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:


 * Company A – Organized June 4, 1862.Alexander Travis Hawthorn.jpg
 * Company B – Organized July 4, 1862
 * Company C – Organized June 12, 1862; consolidated with (old) Co. I, December 16, 1862
 * Company D – Organized at Benton, Saline County, June 17, 1862
 * Company E – Organized June 14, 1862; consolidated with Co. L, December 16, 1862
 * Company F – Organized August 1, 1862; consolidated with (old) Co. G in (new) Co. B, December 16, 1862
 * Company G – Consolidated with (old) Co. F in (new) Company B, December 16, 1862
 * Company H – Redesignated as (new) Co. A, December 16, 1862
 * Company I – Consolidated in Co. C, December 16, 1862
 * Company K – Organized at Danville, Yell County, July 21, 1862; redesignated as (new) Co. F, December 16, 1862
 * Company L – Consolidated in Co. E, December 16, 1862

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.


 * Company A – Redesignated from (old) Co. H, December 16, 1862
 * Company B – Organized from consolidation of (old) Co. F and (old) Co, G, December 16, 1862
 * Company C – Organized June 12, 1862; consolidated with (old) Co. I, December 16, 1862
 * Company D – Organized at Benton, Saline County, June 17, 1862
 * Company E – Organized June 14, 1862; consolidated with Co. L, December 16, 1862
 * Company F – Redesignated from (old) Co. K, December 16, 1862
 * Company G – Formerly Company A, Chew's Sharpshooter Battalion, organized at King’s River, Madison County, September 3, 1862; enlisted at Elm Springs, Washington County, September 12, 1862
 * Company H – Formerly Companies C and D, Chew's Sharpshooter Battalion, Perkins’ and Hailey’s dismounted cavalry companies (These companies had also previously served in Major Gipson’s Battalion of Mounted Rifles)
 * Company I – Organized at Rockport, Hot Spring County, June 9, 1862
 * Company K – Formerly Company B, Chew's Sharpshooter Battalion, organized as Captain Wiley Tomlinson’s Cavalry at Waldron, Scott County, July 4, 1862; enlisted at Big Creek, Sebastian County, July 20, 1862, served as cavalry until September 16.

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:


 * Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862
 * Battle of Helena, Arkansas July 4, 1863
 * Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas, September 10, 1863
 * Red River Campaign, Louisiana-Arkansas March–May, 1864
 * Camden Expedition, Arkansas March–May, 1864
 * Battle of Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas April 30, 1864

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.