Chapter 1:
- The election of 1860 and its effects -- arsenal at Little Rock taken into State possession -- action of legislature and convention -- Preparations for war -- fighting in Missouri.
The exciting political campaign of 1860 was over. Henry Massie Rector had been elected governor of the State by a combination of Democrats and old-line Whigs; the legislature was Democratic by a large majority. The total vote cast in the election of August was 61,198, of which Rector received 31,948 and R. H. Johnson, 29,250. The Thirteenth general assembly of the State met at Little Rock, November 5th, and continued in session until January 21, 1861, when it adjourned to meet November 4th, and, after a short session, adjourned again to reassemble March 8, 1862. January 15, 1861, it passed an act looking to the warlike defense of the State, calling for a State convention which should determine the attitude of Arkansas in the crisis which was impending, and for organizing the militia and providing arms to keep down disturbances and repel invasion. Two commissioners were authorized to buy arms, for which $100,000 was appropriated, and Thomas J. Churchill and C. C. Danley appointed such commissioners. They expended but $36,000 for that purpose, when it was realized that no arms would be allowed to be shipped to the State from Cincinnati, to which point they had been ordered from the Northern armories. The convention, if it should be ordered by the popular vote, was to assemble at Little Rock, in obedience to the proclamation of the governor, on the first Monday after March
