Books published by Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Five writers examine the political and social forces in Arkansas that led to secession and transformed farmers, clerks, and shopkeepers into soldiers. Retired longtime Arkansas State University professor Michael Dougan delves into the 1861 Arkansas Secession Convention and the delegates' internal divisions on whether to leave the Union. Lisa Tendrich Frank, who teaches at Florida Atlantic University, discusses the role Southern women played in moving the state toward secession. Carl Moneyhon of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock looks at the factors that led peaceful civilians to join the army. Thomas A. DeBlack of Arkansas Tech University tells of the thousands of Arkansans who chose not to follow the Confederate banner in 1861, and William Garret Piston of Missouri State University chronicles the first combat experience of the green Arkansas troops at Wilson's Creek.

This reissue of Henry Strong s diary will be a valuable asset to all who study the Civil War. It provides a view of the war from the perspective of a common soldier who witnessed many of the key events in the western part of Arkansas. From seeing the suffering of the civilian population to participating in Frederick Steele's doomed Camden Expedition, this young Kansan kept a meticulous record of daily events."