Marion Co TOC

       (Page 65) Almost up until the very outbreak of the Civil War, it would have been almost impossible to raise a voluntary army for either the North or the South in Marion County. Regardless of their sympathies, the people of the White River Country were loyal Americans and held deep respect for the Union. But, as one writer said, "Our sympathies are with the South but our interest is with the Union."
       No sooner had Abraham Lincoln been elected to the Presidency in 1860 than secession began. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, and within six months ten southern states followed suit. Although the people of the border counties of Northern Arkansas had argued long and hard against secession, Arkansas finally became one of the last four of eleven states to secede.
       After the election of Lincoln, Governor Henry Rector, in his annual message to the legislature which met in regular session, requested the calling at once of a state convention to consider the course Arkansas should take. The legislature refused to be rushed into calling a convention, but, finally on February 18, 1861, voting for the convention took place.
       In the voting for delegates, those classified as Unionists received 23,626 votes and the secessionist candidates received 17,927 votes. So as late as February, 1861, the majority of Arkansas voters indicated their preference to remain in the Union.
       On March 4, 1861, the day President Lincoln was inaugurated, the Arkansas Convention assembled in Little Rock. After several resolutions and heated debates by both the Secessionists and those opposed to secession, a proposal was passed for the holding of an election on August 15 to let the people of the state express their opinion. The Convention then adjourned to await the decision of the people. The Chairman was empowered to call the delegates back into session before that date should an emergency arise.
       Such an emergency did; of course, occur in April, 1861, with the firing on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call upon the state governors for volunteers. Governor Rector of Arkansas considered this request an insult, and the rest of the state seemed to agree. Consequently, the convention was summoned to meet again on May 6, 1861. After little debate the Ordinance of Secession was passed, 69 to 1. The one dissenting vote was that of Isaac Murphy, delegate from Madison County, who with a sad heart and tears in his eyes spoke the sentiments of thousands of people in the border (Page 72 Top) counties of Arkansas and Missouri when he addressed the convention: "My principles are Southern, but I cannot aid in bringing about the untold evils that would assuredly follow in the train of secession." His forecast of the horrors of the impending conflict was all too accurate, as time would tell. (Isaac Murphy was later to become the Governor of Arkansas in 1864.)
       On May 7, 1861, the Convention proceeded with the formal signing of the Ordinance and, on May 10, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted by a vote of 63 to 8. The eight dissenting delegates declared that the people should have an opportunity to vote upon ratification. So, with the passing of this Ordinance, the bewildered people of Marion County, like all borderline counties of Arkansas and Missouri, had hoped to remain neutral. Now, they were caught in "No Man's Land" with the Confederate Army on the south and the Union Army on the North. In this horrible conflict, they would be forced to give up their loved ones, see their homes and farms destroyed, to face hunger, and probably worst of all, to live in constant fear.
       Soon after Arkansas seceded from the Union, the Confederates began recruiting and organizing an army. Most of the people living in Marion County, as well as most border-line counties, had been opposed to secession. Not many of them had owned slaves, so slavery had never been an issue. But since most of these early settlers had come to this area from, or by way of, the southern states, their loyalty was mostly with the South.
       The first company of infantry to be made up in Marion County was that of Captain J. R. Dowd, with his volunteers armed with double-barrel shot guns, old squirrel and flintlock muzzle-loading rifles, and knives that were mostly homemade. Their uniforms were homemade jeans.² Almost as soon as this company was formed, without any time for training or drilling, they were force-marched to Oak-Hills or Wilson Creek near Springfield, Missouri, where on August 10, 1861, after becoming a part of the Fifth Regiment of Arkansas volunteers, they played a gallant role in this bloody battle, in which hundreds of men On both sides were killed or wounded. The Union Army, after their Commanding Officer, General Lyon, was killed, retreated - leaving the Confederate forces in control of the field but they were too poorly-equipped and led to follow up their advantage. ³
       S. C. Turnbo, quite a good historian in his time, recorded in his unpublished manuscript several of the events of this period. Of one he wrote: "I well remember being at Yellville one day in the month of July 1861 when a call was made for volunteers to join the Confederate Army. A company of men raised in Marion County and the southern part of Taney County, Missouri, were present. These patriotic citizens had volunteered their services to defend the Southern cause. Their commanding officer was Captain William C. Mitchell ⁴ whose company afterward formed part of the 14th Regiment of the Arkansas Infantry. Captain Mitchell marched his company back and forth through the streets to the music of two violins in the hands of Dan Coker and "Yellville" Bill Coker, who were members of the company:
       As the soldiers marched along with the colors flying at the head of the column, both officers and men extended invitations to the men present to enlist in their ranks. A number of those gallant young men responded to the call of their friends and fell in line, willing to shed their blood for the "Sunny South." ⁵
       (Page 73 Top) No doubt, part of them gave up their lives on the battlefield or fell victims of exposure to the wintery weather and ravages of disease. In many cases their bones rest in unmarked graves. Mr. Turnbo goes on to say: "I recollect a week's stay in Yellville in war days. Our Regiment, the 27th of Arkansas with Colonels White, and Shavers, was on it's way from Pocahontas to join General Tom C. Hindman's Division at the mouth of Mulberry River. We arrived at Yellville on Wednesday evening at three o-clock on October 22, 1862, and camped on the opposite side of the creek from town where we rested a week and procured supplies. This camp was known to us as Camp Adams. On the day of our arrival, we found the town crowded with Missouri Confederates who were drawing their pay in "Clabe Jackson Money" ⁶ and this sort of currency circulated plentiful among those warmhearted men. Their paymaster occupied Isaac Wilson's hotel, and this was where the soldiers were receiving their money. On the second night after we reached there, a remarkable snow fall struck us, which lasted until Friday morning the 24th. The snow was six inches deep and is the greatest snow fall on record, so early in the fall in North Central Arkansas. It went off quickly, however, and the weather turned off bright and warm again. The majority of the men in our Company lived in Marion County and the camp was always full of relatives and friends bringing supplies of needed woolen clothing from the home spinning wheels and hand looms." ⁷
       Just before the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, the efforts to obtain recruits were intensified. Many men in a short time were in the army and away from home. About this time men of other communities began to come into the hills where they could better succeed in evading army services. Here they 'banded together with other men of bad character to form small groups that soon began stealing and plundering; later these groups were called "Bushwhackers". ⁸
       To make matters worse after the Battle of Pea Ridge, small groups of Federal soldiers began to invade the settlements and homes of Marion County. They were in enemy territory and regarded the people as enemies. These soldiers and their horses lived on whatever they could find, most of which were taken from helpless women and children living in impoverished homes and on farms practically devastated and made useless, as Bushwhackers were now stealing and plundering at will and had by now added murder to their long list of crimes. Civil authority and protection was completely nonexistent. The women and few men (mostly old men and young boys) that were left at home resorted to any means to survive. The little food along with what few cattle and horses that were left had to be hidden from both the Bushwhacker and the Federal soldiers. There were dozens of accounts of women, old men and boys being tortured in trying to learn the whereabouts of these hidden possessions.
       The following account was told to Mr. Turnbo by Mrs. Jenkins, wife of W. C. Jenkins, an early minister of the Christian Church. (Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins came to Marion County in 1860 and settled land in the Flippin Barrens where Rock Springs is today, a little more than one mile north of Flippin). In relating the destruction in human lives in the Flippin Barrens during the Civil War; Mrs. Jenkins said: "A single man by the name of Jim Brown came with her and her husband to Marion County from Kentucky and was living with them. One morning a band of Bushwhackers killed Derl Wood, (Page 74 Top Photo: Confederate 20 dollar bill) who was living south of Fallen Ash, just a short distance west of Flippin. I heard the reports of the gun while they were shooting Mr. Wood. I could hear his wife, Sarah, screaming while they were putting him to death. After the band of Bushwhackers had over run that part of the neighborhood, they arrived at Jim Jackson's, who lived a quarter of a mile from our house, and began to annoy and chase two Negro boys there. Mr. Brown was in our house at the time and went outside and started to run and the band of men saw him and charged down the lane toward our house and soon over-hauled him, and shot him to death. One ball took effect in his face, another in his chest and another in his arm. This occurred nearly an hour before sundown. There were a few scattered men left in the neighborhood who were friends to the South. When the Bushwhackers retired that evening, these friends collected together, and put out guards and buried the dead bodies of Brown and Wood in the Flippin graveyard."
       In giving an account of another sad affair in war times, Mrs. Jenkins said: "There is a bottom on the south side of White River a few miles above Old Talbert's Ferry that was known as Cave Bottom. It was then called an out-of-the-way place and so secluded that it was deemed an excellent spot for the men to hide on the approach of an enemy. One evening during the winter season while snow covered the ground, Shelt Williams, Jack Tate, John Wood, John Tyler and Jim Tyler were hiding there and were attacked by the enemy. Shelt Williams, Jack Tate and John Tyler were killed. Jim Tyler feigned death by falling on his face in the snow. After he was slightly wounded, and his foes thinking he was really dead did not investigate, he escaped with his life. John Wood was mounted on a small but resolute mule and its rider compelled the animal to plunge into the ice cold water of the river and swim across to the north bank. Then he rode a few miles up the river and swam back to the south side again and arrived at our house just before daybreak. Mr. Wood was bare-headed and nearly froze. The body of Mr. Williams was hauled home and buried there in a shallow grave, in the same clothes he was killed in. Jack Tate was buried at Flippin. Do not know where John Tyler was buried."
       Mr. Tumbo gives this story told to him by Mr. Brice Milum, a resident (Page 75 Top) of Yellville: "A man by the name of William Busket was shot to death by Federal soldiers in Yellville about 100 yards from the West Hotel. The weather was cold with snow on the ground and the body lay there three days. Mrs. Sarah Wood, wife of Derl Wood, and a few other women dug a grave and buried the remains near where Mr. Busket was executed. They had no coffin but they wrapped the body in a blanket. The ladies were not allowed to bury the dead man east and west, according to burial rites and customs, but were made to dig the grave north and south or crossways, for "traitors", as the enemy termed it." Mrs. Wood was a sister of John Adams and a daughter of Mr. Matthew Adams.
       According to Mr. Turnbo, several other men in Marion County were slain by Bushwhackers and Federal soldiers. No doubt, most of them were innocent, simply an unfortunate victim of the times. Some of them were Daniel Wickersham who lived on Mill Creek about a mile south of Yellville. He was shot one night in his nightclothes, he crawled on his hands through the snow to Colonel Eli Dodson's home, a mile distant where he died.
       The following story was given to Mr. Turnbo by Billie Parker, a pioneer settler who lived on Jimmie's Creek: "Sam Lawther was killed at Noe Bluff, on the south side of White River, two miles below the mouth of Jimmie's Creek. Loander Musick was killed on the north side of White River just below Noe's Bluff. Dave Musick was killed on the Newton's Flat below Jimmie's Creek. Bill Cain, son of Jim Cain, was killed on Jimmie's Creek. John McClure, son of Hugh McClure, was killed on the old George Pearson farm on the north side of White River above the mouth of Jimmie's Creek It was that the Federal soldiers had passed the house, but McClure looked out at the door and the soldiers saw him. After they took him prisoner, they compelled him to run through a field where they shot him."
       On the south side of White River in Marion County, six or seven miles below Oakland (east of Fairview), is a bluff over-looking Cave Bottom. On the face of this bluff is a small cave that played an important role during the early days of the Civil War. The Confederate authorities kept a small force of men there to protect the powder works and employees, while engaged in the manufacture of gunpowder from saltpeter that was found there. The powder was made for the use of the Confederate soldiers and the saltpeter was taken from the cave in this bluff. Thus came the name of the cave. There has been some question as to how many times the Federal troops raided and destroyed these powder works. There's no doubt that since gunpowder always seemed to be in short supply for the Confederate troops in this area, this works and supply of saltpeter, ashes and charcoal played an important role to both the Confederate and Union troops.
       According to official records in early 1862, Federal authorities learned of the saltpeter works in Marion County and the following communique from General Halleck (Union) to General Curtis, confirmed the date.

       General Curtis, realizing the importance of destroying these works, soon sent the following communique to General Halleck:

(Page 78 Top Photo: Salt Peter Cave, just east of Fairview. Confederate's made gunpowder from nitrate found in this cave. Union forces destroyed the powder works at least twice during the great Civil War)

       This apparently is a report of the first raid on the saltpeter works in Marion County. Though the dates and reports are not in total agreement, there is some evidence that this raid took place at the same time that the arsenal, storehouses and most of the buildings in Yellville were burned by Federal troops. Later in the year, December 9, 1862, Captain Burch, with 40 men (Page 78 Top) 14th of the 14th Missouri State Militia left Ozark, Missouri. Their mission to make Ozark, Missouri. Their mission to make an expedition into the White River country below Dubuque where Captain Burch had information that a band of Bushwhackers had a considerable number of horses. His intentions were to destroy or drive out the Bushwhackers and capture the horses. While camped at Lawrence Mill the first night, he received information that a rebel captain by the name of Mooney, with 75 men, were encamped at Talbert's Ferry on White River sixty miles to the south. After receiving reinforcements of sixty men, Captain Burch resolved to move in that direction in an effort to capture these men. After marching down the east side of White River to within 8 miles of the ferry, his troops captured two rebels at the home of a man by the name of Brixy. From these prisoners he learned that Captain Mooney's men had temporarily disbanded. Although he was disappointed, Captain Burch resolved to proceed and arrived at Mooney's residence just at the break of day. Here Mooney and one other man were captured with small arms and eight horses. These, according to Captain Burch's report, were taken from Federal troops stationed at Lawrence Mill.¹¹
       Captain Burch, receiving information that the Confederate Powder Works were again in operation at saltpeter cave just a few miles above Talbet's Ferry, decided to move in that direction. Dividing his command into two divisions, he sent one under the command of Captain J. H. Sallee, accompanied by Lieutenant Bates, to march up the river on the east side and to await in concealment until his company could cross the river and move up the west or left bank, The strategy was to approach the Confederate camp from both sides of the river. It was noon when they arrived at the cave. The workers were at dinner, unaware that the troops who were to protect them had moved some distance from the camp. When at last the Federal troops were discovered, they were, at first, mistaken for a company of their own men. By then it was too late to defend themselves and, having no alternative, they surrendered without resistance. Captain Burch then ordered the works destroyed. By official reports, this included one engine, 26 large kettles which were broken with sledges, and the building, including blacksmith and carpenter shops, was burned. Also destroyed were 500 barrels of jerked beef, and $6,000 worth of saltpeter which was to have been moved out in two days, 42 prisoners, their arms and horses were taken. The report says that to make the capture more creditable was the fact that a large force of Confederate soldiers were encamped within a few miles of the works. (No doubt the company that was there were to protect the works.) The report also says that the cave had sufficient room to work 100 men). ¹² Some of the foregoing reports made by some of the Federal Officers to their Superiors could possibly have been exaggerated.
       The following account of the capture of the saltpeter works was given by "Mum" Treat, a southern man who was one of the party employed to assist in making powder. He says: "When the Federals attacked the works, there was 23 men present who were in the charge of Perry Tucker, Fate Moreland, as cook and waiter. Our camp was on the summit of the bluff, and consisted of a few log huts, two of which was filled with dried beef. The men were paid 60 cents a day in "Chattanooga money" which was good currency at that time. We have got in a fair way of turning out powder when the Federal troops put an end to the works. The strength of the Federal forces that (Page 79 Top) captured the works was 150 strong and was under the command of Captain Burch. Soon after we were taken prisoners, the Union forces burned our quarters and destroyed the other works, except that, if I mistake not, they left a few of the large kettles uninjured. Among our party that were captured were Henry Ray, John Yandell and John Crawford." ¹³
       It was thought by Mr. Treat that the Southern forces who were ordered to guard and protect the men and works had gotten too far away on the approach of the Federals.
       Soon after the beginning of the war, Yellville became an important town for the Confederate and Union forces. Since it was located at the junction of two of the few roads in Marion County (the Fallen Ash Military and the old freight road into Missouri), it was a key position to control and protect the Saltpeter Works and Talbert's Ferry, which was the main crossing of White River to the east. Also for the Confederate forces, it was a good base for operations into Missouri. In these early days the Confederate forces moved back and forth through Yellville and Marion County. As time passed and several of the Confederate troops were transferred east of the Mississippi, the Union forces occupied Yellville much of the time.
       Mr. Thomas J Estes, a young boy living near Yellville when the war broke out, writes in his book EARLY DAYS AND WAR TIMES in NORTHERN ARKANSAS: "I well remember when Shaler's Command (Confederate) camped across the creek south of town in the winter of 1863-64. Many of the men were ragged and almost barefooted. These poor, half-naked men must have suffered intensely, for it was a very severe winter. I saw McBride's Army of Infantry (Confederate) march through Yellville to military music of fife and drum, and, oh, what a grand sight we boys thought it was. And Mannaduke camped with his artillery (Confederates) right close to our house, and I wanted to camp with them.
       In the winter of 1864-65, Yellville was occupied as a Federal Post, and from the fall of '64 to the close of the war, we had very hard and exciting times. The able-bodied men were about all off in the army and the Federal soldiers and Bushwhackers took a very large portion, if not most, of what the women, children and old men produced. We had to hide supplies where they couldn't find them to keep from starving.
       On one occasion Colonel Cameron (Union) and his men thought they had taken all the corn we had and carried it off in blankets to feed their horses, except about five bushels which they permitted us to keep. But just over their heads in the loft was several pieces of bacon and about fifty bushels of corn.
       My mother gave those Federals quite a scare by telling them that Snable's men (Confederates) were in the country (and a few were) and, although they had struck camp, they pulled up and moved on in the night. As they came into Yellville, they ran Lieutenant Bud Wood, John Briggs and Bob and Alex Hurst out and got Bob's horse and they took several shots at him, but he got away with only a sprained ankle, as he jumped off the bluff south of town. Lieutenant Wood, with a few men hastily collected, attacked Cameron from behind trees and in the dark, some five or six miles east of Yellville, but, because of bad powder, nobody was reported hurt, except one Federal - shot in the heel.
       During the war Yellville was almost completely destroyed by fire at least (Page 80 Top) three different times. The business section was burned by Union forces during one of their first raids through Marion County. In the final days alter the Union troops that had occupied Yellville during the winter of 1864-65 had moved out, a band of Bushwhackers, led by a man called Webb, came into town one night and destroyed most that was left. They burned 32 houses, including the Methodist Church, Masonic Hall and two Hotels, the Hansford and Wilson. Webb and his band of Bushwhackers had operated out of the locality around Lone Rock in what is now south Baxter County and had terrorized the area from Yellville to Batesville for months. Near the end of the war, they were trapped and all but two were killed, including Webb, by Confederate troops near Shipps Ferry on White River not far below Buffalo River." ¹⁴
       Early in 1863, as the Federal armies began to over-run Arkansas and it became clear that the South could not win the war, numbers of Confederate soldiers gave up the struggle and came home to try to provide for their families. Some joined the Union forces. Union sentiment increased greatly after the Federals occupied Little Rock in 1863, after it became apparent to the people that President Lincoln was a moderate and wished to restore the Union as rapidly and with as little bitterness as possible. They began to decide that the Yankees were not so bad after all.
       In 1864, Isaac Murphy, who cast the one dissenting vote when Arkansas seceded in 1861, was elected Governor. The Confederates, who had their own state government at Washington, Arkansas, until the war ended, regarded Murphy as a traitor. On the other hand, the radical Unionists held little respect for Governor Murphy. This left the Governor with the almost impossible task of restoring peace and order. To make matters worse, many northerners had moved to Arkansas during and after the war, usually to make money by taking advantage of unsettled conditions. The Conservatives called them "Carpetbaggers" because some of them were said to have brought all their belongings in a small satchel made of carpet material. Allied with them were the "Scalawags", or southern men who advocated radicalism. Under these handicaps Governor Murphy did manage to keep down expenditures, set up a militia to control the Bushwhackers, and by the fall of 1865 he had county governments and courts operating again. The General Assembly ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which permanently abolished slavery." ¹⁵
       Nowhere else at any time in the history of our country has the character, courage, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and hardiness of the old pioneer stock of the border counties of Arkansas and Missouri been more thoroughly tried and demonstrated than the periods during the last months of and immediately following the Civil War. For years after the war, bandits continued to roam the hills, and killings continued as returning soldiers took revenge for wrongs done their families and kinsmen.
       "The last several months of the war made life almost unliveable in Marion County. People ate almost anything they could get to sustain life. Some actually starved to death. Some lived for days on slippery Elm bark. Sam Railsback and his wife who lived on Georgie's Creek would gather the inside bark from these trees, dry it by the fire, carry it to Adams Mill on Mill Creek south of Yellville and have it ground into meal to bake like corn bread. Some gathered wild onions and any greens that would do to eat. These were (Page 81 Top Photo: Confederate soldier, James Henry Pascoe) cooked without the benefits of grease or salt. Salt was almost impossible to obtain. About the only source the people had was in the soil from the floor of their smokehouse, where meat had been salted and hung to dry in the past. This soil was dug up, put in hoppers and water poured over it. The salty drippings were then boiled down to salt. Most smokehouses in the county had the soil removed for the little salt contained time and time again. In the late winter and spring of 1865 the people cut Elm and other early-budding trees in order to keep their stock alive until the grass came." ¹⁶
       Very often the children, as a part of their daily work, followed the few cows left in the neighborhood and gathered the kind of greens that the cows ate and took them home to be cooked as food for the family. This way they avoided the poisonous plants. Children soon learned field lettuce, sour dock, poke, lambs quarter, tongue grass, deer's tongue, dandelion, sheep sorrel and other edible plants.
       Aunt Jane Jenkins, daughter of Tom Sanders, a Confederate soldier, who lived on Jimmie's creek on the farm later known as the E. B. Adams farm, recalled some seventy years after the war and shortly before her death, that as a little girl while her father was away in the army, a group of "Scalawags" (Page 82 Top) or renegade Union soldiers came to their place and after taking all of the food a little bacon and some corn and abusing her mother and the older children, took a little red hat from her little sick brother's head and stamped it into the dirt because his father was a Confederate soldier. She recalled also that after this raid, the family lived for some time on acorns, nuts and roasted cotton seed which was not destroyed by the raiders.
       The women left at home looked upon soldiers, even Confederates, as enemies because they threatened death to her family and herself by starvation. Every family pooled their wits in deciding upon the best place to hide their food. Sometimes it was buried in the ground or hidden in hollow logs, trees, or caves; sometimes concealed in walls, floors, or rock piles. Women did not confide in one another about their hiding places. In spite of all precautions, however, the food was often found and carried away. In the first year and a half of the War small bands of Confederates came through the country and raided the smokehouses, where the men had stored supplies of meat before taking up arms, and carried away all surplus horses and mules, along with the food. The pillage was worse when the Federals came through. But the climax of woe was reached when the Bushwhackers or Jayhawkers made their raids. The Regulars usually left something, but the Bushwhackers never hesitated to take anything they wanted.
       "During the last two years of the war, most of the people of the border counties fled their homes and farms. The Unionists moved north and the Southern sympathizers fled mostly to Texas. When the war was over, many of these families never returned to their old homes in the White River country, but instead sought a new life in California or other distant places." ¹⁷ The people who had remained suffered unbelievable horrors, after hiding themselves in the woods and caves, and very often faced starvation.
       Dubuque, in 1850, was a steamboat landing and a thriving settlement, located about six miles north of Lead Hill on the south bank of White River and, at that time, a part of Marion County. Dubuque, very likely, was one of the first settlements in the upper White River Valley. A man by the name of Coker settled there some time before 1818. One of the earliest explorers of this area, Henry R. Schoolcraft, whose report is probably the first description of this area, visited Mr. Coker on December 9, 1818. Mr. Schoolcraft described his visit.
       "We were received by Mr. Coker with frankness and blunt hospitality, which are characteristic of the hunter. Our approach to the house was, as usual, announced by barking dogs whose incessant yells plainly told us that all who approached that domain, of which they were natural guardians, were considered as enemies, and it was not until they were repeatedly recalled that they could be pacified. Dried skins, stretched out with small rods and hung up to dry on trees and poles around the house, served to give the scene the most novel appearance. This custom has been observed at every hunter's cabin we have encountered, and, as we find, great pride is taken in this display, the number and size, of the bear skins serving as a credential of the hunter's skill and prowess in the chase." ¹⁸
       A lead smelter at Dubuque provided lead for molding bullets for the Confederate forces. Early in the war it was a recruiting center for Confederate troops. Also this was used by both Confederate and Union forces as a main crossing of White River, between Forsyth and Yellville. Dubuque (Page 83 Top) was destroyed by Union forces during the war and was never rebuilt.
       William Wiley Osborn and Elizabeth Matilda Parker, daughter of Garrison Parker, were married in 1852 and lived on Jimmies Creek in Marion County. Their home was three miles above the mouth, where Jonsie Osborn settled years before. One of their daughters, who was the wife of B. G. (Ben) Butler and was born on Jimmies Creek in 1855, tells of some of the hardships they encountered in wartimes.
       "My father was off in the Federal army in Captain Shults' Company and served part of the time at Rolla, Missouri. There were my mother and three of us children when the war broke out. . . my sister Isabel, brother Jonsie and myself. One night some robbers (Bushwhackers) came to our house and ordered us all outside. My mother, being slow about getting out, had threats made to kill her. They proceeded to help themselves to whatever they could use. They took our quilts, two counterpanes, and one man went into the smokehouse and took down all the bacon and our fat gourds filled with lard, leaving us to face starvation." ¹⁹
       Mrs. Z. B. Smith in her PORTRAITS and LANDSCAPES quotes from various sources material relative to the Civil War in Marion County. Mrs. Smith wrote: "People still tell stories of the part that their ancestors played in the Civil War. As legends, they are handed down from father to son with a mixture of pride and regret: pride for their courage and regret at the awful price they paid for a "lost cause".
        It is said that the Federalists occupied the old Masonic Hall in Yellville and used it as their arsenal, but the local Confederates burned it along with all supplies. The Federalists then made the old Berry home their headquarters but, before that, many natives enlisted in the Confederate army in the Berry building. Among those were David Still's grandfather and the father of Uncle Frank Still."
       Mrs. Smith quotes from SKETCHES of MARION COUNTY by W. R. Jones the following: "Gould Thompson said that Ike Adams, brother to Lynn Adams, was a Confederate soldier and the best shot in the country. Uncle Jim McCabe was a good shot and at one time attempted to capture a Yankee gun boat on the Mississippi with a carbine and a six gun.
       Mr. Jones also wrote that Bluford Mear's horse fell down in front of the old court house in Yellville when Thompson's little band fired the Masonic Hall. Thompson held off some twenty "Yankees" while he took Mears on his horse behind him and escaped."
       "Hugh Hand was a Confederate soldier in a skirmish near Hand Valley on White River. The raiders shot and killed one brother, Tom. His brother, William (Tip), was shot in the eye as he swam the river to escape. Their grandfather Choat, 81 years old, was hanged until dead from a tree by the Jayhawkers. The women of the family had to cut him down and bury him, as the men were fighting the war. The Hands and Choats are pioneer families of Marion County. The Williams family gave a great many to the cause of the Confederacy. Berry Wilbur Hudson escaped twice from the Federalists. Having been captured first near Buffalo City, he was taken to Newport where he escaped by driving a team of oxen, pulling a load of grain all the way back to his home at the mouth of Buffalo River."
       In her PORTRAITS AND LANDSCAPES Mrs. Smith wrote: "John M. Hurst was in the Confederate army and when he came home, he found his (Page 84 Top Photo: Captain Albert G Cravens, steam boat captain on White River. Civil War Veteran) wife and all five of his children had died with Smallpox. His wife was Julia (Gaines) Hurst.
       Pioneer Shelt Williams and his wife, Polly (Hurst) Williams, had two sons that died in the Confederate army. Wils and Fed Williams, two other sons, saw much service in this war, but they came out alive. Their father, however, was killed by Jayhawkers just before the close of the war.
       Isaac Adams, Jeff Wood (son of Judge William Wood), 'Fed' Wood (nephew to Judge Wood), and 'Rosin the Bow' Wood were all Confederates. The first two were killed in battle. Fed was a captain and went to Texas after the war.
       Dow Wooten fought on the Union side and was a Scout. He died at the age of 90. George Franklin Smith was a Confederate and served with Captains Craven and White. He died at the age of 82."
       Mrs. Smith quotes an excerpt from EARLY PIONEER HISTORY of MARION COUNTY by W. it Jones the following:
       "Injun Tom was the last of the Cherokee Indians living in Marion County when the war broke out. He joined the Confederate forces and was never seen."
       From the unpublished manuscript of the early historian, S. C. Turnbo, she quotes: "Lafferty Coon Coker, a half-breed Indian whose mother was of the Cherokee Nation and legal wife of Joe Coker, was killed at Port Hudson. Yellville Bill Coker, a noted fiddler, (son of William Coker) was also a noted Confederate soldier, Ned Coker was a volunteer in the American (Page 85 Top) army and fought through the war in Mexico and returned home. Joe Coker, son of Charles Coker, was a Confederate." (Photo: tombstone - too dark to see inscription)
       In her PORTRAITS and LANDSCAPES, Mrs. Smith uses the following: "John Cowdrey, Uncle William (Bill) Thompson, John Adams who were killed by Jayhawkers, Bluford Mears, Alford Cowan who later changed to the Union army, Barrow D. Morrow and his brother, Demonthesis, and Grackie Morrow were all Confederate soldiers as was Bill Hamlett and Mason Weast, All of (Page 86 Top) these are buried in Cowan cemetery."
       We cannot list the names of all those from Marion County who were engaged in this tragic conflict, but it was in many cases brother against brother and father against son. Many men from Marion County volunteered for service in the Confederacy and became a part of the 14th Regiment of the Arkansas Infantry. In fact, Yellville was the enlistment point for many of the members of the 14th Regiment.
       Some of the Marion County men who served as officers in the Confederate army were: Captain A. G. Cravens, Captain Pace, Captain McCracken, Captain Dowd and Captain A. S. (Uncle Bud) Wood. Due to the fact that we could not find a roster of men who served in either the Union or the Confederate army, we realize that many valiant men gave their lives for a cause that they thought was right, regardless of the side on which they fought. We salute their memories!<.p>

1. Annals of Arkansas, Land of Taney.
2. Ear1y Days and WarTimes in Arkansas by Thomas Jerome Fates.
3. Official Records, War of Rebelion Series 1, Vol.3.
4. Colonel Williard C. Mitchell, along with several other men of the 14th Regiment, was taken prisoner at Pea Ridge after becoming separated from the Regiment. They were sent to Johnson's Island Prison in Ohio. Because of ill health, Colonel Mitchell was paroled after a year and returned home where he died July 1863.
5. Unpublished manuscript of S.C. Turnbo.
6. "Clabe Jackson Money" was Missouri script issued by Claiborne Jackson, secessionist Governor of Missouri - one of two governors during the first years of the war.
7. Unpublished manuscript of S.C. Turnbo.
8. Bushwhackers" were marauding bands of men that held no allegiance to either the North or the South. No loyalty to any cause except that of plunder, robbery, torture and murder. Some historians feel that these bands of unscrupulous men caused more destruction and destitution in the border Counties of Arkansas and Missouri than did either the Union or Confederate armies. Many minor engagements were brought with these bands of both Federal and Confederate troops.
9. Official Records of the War and Rebellion, Series 1, Vol.8.
10. Ibid
11. Liswrence Mill was a Union Fort on Beaver Creek in Douglas County, Nissouri northeast of Forsyth, Missouri. On January 6,1863, this Fort was destroyed by Colonel Emmett MacDonald's men under the command of General Maraduke (Confederate), on his way from Yellville to attack Springfield, Missouri.
12. Official Record of the War of Rebellion.
13. Unpublished Manuscript of S.C. Turnbo.
14. Early Days and War Times in Northern Arkansas by Thomas J. Estes.
15. Historic Arkansas, Ferguson and Atkinson.
16. Early Days and War Times in Arkansas by Thomas J. Estes.
17. Unpublished Manuscript of S.C. Turnbo.
18. Descriptions of Early Times by Henry R. Schoolcraft, early explorer and historian.
19. Unpublished Manuscript of S. C. Turnbo.