Little Rock Menaced

Meanwhile, Curtis had been moving on Little Rock. He occupied Batesville, May 4. Under the threat to the capital, the seat of state government was moved for a brief period to Hot Springs. It returned to Little Rock in July for General Hindman had got together as army which Curtis showed no desire to fight. He moved off toward Helena.

Gov. Harris Flanagin, who was elected in 1862 to succeed Governor Rector – the term had been shortened from four years to two – approved an act appropriating $68 to cover the expenses of transferring the government to Hot Springs and bringing it back.

Late in 1862, there was sharp fighting in northwestern Arkansas, where Federal troops were attempting to push down into the state, as part of the campaign to capture Little Rock. There, General Hindman, though facing superior numbers and short ammunition, was more than a match for the Union forces under Generals Blunt and Herron. One of the engagements in that phase of the fighting was near Van Buren, December 7, 1862, where each side lost about 1,200 in killed and wounded. The Confederates, their ammunition exhausted, withdrew into the night, muffling their wagon wheels by wrapping them with blankets. They had to scatter along the Arkansas river to find what subsistence they could.

Prairie Grove Battlefield

Arkansas began, in 1862, to feel the terrific drain of the war. Many of the bravest sons were in the eastern forces of the Confederacy as the majority of the troops continued to be until the end of the struggle. Short of man power, either for defense of its soil, or to operate its farms and create vital industries, the state was entering into an iron test of its stamina and inventiveness. And indomitably Arkansas met the grueling demands of that precarious time.

Somehow, the fields were plowed and planted. In one way or another, the people managed to set up little shops and factories that produced the necessities for their soldier lads and themselves.

At Camden, Captain Leavenworth operated a foundry which turned out large quantities of ammunition and small cannon. The iron was brought from Texas. Haversacks, knapsacks, and cartridge boxes were made at Arkadelphia, in a shop managed by Captain Polleys. Gunpowder was manufactured in Arkadelphia, too.

The Confederate Government sent a great many hides into Arkansas during the war, which willing hands turned into and cut and sewed into shoes and harnesses. There were plants doing that work near Poison Springs, Washington, Magnolia, and probably elsewhere.

Providing enough salt in a warm climate to preserve the meat essential to the army, to say nothing of civilian wants. An able investigator has come to the conclusion that the shortage of salt was one of the main reasons for the loss of the Confederate cause.