Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/224

210 of May 6th, the energetic governor had put 30,000 troops in the field. The State went at a bound to the front line of its associates.

A glance at the Western States at this date shows that in the far northwest of the Confederacy war broke out coincidently with the movements on the Atlantic side. Arkansas, at first indisposed to join the Confederacy, took its place with the seceded States immediately after coercion was inaugurated. The governor answered Lincoln's requisition with a prompt reply on the 22 d of April that his State would furnish no troops to subjugate the South. The State then seceded on the 6th of May, and its convention authorized the raising of 60,000 soldiers. The arsenal at Little Rock fell into the possession of State troops; Forts Smith, Pine Bluff and Napoleon with their stores were seized and occupied; the organization of State troops was effected with some rapidity, although no formidable invasion of the State had occurred; and several commands were sent on to Virginia. The army of the State was organized in two divisions, commanded by Generals McCulloch and Pearce. With creditable energy Arkansas put into line in the first year about 20,000 men, out of a total voting population of about 50,000. Portions of these troops, marching to the support of Price in Missouri, very greatly aided in saving that State for the first year from Federal control. Later in the war its men fought bravely in the general Confederate field from Maryland to Texas.

Missouri, which had given 148,000 votes against Lincoln and only 17,000 in his favor, and retained a bitter memory of the Kansas troubles, was among the first of the Southern States to suffer the distress of armed invasion. The governor, in January, had declared for the Union as long as it would observe the Constitution which created it, but regarded coercion as an oppression which must