The First Arkansas
Volunteer Infantry served its term of service within the continental
United States. It did not see service overseas.
The 1st Arkansas
Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service at Little Rock, Arkansas
between May 14 and 20, 1898. At the time of mustering in, the regiment
consisted of forty-six officers and 966 enlisted men, under the command of
Col. Elias Chandler. At age forty-two Chandler had served in the U.S. Army
for seventeen years, becoming the colonel of the 16thU.S.
Infantry. He then taught military tactics at Arkansas Industrial
University in Fayetteville, Arkansas, for four years. Chandler was
considered to be an excellent choice to command the new regiment.
The companies in the
regiment were formed in the following locations:
Company A – Hot Springs
(known as the “Hot Spring Rifles”)
Company B – Pine Bluff
(Knowns as the “Jefferson Fencibles”)
Company C – Fort Smith
Company D – Fort Smith
Company E – Hope and DeQueen
(Known as the “Ferguson Guards”)
Company F – Springdale
Company G – Helena (known as
the “Helena Light Guards”)
Company H – Arkadelphia
Company I – Van Buren
Company K – Paris (known as
the “Andrew Jackson Rifles”)
Company L – Chicot and
Texarkana (Known as the “Governor’s Guards”)
Company M – Camden (known as
the “Greening Rifles”)
The regiment departed Camp Dodge, Little Rock on May 25, bound for the new
training camp (Camp Thomas) constructed on the Civil War battlefield of
Chickamauga, Georgia, arriving two days later. The regiment was joined by
the regiment’s mascot, a bald eagle named “Winnie Davis.” On arrival, the
regiment spent the night in their rail cars, marching to the camp after
breakfast. They found themselves marching into a camp inhabited by 45,000
men, with inadequate water and sanitation. On arriving, the regiment was
assigned to the First Battalion, Second Division of the Third Army Corps.
The regiment spent its time drilling and preparing for being sent to the
front. However, orders to be sent abroad never came.
In the beginning of August,
representatives of the regiment, including most of the officers, sent a
telegram to the Arkansas Governor, Dan W. Jones, asking him to use his
influence to have the regiment included in the expedition to Puerto
Rico, since the action in Cuba had
ended. The letter pointed out that the regiment was the first raised in
Arkansas and was in a “high state of efficiency.” The regiment briefly
thought its desires were realized as orders came to join the Puerto
Rico expedition. The camp was packed in order to be in readiness to
depart, but the order was countermanded, and the regiment stayed where it
was.
Meanwhile, conditions at the
overcrowded camp continued to deteriorate. Sergeant Leon J. Smith, Company
F, minced no words about conditions in the camp. Returning to Arkansas on
leave, he told the newspaper that
“Camp Thomas is an awful place. Those who have not been there have no idea
of what a hell hole it was…the place has no sewerage or even good
drainage. Why, you could smell the place before you got within five miles
of it. The dirt and decaying matter have saturated the ground, seeped down
and polluted the water…” Because of water and sanitation problems, the
deaths in camp began to spike. In addition the conditions in the hospitals
were deplorable, and an investigation into the Second Division Hospital
was opened based on complaints filed by Col. Chandler.
The tales told by the men about the army hospitals showed a system that
was overwhelmed. Corporal John Berhart of the 1st Arkansas indicated that
he was in the hospital and received no medical attention for eight days,
had to fight to get something to eat, and when he did receive food, it
included tainted beef. Captain O. E. Byers indicated that men were
returned to the regiment from the hospital who were still quite ill. Men
complained of being refused food and water, and dying men being entirely
neglected. The investigation found the allegations to be true. The Army
soon decided that the only solution was to move as many men out of the
camp as was possible. By the end of August, the 1st Arkansas
was one of only six regiments left at the camp.
On August 12, an armistice
was struck between the U.S. and Spain, effectively ending the war’s
fighting. After this time, the men of the regiment were reported to have
become quite lax in their duties, realizing that they would play no part
in the war’s outcome, and were only waiting to return to civilian life. Sgt. Smith stated that “After the fighting ceased,
though, you couldn’t get anything out of the boys – they lost all interest
in the drills and sham battles [war games].” An offer was made to allow
some of the men to join the 2nd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry,
which would remain in service until February, 1899. It is unclear if
anyone took the offer.
The regiment was reassigned to the Second Brigade, First Division of the Third Army Corps on September 1, 1898. A week later, on September 8, the regiment boarded the train to return to Little Rock, where it arrived in two days time and encamped at Fort Logan H. Root. The regiment was mustered out on October 25, 1898. At the time of mustering out, the regiment consisted of forty-six officers and 1,227 enlisted men.
The war ended on December 10, 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
During its term of service,
the regiment lost twenty-two enlisted men to disease, two men men to an
accident and had twenty men desert.
“Chafe for Service,” The Arkansas Democrat (Little
Rock, Arkansas). August 2, 1898, 1.
“Col. Elias Chandler” The Arkansas Democrat (Little
Rock, Arkansas). April 20, 1898, 1
“Coming Home To-day,” The Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas). September 8, 1898, 6.
Correspondence relating to the War with Spain And Conditions Growing Out of the Same Including the Insurrection in the Philippine Island and the China Relief Expedition. Vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902) 583.“First Regiment, Arkansas
Volunteers,” The Arkansas
Democrat (Little Rock, Arkansas). May 24, 1898, 6.
“Our Boys Coming Home,” Fort Smith Times (Fort Smith,
Arkansas). September 6, 1898, 1.
“The Volunteer Army,” Times Democrat (New Orleans, Louisiana). May 28, 1898, 1.
"Told by Victims," Labette County Times-Statesman.
(Oswego, Kansas), October 13, 1898, 1.