45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted): Difference between revisions

45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) (Confederate)
Arkansas state flag
Active	1864 to 1865
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	CSA
Branch	Mounted Infantry

The 45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) (1864–1865) was a Confederate Army Mounted Infantry regiment during the American Civil War. While authorized by the State Military Board as a infantry regiment, the unit was mounted for Price's Missouri Expedion and served as mounted infantry. Due to it's mounted status, the unit is most often referred to as the 45th Arkansas Cavalry when a numerical designation is used.^[1] The unit is also referred to as Baber's Cavalry. Because the unit contained a high large number of former members of Shaver's 38th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, the unit is sometimes referred to as Shaver's Cavalry, but Colonel Shaver was never actaully associated with the unit.^[2]

In May 1864, General J. O. Shelby occupied Northeast Arkansas, well behind Union Army lines. In early June 1863, General Shelby commissioned Colonel Thomas Hamilton McCray, among other's to begin raising regiments in Northeast Arkansas. By June 13, Shelby reported to General Sterling Price that McCray's efforts were bearing fruit.

The work of recruiting goes bravely on. Colonel McCray will have a brigade and Dobbin, Coffee, Freeman and Coleman will have regiments.^[3]

Colonel McCray's efforts led to the recruitment of at least three regiments, the 45th, 46th and 47th Arkansas Infantry Regiments. These 40-series regiments consisted mostly of conscripts, and absentees from existing units, organized around a small cadre of veterans detailed from infantry regiments, which were expected to be idle during the fall and winter of 1864.^[4]

The decreasing availability of fodder for horses in 1864 led the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department to issue an order proscribing the raising of additional mounted regiments in Arkansas. However, when General Sterling Price received authorization to conduct a campaign in Missouri that fall, several of the new regiments were mounted in order to accompany him. As a result, the 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th were officially mounted infantry regiments instead of cavalry regiments. They were rarely referred to in contemporary reports and orders by numerical designation. Price referred to them as McGehee's Cavalry, Crabtree's Cavalry, etc., which eventually resulted in their later being referred to as 44th Cavalry, 46th Cavalry, etc.^[5]

The unit was composed of companies from the following counties ^[6]:

Company A, organized in Independence County, Arkansas.

Company B, organized in Independence County, Arkansas.

Company C, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company D, organized in Jackson County, Arkansas.^[7]

Company E, organized in Independence County, Arkansas.

Company F, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company G, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company H, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company I, organized in Jackson County, Arkansas.

Company K, organized in Randolph County, Arkansas.

Company L, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company L, organized in Lawrence County, Arkansas.

Company M, organized in Jackson County, Arkansas.

Officer appointments in the 40-series regiments date from the June to August 1864 timeframe, so it is assumed that the regiments were mustered into service about the same time at various points in northeast Arkansas.^[8] The list of regimental officers follows^[9]:

Baber, Milton D. Colonel

Clark, J.W. Lieutenant Colonel, Later Colonel

Jones, G.R. Lieutenant Colonel

Washburn, C.J. Major

Wells John R. Cpt Asst Surgeon .

According to some family histories, few uniforms were available for the new regiment, so in order to establish uniformity and company identification, each company would place a certain type of feather on a designated side of their hats.^[10]

Colonel Milton Dyer Baber, who had previously served as the Major and Lieutenant Colonel of the 38th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, was appointed Colonel of the 45th Arkansas Mounted infantry.^[11] Colonel Baber was captured during the Price's Raid, so after October 1864, the regiment was referred to as Clark's Arkansas Cavalry (Lieutenant-Colonel James W. Clark succeeded Baber as regimental commander). Many of the men in the regiment had served in the 38th Arkansas Infantry.^[12]

The regimental records of the 45th were destroyed by fire in the wagon in which they were being carried during the raid.^[13] Hence there are no known muster rolls of the 45th Arkansas Mounted Infantry and no record of enlistments. Apart from a few prisoner of war records, the records of this regiment consist of paroles of soldier's who surrendered at Jacksonport, Arkansas on June 5, 1865.^[14]

The 45th fought in some of the most fierce combat operations on Price's Raid. Its war record is mixed. It was hampered due to lack of ammunition, food, blankets weapons, uniforms. It also was hampered by leadership who were used to operating as Infantry, and several of the men were conscripts, and deserters. Colonel Baber was captured in the fight near Independence, Missouri. According to John Edward's "Shelby and his Men", and the book "Action Before Westport", the crossing of the Little Blue on the afternoon and evening of the 21st of October 1864 was met with fierce Federal resistance. Elements of Fagan's Division (which the 45th belonged to) were trying to protect the crossing and Price's very long train. Cabell's brigade was ordered to protect the train in order to allow Fagan's troops to concentrate forcing the crossing. Somewhere during that time frame Colonel Baber was captured. However, the records are not clear as to when or how Colonel Baber was captured. Searching the complied service records list by Desmond Walls Allen yielded that no other soldiers of the 45th appear to have been captured at the location or the same time. There were four 45th soldiers captured on the same day but it does not appear that they were captured at the same location and is not clear of the timeframe of their capture. Colonel Baber was sent first to Alton prison and then transferred to Camp Douglas. While a prisoner of war, Colonel Baber wrote letters on behalf of the enlisted prisoners requesting blankets..^[15] Lieutenant Colonel Clark assumed command after Baber's capture.^[16]

Price's Missouri Raid, Arkansas-Missouri-Kansas, September-October, 1864

Battle of Fort Davidson (September 27, 1864)

Fourth Battle of Boonville (October 11)

Battle of Glasgow (October 15)

Battle of Sedalia (October 15)

Second Battle of Lexington (October 19)

Battle of Little Blue River (October 21)

Second Battle of Independence (October 21–22)

Battle of Byram's Ford (October 22–23)

Battle of Westport (October 23)

Battle of Marais des Cygnes, Linn County, Kansas, (October 25)

Battle of Mine Creek (October 25)

Battle of Marmiton River (October 25)

Second Battle of Newtonia (October 28)

The 45th also participated in the ill fated Siege of Fayetteville, Arkansas, as a part of General Fagan's operations against the Federals holding Fayetteville, upon their return to Arkansas after Price's Raid in November 1864. After the completion of Price's raid, the 45th was furloughed to return to the area from which it was recruited in order to forage and recover absentees and to return to the army at a prescribed date.^[17]

At Boonsborough, on the suggestion of General Fagan, I detached two of his brigades (McCray's and Dobbin's), along with Freeman's brigade, of Marmaduke's division, to take the route to Northeast Arkansas, with instructions to collect all stragglers and deserters, and report south of the Arkansas River, at or near Washington, by the 15th, 20th, and 25th days of December, respectively^[18]

A scouting report made by Major Harris S. Greeno, of the 4th Arkansas Cavalry (U. S. Army), November 15, 1864, made from Devalls Bluff relayed information on the post raid condition of the 45th Arkansas Cavalry. Maj. Greeno had just learned from deserters and captured Confederate soldiers who had served in Price's Army that Colonel T. H. McCray was in route by way of White River to Jacksonport with the 45th. 46th and 47th Arkansas Regiments. He gave the strength of the 45th Arkansas as about 250 men, his description of the morale of the men in this regiment, as well as the others, was probably very accurate:

“ ….of these two thirds of the men have deserted and they will never go out again. They have thrown away their arms and are nearly all at their homes. They are all greatly demoralized and discouraged . . .”^[19]

Brigadier General M. Jeff Thompson, Commander of the Miltary Sub-District of Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri, to which the 45th Arkansas was assigned at the close of the war, surrendered his command at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas on May 11, 1865, and agreed to have his men assemble at Wittsburg and Jacksonport, Arkansas to lay down their arms and receive their paroles. Thompson's command was widely dispersed throughout northeast Arkansas, more for reasons of available forage than anything else. About a third of his men refused to surrender. Shelby's Missouri Brigade, along with elements of Green's and Jackman's Missouri Brigades, lit out for Mexico. Some Missouri units disbanded rather than surrender their colors. Many men simply went home. The 45th Arkansas Cavalry surrendered with its command structure intact and was paroled at Jacksonport on June 5, 1865.^[20] At the time of the surrender, the regiment was assigned to the following command: Military Sub-District of Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri, commanded by Brigadier General M. Jeff. Thompson (Surrendered at Jacksonport), McCray’s Brigade, commanded by Colonel Thomas H. McCray (Surrendered at Jacksonport), 45th Arkansas Mounted Infantry, commanded by Colonel James W. Clark (Surrendered at Jacksonport).^[21] While Most the men on the Jacksonport parole lists actually served in the 45th Arkansas regiment during the war, but some were attached to various companies in the regiment solely for the purpose of surrendering. A few probably never saw any service except marching with their relatives and neighbors to Jacksonport to receive the paroles, which were though to provide the former confederates with some degree of protection from later arrest or capture.

Allen, Desmond Walls. Forty-fifth Arkansas Confederate Cavalry. (Conway, AR: Arkansas Research, 1988) ISBN 0-941765-36-9

Castel, Albert. General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West. (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1968).

Donat, P. "Fagan's Attack on Fayetteville." Flashback, 35, No. 4 (November 1985): 8-13.

Feathers, Tom C. "The History of Military Activities in the Vicinity of Fayetteville Arkansas, Including the Battle of Fayetteville and the Siege of Fayetteville During the War Between the States." Washington County Flashback, 3 (April 1953): 2-33.

Kerby, Robert L. Kirby Smith's Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863-1865. (Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1972).

Morgan, James Logan. A Brief History of the 45th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A. The Stream of History, Volumen 16, Number 4 (Oct. 1978). Page 3.

Mobley, Freeman. Making Sense of the Civil War in Batesville-Jacksonport and Northeast Arkansas, 1861-1874. (Batesville, AR: P.D. Printing, 2005).

Monaghan, Jay. Swamp Fox of the Confederacy: The Life and Military Services of M. Jeff Thompson (Tuscaloosa, AL: Confederate Publishing Co., 1956).

• Edward G. Gerdes Civil War Home Page
• The Encylopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
• The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
• The Arkansas History Commission, State Archives, Civil War in Arkansas

• List of Arkansas Civil War Confederate units
• Lists of American Civil War Regiments by State
• Confederate Units by State
• Arkansas in the American Civil War
• Arkansas Militia in the Civil War

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, National Park Service

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