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

About the time of the meeting of the general assembly, in November, 1860, the Second United States artillery had been transferred from Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to the arsenal at Little Rock, where it remained stationed during the sitting of the first session of the legislature. The removal may have occurred in the ordinary routine of the regular service, but there had not been soldiers in the old barracks for many years. It had been used exclusively as a depot for arms and munitions, occupied by a military storekeeper and a few non-commissioned officers and mechanics. The Second artillery was composed of about seventy-five men, under command of Capt. James Totten, of the regular army, whose father, Dr. William E. Totten, occupied some position on the grounds by appointment of the war department. Captain Totten was a genial and accomplished gentleman, whose half-brother had intermarried with one of the most respected and influential families in the city and State, owning slaves, and being Democrats, but sympathizing with the cause of the Union. The denizens of the towns in Arkansas, whose inhabitants were engaged in merchandise or mechanical pursuits, were generally of Northern birth or extraction, and were strongly in favor of the Union, upon any conditions. The oldest and most distinguished citizens of Little Rock were from New York and Philadelphia, and the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and were an element of wealth, refinement and intelligence. The dwellers of the ‘hill country’ were from the mountain regions of Tennessee, and of the Appalachian chain throughout its whole length, a very different type from those above named, and were also advocates of the Union. The planters of the lowlands, generally from Virginia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, were outspoken advocates of separation from the contaminating and menacing influences of the people of the ‘Free States,’ believing they would never be satisfied until, through business devices or legislation, they could control the great