page_title: 34th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: 34th Arkansas Infantry Regiment / Organization
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas M. Gunter, US Representative from Arkansas
context_page_description: The 34th Arkansas Infantry was an infantry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was originally designated by the state military board as the 2nd Regiment, Northwest Division, District of Arkansas. The unit spent its entire existence in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi.
context_section_description: Immediately following the Battle of Pea Ridge, General P. G. T. Beauregard, acting for General Albert S. Johnston, ordered General Earl Van Dorn to bring his Army of the West to Corinth, Mississippi, to join Johnston's force for an attack on the Union Army at Shiloh, Tennessee.  Additionally General Van Dorn moved all the supplies he could, including the machinery and stores at the Little Rock Arsenal, to northern Mississippi with him, and left few men behind. However, due to bad roads Van Dorn failed to reach Corinth until a week after the Battle of Shiloh.
  Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the Battle of Pea Ridge, Northwest Arkansas was ravaged by the Union Army invaders until General Curtis moved his army southeast to Batesville, Arkansas, in May 1862.  Arkansas Governor Henry Massey Rector issued an address on May 5, 1862, calling for the formation of 30 new infantry companies and 20 new cavalry companies. Most of the state's militia regiments had conducted their final recorded militia muster during the last week of February and the first week of March 1862. Rector indicated that if there were insufficient volunteers to fill these new companies, a draft would be made upon the militia regiments and brigades. As a further enticement, Rector also indicated that these regiments were for home defense and that they would not be transferred to Confederate service without their consent. During the spring and summer following this order, many former militiamen joined one of the newly formed regiments. It may be that the militiamen decided it was better to enlist and remain together than to wait for forced conscription under new Confederate Conscription laws, which were being strictly enforced during the summer of 1862.
  Two other new regiments were raised under Governor Rector's plan: Rector's 1st Arkansas, and Adams' 3rd Arkansas. When finally inducted into State service, Rector's unit would become the 35th Arkansas Infantry Regiment and Brook's 2nd Arkansas would become the 34th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.  Adam's 3rd Arkansas broke under fire during the Battle of Prairie Grove and was broken up in the general re-organization which occurred in the army following the battle.
  In response to Governor Rector's loud protests regarding the defenseless position that Arkansas had been left in following the transfer of General Van Dorn's army, the Confederate government assigned Major General Thomas Carmichael Hindman to organize a defense of the state. Hindman had been elected to represent the district of which Benton County was a part, in the US Congress, but the war prevented him from taking his seat in 1861. Hindman began organizing regiments in the western part of the state, in the summer of 1862.  34th Infantry Regiment was formed August 16, 1862. The unit was assigned to Fagan's, A.T. Hawthorne's, and Roane's Brigade in the Trans-Mississippi Department.  The unit was composed of companies from the following counties:
  Company A — from Washington County, commanded by, Capt. J. Wythe Walker
  Company B — from Washington County, commanded by, Capt. Fontaine R. Earle
  Company C — from Washington County, commanded by, Capt. Samuel Smithson
  Company D — from Sebastian County, commanded by, Capt. William Owsley
  Company E — from Crawford County, commanded by, Capt. James E. Wright
  Company F — from Benton County, commanded by Capt. Cyrus Leonidas Pickens. Pickens had led an emergency home guard unit at the Battle of Pea Ridge.
  Company G — from Sebastian County, commanded by, Capt. James Hensley
  Company H — from Washington County, commanded by Capt. Wallace (contained many former members of the 10th Arkansas Militia Regiment) and also contained several conscripts.
  Company I — from Franklin County commanded by, Capt. A. V. Edmonson (Much of Companies A, B, and C, 7th Arkansas Militia Regiment enlisted in this company)
  Company K — from Washington County, commanded by, Capt. J. R. Pettigrew
  Many of the troops had prior military experience in the Arkansas State Troops, having fought at Wilson's Creek. Company F may have been partially involved in t
caption: Lieutenant Colonel Thomas M. Gunter would later lead a battalion during the Camden Expedition and was elected to Congress from the state of Arkansas following the war
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