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FOREWORD In summing up his Civil War experiences in the hospitals of the North, American poet WaIt Whitman prophetically observed: "Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of countless minor scenes and interiors (not the official surface-courteousness of the Generals, not the few great battles) ofthe Secession war; and it is best they should not-the real war will never get in the books." The war, Whitman reminded us, "was not a quadrille in a ball-room. "1 The single object of this monograph is to prove Whitman wrong by putting Arkansas's real war into a book. Over the years every campaign has been fought and refought. Battles have been studied, generals' lives have been written, and any number of interesting arguments about various phases of the war have been explored. Yet it has been fifty years since D.Y. Thomas wrote of the experiences of Arkansas in the great Civil War. Much new material has come to light, while some interpretations need revision. That is the justification for this book. What I have attempted in these pages is to portray a state's life, a biography of Arkansas's fortunes as a political entity through thick and thin. Even in the industrialized and mobile twentieth century our states still maintain an identifiable character. In the nineteenth century, especially before the war, the individuality of the states was highly pronounced. State loyalty, though it often proved transient at best in frontier America, was nevertheless often a more real feeling than national loyalty. Sectional feelings, especially at the South, bolstered rather than weakened state ties. Finally loyalty to local communal feelings was especially strong in isolated rural areas like the Ozarks. Thus while the outcome ofthe Civil War was decided by national causes, the greater number of people within the Confederacy never looked beyond the state and local impact from these national events. It is somewhat ironic that State's Rights, the constitutional philosophy of the Confederacy and her raison d'etre, helped in undoing her valiant sons. State's Rights, moreover, was merely the tip of the iceberg of state loyalty, state feelings, and state needs. Nowhere were these considerations stronger than among the homefolk. The majority of Arkansians did not fight for either side; they were too young, too old, of the "wrong" sex, or the "wrong" race. Yet the Civil War was so nearly a total war that their sufferings, their victories, and their defeats deserve viii Foreword the recognition formerly bestowed only on the army. To tell their story I have tried to treat Arkansas as an organic entity and use her records as a form of autobiography. Newspapers, letters, diaries, reminiscences, legal documents, songs, official reports, and a dozen other contemporary sources tell the story. My object has been to ferret out these sources and let them have their say. That is my apology, if one is needed, for the numerous quotations. The grammatically unwashed letter of a soldier boy away from home for the first time must rub shoulders with the brilliantly abusive newspaper editorial if the heart and mind of Arkansas are to be heard. Of course events do not speak for themselves. They must be made relevant and meaningful through establishing relationships. I have not tried to write from any preconceived point of view. In my family both the blue and the gray were worn, dividing the family circle with brother against brother. My obligation as a historian is to evaluate events with understanding and explanation. I do not intend to create either villains or heroes. I have endeavored to present the facts as I understood them. Finally lowe many a debt of gratitude in the course ofmy preparation. Professor Bell I. Wiley, then of Emory University, was the original inspiration for this work and bore up under the strains of guiding it through its preliminary stages as a dissertation. His advice, inspiration, and the example of his own many fine books have served me in more ways than he knows. Libraries throughout the South have helped me with materials. My own institution provided a research grant enabling me to collect some loose ends. Mrs. Margaret Ross of Little Rock read and criticized many of the chapters while sharing with me her own vast stock of Arkansas lore. To her and to the persons who shared precious private collections with me, lowe a debt of gratitude. More than that lowe to my wife, who in...

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