Robert G . Shaver Robert Glenn Shaver was a lawyer , militia leader , colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . He served in several key battles in the Western Theater . After the war he was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas . Later in life he became a significant leader in Confederate veteran ' s reunions and served for a time as the Major General in Command of the Arkansas State Guard . Biography . Shaver came to Arkansas with his parents from Sullivan County , East Tennessee , in 1850 , locating at Batesville , where in 1856 he was married to Miss Adelaide Louise Ringgold , a beautiful and accomplished daughter of Col . John Ringgold , one of the State ' s mose prominent citizens . Some three years later he removed to Lawrence County , where he was licensed to practice law . Shaver was an early leader in the Arkansas State Militia . He was elected Colonel of Lawrence County ' s 60th Arkansas Militia Regiment on July 23 , 1860 . In the spring of 1861 Shaver recruited and organized the 7th Arkansas Infantry Regiment for the Confederate army and was elected its first colonel . He and his regiment moved to Columbus and Bowling Green , Kentucky , and on the evacuation of the latter place by General Albert Sidney Johnston in February , 1862 , Colonel Shaver , as senior Colonel of the brigade in which his regiment was serving , commanded the rear guard of General Johnston ' s army to Nashville , Tennessee . At Shiloh , April 6 and 7 , 1862 , Colonel Shaver , commanded the 1st Brigade of General Thomas C . Hindman ' s Division , 3rd Army Corps , composed of the 2nd , 6th , and 7th Arkansas Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Confederate Infantry Regiment . Colonel Shaver initiated the fight on the Confederate right early Sunday morning , the 6th , where the fighting was fierce and incessant throughout that bloody struggle . The 7th Arkansas , Colonel Shaver ' s own regiment , went into action on the left of the brigade , Lieutenant Colonel Deane commanding , with its drum - and - fife corps playing " Granny , Will Your Dog Bite ? " Colonel Shaver had two horses killed under him during the day and one on the following day . General Hardee , in his report of the battle , said that Colonel Shaver ' s conduct was most satisfactory , skillful , and exemplary throughout both days ' fighting . Early in June , 1862 , Colonel Shaver was transferred to the Trans - Mississippi Department . ; On the September 8 , 1862 , Colonel Shaver organized the 38th Arkansas Infantry Regiment , at Jacksonport , Arkansas and was once again elected colonel . Shaver continued to command the 38th Arkansas during the various campaigns and battles in that department and usually commanded the brigade to which it was assigned . During the evacuation of Little Rock , September 10 , 1863 , Colonel Shaver was in command of his brigade and covered the Confederate retreat out of the city southward . He was greatly chagrined and deeply mortified that he was not permitted to engage the enemy , and he always contended that General Price should have offered battle ; that his forces were numerically superior to the Federals under General Steele and were in fine trim and anxious to fight . In the fall of 1864 , General Kirby Smith consolidated the 38th and the 27th Arkansas Infantry Regiment s , and they were known thenceforth until the surrender in May , 1865 , as Shaver ' s Infantry Regiment . He participated in all the principal battles fought in the Trans - Mississippi Department after June , 1862 , including Prairie Grove , Mansfield , Jenkins ' Ferry , Poison Springs , Marks Mill , and all the battles incident to Gen . Dick Taylor ' s Red River Campaign against General Banks . When Shaver received notice the war was over , he took his command to Shreveport , Louisiana , and surrendered to General Francis Herron . Shaver procured a large steamboat to transport his men to Jacksonport ( most of his troops were from northern Arkansas ) from General Herron . He arrived at Jacksonport on June 20 , 1865 , and his men were disbanded . Shaver ’ s activities with the Arkansas Ku Klux Klan after the war eventually caused serious legal problems . At one time Shaver claimed that he was the Klan commander in Arkansas with 10 , 000 Klansmen in opposition to the Governor Powell Clayton ' s carpetbagger regime . By 1868 the Clayton administration had Shaver charged with murder , arson , treason , and robbery . When General Daniel Phillips Upham and the state militia were sent to arrest him , he quickly fled the state to British Honduras . By 1872 , Shaver returned to Arkansas upon hearing that Elisha Baxter had replaced Clayton as governor . All charges and indictments against him were quickly dropped . Shortly after returning to Jacksonport in 1872 , he was informed that Governor Baxter had appointed him to the position of sheriff for newly created Howard County in western Arkansas . Shaver lived in Center Point ( Howard County ) until 1899 , practicing law after leaving his duties as sheriff . In 1899 , he and his family moved to Mena ( Polk County ) to live with his son . In the 1890s , Shaver was made commander of the State Guard and the Reserve Militia of Arkansas and received the rank of Major General . He was also the commander of the Arkansas Division of the United Confederate Veterans ( UCV ) . In 1910 , Shaver helped raise funds and to dedicate a monument and choose its location on the Shiloh battlefield to honor all the Arkansas soldiers who fought and died there . On September 26 , 1911 , Shaver gave the main address at the dedication of the memorials on the former battleground at Shiloh . When Little Rock was chosen as the site for the annual reunion of the Confederate Veterans , he was made commander - in - charge of the camp , and the National Encampment of the United Confederate was known as “ Camp Shaver . ” Shaver died at Foreman , in Little River County on January 13 , 1915 , and was buried in his Confederate uniform at Center Point Cemetery in Howard County , Arkansas .