The Arkansas River Valley is one of the most fertile regions in the South. During the Civil War, the river also served as a vital artery for moving troops and supplies. In 1863 the battle to wrest control of the valley was, in effect, a battle for the state itself. In spite of its importance, however, this campaign is often overshadowed by the siege of Vicksburg. Now Mark K. Christ offers the first detailed military assessment of parallel events in Arkansas, describing their consequences for both Union and Confederate powers.

Christ analyzes the campaign from military and political perspectives to show how events in 1863 affected the war on a larger scale. His lively narrative incorporates eyewitness accounts to tell how new Union strategy in the Trans-Mississippi theater enabled the capture of Little Rock, taking the state out of Confederate control for the rest of the war. He draws on rarely used primary sources to describe key engagements at the tactical level--particularly the battles at Arkansas Post, Helena, and Pine Bluff, which cumulatively marked a major turning point in the Trans-Mississippi.

In addition to soldiers' letters and diaries, Christ weaves civilian voices into the story--especially those of women who had to deal with their altered fortunes--and so fleshes out the human dimensions of the struggle. Extensively researched and compellingly told, Christ's account demonstrates the war's impact on Arkansas and fills a void in Civil War studies.

A testament to the valor and determination of a common soldier
On September 17, 1861, twenty-two-year-old Jacob Haas enlisted in the Sheboygan Tigers, a company of German immigrants that became Company A of the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Over the next three years, Haas and his comrades marched thousands of miles and saw service in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and the Indian Territory, including pitched battles at Newtonia, Missouri, and Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas.
Haas describes the war from the perspective of a private soldier and an immigrant as he marches through scorching summers and brutally cold winters to fight in some of the most savage combat in the west. His diary shows us an extraordinary story of the valor and determination of a volunteer soldier. Though his health was ruined by war, Haas voiced no regrets for the price he paid to fight for his adopted country.

Dogwood trees were in full bloom as Union General Frederick Steele led 8,500 soldiers out of comfortable quarters in Little Rock and into the pine and scrub woodlands of southwest Arkansas. Steele's intended target was Shreveport, Louisiana. He planned to join another Union force coming from Fort Smith, bringing his projected complement to 12,500 troops, and then link with another Federal army in Louisiana.

I Do Wish this Cruel War Was Over collects diaries, letters, and memoirs excerpted from their original publication in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly to offer a first-hand, ground-level view of the war's horrors, its mundane hardships, its pitched battles and languid stretches, even its moments of frivolity. Readers will find varying degrees of commitment and different motivations among soldiers on both sides, along with the perspective of civilians. In many cases, these documents address aspects of the war that would become objects of scholarly and popular fascination only years after their initial appearance: the guerrilla conflict that became the "real war" west of the Mississippi; the "hard war" waged against civilians long before William Tecumseh Sherman set foot in Georgia; the work of women in maintaining households in the absence of men; and the complexities of emancipation, which saw African Americans winning freedom and sometimes losing it all over again.
Altogether, these first-person accounts provide an immediacy and a visceral understanding of what it meant to survive the Civil War in Arkansas.

The 3rd Arkansas was one of the most distinguished and well-respected Confederate regiments of the Civil War. It was the only Arkansas regiment to serve the entire war in the east, where most of the major battles were fought. The men of the 3rd Arkansas acquired a reputation as tenacious fighters and were known for the long knives-"Arkansas toothpicks"-they carried. As part of Gen. John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade, they found themselves in some of the fiercest fighting in the war in places such as the famous "sunken road" at Antietam and the Battle of Gettysburg. "They'll Do to Tie To!" was originally published in 1959.

Five writers examine the political and social forces in Arkansas that led to secession and transformed farmers, clerks, and shopkeepers into soldiers. Retired longtime Arkansas State University professor Michael Dougan delves into the 1861 Arkansas Secession Convention and the delegatesA[a¬a[ internal divisions on whether to leave the Union. Lisa Tendrich Frank, who teaches at Florida Atlantic University, discusses the role Southern women played in moving the state toward secession. Carl Moneyhon of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock looks at the factors that led peaceful civilians to join the army. Thomas A. DeBlack of Arkansas Tech University tells of the thousands of Arkansans who chose not to follow the Confederate banner in 1861, and William Garret Piston of Missouri State University chronicles the first combat experience of the green Arkansas troops at WilsonA[a¬a[s Creek.

Dogwood trees were in full bloom as Union General Frederick Steele led 8,500 soldiers out of comfortable quarters in Little Rock and into the pine and scrub woodlands of southwest Arkansas. Steele's intended target was Shreveport, Louisiana. He planned to join another Union force coming from Fort Smith, bringing his projected complement to 12,500 troops, and then link with another Federal army in Louisiana.

Dogwood trees were in full bloom as Union General Frederick Steele led 8,500 soldiers out of comfortable quarters in Little Rock and into the pine and scrub woodlands of southwest Arkansas. Steele's intended target was Shreveport, Louisiana. He planned to join another Union force coming from Fort Smith, bringing his projected complement to 12,500 troops, and then link with another Federal army in Louisiana.

This collection of letters bears witness to the Civil War of the common soldiers and junior officers of the Army of Tennessee. Brothers Alex and Tom Spence described to their family in detail not only the many battles in which they served, but the hardship of campaigning (they marched literally thousands of miles), the pride of serving in battle-proven units, and the pain of losing comrades to bullets and disease.
The Spences were a wealthy family who owned land, slaves, and the main hotel in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. With their successful careers and extensive property, they were among Clark County's most prominent families when the shadow of secession fell across Arkansas. Four years later, Arkansas would be ravaged by war, and Tom and Alex Spence would lie in soldiers' graves, far from home. Mark Christ has assembled their powerful letters from a collection in the Old State House Museum, weaving in other letters from their extended family and friends, brief but thorough introductions to each chapter, and evocative photographs. The story moves chronologically from the outset of war to the final letter from Alex's grieving fiancee.

This collection, emerging from recent seminars at the Old State House Museum, brings together some of the state's leading historians to explore the perspectives of Arkansans during World War I. Collectively, these essays provide a thoughtful look into the many ways the Great War affected and continues to affect Arkansas.