Stirpes, Volume 37, Number 3, September 1997 Page: 69
80 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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STIRPES- SETMER19
653. Our souls rejoiced in God's goodness.
At the Conference closing my third year on
the district, having bought a little home for my
family 27 miles N.W. from Batesville at a
place afterward known as Auburn, and having
moved there in September, I was returned to
the same field almost, but it was known on
the plan of appointments as Yellville District,
being nearly the center of my field of labor.
I at once arranged my temporal business
for full time, but before the winter was
gone the political horizon was rife with discord,
showing the coming storm. Soon the
country was stirred with excitement and was,
as a fearful resort was publicly advocated,
and before I had completed my second round
the conflict had opened on the eastern coast
of South Carolina, and our country was soon
rocked from center to circumference. Every
interest was seemingly lost sight of in the
excitement.
While attending a quarterly conference
at Burrowville in Searcy County, I was
waited on by a delegation from Sylamon in an
adjoining county desiring my presence there
at a specified time, but not announcing any
object. I started next morning and the day
following, about 10 A.M., reached the place.
Soon I was ushered into the committee room
where I found a number of the leading men of
the county, the one in which I lived, and it was
announced as the object, that since I left
home, in three weeks, a regiment of men,
under call from the governor of the state, had
volunteered to enter the service on condition I
would take command as colonel, and lead
them.
I was wholly unprepared for the
announcement, and while I was emphatically
with my own part of the country, and
enthused on the country's condition, yet I had
not once expected to take the head of any
body of men as an officer. I could not
answer. I was informed before the conference
ended that unless I consented to lead
the men they would return to their homes.
I invited a committee of three to
accompany me to my home, asking time for
thought and conference with my wife. After a
night of consultation, reflection, and prayer, in
the morning I returned this for an answer, "Let
the men go into camp at Springs. I will come
to you, on a specified day. If after conference
among themselves and the facts of harmony
of sentiment, they still are of the same opinion,
I will consent to lead them."This was my first and greatest error,
not that the cause was not just and right, nor
that leading troops or contending for our
country's cause is wrong, but I am satisfied no
man from my position, no man who has from
conscientious conviction of duty spent the
vigor of his manhood in preaching "peace on
earth and goodwill among men" is suited for a
military officer, or has any business in allowing
himself to be thrust into such position. I
now know that such sentiments as then
swayed our country were unreasonable blind,
and deaf, my only plea is I was carried with
my fellows. My great comfort is I have been
spared and allowed to repent from then till
now.
When the troops were in camp I was
elected colonel, receiving every vote of the
32 commissioned officers constituting the
number necessary for a regiment under the
then existing laws of the state regulating the
organization of the troops called for. Now all
was bustle and preparation for immediately
repairing to the seat of activity, war. I continued
in my district while the quartermaster
and commissary provided transportation and
Rations for the Troops, and in June we went
into camps at Pocahontas on the Black River.
After the Troops were reported and
received by the proper authority I was on my
district once, attended our Quarterly Conference.
I did not attend the session of the
(annual) Conference in the fall of 1861. The
troops spent the summer, fall, and winter in
northeastern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri.
Soon after my arrival at Pocahontas, I
was placed in command of all the troops and
also Post Commander, Solon Boland, commander,
being put under arrest. In this relation
I remained until April of the following
spring. Except about two weeks, General
Earl Van Dorn was in command of the
department.
In January I was ordered to remove
the Brigade, Lepone Regiment, across the
Mississippi River to Memphis, and report to
Genl. McGowan. I reached Jack's outpost at
the Junction of White and Black Rivers with
the troops. When the order was countermanded
I was commanded to take post at
Pittman's Ferry on the Current River, where,
and at Pocahontas, we remained until the
following April when we crossed the Mississippi
River, landing at Memphis, Tennessee,
and reporting to General Price, whence we
were ordered to Ft. Pillow. Here the troops69
STIRPES
SEPTEMB3ER 1 997
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Texas State Genealogical Society. Stirpes, Volume 37, Number 3, September 1997, periodical, September 1997; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39854/m1/75/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Genealogical Society.