The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 13. Page: 30
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MO., ARK., KANS., IND. T., AND DEPT. N.W. [CHAP. XXV.
Indians, began collecting on the border and Federal emissaries were
busy among the Cherokees and Creeks inciting disaffection. Detach-
ments of Federal cavalry penetrated at will into various parts of the
upper half of Arkansas, plundering and burning houses, stealing
horses and slaves, destroying farming utensils, murdering loyal men
or carrying them into captivity, forcing the oath of allegiance on the
timid, and disseminating disloyal sentiments among the ignorant. A
regiment of Federal Arkansians was organized at Batesville, another
commenced in Northwestern Arkansas, and the work of recruiting for
the Federal service went on prosperously. Tory bands were organized
or in process of organization in many counties, not only in the upper
but in the lower half of the State likewise, and depredations and out-
rages upon loyal citizens were of constant occurrence. Straggling
soldiers. belonging to distant commands traversed the country, armed
and lawless, robbing the people of their property under pretense of
impressing it for the Confederate service. The Governor and other
executive officers fled from the capital, taking the archives of State
with them. The courts were suspended and civil magistrates almost
universally ceased to exercise their functions. Confederate money was
openly refused or so depreciated as to be nearly worthless. This, with
the short crop of the preceding year and the failure on all the uplands
of the one then growing, gave rise to the cruelest extortion in the nec-
essaries of life and menaced the poor with actual starvation. These
evils were aggravated by an address of the Governor, issued shortly
before his flight, deprecating the withdrawal of troops and threatening
secession from the Confederacy.
Brig. Gen. J. S. Roane had been placed in command of Arkansas
by General Van Dorn, but without any troops. He was instructed, as
the best thing possible, to endeavor to hold the line of the Arkansas
River, giving up more than half the territory, population, and re-
sources of the State. That this might be done General Van Dorn
directed General Pike to send a portion of his force to Little Rock, but
he refused.
General Pike had at that time one regiment of Arkansas infantry,
two 6-gun (Arkansas) batteries, one Texas battery of four guns, two
regiments and several unattached companies of Texas cavalry, and ten
10-pounder Parrott rifles, besides 5,500 Indian troops. There was no
Federal force, other than small marauding parties, within 200 miles
of him. General Roane was at Little Rock without a regiment, and
Curtis' victorious army, at least 15,000 strong, was moving in that
direction.
Fortunately five regiments of Texas cavalry arrived on their way to
Corinth. General Roane, by permission of General Beauregard, de-
tained them at Little Rock. About the same time, by order of the
Navy Department, the Confederate ram Maurepas, Lieut. Comdg.
Joseph Fry, came into White River, and the ram Pontchartrain,
Lieut. Comdg. J. W. Dunnington, into the Arkansas. These accessions
had the effect to retard the movements of Curtis, whose advance,
when I assumed command, was 35 miles from Little Rock.
I found under General Roane eight companies of Arkansas infantry,
wholly unarmed, one 6-gun battery, with but 40 men, and less than
1,500 effective cavalry, many of the Texans being unarmed and many
of them sick. For this force he had about three days' subsistence and
forage and less than 15 rounds of ammunition. There were no depots
of supplies in the district.
In the situation in which I was placed it was necessary to do many30
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The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Additions and Corrections to Series 1, Volume 13. (Pamphlet)
Errata sheets for the Records of the War of the Rebellion include additions and corrections to the text and the index for Series 1, Volume 13.
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United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 13., book, 1885; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth154621/m1/38/?q=Hindman: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.