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Arkansas Rallies to the
Call of the Civil War
South Secedes and Four Years
of Strife and Misery are Launched…Much Blood Spilled on State’s Soil |
Third of Wealth in Slaves
Arkansas went into war a swift-growing state, leaping forward in
population and wealth. It emerged from the four years of travail that
followed, a scene of grief and desolation. At almost every fireside
there was mourning for loved ones who slept in far places, done with
strife, and deaf to the lonely plaint of the bugles. The vigorous
economic and social life the state had toilsomely erected lay in ruins.
No home escaped the poverty that came to former rich and poor alike.
In 1860, the state had something more the 435,000 population. Little
Rock counted 3,727 inhabitants. The total wealth of Arkansas was
$219,256,000 – but about a third of that was in slaves, representing,
when emancipation came, a staggering loss to plantation owners.
Over much of the state, in 1860, the grace and charm of the Old South’s
cultured civilization had struck prolific root. Generous living,
open-handed hospitality and courtly manners flourished in plantation and
town homes, and in many a humbler dwelling.
There yet remained, of course, a good deal of the forthright flavor of
the frontier. In some of the river and wilderness towns, life was
robust, occasionally crude, and now and then uncertain. Lawlessness was
still pretty much of a problem.
The state needed roads and public schools in 1860. It had scarcely begun
to create such social necessities as ways of caring for the blind and
the deaf. All together, a vast lot of work yet remained to be done. But
the great achievements of just a few decades proved the capacity to
perform the tasks still waiting. In both material and social matters,
Arkansas, in 1860, was driving along at amazing speed.
The telegraph came in that year to Little Rock. It was a marvel which
people stood around discussing in a mingling of astonishment,
skepticism, and awe. News flashed over hundreds of miles of wire in the
twinkling of an eye! – it was almost too much for belief. Gas lights
were another new marvel that hit Little Rock in 1860. Two lamp-lighters,
Richard Wilson and Benjamin Pate, went around each evening with lanterns
and small ladders, turning on the new illumination. In the morning they
retraced their course, extinguishing the lights. A flock of admiring
youngsters would follow the two men, swollen with pride when permitted
to carry the lanterns and ladders.
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