| Unit Name: | 1st Cavalry Regiment, Arkansas State Troops |
| Dates: | 1861 |
| Branch: | Cavalry |
| Size: | Regiment |
| Battles: | American Civil War |
The 1st Cavalry Regiment, Arkansas State Troops (1861) was an Arkansas cavalry regiment during the American Civil War. The regiment was organized at Camp Walker, near Harmony Springs, Benton County, Arkansas. The regiment was officially designated as the Third Regiment (Cavalry), Arkansas State Troops by the State Military Board, but was designated as the 1st Arkansas Cavalry by Brigadier General Nicholas Bartlett Pearce, Commander, 1st Division, Provisional Army of Arkansas. The regiment is referred to as the "Carroll's Regiment" in contemporary accounts.
At the beginning of the war, the Arkansas Succession Convention created the Provisional Army of Arkansas. The Provisional Army was to consist of two divisions, the 1st Division in the western part of the state was to be commanded by Brigadier General Pearce, and the 2nd Division in the eastern half of the state, commanded by Major General James Yell. The intent of the Secession Convention was to transfer these state troop regiments into Confederate service as quickly as possible, to avoid the cost of paying for a large state army. The troops of the eastern division were transferred to the command of Brigadier General Hardee in July 1861, but the troops of the western division under Brigadier General Pearce were not transferred to Confederate service before they became engaged in the Battle of Wilson's Creek.
The unit's designation as the 1st Cavalry Regiment, Arkansas State Troops has its origins in the confusion caused by Brigadier General Nicholas B. Pearce's failure to comply with the numbering system for regiments adopted by the State Military Board. The State Military Board authorized a 1st and 3rd Arkansas Regiment of State Troops. The 1st Regiment was commanded by Colonel Patrick R. Cleburne and was organized a Mound City, in the 2nd or Eastern Division of the Army of Arkansas. The State Military Board had authorized a 3rd Regiment of State Troops as a cavalry regiment under Colonel DeRosey Carroll, and ordered it to join the 1st Division" (actually a brigade) of the Army of Arkansas commanded by General Nicholas B. Pearce in northwest Arkansas. The free-spirited General Pearce ignored the unit designations authorized by the State Military Board, and assigned his own designations, based on when each regiment showed up in camp to muster. The first units to arrive at the designate assembly point were naturally the mounted units which became Carroll's regiment, so the 3rd Regiment Arkansas State Troops was re-designated the 1st Regiment. The officially sanctioned 2nd Regiment Arkansas State Troops, under Colonel John R. Gratiot, arrived at the assembly point third, and was immediately renamed the 3rd Regiment. Thus, all accounts of the State Troops in northwest Arkansas, including the battle of Wilson's Creek, refer to Gratiot's regiment as the 3rd Arkansas.[1] Carroll's Regiment was composed of the following companies:
Under the command of Colonel DeRosey Carroll, the 1st Cavalry Regiment, Arkansas State Troops was present engaged at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, on August 10, 1861. Unit suffered a total of five killed and 20 wounded in the battle.
A statement of ammunition on hand, omitted from above report, shows that the several companies averaged less than eight rounds per man.
Captain Charles Arthur Carroll's company, the "Pope Walker Guards," of Crawford County, was assigned as Company A of Col. DeRosey Carroll's regiment of cavalry, however, this assignment should be considered as purely administrative. Historians believe that at least four of the regiments's companies never actually served with the regiment, but instead operated independently under the direct command of the division commander, Brigadier General Nicholas Bartlett Pearce, as scouts and escorts.[11] Captain Carroll made his own report of the engagement to Brigadier General Pearce:
Captain Carroll's company had been part of a force that General Pearce had sent to oppose and attack on the army's rear by Union Colonel Siegel. Pearce described the regiment and Captain Carroll's company's actions in his official report of the battle:
Following the Battle of Wilson's Creek, the regiment, with the rest of the Arkansas troops, was marched back to Arkansas and given the opportunity to vote on the issue of being transferred into Confederate service. The regiment, along with the rest of the 1st Division voted to disband rather than be transferred to Confederate service. Many veterans of the regiments joined other Confederate units later in the war. DeRosey Carroll held no further commands during the war. He was reportedly murdered by bushwhackers in the front yard of his home at Charleston, Arkansas, in 1863.[12]