Marion Co TOC

In August of 1861, State Senator William C. Mitchell, who then lived on West Sugarloaf Creek west of present day Lead Hill, Arkansas, organized the first company of troops that would make up the Fourteenth Arkansas Infantry Volunteers, C.S.A

At the appointed time, Colonel Mitchell met with a number of local men near the old Lead Hill Cemetery on East Sugarloaf Creek, in the Marion, now Boone County, Arkansas. It was a bright, sunny day and a large number of local citizens turned out to see the men off to war. The women of the community had sewn a southern flag and they selected Mrs. Mary Ann Coker, wife of "River Bill" Coker, to present it to the men.

When the men fell into line, their names and other personal information was take down. Senator Mitchell was elected to be the commander of the outfit. When Mitchell took command, he was presented with the flag by Mrs. Coker and it was expected that he would have some remarks in reply. In his mind must have been the events of the past year. Secession had been the main topic of conversation all over the state. Delegates to a convention called for that purpose had been elected and at first there had been great reluctance to withdraw from the Union; however, when President Lincoln called upon the state to send troops to help bring other southern states back into the Union, the general population of Arkansas was outraged. Secession followed soon thereafter. Now the Nation was facing a great conflict, although many who stood watching that did not realize just how great the conflict would be. As Mrs. Coker presented the flag to Mitchell, he was, it was said, due to the ladies present, unable to respond as he would have liked. He did say, "This flag shall never trail in the dust so long as there is a man left to hold it up."
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To those accustomed to seeing professional military men, the men of the Fourteenth must have seemed a pathetic sight as they stood in line ready to become soldiers. A person who saw them a short time later said they had double barrel shotguns and knives, mostly homemade, old squirrel rifles, single barrel cap and muzzle loading pistols. Their uniforms, such as they were, were homemade.

At this time the people of Missouri were split over secession. Claiborn Jackson, the governor of that state who had been elected first, was a secessionist. The Union authorities selected another governor. Jackson came down the White River and upon his arrival, Mitchell invited him to inspect the troops which he did. Jackson took care to compliment and encourage the men.

A few days after Governor Jackson left, Mitchell took his men into Marion County toward Yellville. One old timer recalled them being camped at a spring about half way between Lead Hill and Yellville one hot August day. At that point some of the men did not take the war too seriously. One incident occurred at the Isaac Mahan farm on West Sugarloaf Creek. Mr. Mahan was having problems with his bull breaking fences and causing him no end of trouble. On that particular day he was so exasperated with the animal that he told some of the soldiers to shoot it. This was done on the spot which provided great merriment for the men; however, the bull survived and, we are told, continued to break fences.

By August 22, 1861, Mitchell and his troops had reached Yellville and he wrote to Arkansas Governor H.M. Rector asking where his unit could be assigned. Mitchell had recruited more men in Yellville and many others had come in from other areas of north Arkansas. At that time the outfit was poorly equipped and not trained at all, so there was difficulty in getting it assigned. However, after a time, General Ben McCulloch, in need of men for his army which was massing near Fayetteville, accepted the Fourteenth. October 13, 1861, was the date Colonel Mitchell signed a receipt for a number of supplies for the troops. It lists 305 flintlock muskets, 313 cartridge boxes, 208 bayonet scabbards, 19 artillery savers, r surgeon swords for non-commissioned officers. The number of men shown to be assigned to the Fourteenth at that time: 938.
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The regiment stayed at Yellville until December. The winter was very cold that year. In December, the men were moved out toward Pea Ridge in Benton County. After resting near Huntsville around Christmas time, they arrived at Pea Ridge in mid-February, 1862. General McCulloch's army was living in log shacks and lean-tos which they had constructed to keep out the cold. Mitchell's men lived in tents. Their camp was on the western part of what would soon become the Pea Ridge battleground.

The Fourteenth was reported to have 891 men present December 31, 1861. It was in a charge led by General Greer against Federal resistance that many of the men were killed, a number were isolated from the regiment during the fighting and confusion of battle. During the fighting, Colonel Mitchell, Colonel Hebert and several other Confederate officers as well as 33 enlisted men became separated from their outfits on the other side of Round Top Mountain. Union General Segel sent Captain Henry A. Smith and some dragoons there to see what was going on and Smith was able to capture the Confederate officers and men, who told him they had become separated from their outfits in the charge of that morning and had not been able to rejoin them. The Fourteenth had been reduced by various causes at the end of the battle to only 10 officers and 189 men actually present as shown by official records dated March 11, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel Eli Dodson took command of the Fourteenth during the remainder of the battle and was wounded in the hip. Frank Powers, who was present at the battle of Pea Ridge, wrote in 1865, that he had led the regiment in the battle and was wounded and left behind to recuperate. Colonel Mitchell was sent to a Union prison camp. Dodson was not able to remain with the regiment after the battle. Someone else took command, probably Lieutenant Colonel Pleasant Fowler of Marshall's Prairie which is now known as Western Grove Arkansas. The Fourteenth was soon shipped out across the Mississippi where it arrived just in time to help bury the dead from the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Colonel Dodson rejoined the men at Memphis and then commanded them at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi where Colonel Hebert reported: "I must put in the position of brave and true men the small numbers of the Fourteenth and Seventeenth regiments of Arkansas infantry. Nobly, heroically have they proved themselves true patriots and brave soldiers." The men of the Fourteenth served in different engagements from Corinth to Iuka, Mississippi, and at the second engagement at Corinth. During this period of time the Fourteenth was rapidly suffering casualties to such an extent that one of its commanders said that it was decimated.
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The Fourteenth was one of the several Arkansas units which was in the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, where it held out until the port was surrendered by General Gardner on July 9, 1863, after word had arrived that General Grant had taken Vicksburg. Although the Federals took Port Hudson, it is difficult to say that they defeated the Confederates, for the Union men involved had numbered about 30,000 against the 4,400 Confederates. The Confederates had lost 642 men and the Federals acknowledged losses of about 4,500 men, 708 of which were killed. Colonel Dodson and Colonel Fowler were taken prisoner an sent to Union prison camps.

Records indicated that Lieutenant Colonel Pleasant Fowler was the commander during the siege of Port Hudson. The Reminiscent History of the Ozark Region, published in 1894 by the Goodspeed Publishing Co., on page 278, indicates that Colonel Eli Dodson commanded the regiment until he was forced by ill health to resign his commission in the fall of 1863. A letter of Frank Powers, who is often referred to as the commander of the regiment, indicates that when he arrived in Tennessee, after recuperating from injuries sustained at the battle of Pea Ridge, was asked by Colonel Dodson and others to take command of the regiment that he did son and led the men in four battles. He was later placed in command of a cavalry unit. It seems clear that, at times, the unit was commanded by Colonel William C. Mitchell, Colonel Eli Dodson, Colonel Frank Powers, and Lieutenant Colonel Pleasant Fowler.

At Port Hudson, the Fourteenth was surrendered and its men were taken prisoner and paroled. The regiment was disbanded and never reactivated, although another regiment bore the same name.