Originally known as the "Southwestern Arkansas Regiment", the 4th Arkansas was organized at Mount Vernon, Missouri, from volunteer companies from the southwestern part of Arkansas, which arrived in Missouri just after the Battle of Wilson's Creek. The original eight companies which were mustered into service at Miller's Springs, Missouri, on August 17, 1861, were:[2]
Company A, the "Calhoun Escopets" (Calhoun County) [3]
Company B, the "Hempstead Hornets" (Hempstead County)[4]
Company C, the "Caddo Rifles" (Montgomery County)[5]
Company D, the "Bright Star Rifles" (Lafayette County)[6]
Company E, the "Confederate Guards" (Hempstead County)[7]
Company F, the "Montgomery Hunters" (Montgomery County)[8]
Company G, the "Pike County Blues" (Pike County)[9]
Company H, the "Polk County Invincibles" (Polk County)[10]
Two additional companies were added on October 26, 1861 at Fort Smith, Arkansas:
Through most of 1864 the regiment and the rest of their brigade were in Georgia as a part of the force attempting to stop Sherman's March, seeing sporadic action during this period, mostly in hit-and-run skirmishes. By November of that year they had been sent back to Tennessee, where they fought at the Battle of Franklin and teh Battle of Nashville. The unit is entitled to the following Campaign Participation Credits:[13]
After the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee, the Arkansas regiments of Reynolds' Brigade marched via Bainbridge, Alabama, Tuscumbia, Iuka and Corinth to Tupelo, Mississippi, where they went into camp on January 10, 1865. They departed Tupelo on January 30 and marched to West Point, Mississippi. From West Point they traveled by rail to Selma, Alabama. From Selma they traveled by steamboat to Montgomery, then by rail to Columbus, Georgia. From Columbus they marched via Macon and Milledgeville to Mayfield, Georgia. From Mayfield they traveled by rail to Augusta, Georgia. From there they marched to Newberry, South Carolina. On March 19, 1865, they fought their last major engagement at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. They then marched to Smithfield, North Carolina, where the entire brigade was consolidated into a single understrength regiment, the 1st Consolidated Mounted Rifles on April 9, 1865.[14]
Consolidation and surrender
On April 9, 1865, the depleted Arkansas regiments of D. H. Reynolds' Brigade, Walthall's Division, Confederate Army of Tennessee, were consolidated into a single regiment the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles, at Smithfield, North Carolina. The companies of the consolidated regiment were drawn from the following Arkansas regiments:[15]
The 1st Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles surrendered with the Army of Tennessee at Greensboro, North Carolina, April 26, 1865. The regiment was paroled on May 1, 1865, at Jamestown, North Carolina.[15] After the surrender, the men were offered free rail transportation (where available) in the direction of their homes, by what was left of the Southern railway companies. Most of the men traveled by rail, where they could. A large number of men were killed or seriously injured in a railroad accident at Flat Creek Bridge, Tennessee on May 25, 1865.[16]
Gammage,Washington L., The Camp, the Bivouac, and the Battlefield, Being a History of the Fourth Arkansas Regiment, from its First Organization Down to the Present Date.
Lavendar, Captain John W. 1837-1921. The War Memoirs of Captain John W. Lavender, CSA The Southern Press, 1956. Sub title:
Lavender, John. They Never Came Back: The Story of Co. F. Fourth Arkansas Infantry, C.S.A. (Pine Bluff, AR: The Southern Press, 1956).
^United States. War Dept.. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 20, In Two Parts. Part 1, Reports., Book, 1887, Page 974; digital images, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth154629 : accessed February 07, 2012), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries, Denton, Texas.
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