I Do Wish This Cruel War Was Over: First-Person Accounts of Civil War Arkansas from the Arkansas Historical Quarterly

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This map shows the many Arkansas towns and battles that are mentioned in the first-person accounts of the Civil War that have appeared in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Courtesy of Tony Feaster, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program Thousands of Arkansas men rushed to enlist in volunteer companies after the state seceded from the Union. Many would not survive to see battle, instead dying of diseases that raced through their crowded camps. This Harper’s Weekly image portrays Arkansas troops stationed in Virginia. Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission. Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch was shot to death as he scouted for Union positions at the Battle of Pea Ridge. His body was later taken to Texas for burial. Courtesy of the UALR Photograph Collections/UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture. The two-day Battle of Pea Ridge, March 7–8, 1862, resulted in defeat for the numerically superior Confederate Army of the West, which lost two generals, including former Texas Ranger Ben McCulloch. From Rugged and Sublime: The Civil War in Arkansas. Brig. Gen. Francis J. Herron led his division on hard marches throughout northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, including a grueling forced march that ended in fierce combat at Prairie Grove. Courtesy of the Paul Dolle Collection, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock. Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt, a pugnacious Kansan, pushed his troops against Confederate cavalry at Cane Hill in November 1862, later arriving in the nick of time to help hold the line at Prairie Grove. Courtesy of the Civil War Museum at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield. William Campbell of the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry drew this map of the Prairie Grove battlefield. The Nineteenth Iowa suffered heavy casualties in the fighting there. Courtesy of Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. Brig. Gen. J. O. Shelby’s Confederate cavalry helped delay pursuing Union troops during the Battle of Cane Hill in November 1862. Shelby and his troops would be involved in much of the fighting that took place in Arkansas during the Civil War. Courtesy of the Civil War Museum at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield. Confederate major general Thomas C. Hindman led an army north in hopes of invading Missouri, a dream that ended in the bloody fighting at Prairie Grove. Courtesy of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock. Lt. Charles DeWolf of the Seventh Missouri Cavalry (U.S.) documented the severe fighting at Prairie Grove as well as later operations against Van Buren and Fort Smith. From the Arkansas Historical Quarterly 38 (Spring 1979). Fort Hindman, the main Confederate defensive work at Arkansas Post, was mercilessly hammered by Union gunboats and artillery during the battle of January 9–11, 1863. Courtesy of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock. Young Union sailor Frederic Davis of the USS Baron DeKalb wrote eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Arkansas Post and subsequent operations on the White River in early 1863. Courtesy of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University. Much of the military activity in Civil War Arkansas involved action against the many guerrillas who infested much of the state north of the Arkansas River, as suggested in this November 1863 Harper’s Weekly illustration . Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes led a Confederate army to bloody defeat as they tried to conquer the strongly fortified Union positions at Helena on July 4, 1863. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration. Col. Powell Clayton commanded the Fifth Kansas and First Indiana Cavalry Regiments in their spirited defense of Pine Bluff on October 25, 1863. Courtesy of the Civil War Museum at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield. Union cavalrymen fought from within the Jefferson County Courthouse in Pine Bluff before being driven from their positions by heavy Confederate artillery fire. From James W. Leslie, Pine Bluff and Jefferson County: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning, 1981). Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele led a Union army south in the spring of 1864, intent on...