39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment The 39th Arkansas Infantry ( 1862 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War . The regiment was known successively as Johnson ’ s , Hawthorn ’ s , Polk ’ s and Cocke ’ s Regiment of Arkansas Infantry . When General Sterling Price ' s staff decided to designate all the Arkansas infantry regiments in the District of Arkansas as " Trans - Mississippi Rifle Regiments " , the 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment was designated as the 6th Trans - Mississippi Rifle Regiment . One other Arkansas Infantry Regiment was also designated as the 39th Arkansas Infantry ; the regiment commanded by Colonels Hart , McNeill , and Rogan , was originally designated as the 39th Arkansas Infantry , but was later redesignated as the 30th Arkansas Infantry Regiment . The regiment served in the Trans - Mississippi Department and was engaged in all of the principal battles in that theater before surrendering in May 1865 . Organization . Johnson ' s - Hawthorne ' s - Cocke ' s - Polk ' s Infantry Regiment – the 39th Regiment Infantry Regiment – was organized in the summer of 1862 . Major General Thomas C . Hindman assumed command of the Department of the Trans - Mississippi on May 30 , 1862 , and immediately began attempting to organize the Confederate forces in Arkansas . On June 15 , 1862 , Colonel Robert C . Newton , Hindman ' s Adjutant General , wrote to Colonel Albert Johnson who was attempting to raise a regiment in Phillips County Arkansas : In mid - July 1862 , several companies , including a small battalion under Captain Daniel H . Ringo , were added to Colonel Johnson ' s regiment . Captain Ringo was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment on July 19 , 1862 . By August 12 , 1862 , the new regiment was at Crystal Hill , north of Little Rock . Johnson received his official appointment as Colonel on August 15 , with date of rank from June 8 , 1862 . In September and October , the regiment camped at Austin , Arkansas , and Des Arc . Johnson resigned on October 27 in order to report to General John C . Breckenridge , East of the Mississippi River . Lt . Col . Ringo resigned the following day . The resignations apparently resulted from bad relations between Johnson , Ringo and the junior officers . In accepting their resignations , General Thomas C . Hindman noted that the two men were not in good standing with the officers of the regiment . On November 3 , 1862 , General Hindman issued Special Order Number 30 : The regiment consisted of the following volunteer companies : The regiment served in McRae ' s , Fagan ' s , and A . T . Hawthorne ' s Brigade , Trans - Mississippi Department . The field officers were Colonels Alfred W . Johnson , Alexander T . Hawthorne , John B . Cocke , and Cadwallader Polk , and Lieutenant Colonel D . W . Ringo . Confusion over naming . The regiment ' s designation as the 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment has caused problems for historians attempting to research the unit . Although John B . Cocke commanded " Cocke ' s Regiment " for only three months , and the historically accurate designation should be " 39th ( Johnson ' s , Polk ' s , Hawthorn ' s , Cocke ' s ) Infantry Regiment or the 6th Trans - Mississippi Rifle Regiment , and Hailey ' s , Perkins ' and Tumlinson ' s independent cavalry companies , historians have adopted " Cocke ' s Arkansas Regiment . " This is because the U . S . government used the name to catalog the service records of the men who served in the regiment . In the early 1900s , an army of War Department clerks pored over hundreds of thousands of Confederate army records , muster rolls , payrolls , quartermaster and commissary receipts , prisoner of war records , etc . , and painstakingly extracted individual soldier information from them to create a Compiled Service Record for each Confederate soldier . This monumental task is one of the most valuable services the federal government performed for researchers . However , the clerks worked with often confusing records and catalogued all concerning this unit as " Cocke ' s Regiment " . This is misleading , as 39th Regiment Arkansas Infantry Regiment is referred to as " Cocke ' s Arkansas Infantry , " even though John B . Cocke was the last known colonel of the regiment , serving from January 1864 to the following April , when he was killed at the Battle of Jenkins ' Ferry . He was preceded in command by Albert W . Johnson , and Alexander T . Hawthorn . Cadwallader Polk assumed command upon Cocke ' s death , but there is no surviving record to show he was promoted to colonel . The Trans - Mississippi Department frequently used the name of the regimental commander in its official correspondence , especially for Arkansas regiments . The order of battle for the Battle of Helena lists a " 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment " in McRae ' s brigade , but this was actually Hart ' s 30th Arkansas Regiment , which was known for a short time as the 39th Arkansas . Hart ' s regiment was with McRae , and the real 39th Regiment was in Brigadier General Fagan ' s brigade and is referred to in the battle reports as " Hawthorne ' s Regiment " . The Arkansas State Military Board was responsible for authorizing , raising and designating Arkansas regiments , in response to requests from the Confederate War Department for new units . The board took a sheet of lined paper , numbering the lines from 1 to 48 , and applied the next available number to each new regiment . Unfortunately , the Confederate War Department , the Trans - Mississippi Department , the brigade commanders , and even the regimental commanders often used designations different from the State Military Board ' s . The State Military Board designated the regiment as " Cocke ' s Regiment " as 39th in its ledger book . A staff officer on General Sterling Price ' s staff decided to designate all the Arkansas infantry regiments in the District of Arkansas as " Trans - Mississippi Rifle Regiments . " Cocke ' s Regiment was designated as the 6th Trans - Mississippi Rifle Regiment ; and , the officers and men of Cocke ' s Regiment quickly began referring to the regiment as the 6th Arkansas . This redesignation causes more confusion because this designation had already been given to Lyon ' s - Hawthorn ' s - Smith ' s elite 6th Arkansas Infantry Regiment in the Army of Tennessee , on the east side of the Mississippi River . This incorrect association with the other 6th Arkansas Infantry is further reinforced by the fact that Alexander T . Hawthorn commanded the original " 6th Arkansas Infantry Regiment " for a time , and later commanded the " other " 6th Arkansas , the 6th Trans - Mississippi , ( 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment ) . Battles . The regiment was assigned to Brigadier General James F . Fagan ' s brigade of Brigadier General Francis A . Shoup ' s division of Thomas C . Hindman ' s 1st Corps , Army of the Trans - Mississippi during the Battle of Prairie Grove , on December 7 , 1862 . On December 1 , 1862 , Brigadier General James F . Fagan asked for the consolidation of Major Chew ' s Arkansas Infantry Battalion and Hawthorne ' s 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment both of his brigade . While this order was not approved until after the Battle of Prairie Grove , the battalion and Hawthorn ' s 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment fought side by side during the battle . They took part in the charges of Fagan ' s Brigade driving back the 20th Wisconsin , 19th Iowa , and 37th Illinois and 26th Indiana regiments when these Union troops ascended the ridge . Reorganization . After the retreat from Prairie Grove to Van Buren , the regiment underwent a major reorganization on December 16 , 1862 . Hailey ' s , Perkins ' and Tumlinson ' s cavalry companies had been dismounted and organized into Chew ' s Sharpshooter Battalion prior to the battle of Prairie Grove , and , in the general reorganization of the Confederate army after the battle , the companies were consolidated with " Cocke ' s Regiment . " The U . S . War Department clerks who created the Compiled Service Records combined all the service records of these cavalrymen into " Cocke ' s regiment " , rather than catalog them as independent companies . The problem is that many of the men who served in those companies were not around when the companies were consolidated with Cocke ' s regiment . Fagan ' s Brigade spent the winter of 1863 – 64 in camp near Little Rock , remaining there until June when the unit began the movements that would lead to the Battle of Helena . During the attack on Union forces at Helena Arkansas on July 4 , 1863 , Fagan ' s Brigade was assigned to Major General Sterling Price ' s Division of Lieutenant General Theophilus H . Holmes ' s army . Fagan ' s 1 , 300 men were assigned to capture Hindman ' s Hill southwest of the city , but they were ultimately unsuccessful . Amidst confusing and vague orders to " attack at daylight " from Holmes , Fagan and Price failed to coordinate their attacks . Price interpreted this order to mean an attack at sunrise and Fagan interpreted it to mean an attack at first light . The result was that Fagan was surprised to find his attack on Hindman Hill was opposed by artillery fire from Graveyard Hill , which was General Price ' s objective . General Fagan had expected Price to be engaged already with that battery . Fagan ' s artillery had not been able to reach the battlefield because of felled trees blocking the road . Fagan had no artillery available to silence the Federal guns and had no choice but to order his troops to try to take the hill while under artillery fire . Fagan ' s men reached the summit of the hill and managed to seize the outer fortifications but were pinned down just short of the summit by the two Union batteries . The exposed Confederates were targeted by every remaining gun on the battlefield as well as the heavy guns of the USS " Tyler " . By 10 : 30 Holmes realized that his position had deteriorated and that he could make no further headway . The attack on the Union base had failed , and a general retreat was ordered . The regiment reported 137 casualties during the Battle of Helena , including 17 killed , 52 wounded and 67 missing . Major Cocke was among the wounded . The regiment participated in the defense of Little Rock on September 10 – 11 . Colonel Alexander T . Hawthorn took command of the brigade in the fall of 1863 and Colonel John Cocke took command of the regiment . The regiment spent the winter of 1863 – 64 in Camden , Ouachita County . The brigade was assigned to Churchill ' s Arkansas Division during the Red River Campaign . In the Spring of 1864 , Churchill ' s Division , with Hawthorn ' s Brigade moved south to oppose Union General Nathaniel Bank ' s Red River Campaign in north - central Louisiana in March and early April 1864 , defeating him at the Battle of Pleasant Hill , Louisiana on April 10 , 1864 . Hawthorn ' s Brigade was initially left behind at Camden when the rest of the army went to join General Taylor . They were eventually called upon as well , and left Camden for Louisiana on April 5 . They reached Shreveport around April 14 or 15 when they got news about the Confederate victories at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill . On the 16th , they started their march back to Arkansas with the rest of the army . Churchill ' s Division marched back north into Arkansas to deal with the other part of the Federal advance , General Frederick Steele ' s Camden Expedition . The division arrived after a long forced march at Woodlawn , Arkansas on April 26 , where they rested overnight , then joined the pursuit of Steele ' s retreating army , catching it trying to cross the Saline River near Jenkins ' Ferry . Colonel Cocke was killed during the Battle of Jenkins ' Ferry . Lieutenant Colonel Polk assumed command of the regiment after Colonel Cocke was killed . The regiment participated in the following battles : The regiment spent the remainder of the war in southern Arkansas and northeast Texas . Surrender . This regiment surrendered with the Department of the Trans - Mississippi , General E . Kirby Smith commanding , May 26 , 1865 . With few exceptions , the Arkansas Infantry regiments in the Trans - Mississippi simply disbanded without formally surrendering . When the Trans - Mississippi Department surrendered , all of the Arkansas infantry regiments were encamped in and around Marshall , Texas ( war - ravaged Arkansas no longer able to subsist the army ) . The regiments were ordered to report to Shreveport , Louisiana , to be paroled but none of them did so . Some individual soldiers went to Shreveport on their own to be paroled , others reported to Union garrisons at Fort Smith , Pine Bluff or Little Rock to receive their paroles , but for the most part , the men simply went home . Bibliography . Shea , William L . Fields of Blood : The Prairie Grove Campaign . Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press , 2009 . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8078 - 3315 - 5 Hess . Earl J . ; Shea , William L . ; Piston , William G . ; Hatcher , Richard W . : Wilson ' s Creek , Pea Ridge , and Prairie Grove : A Battlefield Guide , with a Section on Wire Road , Lincoln , Nebraska , U . S . A . Bison Books 2006 , ISBN 978 - 0 - 8032 - 7366 - 5 Bears , Edwin C . “ The Battle of Helena , July 4 , 1863 . ” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 20 ( Autumn 1961 ) : 256 – 297 . Christ , Mark K . Civil War Arkansas , 1863 : The Battle for a State . Norman : University of Oklahoma Press , 2010 . Christ , Mark K . , ed . Rugged and Sublime : The Civil War in Arkansas . Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press , 1994 . Christ , Mark K . “ ‘ We Were Badly Whipped ’ : A Confederate Account of the Battle of Helena , July 4 , 1863 . ” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 69 ( Spring 2010 ) : 44 – 53 . Schieffler , George David . “ Too Little , Too Late to Save Vicksburg : The Battle of Helena , Arkansas , July 4 , 1863 . ” MA thesis , University of Arkansas , 2005