Arkansas County, Arkansas: History
The Roland Site is an archaeological site located in an extinct channel of the White River in Arkansas County. It was inhabited intermittently from the beginning of the common era to late prehistoric times, but its most intensive inhabitation was by peoples of the Plum Bayou culture (650 to 1050 CE), in a time known as the Late Woodland period.
Arkansas Post was the site of a colonial trading post, used for negotiating and trading with tribes to the west, all of whom were allies of the French. However, to the east, the Chickasaw and Choctaw were enemies of the French (the Chickasaw and Choctaw were allied to the British.) The tribe in the area who the French traded with the most were the Quapaw. On May 10, 1749, Arkansas Post was attacked by Chickasaw warriors. The Chickasaw burned the settlement, killed many men, and took women and children as captives. In response to the attack, the French moved the post to Ecores Rouges.
After the French were defeated in the French and Indian War, Louisiana was surrendered to the Spanish. However, they made no effort assert actual control over the province, and all Europeans present during the Spanish era were French fur traders who had simply stayed behind.
Napoleon Bonaparte's French army conquered Spain, and Napoleon made his brother the new king of Spain. Napoleon's brother, acting as king of Spain, then "gave" the Louisiana territory back to France. Arkansas County was created by the Missouri Territorial Legislature on December 31, 1813. It was called Arkansas after the Arkansas River, and the Arkansas tribe of Native Americans. It is one of seven current counties that have the same name as the state in which it is located.
Its original boundaries were New Madrid County to the north, Louisiana to the south, the Mississippi River to the east, and the Indian Boundary Line south of Fort Clark to the west. Arkansas County was within the Missouri Territory until creation of the Arkansas Territory on March 2, 1819. The county seat was moved from Arkansas Post to DeWitt, a newly established town created at the request of the Arkansas County Quorum Court on February 19, 1853. County government officially held court for the first time in DeWitt in October 1855.
This area was developed for cotton plantations through the antebellum period, based on the labor of enslaved African-American workers. Major planters earned considerable wealth with the commodity crop, for which there was high demand. Citizens of the county supported the Secession Convention to discuss secession from the Union in 1861 by an 80% to 20% margin. The anti-immediate secession delegates negotiated a compromise to put the question on the statewide ballot in August, but to remain in the Union.
Following President Lincoln's 1861 militia call after the Confederate seizure of Fort Sumter, citizens of several counties (including Arkansas County) formed volunteer companies to capture the U.S. Arsenal at Little Rock. Arkansas County initially sent two companies to serve in what would become Company H ("Crockett Rifles") and Company K ("DeWitt Guards") of the First Arkansas Infantry Regiment. A third volunteer company ("Dixie Grays") joined the Sixth Arkansas Infantry Regiment. …