A Civilian Eyewitness

Have you ever read a civilian account of the Civil War? Scholars have lavished much attention on military personnel and their campaigns, but, by contrast, have overlooked civilians. The civilians that were probably impacted the most by the war resided in the border region of the trans-Mississippi. Last Saturday, I visited the Pea Ridge National Battlefield and gave a tour to a friend and some family members. While in the bookstore, I purchased a copy of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove: Or, Scenes and Incidents Of The War in Arkansas. Originally published in 1864, William Baxter, the president of Arkansas College, authored this slender volume. Baxter recounts the difficulties of living as a Unionist in a town with a secessionist majority. Baxter’s community, Fayetteville, changed hands six times in the first year and a half of the war and each successive occupation brought its share of destruction, shortages, and other difficulties. With vividness, Baxter writes of injustices, social isolation, and the poignancy of caring for wounded soldiers from the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove. No, he was not an impartial observer, but his tale is anything but boring.

The original edition and the 1957 reprint edition are now highly desirable, but the book is readily available today thanks to a 2000 reprint by the University of Arkansas Press. William L. Shea provides biographical information about William Baxter and sets the context for the book in the introduction. The book has no index, but since the book is so short (126 pages) the lack of an index is not as significant. 

Fayetteville's Confederate Cemetery

Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a town that I enjoy touring. Visiting the main library of the University of Arkansas is a treat as is a visit to the Dickson Street Bookstore; the bookstore has a nice selection of used Civil War books. On one of my visits, I took along Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge & Prairie Grove: A Battlefield Guide with a Section on Wire Road by Earl J. Hess, Richard W. Hatcher III, William Garrett Piston, and William L. Shea. Following their directions, I drove into a neighborhood in Fayetteville, up a steep hill, and to the Confederate Cemetery. According to the guidebook, “There are 622 Rebel soldiers buried here—only 121 are known. Several of them died as a result of the battle of Pea Ridge, but records are far too scanty to accurately estimate how many. William Y. Slack, who was mortally wounded on March 7 while leading his Missouri brigade into action near Elkhorn Tavern, is buried here. His remains were removed from their original resting place and reinterred here on May 27, 1880, with his widow, sister, and two sons in attendance. The youngest son had been born six months before Pea Ridge; Slack never saw him.” (p. 249)

Here is a photograph that I took of Slack’s headstone:

The cemetery is a quiet place tucked into a residential neighborhood, and I enjoyed visiting it.