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FEDERAL OCCUPATION OF LITTLE ROCK
With
C.
Fred Williams
Excerpt
From
Rugged and Sublime: The Civil War in
Arkansas;
One historian has described
Little Rock at the time of the war as a
"respectable town." The census of 1860 showed that it had a population
of 3,727 people (2,874 white, 853 black). It had a college (St.
John's Men's School) and was connected by
steamboat to the outside world. Gaslights illuminated its streets, most
of its businesses, and many of its residences, but its railroad system
was "still largely in the blueprint stage," there were few manufacturing
concerns, and banking was almost nonexistent.
 Still,
residents held high hopes for the city's future. "It is apparent ...
that Little Rock
will ... be a point of some very considerable importance," a local
editor wrote in 1859. "[I]t will become in a commercial view, a city to
which every citizen of
Arkansas can point with pride." An editor from
neighboring Memphis
added that "there can be no doubt but that a fair and flourishing future
awaits our sister city ... situated on one of the most beautiful sites
that can be imagined."
The Federal campaign against
Little Rock
lasted forty days and cost 137 casualties (18 killed, 118 wounded, 1
missing). Incomplete Confederate reports listed 64 casualties. Price had
managed to evacuate his army and a large portion of his supplies to
Arkadelphia, but the Little
Rock arsenal, with three thousand pounds of
powder and a considerable quantity of cartridges, fell into Union hands
C. Fred
Williams is Professor of History at
the University of
Arkansas at
Little Rock. He has
been at UALR for more than thirty years. Beginning as an Assistant
Professor in 1969, he progressed through the academic ranks and was made
a full professor in 1978.
In addition to his faculty appointment, he has also served in a number
of administrative posts -- including Chairman of the Department of
History, Associate Dean in the
College
of Liberal Arts,
and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs.
A specialist in Arkansas History with an emphasis on agriculture, he has
authored, co-authored, or edited eight books, published more than a
dozen articles, and directed more than a dozen grant projects for
sponsored research.
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Here is an
interesting point on our subject for the meeting about Federal Troops in
Little Rock.
When I went to the Internet to find a little bit of the story for the
newsletter, the first four references on the search engine referred back
to our own website.
That is probably why
we have over 1,000 hits a day.
http://www.civilwarbuff.org/
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PROGRAMS 2006/2007
November 28: Confederate Veterans Reunions
Election of Officers
December 2006
No meeting Scheduled in December
January 23, 2007
- Randy
Philhours
Marmaduke Walker
Duel
February 27, 2007
- Bill
Gurley, Ph.D.
Maj. Gen. Mosby
M. Parsons'
Confederate Missouri
Brigades
March 27, 2007 –
Brian Brown
Home from Gettysburg
April 24, 2007 -
Miss
Ellie
Women during the War Between the States
May 22, 2007
Cal Collier
TBA
June 26, 2007
W. D. Honnoll
M. J.
Thompson: The Swamp Fox
July 24, 2007
TBA
August 28, 2007
TBA
September 24, 2007
TBA
October 23, 2007
TBA
November 27, 2007
TBA
We Who Study
Must Also Strive To Save!
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MINUTES FROM THE MEETING
At
the Novemebr meeting it will be time to elect new officers and to think
about paying next years dues. If you would like to serve as an officer
or have a suggestion for next year, please contact
Don Hamilton
of the nomination committee.
We
also want to thank
Dr. Michael
B. Dougan
for his excelent presentation on the newspapers of the time at the last
meeting.
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Margie Bearss
October 22, 1925 - October 7, 2006
One of HistoryAmerica's
dearest—and one of history's best—friends, Margie Riddle Bearss, passed on
in
Mississippi
on October 7, 2006. She was two weeks shy of her 81st birthday.
For
nearly half a century she was married to
Edwin
Cole Bearss,
the "pied piper" of history, the celebrated Historian Guide so well known to
so many HistoryAmerica travelers. But Margie
was far more than just the wife of that icon, who survives her. She was not
only his partner in life—they shared two daughters and a son,
Sara, Cole, and
Jenny—but she was also his partner in history. She edited
his written works, and when he raised the Union ironclad gunboat, the
Cairo, from the bottom of the
Yazoo
River in 1964, she
cleaned, identified, and catalogued every artifact he salvaged.
But neither was
Margie just an indispensable helpmate in
Ed's professional and private life. She was a formidable
historian in her own right. She wrote an outstanding work on
Sherman's Meridian Expedition of 1864. In
the last two years of her life she was the co-editor with
Rebecca
B. Drake
of two books—a collection of letters and a diary from the Civil War era.
She will be deeply missed
by those of us who loved her. Here is the online guestbook to sign.
http://obits.suntimes.com/WashingtonPost/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=19517407
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AT MACARTHUR
MUSEUM
In 1848, the Cyrus Alger Co. produced four artillery pieces called
“6-pounder guns, light”, which have since been known as “Cadet” guns.
Only 50.5 inches in total length and weighing but 570 pounds, all four
guns were sent to the Virginia Military Institute.
Three years later, Alger made
two more for the Arkansas Military Institute in Tulip,
Arkansas. Four additional guns were manufactured
for the Georgia Military Institute in 1852. Of these
ten Alger Cadet
Guns, only seven are known to survive.
These guns were intended for drill and
instruction, however, a shortage of field pieces in the Confederacy at
the beginning of the
Civil War resulted in the Cadet guns being commandeered for active duty.
The two from Arkansas
were carried to
Virginia
in 1861 by the school’s cadets as part of the Third Arkansas Infantry.
You are invited to preview one of the two
Alger Cadet
guns from the Arkansas Military Institute as it returns to
Arkansas on loan from the Petersburg National
Battlefield. See the gun on the afternoon of Saturday
November 4TH at the Museum in
MacArthur Park.
Join us tjem also for a book signing of
Ray
Hanley’s new release Remembering
Arkansas Confederates and the 1911
Little Rock Veterans Reunion.
Proceeds from the book sale will go toward costs of exhibiting the
Alger Cadet
gun at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.
The museum will also show footage from the 1949 Confederate veterans
reunion held in Little Rock.
Patriotic Treason
John Brown
and the Soul of
America
By
Evan Carton
This Edition:
Hardcover
Publication Date: 09/2006
Our Price: $30.00
Availability: Usually ships
within 2-3 days
Description
John
Brown is a lightning rod of
history. Yet he is poorly understood and most commonly described in
stereotypes -- as a madman, martyr, or enigma. Not until Patriotic
Treason has a biography or history brought him so fully to life, in
scintillating prose and moving detail, making his life and legacy -- and
the staggering sacrifices he made for his ideals-fascinatingly relevant
to today's issues of social justice and to defining the line between
activism and terrorism.
Vividly re-creating the world in which Brown and his compatriots lived
with a combination of scrupulous original research, new perspectives,
and a sensitive historical imagination, Patriotic Treason
narrates the dramatic life of the first
U.S. citizen committed to absolute
racial equality. Here are his friendships (Brown lived, worked, ate, and
fought alongside African Americans, in defiance of the culture around
him), his family (he turned his twenty children by two wives into a
dedicated militia), and his ideals (inspired by the Declaration of
Independence and the Golden Rule, he collaborated with black leaders
such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, and Harriet Tubman to
overthrow slavery).
Evan
Carton captures the complex,
tragic, and provocative story of Brown the committed abolitionist, Brown
the tender yet demanding and often absent father and husband, and Brown
the radical American patriot who attacked the American state in the name
of American principles. Through new research into archives, attention to
overlooked family letters, and reinterpretation of documents and events,
Carton essentially reveals a missing link in American history.
A wrenching family saga, Patriotic Treason positions
John Brown
at the heart of our most profound and enduring national debates. As
definitions of patriotism and treason are fiercely contested, as some
criticize religious extremism while others mourn religion's decline, and
as race relations in America remain unresolved, John Brown's story
speaks to us as never before, reminding us that one courageous
individual can change the course of history.
EXCERPT:
Lieutenant
J. E.
B. Stuart
of the First United States Cavalry crossed the yard of the
Harpers Ferry armory and approached the thick oak door of
the engine house under a flag of truce. He felt eyes on his back. In the
gray first light of the raw morning of October 18, 1859,
Stuart
could make out the muzzles of two rifles protruding from gun holes that
appeared to have been hastily chiseled through the engine house wall.
He doubted that he had
much to fear from the incompetent band of northerners and negroes
trapped in the small building in front of him, fanatical haters of the
southern system of labor that was protected by the country's laws and
enshrined in its traditions.
He was at greater risk,
he thought wryly, from the unsteady hands and judgment of his fellow
Virginians who perched on the railroad trestle and the water tower and
in every window of the hotel to his rear.
 THE
ORDER OF CONFEDERATE ROSE
There have been numerous whispers about,
all indicating a desire to resurrect the Arkansas Society of the Order
of the Confederate Rose. It is with great
pride and anticipation that we have decided to go forth and pursue the
Eliza Currie
Davis
Chapter #2, to be associated with the Patrick R. Cleburne Camp #
1433 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, located in
Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Read about Eliza
here
http://wsscemetery.com/curriehistory/curriehistory.shtml
Officially, we have a lot of paperwork to complete and some interesting
decisions to be made, including a state logo.
(I have some ideas, but want you to be thinking about it, too!)
We have a great support system in place with the help of the National
OCR with offers of doing some of the leg-work for us.
Be thinking about officers to assist the current co-presidents:
Kayla
Kalkbrenner, 2421 Meadowpond Trail,
White Hall, AR,
71602
(captk1ark@hotmail.com) 870-247-2394 and
Ellen DiMaggio,
1323 Lakehall Rd.,
Lake Village, AR
71653 ( ellen@speakingofladies.com)
870-265-3073. We will need a treasurer and
secretary (both recording and corresponding).
Plus we need members! Anyone interested in
Southern Heritage, over the age of 10, regardless of gender or race or
background ancestry may join.
Our first event will be Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006 at the
White Sulphur
Springs
Cemetery. A most
enjoyable location, the cemetery provides a perfect background for our
gathering as it is the burial site of our own Eliza Currie Davis.
Please join us in period dress if you can for the first un-official,
official OCR Chapter #2 event. The ceremony
begins at 2:00 in the afternoon, but the cemetery will be open all
Saturday and Sunday as a Living History event.
Come out and join in the Southern comraderie and to honor those who gave
their All for the Cause, including Mrs. Eliza Currie Davis.
What is the Order of the Confederate Rose?
It is a way for us to support our Confederate Heritage and to further
the cause of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and to support endeavors
by the SCV.
How is it organized?
Local chapters are sponsored by SCV camps, and these chapters are formed
into state societies. There is a nationwide
Confederation of States that provides a means for meeting and sharing
with other societies.
Who may join the OCR?
Anyone over the age of 10, you do not need a relative in the SCV, or an
ancestor in the CSA. All you need is a
desire to support our Confederate Heritage.
Each chapter votes on its own requirements.
It will not compete with the UDC or any other genealogical
organization.
What will the OCR do?
Our goal is to aid and further the cause of the SCV and to support
endeavors sponsored by the SCV when they request our assistance.
We are free to focus on projects or problems important to our own area
as well as to support efforts of national scope.
The OCR will aid the SCV by providing additional communications,
promoting educational programs and organizing social functions.
How do we become a recognized chapter?
We must submit the appropriate paper work to National plus $100 each
year. We need at least 7 members, at least 10 years old, with an
approval signature from an SCV member. Design a state logo.
Get a bank account with 2 signatures plus an EIN number. Dues;
$20/year Aug 1-July 31. $10 to local
chapter, $10 to national Lifetime $100 ($50 to National, $50 local)
Elect officers
Order of the Black Rose?
The Order of the Black Rose is a part of the OCR, separate, but equal.
To be a member of OBR, you must be ready with a mourning outfit for
memorials and/or cemetery dedications and respectfully portray a
Southern woman in mourning.
Respectfully submitted,
Ellen
M. DiMaggio
CIVIL WAR TRIVIA QUIZ
We ran out of time for the quiz last week, so here it is again.
BATTLEFIELD PLACES
THE FOLLOWING LIST OF NAMES REPRESENT LOCATIONS ON WELL KNOWN
BATTLEFIELDS. NAME THE WELL KNOWN
BATTLEFIELD THEY ARE ASSOCIATED WITH.
FOR EXAMPLE, THE “HORNETS NEST” IS
ASSOCIATED WITH SHILOH:
TULIP, ARKANSAS
From an article
by Tom
Dillard
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Like so many of the pioneering settlements in territorial
Arkansas, Tulip was settled by a North Carolinian by way of
Tennessee,
Tyra
Harris Brown.
A few years later came Col.
Maurice
Smith, the forerunner of a whole
clan of Smith settlers. A different Smith family, this one headed by
Nathaniel G.
Smith
of Hardeman County,
Tenn., also settled in Tulip. All of the Smiths
were families of wealth and culture, which bode well for their new
settlement. Tulip does not seem to have gone through an unruly
adolescence. The village, which was near a military road, soon was home
to Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian churches. In particular, the
Methodists had a thriving congregation, which was for a time headed by
the renowned Rev.
Andrew Hunter.
In 1849, George
D. Alexander,
a 24-year-old graduate of Washington
College in
Virginia, convened a meeting in
Tulip to consider establishing an educational institution. The resulting
Alexander Institute began as a coed school, but it was divided into two
different institutions after only a year, forming the Arkansas Military
Institute and the Tulip Female Collegiate Seminary.
VISIT THE BATTLEFIELDS
WHEN YOU
CAN...WHILE YOU CAN
SEE YOU
TUESDAY NIGHT
for C.
Fred
Williams
GOD BLESS
AMERICA
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