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Confederate Arkansas: The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime
This book fills a long standing gap in state histories dealing with the period of the Civil War in the western frontier that was Arkansas. Based on newspaper articles, legal documents, letters, diaries, reminiscences, songs, and official military reports, Dougan’s account provides a full picture of the political situation just prior to the war, and set the stage for the state’s entry into the war despite the fate that only a third of the population supported secession.
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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March 4, 2008
This is one of the earliest overviews of Arkansas in the Confederacy (1976), and offers a thorough discussion of the political wranglings surrounding the state's two secession conventions.
It is troubling that over half of the book covers the period up through secession in early 1861, meaning that entire years of the war receive only one twenty page chapter. Those year-based chapters are focused primarily on the military, rendering the social history of the war as the leavings swept up in the subsequent "wartime conditions" chapter.
The book focuses heaviest on the period before the fall of Little Rock, suggesting that Confederate control of the state didn't really survive that event, though Confederate control over the southwest part endured in some fashion through the end of the war. The Confederate legislature continued to meet in Washington and the Confederate army was in the field for the Camden Expedition and in various operations through the end of the war, so the precipitous decline in interest after mid-1863 is somewhat confusing. That, and after the fall of Little Rock, Dougan depicts Arkansas as divided into a wasteland north of the Arkansas River where partisans and bands of deserters ruled, and a more ordered southwest portion, where Confederate troops held sway. Subsequent scholarship questions this position, noting the significant presence of anti-Confederate groups in southwest Arkansas, including the Peace and Constitution Society.
All in all, a good start for its period. Dougan closes by separating his interpretations from the Lost Cause school of southern history, noting that the mythology did not appear until later, and created many of the problems that had been only recently dealt with at the time of the book's publication.
It is troubling that over half of the book covers the period up through secession in early 1861, meaning that entire years of the war receive only one twenty page chapter. Those year-based chapters are focused primarily on the military, rendering the social history of the war as the leavings swept up in the subsequent "wartime conditions" chapter.
The book focuses heaviest on the period before the fall of Little Rock, suggesting that Confederate control of the state didn't really survive that event, though Confederate control over the southwest part endured in some fashion through the end of the war. The Confederate legislature continued to meet in Washington and the Confederate army was in the field for the Camden Expedition and in various operations through the end of the war, so the precipitous decline in interest after mid-1863 is somewhat confusing. That, and after the fall of Little Rock, Dougan depicts Arkansas as divided into a wasteland north of the Arkansas River where partisans and bands of deserters ruled, and a more ordered southwest portion, where Confederate troops held sway. Subsequent scholarship questions this position, noting the significant presence of anti-Confederate groups in southwest Arkansas, including the Peace and Constitution Society.
All in all, a good start for its period. Dougan closes by separating his interpretations from the Lost Cause school of southern history, noting that the mythology did not appear until later, and created many of the problems that had been only recently dealt with at the time of the book's publication.
Displaying 1 of 1 review