1st Arkansas Infantry Regiment The 1st Arkansas Infantry ( 1861 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War . The regiment was raised in April 1861 by Colonel Thompson B . Flournoy . It moved first to Virginia , but transferred back to Tennessee and served the rest of the war in the western theater , seeing action in the Kentucky , Tennessee and Georgia campaigns . Following its depletion in numbers , the regiment was consolidated several times with other Arkansas regiments , finally merging in 1865 into the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment . There were three regiments known as " 1st Arkansas " during the war . The second unit with the designation of " 1st Arkansas " was the 1st Infantry , Arkansas State Troops , which was mustered into Confederate service at Pitman ' s Ferry , Arkansas , on 23 July 1861 , under the command of Colonel Patrick Cleburne ; this unit was eventually redesignated as the 15th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry . The third unit bearing the title " 1st Arkansas " was the 1st Arkansas Volunteer Infantry , which served with the Union Army . Organization . The 1st Arkansas regiment began its organization in April 1861 , before Arkansas had even seceded from the Union . The first Arkansas Secession Convention had convened in March and voted against secession . On 12 April , Confederate forces under General P . G . T . Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter , forcing its capitulation . President Abraham Lincoln called upon the " militia of the several states " to provide 75 , 000 troops to put down the rebellion . Governor Henry Rector famously refused Lincoln ' s request for troops . Upon learning of Rector ' s refusal , Confederate Secretary of War , L . P . Walker , immediately wrote to Governor Rector on behalf of the Confederate Government at Montgomery and requested that the state provide a regiment for the Confederacy . Governor Rector initially responded that he had no power to comply with the Confederate request but indicated that he expected the state to secede when the secession convention reconvened on 6 May . He stated that after secession the state could and would aid the Confederacy . Governor Rector sent another dispatch requesting to know if the Confederacy would accept a regiment raised by T . B . Flournoy , as Colonel , John B . Thompson as Lieutenant Colonel , and W . N . Brougnah and James . B . Johnson . Further , Governor Rector agreed to arm and equip the regiment when it rendezvoused at Little Rock Arsenal . Thompson B . Flournoy was a planter from Laconia , on the Mississippi River , and had been a supporter of the presidential ticket of Douglas and Johnson . Colonel Flournoy organized the first companies which arrived in Little Rock and sought admission into this regiment . Many of these initial companies had originally been organized as volunteer companies under the Arkansas Militia law which authorized each county to form , in addition to the standard militia regiment , up to four volunteer companies , one each of Rifles , Infantry , Artillery and Cavalry . Units such as the DeWitt Guards from Arkansas County and the Jackson Guards from Jackson County had organized months earlier in the state militia as sectional frictions increased . At the actual organization of the regiment at Little Rock on 6 May 1861 , Colonel Flournoy was defeated for the colonelcy , and Captain James F . Fagan , of Saline County , was elected colonel ; Capt . James C . Monroe , of Clark County , was elected lieutenant - colonel , and John Baker Thompson , major . Prof . Frank Bronaugh , of the military department of St . John ' s College , Little Rock , was chosen adjutant . Colonel Flournoy accepted the outcome with good grace ; he was afterward promoted to brigadier - general in the Confederate service . The unit was composed of companies from the following Arkansas counties : The regiment was sent to Lynchburg , Virginia , for training the same month it was accepted into the Confederate ranks . Battles . On the road from Arkansas to Virginia , the regiment attracted much attention , being known to have among its captains a grandson of Davy Crockett , and Capt . Donelson McGregor , who was reared near the Hermitage , and was grand - nephew of the beloved wife of President Andrew Jackson . The regiment was stationed at Aquia Creek , near Fredericksburg , Virginia , in the brigade of Gen . T . H . Holmes , and was led by him into the battle of First Manassas . The regiment was mustered into Confederate service on 19 May 1861 , at Lynchburg , Virginia . It was then stationed at Evansport , where the men of the regiment , under Capt . Will H . Martin , made a daring but unsuccessful attempt to capture the Federal gunboat " Pocahontas " , on the Potomac . In February 1862 they were transferred and attached to the Army of Mississippi under the command of General P . G . T . Beauregard , and fought at the Battle of Shiloh . The 1st Arkansas was attached to Colonel Randall L . Gibson ' s 1st Brigade of Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles ' 1st Division of Major General Braxton Bragg ' s 1st Army Corps . It was at Shiloh that they became best known , mainly due to the heavy casualties they sustained . Entering the battle with a force of just over 800 , they took 364 casualties , 45 percent of their force . Following that battle , they were reorganized and received replacements , then were assigned to Army of Mississippi for the upcoming Kentucky Campaign , the 1st Arkansas was assigned to Colonel Samuel Powel ' s 3rd Brigade of Brigadier General James Patton Anderson ' s 2nd Division of Major General William Joseph Hardee ' s Corps . After the battle of Perryville , the Army of Mississippi and the Army of Kentucky were reorganized and renamed as the Army of Tennessee and the 1st Arkansas was assigned to Brigadier General Lucius E . Polk ' s Brigade of Major General Patrick R . Cleburne ' s Division of Lieutenant General William Joseph Hardee ' s Corps with whom they would remain for the rest of the war . The 1st Arkansas would go on to take part in the Battle of Murfreesboro , the Battle of Chickamauga , the Battles for Chattanooga , and the Siege of Atlanta . Lieutenant Colonel Donelson McGregor and fourteen others soldiers for the Battle of Murfreesboro As of result of high casualties during the Chattanooga campaign , the 1st Arkansas was consolidated with the 15th Arkansas under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William H . Martin . This consolidation united the two units that had been designated " 1st Arkansas " because upon its formation , the 15th Arkansas had originally been designated by the Arkansas State Militiary Board as the 1st Arkansas Infantry , State Troops . During the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27 , 1864 , the 1st / 15th Arkansas became involved in a famous humanitarian act . At one point in the battle , not far from the position known as the " Dead Angle " , the Union frontal assault had failed leaving hundreds of dead and wounded Union soldiers between the Confederate works and the Union lines . The woods and brush between the two armies caught fire because of the gunfire and artillery . The fire began to creep toward the wounded soldiers . Lt . Colonel William P . Martin who was commanding the 1st and 15th combined Arkansas Regiments , jumped on the earthworks and ordered his Confederate soldiers to cease firing . He then waved a white flag of truce yelling to the Union soldiers to " come and get your wounded , they are burning to death . " For a short time the Union and Confederate soldiers helped remove the wounded and put out the fires . The next day the Union generals presented Martin with two Colt Revolvers as a thank you for his humanitarian efforts . Later the opposing forces began to fire at each other again . The regiment and it colors were captured , along with much of Govan ' s Brigade at the Battle of Jonesboro , Georgia on Sept . 1 , 1864 . Due to a special cartel between Union General Sherman and Confederate General John B . Hood , the unit was quickly paroled and exchanged for Union prisoner held at Andersonville Prison . The regiment re - entered service approximately a month later . The 1st / 15th reported 15 killed , 67 wounded , and 3 missing during the Battle of Atlanta . The regiment and the rest of Govan ' s Brigade were released and exchanged just in time to participated in General John B . Hood ' s disastrous Franklin - Nashville Campaign . Due to the appalling losses suffered by Govan ' s Brigade during the Atlanta Campaign , the 1st / 15th , 5th / 13th and 2nd / 24th Arkansas Regiments were consolidated into one regiment , which was commanded by Colonel Peter Green of the 5th / 13th ( specifically of the 5th ) . The other officers of the consolidated regiment were Major Alexander T . Meek , of the 2nd / 24th Arkansas , Captain Mordecai P . Garrett and Sergeant Major Thomas Benton Moncrief of the 15th Arkansas . The consolidated regiment fought under the colors of the consolidated 5th / 13th Arkansas Regiment , because this was one of the few colors not captured when Govan ' s Brigade was overrun at the Battle of Jonesboro . The flag of the combined 5th / 13th Arkansas was issued in March 1864 and was captured by Benjamin Newman of the 88th Illinois Infantry at the battle of Franklin . The consolidated regiment numbered just 300 rifles and sustained 66 % casualties during the Battle of Franklin . The remnants of Govan ' s Brigade that survived the Tennessee Campaign remained with the Army of Tennessee through its final engagements in the 1865 Carolinas Campaign . The Confederacy had only one medal for valor , the Confederate Medal of Honor ( a . k . a . Southern Cross of Honor ) . Twenty seven soldiers of the 1st Arkansas Infantry were awarded the medal , although the Confederacy lacked the funds to manufacture the actual medals . The 1st Arkansas Infantry took part in the following engagements : Battle Flags . There are currently two flags associated with the 1st Arkansas known to be in existence , a 1st National Flag patten issued to the Jacksonport Guards and a Hardee Pattern Flag which was carried by the Consolidated 1st / 15th Arkansas during the Atlanta Campaign . On 5 May 1861 , Lieutenant Sydney S . Gause , of the local volunteer militia company , the " Jackson County " , received a 1st National Flag Pattern flag , bearing a blue panel on the white stripe , with the words , " LADIES OF JACKSONPORT TO THE JACKSON GUARDS " . The flag measured 59 " by 110 " , with a circle of eight stars , with a ninth star in the center of the circle . The flag was utilized as the regimental colors of the 1st Arkansas while the regiment was in Virginia in the summer of 1861 . It is now in the collection of the Museum of the Confederacy , Richmond , Virginia . The Hardee Pattern Flag which represented the 1st / 15th Consolidated Arkansas Infantry Regiments during the Atlanta Campaign is a cotton and wool flag with faded blue field . The central device is a white disc with black crossed cannons in the center ( each 3 1 / 2 " wool ) . Designation lettering is 2 " Capitol Romans with red shadow : 1st ARK . REG ' T . Honors lettering on the field above the disc is 2 1 / 2 " tall Capital Romans : RICHMOND , KY , TUNNELL HILL , LIBERTY GAP , RINGGOLD GAP . Honors lettering below the disc are gold , ornate , 4 " letters : CHICKAMAUGA , border is white with black capitol Romans : MANASSAS , EVANSPORT , SHILOH , TUSCUMBIA CREEK , PERRYVILLE , FARMINGTON , BRIDGECREEK , MURFREESBORO . All lettering is painted . Captured by the 14th Michigan Infantry at Jonesboro , Georgia on 1 September 1864 . Returned to the State of Arkansas in 1905 by the U . S . War Department . Currently in the collection of the Old State House Museum , Little Rock , Arkansas . Consolidation and surrender . The remnants of ten depleted Arkansas regiments , along with one mostly - Arkansas regiment , in the Army of Tennessee were consolidated into a single regiment at Smithfield , North Carolina , on 9 April 1865 . The 1st Arkansas , was lumped together with the 2nd , 5th , 6th , 7th , 8th , 15th , 19th and 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment s and the 3rd Confederate Infantry Regiment as the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Infantry on 9 April 1865 . On 26 April 1865 , the regiment was present with the Army of Tennessee when it surrendered in Greensboro , North Carolina .