8th Arkansas Field Battery The 8th Arkansas Field Battery ( 1862 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War . The battery spent it ' s entire existence in the Department of the Trans - Mississippi . It was also known as Hughey ' s Battery . Organization . William M . Hughey lived in Ouachita Parish , Louisiana , when the war began . He enrolled in a local mounted volunteer company very early in the war , but the company disbanded . Next Hughey joined the " McCown Guards Artillery " , commanded by Capt . D . Whitaker Harris , a company organized in Lafayette County , Arkansas , and eventually designated as Company B , 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery . Sometime in 1862 , Hughey returned to Arkansas . Hughey may have accompanied General Hindman when he came to the state in May or he may have accompanied General M . M . Parson ' s Missouri Infantry Brigade and the artillery train that Parson brought with him in his crossing of the Mississippi . According to a Goodspeed biographical sketch , " An artillery company was raised and placed under his command , and he served under General Hindman in this capacity in the several engagements that took place in Arkansas following that date . " When General Thomas C . Hindman arrived in Arkansas in late May , 1862 to assume command of the new Trans - Mississippi District , he found almost nothing to command . He quickly began organizing new regiments , but his most pressing need was for arms for the new forces he was organizing , including the artillery . With Hindman ' s first order , dated May 31 , 1862 at Little Rock , he announced his staff , including the appointment of Major Francis A . Shoup , Chief of Artillery . On September 29 , 1862 , General Hindman issued Special Order No . 8 from Little Rock which directed F . A . Shoup , now a Colonel , to take charge of the organization of the artillery from North West Arkansas and assigning certain " suitable officers to duty in the company now unorganized , and recommend them for appointment . " These suitable officers included Lieutenants Huey ( sic ) and Miller . By November 8 , 1862 , Lieutenants Hughey and Miller were helping Captain James Shoup organize a battery . Special Order No . 35 , from Camp on the Mulberry River , assigned the following officers to duty in " Shoup ' s Mountain Battery " : Shoup ' s Mountain Battery was involved in the Battle of Cane Hill , November 28 , 1862 and the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7 , 1862 . Col . Charles A . Carroll took note of Hughey ' s performance in his report of the engagement at Cane Hill : In the re - organization of the Army of the Trans - Mississippi following the defeat at Prairie Grove , a decision was made by General Hindman to disband Shoup ' s battery due to the poor quality of its guns . The battery personnel , which had been made up of men detailed from various infantry units were disbanded , the men sent back to their original commands and the officers , including Lieutenants Hughey and Miller were relieved of duty . By March 1863 , First Lieutenant William M . Hughey and Second Lieutenant W . A . Miller , formerly of Shoup ' s Mountain Battery were organizing a new battery with men taken from the Camp of Instruction at Dardanelle , Arkansas . On April 2 , 1863 , General Cabell wrote from Clarksville Arkansas to General Cooper : Battles . The newly formed battery accompanied Brigadier General William L . Cabell on his Fayetteville raid in April 1863 . Confederate Brigadier General Cabell departed Ozark , Arkansas with 900 cavalry and Hughey ' s battery with the intent to dislodging the Union from Fayetteville , Arkansas . Approaching the city from the south , the Confederates captured nine Union soldiers near West Fork , Arkansas at night on April 17 . The following morning the Confederates climbed East Mountain and Hughey ' battery fired south into the city . The Cabell ' s cavarly rushed the city streets around 6 : 00 am intending to attack the Tebbetts House which held the Union command . The attackers halted and waited for cannon fire from the Hughey ' s battery stationed on the mountain to damage the headquarters . Confederates pressed their attack into Fayetteville , capturing Union soldiers and destroying a supply train before the Union rallied and repelled the Southern troops . Union soldiers began approaching the Hughey ' s Battery upon East Mountain under cover . By this time the battery was under attack and out of ammunition forcing its withdrawal . General Cabell described the battery ' s effect : During the Action a Fayetteville , the battery suffered two horses killed , two horses wounded , one man killed and several wounded . The battery retreated with General Cabell ' s forces back to Fort Smith . Cabell occupied Fort Smith through the summer of 1863 . The battery was reorganized on June 8 , 1863 , and reinforced with a couple of dozen details from Monroe ' s Cavalry Regiment . By July 30 , 1862 , Hughey was signing for forage at Fort Smith as Captain , commanding Battery . In the Compiled Service Records of the 26th Arkansas Infantry Regiment there are a handful of entries indicating that some infantrymen had been assigned to Hughey ' s battery on September 1 , 1863 , the day of the Battle of Devil ' s Backbone . It is unclear if the assignment preceded the battle , took place during the battle , or occurred to facilitate the retreat of Cabell ' s force after the battle . General Cabel ' s report on the Battle of Devil ' s Backbone mentions " the gallantry of Captain [ W . M . ] Hughey , commanding the battery . . . " It appears that Monroe ' s regiment , Hughey ' s battery and a company of Morgan ' s regiment performed quite well in the engagement : Hughey ' s Battery , attached to Colonel William A . Crawford ' s Brigade , of Major General James Fleming Fagan ' s Division was engaged in the Camden Expedition in the spring of 1864 , including the actions at Battle of Prairie D ' Ane , Battle of Poison Spring , and the Battle of Marks ' Mills . According to Colton Greene ' s reports for May and June 1864 , Hughey ' s Battery was attached to Marmaduke ’ s Brigade , Colton Greene commanding . This time period would include the Battle at Ditch Bayou , a . k . a . Battle of Lake Chicot , on June 6 , 1864 . It seems that Colonel Greene thought highly of this unit . The battery took part in Price ' s Raid in Missouri during the fall of 1864 , assigned to Brigadier General William L . Cabell ' s brigade of Major General Fagan ' s Division . During this operation , it engaged in the following battles : On November 19 , 1864 , General E . Kirby Smith , commanding the Confederate Trans - Mississippi Department , issued Special Orders No . 290 , organizing the artillery of the department into battalions . The component batteries rarely , if ever , operated together . They were usually assigned individually to an infantry or cavalry brigade to provide fire support . In this reorganization , Hughey ' s Battery , armed with 4 guns , and commanded by Capt . John G . Marshall was re - designated as the 8th Arkansas Field Battery and assigned to the 2nd Artillery Battalion , commanded by Major J . H . Pratt . Surrender . The battery surrendered with General Kirby Smith on May 26 , 1865 . The date of the military convention between Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and Union General Edward Canby for the surrender of the troops and public property in the Trans - Mississippi Department was May 26 , 1865 , however , it took awhile for parole commissioners to be appointed and for public property to be accounted for . As a result , a final report of field artillery which was part of the accounting process , was not completed until June 1 , 1865 . According to the final accounting , at the time of the surrender , the battery was armed with two x 3 - in . rifles ; and two x 12 - pounder field howitzers . The final report list the four guns as being near Camden , Arkansas .