Colonel Fagan's Account of "The Magnificent First Arkansas"

“The Magnificent First Arkansas Regiment of Infantry” by James F. Fagan

James Fleming Fagan

(In Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy, by Susan R. Hull, pp. 244-245)

(Historical Context: James Fleming Fagan served in the U. S. Army during the Mexican War and raised a company for the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War. He would be promoted to Brigadier General on September 12, 1864. He survived the war and returned to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he died in 1893.)

“The First Arkansas Regiment enlisted directly into the Confederate Army as originally organized, and was composed of the following staff officers: James F. Fagan, colonel; James C. Monroe, lieutenant-colonel; John Baker Thompson, major; Frank Bronaugh, adjutant. On the formation of the regiment it was moved to Lynchburg, Va., where it was mustered into the Confederate service on the 26^th day of May, 1861, and surrendered on the 27^th day of April, 1865. The regiment was in seventeen general engagements, skirmished 200 days, and marched over 9,000 miles. At the time of its organization it numbered 1,100 men, besides being recruited several times. At the close of the war 39 remained, 32 were prisoners, and 7 surrendered at Appomattox. The loss of the regiment at Shiloh reached the aggregate of 364 killed, wounded and missing. Major J. W. Colquitt was severely wounded late in the action, so seriously that he was obliged to go to his home in Georgia on leave. The train on which he traveled was captured by the Yankees at Huntsville, Ala., but he escaped, although on crutches, and made his way safely home. When he recovered from his wound he rejoined his regiment as its colonel (Colonel Fagan being promoted), and commanded it until he was desperately wounded at Atlanta July 26, 1864, losing his right foot; after which he was put on post duty at West Point, Miss., where he remained until the surrender.

From the “Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,” the Confederate commanding general in the Battle of Shiloh, I quote the following:

‘The First Arkansas Regiment, of which John Baker Thompson was lieutenant-colonel, was in its second engagement when he met a soldier’s fate April 6, 1862, on this hard-fought field—one of the most memorable battles, in some respects, of this or any other age.’

On the right of the regiment, dauntlessly leading the advance, fell Lieut.-Col. John Baker Thompson, mortally wounded, peirced with seven balls. His loss no one can feel as sensibly as myself. Like Havelock, he united the graces of religion to the valor of the soldier.

With much respect,

Very truly,

Jas. F. Fagan

Col. Commanding 1^st Ark. Regt.