| 37th Arkansas Infantry (Confederate) | |
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Arkansas state flag |
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| Active | 1862 to 1865 |
| Country | Confederate States of America |
| Allegiance | CSA |
| Branch | Infantry |
| Arkansas Confederate Infantry Regiments | |
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| 36th Arkansas Infantry Regiment | 38th Arkansas Infantry Regiment |
The 37th Arkansas Infantry (1862–1865) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War. Also known as: 29th Arkansas Infantry Regiment; 1st Trans-Mississippi Infantry Regiment.[1]
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The 37th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, was organized in Pope County by individual companies during March through June 1862 as the 1st Trans-Mississippi Infantry; and organized as the 29th Arkansas Infantry Regiment upon its acceptance into Confederate service on June 6, 1862 under the command of Colonel Joseph C. Pleasants. Field Officers were Lt. Col. Jeptha C. Johnson and Major John A. Geoghegan. Renamed as the 37th Arkansas Infantry regiment in the summer of 1862.[2]
Initially assigned (along with the 34th, 35th, and 39th Arkansas and Chew's Arkansas Sharpshooter Battalion) to form Brigadier General James F. Fagan's brigade in Shoup's Division in Major General Thomas Hindman's 1st Corps of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. The brigade fought in the battle of Prairie Grove on December 7–8, 1862.[2] After the retreat from Prairie Grove to Van Buren, on July 4, 1863, the brigade and the 37th Arkansas served in the attack on the federal post at Helena, Arkansas.
Detachments of the 43rd Indiana, 33rd Iowa and 33rd Missouri all seem to have been involved in the capture of the forward elements of the 37th Arkansas during the Battle of Helena, July 4, 1863. Here is what Lieutenant-Colonel William H. Heath, commanding 33rd Missouri, reported:[3]
About 9 a.m. a second attack was made upon Battery D by Fagan's brigade of Arkansas troops, three regiments strong, and said by prisoners to have acted under the personal direction of Lieutenant-General Holmes. The battery was bravely supported by detachments from the Forty.third Indiana, under Major Norris, and the Thirty-third Iowa, under Major Gibson. In spite, however, of the most determined resistance, Bell's regiment, with small portions of Hawthorn's and Brooks', succeeded in penetrating our outer line of rifle-pits, and securing a position in a deep ravine to the left of the battery and below the range of its guns. The remainder of the brigade was broken and scattered by the terrific fire of our artillery in the works, and compelled to seek shelter in the woods out of range. Immediately upon their retreating, our riflemen from all three regiments in the pits closed in upon those of the enemy who were in the ravine, from all sides cutting off retreat. The reserve of the Forty-third Indiana formed across the mouth of the ravine, and two Parrott guns of the First Missouri Battery, under Lieutenant O'Connell, were also brought to rake the enemy's position. Capt. John G. Hudson, of the Thirty-third Missouri, commanding Battery D, then demanded the surrender of the entire force. The men at once threw down their arms, and Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson, of Bell's regiment, made a formal surrender of his command, mustering 21 officers and between 300 and 400 men, with all their arms and one stand of colors. At about 10.30 a.m. the main body of the enemy had entirely drawn off from in front of our batteries and the firing ceased.
Lieutenant-Colonel Cyrus H. Mackey, commanding 33rd Iowa, reported:[3]
At 8 a.m. they charged Batteries D and C, bringing forward Generals Fagan's and Parsons' brigades. They succeeded in carrying Battery C, but not until they had many of their men and officers killed and wounded; but their superiority in numbers was so great that they completely overpowered our force at the battery. The three companies from my own regiment and two from the Thirty-third Missouri constituted the entire force at this battery. The men retired from the battery in the direction of Fort Curtis, about 250 yards. By this time we had completely routed the enemy in front of Battery D. They succeeded here only sufficiently to get possession of the extreme left of the rifle-pits. Our force at this battery consisted of six companies of my own regiment, six of the Thirty-third Missouri, and two of the Forty-third Indiana. I now withdrew Companies I and K, and formed a new line with them, and Companies A, F, D, and C, to the rear of Battery C 250 yards, which succeeded completely in stopping any further progress of the enemy. Finding themselves repulsed at all points, they commenced to fall back to the timber. Things at this battery remained in this condition for some time. Many of them, instead of falling back to the timber, took refuge in the woods around the battery, and kept up a desultory fire therefrom. Finding that the enemy was not going to attempt anything more in this direction, I withdrew the two companies I had brought here, and returned to the Little Rock road, in front of Battery D; arriving there I ordered the whole force to charge forward on this road. The entire force advanced with a will that carried everything before them, and in ten minutes I had complete possession of the entire battle-ground on this road and obtained several hundred prisoners and two stand of colors.
Col. Samuel A. Rice, 33rd Iowa, commanding the brigade to which these regiments belonged, didn't credit any specific regiment with the capture of the 37th Arkansas, but the captured colors were credited to his own regiment.[3]
Most of the men of the 36th and 37th Arkansas Regiments captured at Helena were sent to military prison at Alton, Illinois, and later sent to Fort Delaware, where they were held until March 1865, when they were forwarded to City Point, Virginia, for exchange. The Officers were sent to military prison Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio.[3]
The 37th Arkansas subsequently served in the defense of Little Rock in September, 1863. The brigade, now under the command of Brigadier General A. T. Hawthorn, and composed of the 37th, 34th, and 35th Arkansas regiments, spent the winter of 1863 southwest of Little Rock, and then was sent south with General Churchill's Arkansas Infantry Division to Shreveport, Louisiana in the early spring of 1864 to assist General Kirby Smith's army in countering Union General Nathaniel Banks' advance along the Red River. After fighting in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, Churchill's Division and Kirby Smith then marched back to Arkansas to assist General Price in dealing with the other half of the Red River campaign, Union Gen'l Frederick Steele's Camden Expedition moving southwest from Little Rock. The Division and Hawthorn's Brigade arrived in time to join the pursuit of Steele's army as it retreated from Camden, and join in the attack on Steele as he tried to cross the Saline River at Jenkins' Ferry on April 30, 1864. Gause's Brigade returned to the vicinity of Camden following Jenkins' Ferry, and saw no substantial combat for the remainder of the war. They would go on to take part in the following battles:[4]
The regiment ultimately surrendered with Kirby Smith's army on May 26, 1865.
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