Col. John M. Harrell, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.2, Arkansas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[319] of war until exchanged. As the prisoners were being transported up the Mississippi river, Lieuts. James Hellums and Dink Atkins, of Company K, leaped from the steamer into the Mississippi between Napoleon and Helena, and made their escape by swimming ashore.

The Nineteenth Arkansas was organized at Devall's Bluff, in April, 1861, with the following officers: Colonel H. P. Smead, of Columbia county; Lieut.-Col. Ben Hale, of Hot Springs; Maj. D. L. Kilgore, of Magnolia; Quartermaster T. P. Dockery, Commissary H. Bussy. The captains were: Company A, J. G. Johnson, of Lewisville; B, H. G. P. Williams, of Hillsboro; C, B. R. Matthews, of Eldorado; D, John Cook, of Falcon; E, P. Dismukes, of Columbia county; F, J. I. Kendrick, of Columbia county; G, William C. Langford, of Eldorado, H, James Henry, of Hot Springs county. Under an act of Congress the regiment was reorganized by electing Tom Dockery, colonel; W. H. Dismukes, lieutenantcol-onel, and H. G. P. Williams, major. From Memphis it was ordered to Fort Pillow. April 2, 1862, the Federal fleet which had caused the evacuation of Island No.10 proceeded eighty miles below to Fort Pillow, and began a vigorous bombardment of that place and of Randolph, about twelve miles below, on the bluffs of Tennessee. Both places were rendered untenable, and the Confederates were withdrawn and sent to Corinth, Miss. They took part in the battles of Iuka and Corinth, where the Arkansas regiments bore themselves with greatest gallantry. The Nineteenth earned for its colonel, Thomas P. Dockery, of Lamartine, promotion as brigadier-general in the Confederate army. Colonel Dockery seemed designed for a soldier. Nothing excited him. His apparent indifference to danger was such in fact that at times it rendered him negligent of necessary precautions. It was this defect, really, that prevented his further promotion. Upon the promotion of Colonel Dockery, Lieutenant-Colonel Dismukes became colonel of the regiment.