2nd Arkansas Field Battery The 2nd Arkansas Field Battery ( 1861 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War . Also known as : Second Arkansas Artillery ; Dallas Artillery , Hart ' s Battery . Note that the records of Hart ’ s Dallas ( Arkansas ) Artillery are sometimes confused with those of Good ’ s Dallas ( Texas ) Light Artillery . The battery served its entire existence in the Department of the Trans - Mississippi The battery went throgh two re - organizations . Following a charge of cowardice during Battle of Pea Ridge , the battery was ordere to be broken up . After being cleared of that charge the battery was reorganized and served until captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post . After being exchanged and organized for the thrird and final time , it served until the final surrender of Confederate forces . Organization . The Dallas Artillery was organized at Dallas , Polk County , Arkansas , in the late Spring of 1861 , and enlisted in Confederate service at Fayetteville on August 1 , 1861 , with 75 officers and men on the rolls . The original officers included Captain William Hart , First Lieutenant J . W . Thomas , and Second Lieutenant Charles Ringer . The battery was equipped with four 6 - pounder guns . No muster rolls for this first organization have been discovered . Officers : Captain William Hart ; Lieutenant D . O ’ Connell ; Lieutenant G . W . McIntosh ; Second Lieutenant E . A . Dubose ; Second Lieutenant James Nolan . Battles . In January 1962 , Hart ’ s Battery was assigned to Colonel Louis Herbert ' s 2nd Brigade of a division commanded by Colonel James Mcintosh in northwest Arkansas and the Indian Territory . It was still assigned to the Second Brigade when it fought in the Battle of Pea Ridge ( Elkhorn Tavern ) in Benton County , Arkansas , March 7 – 8 , 1862 . During the Battle of Pea Ridge , Union forces captured two of the battery ’ s guns , along with its colors . According to William Shea and Earl Hess in " Pea Ridge : Civil War Campaign in the West , " on the second day of the battle General Earl Van Dorn ordered Hart ' s Battery and Clark ' s Missouri Battery from reserve into the front line . Hart ' s Battery arrived first and unlimbered but came under converging fire from twenty - one Federal guns . His men , who were green and untried , became unnerved by the enemy fire and within minutes limbered to the rear . On reaching Elkhorn Tavern , Hart complained to Van Dorn that the fire had been too hot for them . In anger Van Dorn placed him under arrest for cowardice , redistributed his ammunition to Clark ' s Battery and ordered Hart ' s guns to the rear . In the reorganization of the Confederate Army of the West that took place after the defeat at Pea Ridge , Hart ' s unit was initially assigned to Brigadier General D . M . Frost ' s artillery brigade of Major General Sterling Price ' s Division . The general commanding the Trans - Mississippi District issued General Orders No . 10 , dated March 22 , 1862 , which censured several members of Hart ’ s Battery , and disbanded the battery “ for shameful conduct in the presence of the enemy . ” According to General Orders No . 15 , July 17 , 1862 Hart ' s Battery was disbanded after the Battle of Pea Ridge for " shameful conduct in the presence of the enemy . " Its four 6 - pounder guns were reassigned to MacDonald ' s St . Louis Battery . Captain Hart continued to serve with the Army of the West , attaching himself to Captain David Provence ' s Battery . The Provence ' s battery participated in the Battle of Farmington , Mississippi , on May 9 , 1862 . During this engagement , Capatin William Hart , of the Dallas Artillery , served one of Provence ' s guns as a gunner . Over the next few months , a court of inquiry into the allegations against Hart ' s Battery was convened , which resulted in the following action : While Captain Hart and others had managed by July 1862 to clear their names of the censure from the Battle of Pea Ridge and begin the process or reorganization , other members of the battery were apparently condemned for desertion . With the censure lifted , at least officially , Hart ’ s Battery was reconstituted on August 1 , 1862 , at Camp White Sulphur Springs , Arkansas . Few of the members of the original Dallas Artillery rejoined the second organization . The battery was augmented with a large number of unassigned recruits from depots at Monticello and Little Rock , and transfers from several Arkansas regiments , especially the 24th Arkansas Infantry . On July 21 , 1862 , Special Orders Army of the South West # 40 , ordered Major Rundell to assume command of a battalion of artillery composed of Woodruff ' s battery , Pratt ' s battery Daniels ' battery and Hart ' s battery . . . and set up camp of instruction On September 28 , 1862 , the battery was assigned to Colonel Robert R . Garland ' s brigade of Texas troops . Hart ’ s star - crossed battery reorganized just in time to be part of another disaster . Colonel Garland ’ s Texas Brigade , with Hart ' s Battery was stationed at Battle of Fort Hindman ( Arkansas Post ) . The Confederate forces at Arkansas Post consisted of the Second Division , Second Corps , Trans - Mississippi Department , commanded by Brig . Gen . Thomas J . Churchill . He styled his command the " Army of Lower Arkansas and White Rivers " . Hart ' s battery with 83 officers and men and four guns was captured with the rest of the garrison when Confederate forces surrendered on January 11 , 1863 . The surrender is still a subject of controversy today , and the Arkansas Post troops were forced to live under a cloud of suspicion ; however , from all accounts , Hart ’ s Battery served their guns professionally and courageously during the siege . The battery suffered three killed , thirteen wounded and twenty two wounded during the Battle of Arkansas Post . After being exchanged in April 1863 , Hart ’ s Battery was again reconstituted , and spent the remainder of the war in the Trans - Mississippi Army . There are few references to Hart ’ s Battery during the last year of the war . A report of the organization of the army on September 30 , 1864 , shows Hart ’ s Battery in the army siege train , manning large siege guns , presumably around Alexandria , Louisiana . On November 19 , 1864 , Hart ’ s Battery was redesignated as the Second Arkansas Field Battery . At this time , it was assigned to the reserve artillery battalion , equipped with four mounted guns . No later reference has been found , nor has any record of the paroles of the men of Hart ’ s Battery been located . Surrender . At the end of the war the battery was with the Reserve Battalion at Marshall , Texas and Captain William Hart was still in command . The battery surrendered with General E . Kirby Smith on May 26 , 1865 . 5 . 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 with Reserve Battalion at Marshall , Texas but had no guns .