ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 20 (Winter 1961), p. 344
Clayton's Militia
In Sevier
And Howard Counties
By VIRGINIA BUXTON
Nashville
The two letters printed below describe events occurring in 1868 in Center Point, then in Sevier County but now in Howard County. On November 4, 1868, the day after the general election, Governor Powell Clayton placed Sevier County under martial law and sent 500 troops under Brigadier General R. F. Catterson to restore order in the county. The governor implied in his proclamation that a state of insurrection in Sevier and nine other counties named in the proclamation had made it impossible for civil authorities to protect citizens and preserve the peace therein. He attributed this deplorable state of affairs to the work of the Ku Klux Klan.
General Catterson's force converged on the town Center Point from three different directions on November 12, routed a band of citizens gathered to oppose what they believed to be an invasion, captured sixty prisoners, and allegedly raided a Ku Klux Klan den. After a few days of patrolling through the county the militia marched back to Little Rock and paraded through the streets.
The citizens of center Point declared that they were at peace and were not aware at the time of Catterson's arrival that martial law had been declared in their county. They also professed to have been guilty of nothing more than attempting to vote the Democratic ticket.
