
Date: 11/16/2003, 3:17 pm
In Response To: Battle of Jenkins Ferry, AR (Merv Austin)
Merv, I see what you're up against. There's no record of a David Austin (lieutenant or otherwise) serving in a Confederate regiment in the Trans-Mississippi Department at the time of the Jenkins' Ferry fight. Muster rolls for most regiments in the department are reasonably extant through February 29, 1864; beyond that date is a big gaping hole, so it's possible he enlisted in March 1864, for which there would be no record. However, it's unlikely that a new recruit would have been commissioned as a lieutenant within the month, in time for Jenkins' Ferry.
There is one long-shot, though. If your David Austin was a resident of south Arkansas, he may have served in Henry B. Flippin's reserve cavalry battalion, for which (with the exception of one company) there are practically no records. The men in this outfit were from various Bradley/Calhoun/Dallas County home guard units which were thrown together into a loosely-organized battalion. I haven't been able to find out much more than that.

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