9th Arkansas Infantry, CSA

9th Arkansas Infantry Regiment

The 9th Regiment, Arkansas Volunteer Infantry, was organized at Pine Bluff on July 20, 1861, and taken into state service at Pine Bluff on July 27. They marched to Pocahontas, Arkansas later that month where they were mustered into Confederate service and assigned initially to Pillow's Division. Like all the other Arkansas regiments raised in the first wave of recruiting in 1861, they were taken into Confederate armies east of the Mississippi River, and only a few survivors made it home after the war.

[One of your host’s great-grandfathers, George Lawrence Blackwell, was a member of this formation and was wounded, I believe, at Shiloh. Recovering from his wound, he served in the 19th Arkansas, and fought to the bitter end, mustering out when Gen. Kirby Smith surrendered, some time after Appomattox.]

The 9th Arkansas was known as the "Parsons’ Regiment" because it included 42 ministers of the gospel of all protestant denominations among their ranks. The regimental commander was a preacher, as was the major and many of the company officers. Notwithstanding it contained so many men of the cloth, it was a hard-fighting regiment and many of its officers, notably its last lieutenant colonel (Dunlop), were as intrepid and gallant as any knight of chivalry. Field officers were Colonel John M. Bradley, Major John C. Bratton, Lt. Col (later Col.) Isaac L. Dunlop, Lt. Cols. W.Y. McCammon, Reuben W. Millsaps, and Jefferson W. Rogers, and Majors R.M. Wallace and W.J. Wallace.

The company commanders were: Co. A, the "Bradley Guards", of Jefferson county, Cpt. John M. Bradley; Co. B, the "Cut-Off Guards, of Drew county, Cpt. W.H. Isom.; Co. C, "Henry's Hornets", of Jefferson county, Cpt. Phillip G. Henry; Co. D, of Bradley county, Cpt. W.Y. McCammon; Co. E, of Bradley county, Cpt. John W. Blankenship; Co. F, the "Dixie Guards", of Drew county, Cpt. W.G. Haislip, Co. G, the "Arkansaw Travelers" of Union county, Cpt. Robert M. Wallace; Co. H, the "Hardee Guards" of Jefferson county, Cpt. James T. Anderson, Co I, "McCulloch's Guards" of Jefferson county, Cpt. George F. Bayne; Co. K, of Ashley county; Cpt. John F. Carr.

The regiment saw its first combat at the battle of Belmont, MO, and was subsequently retained at Bowling Green, KY for the defense of that post during the winter of 1861-1862. The regiment served in Shaver's Brigade, covering the retreat out of Kentucky to Corinth. It fought gallantly at Shiloh, charging repeatedly upon the "Hornet's Nest" where it lost Lt. Col. Dunlop.

Late in the day at Shiloh, General Albert Sidney Johnston sought to rally his troops, which has lost cohesion. He rode from the rear through this regiment, brandishing a tin cup he had appropriated earlier that morning from a Union campsite, describing it as "My share of the spoils." He addressed the regiment, saying, "Men of Arkansas, the enemy is stubborn. I want you to show General Beauregard and General Bragg what you can do with your bayonets and toothpicks!" The regiment went forward with a cheer and passed him at a run; in five minutes 130 men of their ranks were killed or wounded, but they did not falter. Lt. Duckworth was killed at the head of his company, and Cpt. Wallace was wounded. It closed up and disappeared into the thicket in front, followed by the whole Confederate line, and the enemy was silenced in twenty minutes. General Johnston, however, received a mortal wound while leading this charge, and shortly thereafter bled to death.

Following the Confederates' repulse at Shiloh, the 9th Arkansas returned to Corinth and participated in the Corinth Campaign, in the battles of Corinth, and Iuka, MS. They served at Coffeeville, and in the Vicksburg Campaign in the spring and summer of 1863, where they served briefly in the garrisons of Port Hudson, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, then fought in the battle of Champion Hill on May 15, 1863. The 9th served in Loring's Division at Champion Hill, and following that battle, Loring retreated north to join Joe Johnston's army near Jackson rather than being trapped with the rest of Pemberton's army in the Vicksburg defenses.

The 9th Arkansas served with Johnson's attempt to relieve Vicksburg, in the second battle of Jackson, in the Meridian (MS) campaign in Feb. to March, 1864; and the Atlanta Campaign at Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Dug Gap, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, and the final siege of Atlanta, as well as follow-on action at Lovejoy's Station and Jonesboro, Georgia. Following the fall of Atlanta, the regiment participated in the Tennessee campaign that resulted in the battles of Franklin, and Nashville, TN.

They continued service with the Army of Tennessee to the close of the war, fighting at Sugar Creek on December 26, 1864, and in the Carolinas campaign in February to April, 1865, including the last big stand-up fight of the Tennessee Army at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865.

The few remaining survivors of the 9th Arkansas were consolidated with the survivors of the 1st and 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles, the 4th and 25th Arkansas, and others as the "1st Mounted Rifles Regiment" (dismounted, since they didn't have many horses left, either) in the last reorganization of the Army at Smithfield, North Carolina on April 9, 1865. Two weeks later, they were surrendered with the rest of the Army of Tennessee near Raleigh, North Carolina.
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References: James Willis, Arkansas Confederates in the Western Theater (Regimental and Brigade history and complete, annotated muster rolls for the regiment.)