http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/ozarkswatch/ow404s.htm
Captain Martin D. Hart probably was the most noted Federal guerrilla leader who operated in Arkansas. Certainly he has been a controversial figure ever since he met his death by a hangman's noose at the hands of the Confederate authorities in Fort Smith in January 1863. Hart and his guerrilla band terrorized western and northwestern Arkansas during the winter of 1862-63 with their plundering, robbing and killing. Hart has been called a Texas renegade, a fiendish murderer, a vile traitor and a notorious jayhawker. Perhaps he was all of these. Also, he has been called a brave patriot, a loyal Texan and a martyred hero. Since there are two sides to every controversy, it is possible that Hart was at once both a villain and a hero, depending upon the point of view. Nevertheless, Hart's exploits earned him a death at the end of a rope and grave far from home in the Fort Smith National Cemetery.
The character and motives of Martin Hart perhaps will never be known. In home neighborhood in Greenville, Hunt County, Texas, Hart had accumulated a large fortune, and was loved and respected by the people there. He was a lawyer and a former Texas legislator. Either because he believed that he was about to be arrested for treason against the Confederate States, or because he desired to remain loyal to the Union and fight for his convictions, Hart left Texas about August 26, 1862 for the North accompanied by a squad of followers. Arriving at Union headquarters in Springfield, Missouri sometime later, Hart applied for and obtained a captain's commission and authority to raise an independent company of calvary to fight against the Confederates in northwest Arkansas