The Arkansas Mounted Rifles (1st and 2nd)

Luke Freet

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Doing something similar to my thread on the 58th & 60th North Carolina, as these 2 units share quite the history together, even much more so. They served together throughout the entire war. Formed for their intended role of Mounted Infantry, they were dismounted and served as foot infantry for the rest of the war, retaining their name despite this. They fought at Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, under the Command of Benjamin McCulloch and James McIntosh (the latter the founding Colonel of the 2nd Regiment, killed at Pea Ridge); under the command of Brigadier Thomas Churchill (Founding colonel of 1st Regiment), transferred across the Mississippi to join Beauregard at the Siege of Corinth, the Kentucky Campaign and Battle of Richmond; under Brigadier McNair at Murfreesboro, part of the Vickburg relief force, Chickamauga; under Brigadier Daniel H. Reynolds (former Colonel of 1st Regiment) in the Meridian Campaign, Atlanta Campaign, Franklin-Nashville, and fought in North Carolina under Johnston when he surrendered his army.

1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles
Formed 18th June 1861 under Colonel Thomas J. Churchill. 2 Company commanders at this time were future Colonels Robert W. Harper and Daniel H. Reynolds (Reynolds would be promoted to Brigadier in 1864, leading McNair's old brigade, which it had been attached to since Corinth)

2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles
Formed in the Summer of 1861 (possibly same time as Churchill's regiment), under the command of Colonel James McIntosh (Later promoted to command brigade and killed at Pea Ridge). With the reorganization of the Confederate Army after Shiloh, Col. Harris Flanagin was promoted to Colonel, J. A. Williamson as Lt. Colonel, and James P. Eagle as Major. Colonel Flanagin would be made Governor of Arkansas and leave the regiment, leading to the promotion of Williamson to Colonel and Eagle to Lt. Colonel. Williamson lost a leg at Reseca, so a J. T. Smith was made Colonel. Smith was killed at Ezra Church, leading to Eagle's promotion to Colonel (Eagle would later become a governor of Arkansas).

After the battles at Franklin and Nashville, the brigade was less than regimental in strength. The remnants merged into the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles.
 
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One thing that has me confused is Robert W. Harper. I have found little information breifly surfing google on Harper, aside from mentions in Orders of Battle. He was apparently Colonel at Murfreesboro, Vickburg and Chickamauga. I wish there was more information on him. It appears he was succeded by D. H. Reynolds at the end of Chickamauga. Was he debilitated? Did he resign his commission?
Would love for a contributer to give me some clarity, as he is very prominent in the regiment's and brigade's history, often rising to command the brigade at points.
 
Some Bios on the regiments' founding colonels:
Thomas J. Churchill (1824-1905)
-Col., 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles
Thomas J. Churchill was born in Kentucky, and was a Lt. in the 1st Kentucky Mounted Rifles in the Mexican War, being captured and held as a POW. He moved to Little Rock in 1848, where he became a planter and postmaster. When the Civil War broke out, he raised the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifle Regiment, and joined Ben McCulloch in Missouri, where he fought at Wilson's Creek. After the death of McIntosh, he was promoted to Brigadier on the 4th March 1862, and led the old brigade under Kirby Smith in the invasion of Kentucky, commanding a provisional division at Richmond, helping Cleburne win his first victory. After this campaign, he was transferred back to Arkansas where he commanded Arkansas Post (held by the men who would later become Granbury's Texas Brigade, still green). Poorly positioned and isolated from support, the Fort was surrendered to a combined arms assault. The regiments who served him at the fort were paroled on the east bank of the Mississippi, and joined Cleburne's Division, soon becoming one of the premier fighting brigades of the Army of Tennessee.
Churchill meanwhile stayed in the Transmississippi, given command of a new division of Arkansans, where he play a role in reinforcing Taylor's army in the Red River Campaign, and serving notably at Jenkins Ferry. He was promoted to Major General in March of '65, but surrendered with the department at the close of the war.
Churchill became embroiled in state politics postwar, getting involved in the Brooks-Baxter War (siding with the Republican Baxter), and replacing the reconcilist and pro-freedmen William Miller, as a hardliner Democrat Governor in 1881. He was involved in controversies involving monetery discrepancies, which forced him to resign in 1883.
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James M. McIntosh (1828-1862)
-Founding Colonel, 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles
McIntosh was born in Florida, where his Georgian father, James S. McIntosh, was serving with the U.S. Army (the elder McIntosh would die a Colonel at the Battle of Molina del Rey during the Mexican War). His younger brother was future Union gneral John B. McIntosh, and he was distantly related to Georgian Founding Father and Revolutionary War general Lachlan McIntosh.
He went to West Point, where he graduated the goat of his class in 1849. He was serving in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when the Southern states were seceding. He resigned his commision and raised the 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles, leading them alongside Churchill's regiment at Wilson's Creek. McIntosh would be promoted to command the brigade after leading a successful raid on a Unionist Native tribe, and would be killed in action at Pea Ridge.
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Daniel H. Reynolds (1832-1902)
-3rd Colonel of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles
Born in Ohio, the 4th of 10 children. Orphaned at the age of 18, went Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was classmates with future COnfederate General Otho Strahl. Studied law in Tennessee and moved to Arkansas to set up a practice.
He helps raise a company of cavalry, becoming Company A of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Infantry. He fought with the Regiment at Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. In the reorganization of the Army, Reynolds was made Major of the regiment, and in May became the Lt. Colonel. He served with the regiments during the Kentucky Campaign, Murfreesboro, Tullahoma, and at Chickamauga. He was promoted Colonel on the 20th of September, 1863. He took command of the Brigade, and on 5th March 1864, was promoted to Brigadier. He served in the Meridian Campaign, then transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where he fought in the Atlanta Campaign as part of Walthall's division. He then fought with the Brigade at the bloody battles of Franklin and Nashville. The brigade was little more than a regiment after this, resulting in the unit's merging into the 1st Arkansas Consolidate Mounted Rifles. He led them in the Carolina Campaign. He lost his left leg at Bentonville on the 19th of March '65, ending his frontline command.
He moved back to Arkansas, where he briefly became a state senator and resumed his law practice. He married to Mattie Wallace in 1868, who had five children. He also had one son with his mistress Annie Franklin. He died in 1902.
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I have been looking into Colonel Robert Harper of the 1st Mounted Rifles, seeing what happened to him for Reynolds to be bumped up in ranks. I dug into David Powell's second book in the Chickamauga trilogy, and it seems that Harper was mortally wounded in the September 20th Breakthrough attack ("Glory or the Grave" 356).
I've also found what's apparently Harper's uniform:https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_446364
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