Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[474] was presented to it at three o'clock in the afternoon, when the hall in which the delegates met was densely crowded by an excited populace. It was moved that the “yeas” and “nays” on the question should be taken without debate. The motion was rejected by a considerable majority, but the President declared it to be carried. Then a vote on the Ordinance was taken, and a majority appeared against it. The conspirators were determined not to be foiled. The President, who seems to have been a plastic instrument in their hands, immediately arose, and in the midst of the cheers of the people, vehemently urged the Unionists to change their votes to “ay” immediately. It was evident that a large number of that crowd were prepared to compel them to do so, and the terrified Unionists complied, with only one exception, and that was Isaac Murphy, who was compelled to fly for his life. He was rewarded for his fidelity by the Unionists, who elected him Governor of the State in 1864.

Thus, by fraud and violence, Arkansas was placed in the position of a rebellious State. The Convention then authorized the Governor to call out sixty thousand men, if necessary, for military duty. The State was divided into two military divisions, eastern and western. General Bradley was appointed to the command of the Eastern Division, and General Pearce, late of the National Army, was made commander of the Western Division. An ordinance was also passed confiscating all debts due from citizens of Arkansas to persons residing in the Free-labor States, and all the personal property belonging to such persons in Arkansas at the time of the passage of the Ordinance. A system of terrorism was at once commenced. Unionists were everywhere shamefully persecuted. They were exiled, imprisoned, and murdered. Confederate troops from Texas and Louisiana were brought into the State to occupy it and overawe the loyalists; and Arkansas troops, raised chiefly by fraud and violence, were sent out of the State, for the conspirators would not trust them.

Not content with this usurpation at home, Governor Rector and his associates, acting under the directions of the arch-conspirators at Montgomery, took measures to attach to their cause, by persuasion or coercion, the powerful civilized Indians residing in the Territory adjoining the western boundaries of Arkansas and northern Texas. These were the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, numbering at that time about forty thousand souls.¹ There were also in that region a remnant of the Creek Nation who formerly inhabited Alabama, and some Senecas and Shawnoese from the North, who had lately gone there on a visit. It was believed that a band of efficient warriors might be drawn from these nations, whose very name would be terrible; and through the resident agents, who were secessionists, and by other means, the work of corruption and coercion was vigorously commenced among them.

A brother of Governor Rector was then Government agent among the Cherokees, and used all his influence to seduce them from their allegiance. When, in May,

1861.

Jefferson Davis ordered three regiments