ARKANSAS
US STATE OF ARKANSAS
In 1819 - after the first important wave of white colonists had settled in the area - the Arkansas and Lawrence counties of the US Territory of Missouri were detached and organized as a separate US Territory of Arkansas, which became a State of the Union in 1836. __________________________________________________________________________________STATE OFFICERS
Governors 1844 - 1849 Thomas Stevenson Drew 1802 - 1879 1849 Richard C. Byrd* 1805 - 1854 1849 - 1852 John Selden Roane 1817 - 1867 1852 - 1860 Elias Nelson Conway 1812 - 1894 1860 - 1861 Henry Massey Rector, continued in office as governor of the Confederate State of Arkansas 1816 - 1899
ARKANSAS 1861 - 1868 : CONFEDERATION AND RECONSTRUCTION
Chronology (See also CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA - to be added) 1861 May 06 : Arkansas seceded from the Union. May 20 : Arkansas joined the Confederate States of America. 1862 Mar 08 : After their victory at Pea Ridge the Union forces occupied large parts of Northern - and later also of Eastern - Arkansas. 1863 Aug 10 : Occupation of Central - and later also of part of Southern - Arkansas by the Union Arkansas Expedition. After the capture of the capital Little Rock (on Sep 10) the Confederate government fled to Washington in Southwest Arkansas, where it continued a powerless existence until the end of the War. (1) 1864 Apr 18 : Restoration of civilian rule in those parts of Arkansas occupied by Union forces (now forming the Union Department of Arkansas). 1865 May 26 : Confederate surrender in the area. 1866 Dec 17 : Arkansas rejected the Fourteenth Amendent of the US Constitution, providing citizenship to - and protection of - the freed slaves. 1867 Mar 02 : As a consequence of this rejection, the state was placed under direct Union military rule. __________________________________________________________________________________STATE OFFICERS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATE OF ARKANSAS 1861 - 1865 Governors 1861 - 1862 Henry Massey Rector, governed only part of the state since Mar 1862. s.a. 1862 Thomas Fletcher* 1819 - 1900 1862 - 186. Harris Flanagin, governed only in Southwest Arkansas since Sep 1863 (1) 1817 - 1874 (1) After the Union invasion of 1862 the governors lost most of their actual power to the Confederate commanders in the area trying to stop the Union advance. [Among them was MajGen. Thomas Carmichael Hindman (1818 - 1868) who was in command from May to Jul 1862. After having proclaimed martial law, he ruled Arkansas with nearly dictatorial powers until his removal] As to Flanagin, some sources list him as being in office until Apr 1864, while others state that he was in office until the end of the war in 1865. Arguments in favour of 1865 are that : - no other Confederate governor is given for the period 1864 - 1865 (but there can have been a vacancy) - "shortly before hostilities ceased" he met with other Confederate leaders of the Trans-Mississippi states to discuss the possibility of seeking peace with the US Government independently of Richmond (but this he could have done without being governor) - "at the end of the war" he was reduced to signing pardons for soldiers and civilians charged with wartime violations. __________________________________________________________________________________
ADMINISTRATORS UNDER UNION OCCUPATION AND RECONSTRUCTION 1862 - 1868
(for mors on the Union administrative structure and offices in the occupied South see : The Confederate States of America : Union occupation and Reconstruction - to be added) UNION MILITARY COMMANDERS AND ADMINISTRATORS Commanders of the Union Army of the Southwest (also Union Army of Southwest Missouri) (In Northwest - and later in Eastern - Arkansas 1862, - subordinated to the Union Department of the Missouri) 1862 MajGen. Samuel Ryan Curtis 1807 - 1866 1862 MajGen. Frederick Steele 1819 - 1868 1862 MajGen. Eugene Asa Carr 1830 - 1910 1862 BrigGen. Willis Arnold Gorman 1816 - 1876 (in Dec 1862 responsability for operations in Eastern Arkansas was transferred to the Union Department and Army of the Tennessee) Commanders of the Army of the Frontier (In Northern Arkansas 1862 - 1863, - subordinated to the Union Department of the Missouri) 1862 MajGen. John McAllister Schofield 1831 - 1906 1862 BrigGen. Francis Jay Herron* 1837 - 1902 1862 - 1863 MajGen. John McAllister Schofield (2x) 1863 MajGen. Francis Jay Herron (2x) (in Jun 1863 the Union Department of the Missouri resumed direct responsability for Arkansas) Commander of the Arkansas Expedition (In Central - and later also in Southern - Arkansas 1863 - 1864, subordinated to the Army and Union Department of the Tennessee) 1863 - 1864 MajGen. Frederick Steele s.a. Military Governors In Jul 1862 a Military Governor was appointed to take charge of the administrative affairs of "pacified" occupied Arkansas (Hitherto managed by the commanders of the field armies). 1862 - 186. BrigGen. John Smith Phelps 1814 - 1886 ... Commanders of the Union Department of Arkansas (and of the VII Army Corps until 1865, thereaafter a "Reconstruction" Department) (Subordinated to the Union Military Division of the Mississippi in 1865 and then to the Union Military Division of the Missouri 1865 - 1867) 1864 MajGen. Frederick Steele s.a. 1864 - 1866 MajGen. Joseph Jones Reynolds 1822 - 1899 1866 - 1867 BrigGen. Edward Otha Cresap Ord 1818 - 1883 In 1867 Arkansas became part of the Fourth Military District. Commander of the Union District of Arkansas (= de facto military governor, directly supervising the whole state administration) 1867 - 1868 MajGen. Charles Henry Smith 1827 - 1902 Assistant Commissioners of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (The "Freedmen's Bureau" was concerned with the general welfare of the freed black slaves - especially with their education - and with their integration in the postwar society) 1865 - 1866 MajGen. John Wilson Sprague 1817 - 1893 1866 - 1867 none 1867 - 1869 MajGen. Charles Henry Smith s.a. STATE OFFICER Governor 1864 - 1868 Isaac Murphy (2) 1802 - 1882 (2) Like his Confederate opponents Murphy - a representative of the Arkansas Loyalists - had only little power, especially not in the last year of the war when his authority only extended over the towns actually held by Union garrisons, the countryside being controlled by Confederate guerillas and by bands of robbers and outlaws.
US STATE OF ARKANSAS
On Apr 06 1868 Arkansas finally ratified the 14th Amendment and was consequently readmitted into the Union on Jun 22. (1) (1) The State remained however under Union military occupation - first as part of the Union Department of the Missouri until 1871 and then as part of the Union Department of Gulf - until 1877. __________________________________________________________________________________STATE OFFICERS
Governors 1868 - 1871 Powell Clayton 1833 - 1914 1871 - 1873 Ozra Amander Hadley* 1826 - 1915 1873 - 1874 Elisha Baxter 1827 - 1899 1874 - 1877 Augustus Hill Garland 1832 - 1899 1877 - 1881 William Read Miller 1823 - 1887 1881 - 1883 Thomas James Churchill 1824 - 1905 1883 - 1885 James Henderson Berry 1841 - 1913 1885 - 1889 Simon Pollard Hughes, Jr. 1830 - 1906 1889 - 1893 James Philipp Eagle 1837 - 1904 1893 - 1895 William Meade Fishback 1831 - 1903 1895 - 1897 James Paul Clarke 1854 - 1916 1897 - 1901 Daniel Webster Jones 1839 - 1918 1901 - 1907 Jefferson "Jeff" Davis 1862 - 1913 1907 John Sebastian Little 1853 - 1916 1907 John I. Moore* 1856 - 1937 1907 - 1909 Xenophon Overton Pindall* 1873 - 1935 1909 - 1913 George Washington Donaghey 1856 - 1937 1913 Joseph Taylor Robinson 1872 - 1937 1913 William Kavanaugh Oldham, Jr. 1865 - 1938 1913 Junius Marion Futrell* 1870 - 1955 1913 - 1917 George Washington Hays 1863 - 1927 1917 - 1921 Charles Hillman Brough 1876 - 1935 1921 - 1925 Thomas Chipman McRae 1851 - 1929 1925 - 1927 Thomas "Tom" Jefferson Terral 1884 - 1946 1927 - 1928 John Ellis Martineau 1873 - 1937 1928 - 1933 Harvey Parnell 1880 - 1936 1933 - 1937 Junius Marion Futrell (2x) 1937 - 1941 Carl Edward Bailey 1894 - 1948 1941 - 1945 Homer Martin Adkins 1890 - 1964 1945 - 1949 Benjamin "Ben" Travis Laney 1896 - 1977
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