"Arkansas Would Ever Remain Under the Eagle": A Unionist’s View on Secession
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The following letter appeared in the pages of the Arkansas True Democrat in July 1861:
“Van Buren, Ark., May 18, 1861.
Mr. Editor: In your issue of April 30, I notice the following: ‘Western Arkansas is a unit for immediate secession, and none are more strong than the heretofore union party. The whole people here, whatever may have been their opinions heretofore, are now united as one against what they deem the aggressive policy of the administration. A war feeling is now prevalent.’
Now, sir, allow me to speak a word in contradiction to the above. I will first say that I am a southern man, southern born and southern raised, and descended from southern parents—one too, who has an opportunity to know the above to be false. The people of western Arkansas, the true people, the bone and sinew of our land, are yet, in sentiment and at heart, for the preservation of our once glorious union. When it falls to pieces, and no plank is left upon which to tread, they we say reconstruct upon the basis of the old. We have with us a fanatical party who seek the destruction of our union, for the purpose of personal ambition, the organic law of which is rule or ruin, self-aggrandizement or self-gain. Our State may to-day be out the union; if so, it is not by the consent of the people, for, left to the people, Arkansas would ever remain under the eagle’s pinions and stars and stripes. But the very source of power is denied power. We are told by the leaders if we say union, we are abolitionists, and we must leave or swing; this is one cause that so little is heard from our union men. The secessionists make all the fuss. The howling of one wolf at a distance is taken for three or more; for this reason those in other States think the whole people of Arkansas are for secession. If a direct vote were put to the people, western Arkansas would remain loyal to the union by three to one, or more.
Yours,
A Western Arkansian.”
Penning a powerful declaration of Unionist sentiment in Arkansas, the unnamed Unionist above was undoubtedly writing in response to the recent secession convention held in Little Rock. There, on May 6, a gathering of some 70 Arkansas delegates voted to leave the Union. It’s worth taking a moment to unpack how the secession vote occurred in Arkansas.
Arkansas Governor Henry Rector
Following South Carolina’s secession in December 1860, calls for secession quickly swept across other Southern slaveholding states. Arkansas Governor Henry Rector firmly supported secession:
“God in his omnipotent wisdom, I believe, created the cotton plant—the African slave—and the lower Mississippi valley, to clothe and feed the world, and a gallant race of men and women produced upon its soil to defend it, and execute that decree…They [the North] believe slavery is a sin, we do not, and there lies the trouble. All confidence [in the Union] is lost and it is too late to repair it…Let us then separate in peace if possible; if it not, then let it come in war, for separate must come sooner or later…”
When a convention of elected delegates met in February 1861 to consider secession, however, other Arkansas political leaders proved more reticent to leave the United States. Voters statewide cast 23,626 votes ballots in favor of Unionists delegates, while only 17,927 voted for avowed secessionists. Most of these Union delegates were “conditional Unionists” who, while sympathetic to their sister slaveholding states, believed Arkansas’s future was best served in the Union…provided civil war didn’t break out. Arkansas’s early reluctance to join the Confederacy mirrored the political sentiments of other Upper South states, such as Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Following the firing on Fort Sumter and Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops (which included a request for 780 Arkansans) in April 1861, the conditional Unionists’ nightmare became reality. Faced with civil war, the secession convention met again on May 6 at the Arkansas State House. An attempt to put the issue of secession to the voters directly was shot down, 55-15. The convention’s delegates—not the Arkansan people—would decide the state’s fate.
Unionist William Fishback, whose fear for his safety pushed him to vote for secession
Despite looming civil war and mounting support for secession, there were still Unionists in the hall that May morning. But political pressure and even threats of physical violence dampened Union sentiment. One delegate who feared reprisal was William Fishback, a prominent lawyer and Sebastian County’s delegate to the secession convention. Sebastian County, with its seat at Fort Smith, is located in Western Arkansas, just south of Van Buren—where our “Western Arkansian” Unionist resided. Following the firing on Fort Sumter, Fishback recalled, “Such a state of excitement I have never in my life witnessed elsewhere as followed the announcement of that event. Wherever you met a rebel you met him armed… I therefore advised my constituents to acquiesce, and await the coming of federal protection, and then to join the Union army.” When William Fishback traveled to Little Rock for the May 6 convention, he was warned by convention president David Walker (himself a conditional Unionist), “that my life was in imminent danger, and that I had better be cautious and silent.”
Fearing for his safety, Fishback bit his tongue and voted for secession:
“I thought again of escaping to the mountains of my county, and of rallying the Union men for resistance, (for I had so often said I would die before I would vote for secession, I dreaded the humiliation almost as much as I hated the character of such a vote.) But the reasons of humanity which induced me to advise acquiescence before I left home were, now that I saw the situation in all its fearful reality, of double force. So, then, apart from personal danger, I was induced by motives of humanity to lend a seeming support to the rebellion I so much abhorred. Nor was there a single individual in Little Rock then, or in the State now, who believes that I would have ever left that convention alive if I had voted against the ordinance at that session.”
Following the secession convention, Fishback promptly fled north to Missouri, actively raised troops on behalf of the United States, and published a pro-Union newspaper in Little Rock following its occupation by the U.S. Army in 1863.
Unionist and Arkansas Governor Isaac Murphy
While William Fishback and other Unionists succumbed to pressure, several held out longer. In the vote for secession, five delegates opposed the measure: H.H. Bolinger of Madison County, John Campbell of Searcy County, T.M. Gunter of Washington County, S. Kelly of Pike County, and Isaac Murphy of Madison County. All of these counties are situated in Northern Arkansas. Desperate to present a unified front, President Walker urged the five men to change their votes in favor of secession, since the issue was now settled. Four of the candidates agreed, but Isaac Murphy stood firm in his opposition. His staunch refusal caused an uproar. From the balconies above, however, Little Rock denizen Martha Trapnall threw a bouquet of flowers to Murphy, acknowledging his bravery (and perhaps indicating her own politics). The defiant act quelled the crowd, and Murphy’s no vote remained. (Later in the war, Murphy served as Arkansas’s Unionist governor.)
At 4:00 pm, by a final vote of 69-1, Arkansas left the Union under the leadership of the secession convention. No public referendum was ever held.
Let us return, then, to our “Western Arkansian” who wrote to the True Democrat that “The people of western Arkansas, the true people, the bone and sinew of our land, are yet, in sentiment and at heart, for the preservation of our once glorious union.” Was he right?
Certainly, as the twin secession conventions of February and May 1861 suggest, there was considerable support for Unionism in Arkansas. Even after Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for troops, which drove conditional Unionists into the Confederate ranks, others remained loyal to the United States. And as William Fishback’s recollections indicate, it’s likely that many Unionist sympathizers were silenced. The lack of a public referendum, however, makes it difficult to gauge the extent of Arkansas unionism overall.
Our “Western Arkansian’s” bold claim that “If a direct vote were put to the people, western Arkansas would remain loyal to the union by three to one, or more” seems unlikely. It is estimated that approximately 48,000 white Arkansans served in the Confederate army. Scholars estimated over 10,000 white Arkansans served in the United States army, alongside 5,500 black Arkansans in search of freedom. Rather than Western Arkansas constituting a silent bastion of Unionism, it’s more likely that the region—like most of the state—was simply divided in its views towards secession and the war.
Still, this “Western Arkansian” and his proud declaration of loyalty to the “eagle’s pinions and stars and stripes” serves as a sharp reminder of the divisive politics of 1861 and the contested nature of Arkansas’s entrance into the Confederacy.
Dr. Zac Cowsert teaches history and humanities courses at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, & the Arts, a public residential high school in Hot Springs. He holds a PhD in history from West Virginia University, where he also received his master's degree. He earned his bachelor's degree in history and political science from Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. Zac’s dissertation explored the American Civil War in Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma), and his research interests include the Civil War Trans-Mississippi, Southern Unionism, and the interactions between Civil War armies and newspaper presses. ©
Sources & Further Reading
Arkansas True Democrat, July 18, 1861 [Little Rock, AR]. Digitized.
Christ, Mark K., ed. The Die is Cast: Arkansas Goes to War, 1861. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2010.
Current, Richard Nelson. Lincoln’s Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
DeBlack, Thomas A. With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861–1874. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2003.
Dougan, Michael B. “Secession Convention.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. December 8, 2023.
Journal of Both Session of the Convention of the State of Arkansas. Little Rock, AR: Johnson & Yerkes, 1861.
Readnour, Harry W. “William Meade Fishback (1831-1903).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. October 17, 2023.
Senate Documents: 38th Congress, 1st Session. 1863-1864.
Woods, James M. Rebellion and Realignment; Arkansas’s Road to Secession. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1987.
Wooster, Ralph. “The Arkansas Secession Convention.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 13 (Autumn 1954): 172–195.