THE CIVIL WAR IN WHITE COUNTY     
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Yingling speaks to historial society about Civil War

BY HOLLY LATIMER
Staff Writer      June 25, 2002

The White County Historical Society learned of the White County influence on the Civil War during its Monday meeting at Harding Place.

Dewitt Yingling, senior vice president of Regions Bank, told the audience about his research into the Eighth Regiment from Arkansas.

This regiment was composed of men from White County, Izard County, Independence County and Jackson County.

During his talk to the society, Yingling discussed several of the key figures and key battles from the regiment during the war.

According to Yingling, the decade of 1850 to 1860 was a great one for the state of Arkansas.

During this time, he said, the population of the state doubled and the population of Searcy more than doubled.

For the state, Yingling said the Civil War could not have come at a worse time.

The first secession commission of Arkansas met in 1861 with the vote being 44 to stay in the union and 35 to secede.

After shots were fired at Fort Sumpter in South Carolina and President Abraham Lincoln set out 75,000 volunteers, Yingling said the commission voted once again regarding secession. This time, there was only one dissenting vote.

Two groups of White County residents were a part of the Eighth Regiment. These companies were the Searcy Gray and the West Point Rifles.

Yingling said during the first year of the war, more soldiers died of disease than from bullets from the "Yankees."

The troops were stationed in Bolling Green, Kentucky. A doctor with the troop said that 250 men of the 600 in the troop were hospitalized that first winter. The additional troops were either sick or dead.

After battling disease, the soldiers returned to battle the "Yankees." They fought at such battles as Shiloh; Perryville; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Dalton, Georgia; Atlanta; and Picket's Mill.

During the battle of Picket's Mill, the Eight Arkansas Regiment participated in Baucom's charge, named for George Baucom of Searcy.

This charge helped to keep the Texas division of the Confederate Army from being surrounded by General Sherman's Union Army.

The Eighth's military career was, for the most part, over after it tracked the Union Army to Spring Hill.

The Union Army then disappeared, making the Confederate General angry, according to Yingling.

Following the Union Army, the Confederate General lined up his troops for battle on a open plain.

According to Yingling, all members of the Eighth were either killed or wounded.

Yingling said that although the war is over, Arkansas is still suffering from the effects of the Civil War because of its effects on the state's businesses and industries.

The next meeting of the White County Historical Society will be July 22 at Harding Place. The speaker will be Ralph Wilcox with Arkansas Historic Preservation.

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