The Mena weekly star., 1913-09-18
yn 1tttle Rork
 Ftftp Dears ago
Story of the Part Taken by Gen. R. G. Shaver in the Evacuation of Our Capital City September 10, 1863.

On September l0 of this year sev-
 eral Arkansas papers had quite eX-
 tended articles on an event that oc-
 cured just fifty years before, the
 evacuation of Little Rock by the
 Confederate forces, induced and
 hastened by an aggressive move ment of a Federal force under Gen
 eral Steele. Knowing that our fel- low-toNnsman, General R. G.
 Shaver then colonel of the ssh Arkansas Infantry, had a rather ac- tive part in this evacuation, rep resentative of this paper persuaded him to tell the sotry as he saw and remembered it. It follows;
 "On the morning of the eVacua- tion of Little Rock. September 10, 1863. the 3Sth Arkansas Infantry, of which 1 was colonel was camped at the lower end of the city between Markham street and the river, where now a big oil mill Is located. At about 1:30 o'clock in the morn ing. | received an order from Cen eral Price to move my command to the Fourche bridge and support Dobbins cavalry, then on the east side of the river and between the Fourche and the river. Dob bins had been fighting the Federal troops under General Steele in an effort to prevent the laying of a pontoon bridge and crossing the river at the big bend nine miles be- low the city. When my command arrived Dobbins already had been shelled out and Steele had crossed and was driving the cavalry back. When my command reached the Vaughn place I found Dobbins' cav airy in command of Col. Bob New ton, Dobbins at that time having been placed under arrest and >uS- pended from command. | had q consultation with Colonel Newton, in which he stated it would not be possible for his cavalry to hold a position between the Fourche and river, and he would have to fall back. which he did. crossing the cavalry over the bridge. At this iuncture I received orders from General Price to hold the bridge, and made arrangements to do so. Between my command and the bridge was located the nieeer quar- ters. gin houses and other buiId- ineS of the Vaughn planlation believing that a fight was and that I couldn't afford to let the enemy get the advantage of the shelter of the buildings in their move 10 cross the bridge, | had all burned, an act for which Vaughn never foreaVe me, and which he styled unraIled-for van daliSm.
 "Whon | had made all prepara- tions for a contest to hold the bridge. orders came to fall back to the Captain Simms place, the next above. The same staff officer brought orders 10 Newton to form cavalry on my right. which he proceeded to do in an immense corn field. About the time the maneuver had been completed the Federals ran a battry up on opposite side of the river, nearly opposite the left flank of my forces and went into battery formation. They immedi- ately opened on the cavalry. stand- ing in corn so high that only the heads and shoulders of the troops could be seen. They apparently did not see the infantry troops, which were lying down behind a fence, the horses of the field and staff officers behind the Simms buildings. The battery had the range of the cavalry from the first shot and was using shells, and be- fore one could tell it there was the worst mixture of corn and cavalry that any man ever saw. and within a mighty short period it was hard to tell which was the scarcest in that neighborhood, standing corn or cavalry.
 By the time the cavalry had got ten out of range orders came from General Price to move back to the Keats farm, closer to Little Rock. l moved at once and tried to get in touch again with Newton, but failed to do so. The Federals plant ed another battery and shelled the Keats farm and vicinity. Another order came to fall back to the edge of town, where we had the protec- tion of a high bank. Here I took a position that the artillery could not reach and awaited orders for about an hour, when General Price or dered us to fall back on West Markham street to the intersection of Main. and when we reached Mair to see that anything that might have been overlooked at the state house was secured and brought out I halted head of column at the fool of Scott street and rode out into Main street 10 reconnoiter. From here could see that the old wal vessel, the Ponchartrain, located al the foot of Main on opposite side of river was afire and in full blaze but whether fired by the COnfeder- ates or Federals do not know.
 While observing the smoke, saw a Federal battery coming up at full gallop on opposite side of river and distinctly heard the bugle call bat tery front The battery formed behind the burning vessel. At the same time I noticed a Confederate battery lying inactive at the foot of Main street with one flank on Sec