Powell Foulk Clayton was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 9th governor of Arkansas from 1868 to 1871, as a Republican United States Senator for Arkansas from 1871 to 1877 and as United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1897 to 1905.
Jeff Davis was an American Democratic politician who served as the 20th governor of Arkansas from 1901 to 1907 and in the U.S. Senate from 1907 to 1913. He took office as one of Arkansas's first New South governors and proved to be one of the state's most polarizing figures. Davis used his silver tongue and aptitude for demagoguery to exploit existing feelings of agrarian frustration among poor white farmers and thus built a large populist appeal. However, since Davis often blamed city-dwellers, blacks, and Yankees for problems on the farm, the state was quickly and ardently split into "pro-Davis" or "anti-Davis" factions.
The Brooks–Baxter War, also known as the Brooks–Baxter Affair, was an attempt made by failed gubernatorial candidate Joseph Brooks of the “Brindle-tail” faction of Arkansas' Republican Party to take control of the state from Elisha Baxter, who was the Republican governor. The victor in the end was the Baxter administration, also known as the "Minstrels", supported by "carpetbaggers" over the Brindle-tails supported by "scalawags" and "freedmen".
Elisha Baxter was an American businessman and politician who served as the 10th governor of Arkansas from 1873 to 1874.
OzraAmander Hadley was an American politician who served as the acting governor of Arkansas from 1871 to 1873.
Augustus Hill Garland was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Arkansas, who initially opposed Arkansas' secession from the United States, but later served in both houses of the Congress of the Confederate States and the United States Senate, as well as becoming the 11th governor of Arkansas (1874–1877) and the 38th attorney general of the United States (1885–1889). He wrote several books.
In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War, who were perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own financial, political, and/or social gain. The term broadly included both individuals who sought to promote Republican politics and individuals who saw business and political opportunities because of the chaotic state of the local economies following the war. In practice, the term carpetbagger was often applied to any Northerners who were present in the South during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877). The term is closely associated with "scalawag", a similarly pejorative word used to describe native white Southerners who supported the Republican Party-led Reconstruction.
The Colfax massacre, sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the parish seat of Grant Parish. An estimated 62–153 Black militia men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Three white men also died during the confrontation.
The Coushatta massacre (1874) was an attack by members of the White League, a white supremacist paramilitary organization composed of white Southern Democrats, on Republican officeholders and freedmen in Coushatta, the parish seat of Red River Parish, Louisiana. They assassinated six white Republicans and five to 20 freedmen who were witnesses.
James M. Hinds was the first U.S. Congressman assassinated in office. He served as member of the United States House of Representatives for Arkansas from June 24, 1868 until his assassination by the Ku Klux Klan. Hinds, who was white, was an advocate of civil rights for black former slaves during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War.
Henry Clay Warmoth was an American attorney and veteran Civil War officer in the Union Army who was elected governor and state representative of Louisiana. A Republican, he was 26 years old when elected as 23rd Governor of Louisiana, one of the youngest governors elected in United States history. He served during the early Reconstruction Era, from 1868 to 1872.
At the end of the American Civil War, the devastation and disruption in the state of Georgia were dramatic. Wartime damage, the inability to maintain a labor force without slavery, and miserable weather had a disastrous effect on agricultural production. The state's chief cash crop, cotton, fell from a high of more than 700,000 bales in 1860 to less than 50,000 in 1865, while harvests of corn and wheat were also meager. The state government subsidized construction of numerous new railroad lines. White farmers turned to cotton as a cash crop, often using commercial fertilizers to make up for the poor soils they owned. The coastal rice plantations never recovered from the war.
The Kirk–Holden war was a police operation taken against the white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan by the government in the state of North Carolina in the United States in 1870. The Klan was using murder and intimidation to prevent recently freed slaves and members of the Republican Party from exercising their right to vote in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Following an increase in Klan activity in North Carolina—including the murder of a black town commissioner in Alamance County and the murder of a Republican state senator in Caswell County—Republican Governor of North Carolina William W. Holden declared both areas to be in a state of insurrection. In accordance with the Shoffner Act, Holden ordered a militia be raised to restore order in the counties and arrest Klansmen suspected of violence. This resulted in the creation of the 1st and 2nd North Carolina Troops, which Holden placed under the overall command of Colonel George Washington Kirk.
Robert Crittenden Newton was a lawyer, politician, and Confederate Colonel in Arkansas during the American Civil War. He is most remembered for his involvement in the Brooks-Baxter War. Robert C. Newton Camp # 197 of Little Rock was named for him and was the oldest continually run camp of the Arkansas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, as well as the oldest continually active camp west of the Mississippi River.
The Arkansas State Guard was the official state defense force of the state of Arkansas during World War II. The Arkansas State Guard was created to fulfill the state missions of the Arkansas National Guard while the National Guard was deployed abroad during World War II. As a military unit trained and funded solely by the state, it was immune to federal activation and deployment, unlike the National Guard. As a part of the official militia of the state of Arkansas, it traces its roots back to the militias which fell under state authority prior to the Militia Act of 1903. The Arkansas State Guard is currently inactive following deactivation after the end of World War II; however, the legal framework for a state defense force still exists, making future reactivation of the Arkansas State Guard by the Arkansas General Assembly legally permissible.
The units of the Arkansas Militia in the Civil War to which the current Arkansas National Guard has a connection include the Arkansas State Militia, Home Guard, and State Troop regiments raised by the State of Arkansas. Like most of the United States, Arkansas had an organized militia system before the American Civil War. State law required military service of most male inhabitants of a certain age. Following the War with Mexico, the Arkansas militia experienced a decline, but as sectional frictions between the north and south began to build in the late 1850s the militia experienced a revival. By 1860 the state's militia consisted of 62 regiments divided into eight brigades, which comprised an eastern division and a western division. New regiments were added as the militia organization developed. Additionally, many counties and cities raised uniformed volunteer companies, which drilled more often and were better equipped than the un-uniformed militia. These volunteer companies were instrumental in the seizure of federal installations at Little Rock and Fort Smith, beginning in February 1861.
The history of the Arkansas State Guard and the Spanish–American War begins with the reorganization of the state militia following the end of Reconstruction. In 1879 the Arkansas Legislature had abolished the office of Adjutant General in retaliation for the use of the state militia to interfere in local political matters during reconstruction. During this period the Governor's Private Secretary performed the duties of the Adjutant General as an additional duty, and the legislature provided no appropriated funds for the state guard. Several companies existed during this period, including the Quapaw Guards and the McCarthy Guard in Little Rock. In 1897 the Arkansas State Guard was reorganized to consist of four infantry regiments, two artillery batteries and a cavalry squadron. In 1897, the state provided two volunteer infantry regiments for the Spanish–American War and although these two Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiments were not deployed overseas and did not see actual combat, they did suffer a number of casualties from disease.
Daniel Phillips Upham was an American politician, businessman, plantation owner, and Arkansas State Militia commander following the American Civil War. He is best known for his effective and brutal acts as the leader of a successful militia campaign from 1868 to 1869 against Ku Klux Klan chapters in the state. Upham organized a widespread retaliation after the Klan attempted to assassinate him on October 2, 1868. KKK members were responsible for numerous attacks against Republican officeholders and freedmen. Later that year, Upham was designated a brigadier general and commanded a force that eventually numbered over 1,000 men.
From December 1876 to April 1877, the Republican and Democratic parties in South Carolina each claimed to be the legitimate government. Both parties declared that the other had lost the election and that they controlled the governorship, the state legislature, and most state offices. Each government debated and passed laws, raised militias, collected taxes, and conducted other business as if the other did not exist. After four months of contested government, Daniel Henry Chamberlain, who claimed the governorship as a Republican, conceded to Democrat Wade Hampton III on April 11, 1877. This came after President Rutherford Hayes withdrew federal troops from the South.
In the aftermath of the American Civil War, Pope County, Arkansas experienced a tumultuous seven-month period during the Reconstruction era known as the Pope County Militia War. This time was characterized by political and civil unrest, as four county officials, aided by an unofficial militia, purportedly manipulated county affairs to benefit their own agenda. These officials persistently urged the Arkansas governor to impose martial law in the county, with the aim of exerting greater control over voter registration and the November 1872 election.
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