University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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PEA RIDGE IS FIRST BATTLE SITE The first engagement in Arkansas between the Fed¬ eral and Confederates was on Pea Ridge, about 30 miles from Fayetteville. On March 6, 1862, 15,000 Confederates under Gen. Sterling Price attacked 20,- 000 Union soldiers under Gen. Curtis at Bentonville and drove them back to the ridge. Next day, the Southerners drove the blue coats into Missouri, but Price did not pursue them. For some reason he re¬ tired to Van Buren. There was another time that Price failed to follow his advantage. At Wilson Creek, ne ar Springfield, they chased Federals from the field, but did not go into the city where they could have ob¬ tained sufficient supplies for the hungry Southerners. Later the Confederates were ordered to Mississippi, and Arkansas was unprotected for the time. This gave Curtis a chance to advance and he moved down as far as Helena. Under the Trans-Mississippi plan, Gen. Hindman was put in charge of Arkansas. Previously, fearing inva¬ sion of the capital, the seat of government was moved to Hot Springs. On Dec. 7, 1862, was the battle of Prairie Grove. The Unions, 16,000 strong, under Generals Blunt and Herron, were forced back 12 miles to Fayetteville by the gray forces under Hindman and Fagan, with 12,- 000 troops. Later Fayetteville was bombarded by the Southern¬ ers and during the artillery fire across the town from the hill where the S. A. E. house is now, to east mountain, considerable damage was done to the town. One house, still standing on Center street, was struck by a cannon ball and the hole which it caused can still be seen. Arkansas Post fell on Jan. 8, 1863, when a fleet of gun boats brought 20,000 Union soldiers there. Gen. Churchill held out for three days, but surrendered to the tremendous odds. News came to the capital that Gen. Steele was leav¬ ing Helena to attack Little Rock, so Gov. Flanagin moved the capital to Washington, Ark. Small details of Confederate troops resisted Steele, but he reached Little Rock and took it on Sept. 10, 1863. Gen. Price withdrew to save his men. Hero of the Arkansas campaign was David O. Dodd, who protected his friends by refusing to reveal the source of military papers in his pockets when captured. He was tried and hung as a spy by the Federals. ARKANSAS REJOINS UNION Seeing their cause was futile, citizens from 24 coun¬ ties met in 1864 in informal convention and drew up a constitution which omitted slavery and set up a Union government in Little Rock. The document was ap¬ proved by the people of the state 12,177 to 266. At this time Gen. Steele decided to drive the rebels from Arkansas. He marched after them towards Camden, but they turned on him at Poison Spring and nearly captured his whole detachment. Southern hos¬ pitality was missing as they angrily pounced on his re¬ inforcements sent from Pine Bluff and ran off another detail of help coming from Sheridan. Then Arkansas ' fighting on a major scale was ended with the battle at Jenkins ' Ferry on April 30, 1864. A reflection on the poor sportsmanship of the North was exhibited in the reconstruction days when military rule was set up in the South. Gen. C. H. Smith was put in charge of Arkansas, and he immediately pre-

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Carried on. A more thorough study was made later in the century by Dr. John C. Branner, state geologist, and later president of Stanford University. Ex-presi¬ dent Hoover, then a student at Stanford, helped in the more extensive survey during his summer vacation in 1892. FIRST RAILROAD IS FOUNDED First railroad in Arkansas was organized in 1852, when the Mississippi, Ouachita, and Red River R. R. was constructed. The company was unable to buy or operate any trains, so it failed. In 1853 three others came into existence, according to Moore: The Mem¬ phis and Little Rock, The Cairo and Fulton, and the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroads. Though railroads were built, they got along without telegraph lines until about I 860, when the first wire was set up from Memphis to Little Rock. Right in the midst of the expansion movement, the curse of the centuries fell upon Arkansas. The Civil War was precipitated by formation of the Confeder¬ acy, but this state did not want war, and was one of the last to enter the Southern alliance. Though Arkansas ' citizens were loyal to the Union, their sentimens were Southern, for most had come from the South. They felt that they would rather not mix in the conflict until President Lincoln requested a regiment from Arkansas to aid in suppressing rebel¬ lion in the South. Governor Henry M. Rector, who later resigned to enlist as a private in the Confederate army, replied to the president, None will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury. ARKANSAS JOINS CONFEDERACY So Arkansas ' lot was cast. On May 6, 1861, sev¬ enty delegates met at the Statehouse and voted to withdraw from the Union. Even this did not cause great consternation among Arkansans. Not until news reached the state that a large Federal force was sweeping south from Kansas City did the enlistment numbers jump. Then the state went wild. Grandpa grabbed his old squirrel rifle; the schoolboy got his muzzle loader; some soldiers received standardized equipment, and 50,000 Arkansas men went to war. From the State also went 8,789 who enlisted in the Union army. Arkansas furnished four major-generals to the Con federacy: James F. Fagan, Thomas J. Churchill, Thom¬ as C. Hindman, Patrick Roane Cleburne. There were 29 brigadier-generals, among them, Albert Pike and ex-governor Roane. Many citizens along the northern border remained loyal to the Union. Some outstanding officers among them include Col. Elisha Baxter, later governor, and Lafayette Gregg, later a Fayetteville judge.

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An Early View of the University Campus vented the legislature, then in session, from working. Sen. Powell Clayton of the Federal army was elected governor by a political dictation method of prevent¬ ing many Confederates from voting. A new con¬ stitution was set up in 1868 by the same action. With loyalists in power, parasites of politics, called carpet-baggers, came to get appointments to govern¬ mental positions. They nearly bankrupted the state, besides badly scarring the social system. The Northerners organized a Union League to teach negroes how to vote. But the Ku Klux Klan, capitalizing on negro fears of ghosts, broke up the League. PRIVATE CIVIL WAR IS STAGED Arkansas had a little private civil war in 1873 when the Brooks-Baxter trouble was precipitated by a nar¬ row-margin election of Elisha Baxter, Reform-Repub¬ lican, over Rev. Joseph Brooks, Democrat. After Brooks contested and the legislature reiterated Baxter ' s victory, the Democrats saw his honesty, and went over to his side. Republicans got mad at him for not ap¬ pointing them to office, so they got behind Brooks and some of them went with the latter to the capitol and forced Baxter to leave. He did. He went fo St. John ' s Military College for protection, and for a time there was a large number of armed troops in Little Rock. The only battle occurred at Palarm when a boat bringing guns from the University was fired upon with little damage. Finally President Grant decided the mess in favor of Baxter. Another war happened in Perryville when two families began feuding in 1882. The trouble brewed so hot that the sheriff went to Little Rock and swore his inability to handle the situation. The Quawpaw Guards was organized and dispatched to the scene, and the war was soon ended. To get rid of carpet bag rule a new constitution was adopted in 1874. This year marked the beginning of continuous Democratic control of Arkansas, for the Republicans failed to put a ticket in the field. The first telephones in Arkansas were set up by Western Union in Little Rock in 1879. The exchange there is the third oldest in the United States. The State Hospital for Nervous Diseases was built in 1883. Bauxite was discovered in 1887 by Dr. Branner as he walked over a field south of Little Rock. In 1888 the first electric lights were installed in Lit¬ tle Rock. But street cars, had been running since 1876 when mule cars were first operated. Twelve years