ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 9 (Autumn 1950), p. 214     THE FEDERAL OCCUPATION OF CAMDEN AS SET FORTH IN THE DIARY OF A UNION OFFICER     The following account of the Federal occupation of Camden in 1864 is taken from The Advocate, Fordyce, Arkansas, April 27, 1933. It is an excerpt from the diary of Captain F. Heinemann of the Union army. Along with the article is published a letter from Captain Heinemann, dated February 22, 1904, at Appleton, Wisconsin. The letter is addressed to Captain Milton A. Elliott and gives permission to publish extracts from the diary. Captain Elliott, according to the letter, was a boy of thirteen at the time that Heinemann was quartered in the Elliott home. The excerpts from the diary are republished here because, so far as the editor has observed, it is one of the few accounts of this phase of the war as viewed by a member of the invading forces. The editor is indebted to Joe S. Wise of Carthage, Arkansas, for the privilege of copying the article from a scrap book in his possession. April 18, 1864 After a great considerable amount of fuss and feathers, we are at last in the city (or village) of Camden, where the General (Solomon) has established headquarters in a house said to be the property of one Major Elliott of the Confederate army. Lo, the first thing after getting our desks in working order, is to look up reading matter. It is not scarce, and so everybody dives into whatever comes handy with keen relish. Yesterday three men of the 77th Ohio straggled out of our lines, either to forage or plunder. They were met by a party of rebs wearing our uniform and shot, i. e., two of them for one returned to tell the tale. They were not armed, evidently not expecting to meet an enemy so near our camps, and least of all masked as friends. Any of our men wearing gray of a reb and shooting a reb in that disguise would be spotted as a coward and treated accordingly. It was simple murder and cowardly at that. We now have two flouring mills in full operation, supplying our troops with meal and running night and day until our own supplies can be brought up from the bluff. We captured, among other conveniences, one steamer---The Twilight, which now renders excellent service in bringing up breadstuff, much needed. Camden itself is but a small place, yet its homes indicate a fairly well situated and intelligent population.           Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites Next