William Y . Slack William Yarnel Slack ( August 1 , 1816 – March 21 , 1862 ) was a Missouri lawyer , politician , and general in the Missouri State Guard ( aligned with the Confederate States Army ) during the American Civil War . He led a division in some of war ' s earliest major battles in the Trans - Mississippi Theater and was mortally wounded in the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas . Early life and career . William Y . Slack was born in rural Mason County , Kentucky , in the summer of 1816 . Three years later , his father John Slack moved the family to Boone County , Missouri , and settled near Columbia . John Slack , a potter by trade , became the first justice of the peace for Perche Township . As a young adult , William Slack studied law , passed his bar exam , and established a private practice in Chillicothe . He was among the leading citizens that helped raise cash to found what later became the University of Missouri . During the Mexican War , Slack raised a company of volunteers and served as their captain in the 2nd Missouri Volunteers under Sterling Price . He mustered out of the army in 1847 after fourteen months of service . Slack served in the Missouri General Assembly , where he was noted as a strong pro - slavery advocate . He became a member of the state convention called to develop and ratify the new Missouri state constitution . Civil War service . Shortly after the start of the Civil War , pro - Confederacy factions in Missouri became organized as the Missouri State Guard , and Slack , with his previous military experience and political connections , was appointed by Governor of Missouri Claiborne F . Jackson as a brigadier general in command of the 5th Division of the MSG . His commission dated from July 4 , 1861 . In an August reorganization of the Guard , Slack assumed command of the 4th Division , which consisted of both cavalry and infantry . He saw action in the battles of Carthage and Springfield . He was wounded by a bullet in the left hip at the Battle of Wilson ' s Creek on August 10 . By the end of October , Slack had recovered sufficiently to resume his field duties . He took command of the 2nd brigade of the Missouri State Guard on January 23 , 1862 . On March 7 of that year , he was shot again in the left hip during the Battle of Pea Ridge ( Elkhorn Tavern ) in Arkansas . He was taken to a house a mile in the rear lines , where he improved and was assumed to be recovering . Because of fears he might be captured by Union forces , he was transported seven miles eastward to a field hospital in Battle of Pea Ridge ( Elkhorn Tavern ) in Arkansas , where his condition rapidly deteriorated . He lingered for two weeks before dying early in the morning of March 21 . He was buried in the yard , but in 1880 , his remains were exhumed and reinteered in the Fayetteville Confederate Cemetery in Fayetteville , Arkansas . Ironically , due to communication delays between the Trans - Mississippi District and the Confederacy ' s War Department in distant Richmond , Virginia , his formal commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army was awarded posthumously dating from April 12 , 1862 . His commander at Pea Ridge , Sterling Price , deemed Slack as one of " my best and bravest officers . "