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

So much of the report of General Hindman as tells the story of his operations under Beauregard's order, and is embodied in this history, is quoted from himself, since no historian would be given credit for fairness who should utter it without such authentication. Those who knew him well can recognize the dauntless will of the man, his tireless energy and his unmistakable ability. . . . In his political campaign immediately preceding the war, by the exercise of the same qualities he had revolutionized the politics of the State and, aiding in the election of Governor Rector, had overthrown an ancient organization of his party, of which Robert W. Johnson, United States senator at the time of the secession of the States, was the head. But Colonel Johnson, in the reaction brought about by the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln calling for troops, and the secession of the State, secured a seat in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, and Hindman lost no time in making peace with him as an indispensable friend or patron at the Confederate capital, to vindicate his acts, when necessary, with the President and before the Congress and elsewhere. It was not Johnson who instituted the congressional inquiry upon the protests that went up from Arkansas against the alleged usurpations of Hindman. General Holmes, whom Hindman greatly influenced and humored, understood the new friendship of Johnson and Hindman, when he wrote, November 10, 1862: ‘Colonel Johnson is just elected senator over Garland, 46 to 41. He made a long speech to the legislature, in which, I am told, he sustained you thoroughly and unconditionally. He has offered me his services, and I am going to send him to Richmond for arms and money.’ Senator Johnson occupied a seat in the old Senate, when Jefferson Davis represented Mississippi in that body. He was a member of the same school of politics, and had the confidence and esteem of the Confederate President.