Scott County ArArchives History - Books .....Period Of The Great Civil War 1860-1874, Chapter 6 1922
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Book Title: History Of Scott County

CHAPTER VI. 
Period of the Great Civil War 1860-1874

 1. Secession
  Slavery did not exist to any extent in Scott County, and for this reason the
national agitation of this question, which had been rocking the country for over
a quarter of a century and threatening to disrupt the Union, was not of a
personal character with the people of the county. They did not begin to think
strongly on the subject until confronted with the reality of disunion and war.
Their sympathies were for the union of the states, and when it came to electing
delegates to the state convention to determine the attitude and policy of
Arkansas in the matter, they elected a Union man, E. T. Walker, as the delegate
from Scott County. This was early in 1861. The delegates from all the counties
of the State met at Little Rock and, after deliberating for a short while,
adjourned without action other than to authorize the president thereof to call
the convention together again if conditions warranted. This was done and the
convention met in second session about the first of May, 1861. The question of
union or disunion was paramount. On May 6, an ordinance of secession was
adopted. The county's delegate voted for secession, and his action in doing so
under the circumstances met with the approval of the people. They naturally
sympathized with the South, when the issue became sharply drawn.

2. Military Events
  As soon as the call for volunteers had been issued, the people of the county
turned to the grim duties of war. A company of seventy-five men was organized in
early summer. Its officers were G. W. Featherston, Captain; J. C. Gibson, First
Lieutenant; W. F. Patterson, Second Lieutenant, and John Raw-lings, Third
Lieutenant. This company took part in the battle of Oak Hill, after which it was
disbanded and its members united with other units. It was known as Company D,
First Regiment, of Arkansas Volunteers.

  Another company under Captain William Patterson was organized in December,
1861, and a third under Captain G. W. Featherston in February, 1862. This latter
was merged with the 19th Arkansas under Col. Dawson, and saw extensive service
east of the Mississippi River.

  Gangs of bushwhackers and marauding bands early began terrorizing the county.
In September, 1863, the Federal forces, consisting of the 14th Kansas cavalry,
arrived in the county and marched on Waldron. Major Featherston and Captain
Isaac Bagwell were in command at that place with a small guard. In a surprise
attack on September 11, the Federals captured the Confederate forces and held
the town. The losses on the Union side were one killed and two wounded. The
Confederate losses are not known, although Major Featherston was seriously
wounded. Scouting parties were then sent out by the Federals. The first of these
went down Dutch Greek on December 9, and another went from Waldron to Dallas in
Polk County on Dec. 11, 1863. Still another proceeded from Waldron to Baker
Springs in Howard County through the celebrated Forem Gap in January, 1864. This
last party lost one man killed and one man wounded on its journey. Another
skirmish occurred at Waldron on February 1, in w7hich one man was wounded. After
this battle the Federals evacuated Waldron on Feb. 4, 1864. The Federal forces
were commanded by Lieut. Col. Owen A. Bassett, and later by Lieut. Col. Searl of
Col. James Johnson's Regiment of First Arkansas Infantry, organized at
Fayetteville in March, 1863. Many citizens of the county enlisted with the Union
forces after the Federals had taken possession of the country. Another battle
took place at Waldron on Dec. 29, 1864, in which two men were killed and six
wounded.

  When the Union forces evacuated Waldron, they set fire to every house in town
except those of William G. Featherston and Elijah Leming. Featherston's
residence had been the Union headquarters, and Leming was thought to be a
Federal sympathizer. His residence was burned after the troops had departed,
supposedly by Confederate agents.

  On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered, and the war was soon over. The men of local
companies were disbanded, and those who had been in service in the east at
length returned to their homes. Peace, with its healing processes, was at hand,
when the blighting curse of the war's aftermath, reconstruction, fell upon the
people. It was worse for them than the war, terrible as that had been.

3. Women of the War Period
  Most all of the able-bodied men of the county were away from their homes
during the years of the war, in the military service. The only people left were
the women, children and old men. It therefore devolved almost entirely upon the
women to provide for their family needs, and to keep the homes together. This
they undertook manfully to do. They planted the crops, cultivated them and
harvested them. They had to go to Ozark or Ft. Smith to have the corn or wheat
ground into meal or flour. They would go in crowds on these duties. As many as
eleven of these women from Scott alone formed one train to Ozark, in the closing
days of the war. Wagon trains of fewer members were more frequent. The women
harnessed the teams, drove the wagons, and attended to the business of the
journeys. Added to these hard duties, was the larger one of caring for perhaps
three of four small children.

  These women frequently came together and lived in the house of one of their
number for the better protection of all concerned. The bushwhackers made them no
end of trouble. They murdered and plundered voraciously and indiscriminately.
They killed old men of seventy who were therefore utterly harmless from a
military point of view. Their conduct was of the most ruthless and cruel sort;
as for instance, at a home in the north part of the county, they called out a
young husband and unceremoniously shot him. Then they compelled his young wife
to cook breakfast for them, with his dead body lying at the root of a tree close
by. It then devolved upon the women of the neighborhood to bury him.

  These maurauders, discountenanced alike by both belligerents, also, plundered
the homes of the defenseless women and took their bread. And there was no
authority to punish the perpetrators of these foul deeds. Two of the most noted
of these heroic women—mothers of heroic sons away in battle— were Mrs. Ann
Anthony and Mrs. Polly Graves. The former lived in the Poteau valley, while Mrs.
Graves lived on Lewis Prairie in the north part of the county. They both labored
unceasingly in the war services of their communities.

4. New Constotutions
  When the Federal forces had wrested the northern half of the State from the
Confederacy, a provisional government loyal to the Union was established by
groups of the citizens, and was recognized by President Lincoln. A new
constitution was adopted in 1864, recognizing the abolition of slavery. Scott
County's delegate to this convention was Elijah Leming. This reinstatement of
the State to its former status in the Union is known as presidential
reconstruction.

  The mild policies of Lincoln were not to prevail, however. After his death in
1865, the radicals in Congress obtained the upper hand, and a new reconstruction
of the State was ordered. A new constitution was adopted in 1868. Charles H.
Oliver was the delegate from Scott County.

  About 1872 the Federal soldiers who had formed the main support of the carpet
bag government in the State after the war were withdrawn and self-government
restored to the people. Accordingly, a new constitution, based upon this wider
freedom was adopted in 1874. J. W. Sorrels represented the county in this
convention. This constitution is the organic law of the State today. A new one
was formed in 1918, but failed of ratification by the people. The delegate to
this last convention was W. A. Bates.


Additional Comments:

HISTORY of Scott County Arkansas
By Henry Grady McCutchen

Printed in Arkansas
U. S. A.

Copyright, 1922, by H. G. McCutchen


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