Newton's 10th Arkansas Cavalry (Confederate) | |
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Robert C Newton, first commander of the Pulaski Light Artillery. Later commanded the 5th Arkansas Cavalry. Promoted to Major General during the Brooks-Baxter War
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Active | August 1864–May 31, 1865 |
Disbanded | May 31, 1865 |
Country | Confederate States of America |
Allegiance | CSA |
Branch | Infantry |
Size | Regiment |
Engagements |
The Netwon's 10th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (1864–1865) was a Confederate Army Cavalry regiment during the American Civil War. The unit was originally organized from volunteer companies raised from the Arkansas State Militia in the Southern Arkansas Counties in the winter of 1863–1864 after the fall of Little Rock. It was originally organized as Pettus Battalion, Arkansas State Troops but was later enrolled in Confederal Service and Robert Crittenden Newton was elected Colonel.
Netwon's 10th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment was originally organized as a group of Volunteer Companies raised from the militia regiments of southern Arkansas, immediately following the fall of Little Rock, Arkansas, to Union forces in September 1863. Governor Harris Flanagin began organizing a new force of state troops issuing a proclamation on August 10, 1863, just a month before the capitol fell, announcing that he had been authorized to raise new regiments of state troops and that by special agreement these new units could not be transferred out of the state by Confederate authorities.
After the fall of Little Rock, recruiting was far more difficult than it had been in the first years of the war. The constant transfer of Arkansas troops into the eastern theater of the war, across the Mississippi River from their homes, was a major objection by the remaining population of men eligible for military service. With Federal forces now occupying the state capitol, the Confederate state government had no way of enforcing conscription laws in the counties behind the Union lines, except during raids by Generals Price and Shelby in 1864. The remaining Confederate regiments were plagued by desertions.
On September 16, 1863, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the state capitol, Governor Flanagin issued General Order No. 6 from Arkadelphia, which called into service the militia regiments of the counties of Clark, Hempstead, Sevier, Pike, Polk, Montgomery, La Fayette, Ouachita, Union, and Columbia in order to resist the Federal army. The Governor's order directed the regiments to march to Arkadelphia at the earliest possible day. Companies were to be mounted and commanders were to compel persons evading the call to come to the rendezvous. The intent was to form companies of twelve-month mounted volunteers. Only six physicians, one druggist, millers to supply the wants of the country, clerks, sheriffs, postmasters, and persons in the employ of the Confederate States were exempted from the order. In describing this call in a letter to General Holmes dated October 18, 1863, from Washington, Arkansas, the new Confederate state capitol, Flanagin stated that he issued the order calling out the militia, as an experiment, expecting to get volunteers. The order succeeded so well as to get companies organized in the counties where the call for the militia was enforced which resulted in seven companies being collected under the call. Flanagin also stated that "the troops raised by the State are more than double all the troops raised by volunteering, or by the conscript law, within the past few months".