2nd Arkansas Light Artillery

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=2nd Arkansas Light Artillery


caption=
country=Confederate States of America
allegiance=CSA
type=Artillery
branch=Volunteer Army, American Civil War
dates=Fall 1861–1865
specialization=
command_structure=
size=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
nickname=Clark County Artillery
motto=
colors=
march=
mascot=
battles=American Civil War
Battle of Fort Donelson
Battle of Shiloh
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=

2nd Arkansas Light Artillery, also referred to as the Clark County Artillery (1861-1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. The battery was one of 31 artillery batteries raised by that state for the Confederacy.

Formation

The battery was recruited and organized in Arkadelphia, Arkansas in May, 1861, immediately following the outbreak of the war. Organized by a local watch maker and first commander of the unit, Captain Franklin Roberts, the battery was made up mostly of Clark County men, and was initially sent to the depot at Pitman's Ferry, near Pocahontas, Arkansas. Though they expected immediate deployment to operations in Kentucky, the depots commander, Colonel Solon Borland, placed a hold on this artillery battery, opting to instead keep them at the depot in defense of a possible Union attack. It remained in this duty for two months, then was sent for service in Mississippi. The battery received little to no formal military training, learning about military movements, operations and strategy almost entirely through trial and error.

Army of Tennessee

Equipped as a "horse artillery", the battery was fully mounted, making it extremely mobile and capable of fast movements during battle actions. For this reason, the battery became a part of the Army of Tennessee and was attached to Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, so that it could support Forrest's fast moving cavalry. To support Forrest's rapid fluid movements, the battery generally operated in three widely separated cannon sections, which enabled their effective support of the cavalry, but left them in a dangerous position and exposed to attack if the cavalry moved too far from the battery. They operated in this capacity from late 1861, seeing action during the Battle of Fort Donelson and the Battle of Shiloh, in addition to smaller actions.

During a minor action near Shelbyville, Tennessee, on June 27, 1863, a section of the battery commanded by Captain Jannedens H. Wiggins were cut off from the main force, and left vulnerable to attacking Union forces. The battery was overtaken, resulting in the capture of their artillery and thirty soldiers. Twenty nine of those would remain prisoners of war until well into the summer of 1865, after the wars end, before being released in a general parole. However, Captain Wiggins was sent to an officers prison, and was released during a prisoner exchange in early summer, 1865, before the war ended. Thus, he was able to return to duty for the units last action.

The artillery battery was augmented with replacements twice during the war, to replace casualties suffered. In late 1862 they received a number of replacements from the 1st Alabama Cavalry. In April, 1865, Captain Wiggins, recently released from his prisoner of war status, reunited with his battery, which was by this time attached to the 14th Georgia Artillery Battalion in North Carolina. On April 19, 1865, during a minor combat action near Newton, North Carolina, the battery was forced to surrender after being overran following the collapse of the Confederate infantry to whom they were in support. Of the just over 160 men that had served in the battery from the beginning of the war, only 11 remained at the time of their surrender.

References

* [http://www.civilwararchive.com/Confedreg/confedar.htm Confederate Arkansas Regiments]
* [http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/clarkco.html 2nd Arkansas Light Artillery]