ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 4 (Spring 1945), p. 172
LETTERS FROM
COLUMBIA COUNTY CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
EDITED BY TED R. WORLEY
The originals of the two following letters belong to Fletcher Smith, Jr. Conway, a relative of Newell McEachern, writer of the first letter. Both writers were members of Company G, 6th Ark. Infantry, first known as James P. Austin's Columbia Guards. Newell McEachern died of typhoid a few days after the date of his letter to Effie McEachern, his sister. H. B. Harris, writer of the second letter, continued with his company into Mississippi. The last word of him is a note in the muster roll of October, 1862, which says: "Left sick at Corinth in the country Apl 62." Members of the company mentioned by Harris, are further identifiable from muster rolls as James F. Abney (Jim), C. C. Brown, John Glanton.
- Pocahontas, Ark.
- July 9, 1861
Effie
- I thought I would write to you this morning although I have not received
a letter from any of you yet---Therefore it is with some reluctance that
I write. There is [nothing] of importance to write. We are fixed up for
house keeping here now. They are going to organize a Brigade, Capt. says
when we leave here, that we will [have] Twenty thousand men. We are sixty
miles from Bonneville, Missouri, where they had one fight. Five thousand
men can [be] collected here now in a few days notice. It is thought to
be certain now that we will [be] turned over to the Confederate Service.
Then we will no longer be Arkansas troops And Hardee the author of Hardee's
Tactics will be our General. But should we remain Arkansas troops, Yell
the Brother of the Mexico Yell will be General. Our Brigade is intended
to consist of Five Regiments of Infantry 2 of Cavalry 2 companies of Artillery,
which will make quite a crowd together. One of Sentinels got scared at
his post last night. He says a panther was passing around him. I reckon
it was a wolf. No man passes the guard now.
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