Though sympathetic to those first states that seceded from the Union, the .
state of Arkansas obviously did not feel that Lincoln's election was grounds to justify.
secession. Indeed it was not until the actions of Ft. Sumter that Arkansas throws in it's.
lot with the South. .
If an issue in the state one would think Arkansas might been among the first.
to have left the Union. No doubt it was an issue but not nearly as strong a one to have .
motivated it's inhabitants to the act of war that would later be required of them. .
Arkansas was after all a very poor state and wasn't even competitive with other southern.
states agriculturally for the slave population to have been large enough to really matter .
economically. For whatever reason's Arkansas finally seceded and the reasons are all .
debatable, it took its stand and fought more gallant than most.
It began in Pea Ridge, where the Confederates were sent flying due to incompetent .
generals such as Albert Pike, Mcullough, a famous Texas Ranger, and Macintosh, Pea.
Ridge would be the Beginning of many such defeats for Confederate Arkansas. After that .
it was the fall of one piece of the state at a time. Why? Were Arkansans inferiors?.
And officers? Were the tales of their backward ways all true? Then why did the state fall .
so easily? .
The Generals were no doubt not up to the task of defending the state, that is the ones .
remained in Arkansas. Would Arkansas have fallen so easily to the Union if say Patrick .
Cleburne and remained in the state along with his rough and ready troops? It was not that.
The Union's commanders were much better. Just a bit more experienced and somewhat .
better organized.
Much attention was given to the fortified Confederate positions on the Arkansas side.
of the Mississippi River. The Union knew that the South would fall much faster if it .
split and dedicated the Army's and the Navy's finest to the task. The battles of the River .