‘
[
406]
shot through the heart.
So long as brave deeds are admired by our people, the names of
McCulloch and
McIntosh will be remembered and loved.’
Brigadier-General Evander McNair became colonel of the Fourth Arkansas regiment on August 17, 1861.
The first experience of this regiment in battle was at
Wilson's Creek, Mo., where the
Confederates gained a signal victory.
At the
battle of Pea Ridge, when
General McCulloch was killed and
Col. Louis Hebert captured,
Colonel McNair took command of the brigade.
When
Price and his army of the West crossed the
Mississippi to the support of the Confederate army that had just fought the
battle of Shiloh, the
Arkansas troops formed a part of his force.
On July 31st,
Bragg and
Kirby Smith met at
Chattanooga and planned the
Kentucky campaign.
Price and
Van Dorn were left to confront
Grant in
north Mississippi Bragg took
Churchill's division, consisting of the brigades of
McCray and
McNair, and then sent them to
Kirby Smith, who with his wing of the army pushed rapidly into the bluegrass region, utterly defeating the
Union army at
Richmond.
In the desperate battle that here occurred,
McNair's brigade turned the enemy's right and contributed to the rout that followed.
On November 4, 1862,
Colonel McNair was commissioned brigadier-general.
His brigade embraced the following
Arkansas troops, the First and Second dismounted rifles, Fourth and Thirtieth infantry regiments, Fourth infantry battalion, and
Humphreys' battery of artillery.
On the 31st of December,
McNair's brigade took part in the brilliant charge of
McCown's division, which, aided by
Withers and
Cheatham, drove the
Federal right a distance of between three and four miles, bending it back upon the center?
until the line was at right angles to its original position.
In May,
McNair's brigade was sent from the army of Tennessee to reinforce the army forming under
Joseph E. Johnston for the relief of
Vicksburg.
These
