List of Arkansas Civil War Confederate Units - Home Guard

Home Guard

The Arkansas Secession Convention enacted an ordinance on May 30, 1861, authorizing the county courts in each county of the state to appoint a "home guard of minute-men" for a term of service of three months, to include at least ten men in each township. The duty of the home guards was "to see that all slaves are disarmed, to prevent the assemblage of slaves in unusual numbers, to keep the slave population in proper subjugation, and to see that peace and order are observed."

The main reason for the creation of the home guard was to control the excesses of so-called "Vigilance Committees" which had been organized in various parts of the State from about 1859 to 1861 in response to hysterical (and unfounded) rumors of nefarious abolitionist plots and secret underground organizations. There are many lurid stories of assaults and murders attributed to these vigilantes. The home guard was intended to provide a military-style, regulated, accountable organization to keep an eye on the slave population and the activities of suspected abolitionists and Union sympathizers. An ancillary duty of the home guard was to support the Army of Arkansas when called upon to do so. .

The records of some of the 1861 home guard companies can be found in County Court records. Unfortunately, the looting and destruction of county court-houses in many parts of the State during the war resulted in the loss of most of the records. The records that still exist consist mainly of lists of appointments (or election in some cases) of home guard members, as well as officer lists.

The term "home guard" was, and continues to be, misused and misunderstood. Legally, the term is not synonymous with "militia," though the two terms were often loosely used interchangeably. Additionally, there is a clear, but not generally understood, distinction between the home guard of 1861 and the home guard of the latter part of the war. The 1861 home guard was strictly an Arkansas show, a creation of the Secession Convention. A new generation of home guards came on line in Arkansas in 1863, pursuant to an Act of the Congress of the Confederate States adopted on October 13, 1862. Alternately referred to as "home guard" or "local defense" companies, these organizations were less concerned with civil order than with military duties. They functioned as a sort of military reserve, military police, and scouts. One of their less popular duties was the enforcement of the Conscription Law. An 1863 letter mentions the Drew County Home Guard using hounds to run down "draft-dodgers".

The later home guards were normally enlisted for a period of twelve months, and were subject to the orders of the Governor. As a matter of interest, here is the oath sworn to by the Ashley County Home Guard when they were enlisted on November 4, 1863, at Hamburg. The following was transcribed from the original manuscript held by the Arkansas History Commission, with the original spelling and punctuation intact:

I hereby certify that the members of Capt. B. Tiners company did on the day of there Inlistment appear before Col. Hatthorne and subscribed to the following oath (viz) You do solumly sware that you will bear true allegian to the State of Arkansas and that you will honestly and faithfully defend her from invasion and from all her enemies or apposers whatever, as far as in you power and that you will obey all orders from the Governor of the State of Arkansas as well as from the President of the Confederate States of America and that you will obey all the officers placed over you by them for the space of twelve months from the day of your inlistment or of being received into the service of the State so help you God.