In the aftermath of the American Civil War, Pope County, Arkansas experienced a tumultuous seven-month period during the Reconstruction era known as the Pope County Militia War. This period was marked by political and civil unrest, as four county officials, aided by an unofficial militia, purportedly manipulated county affairs to advance their own agenda. These officials persistently urged the Arkansas governor to impose martial law in the county, with the aim of exerting greater control over voter registration and the November 1872 election. Note: Writer is J. B. Bezzo, editor of the Dardanelle Transcript and Eye of the West.
By the end of this "militia war", three of the four county officials had been killed—and martial law had not been declared.
The fourth official, the county's superintendent of schools, left the state.
Local, state, and national newspapers covered this troubling period in Pope County extensively, including front-page spreads in the New York Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Memphis Daily Appeal.
On October 10, 1872, a Special Commission appointed by the Arkansas Governor reported, "We are satisfied that much of the bad feeling existing in Pope county has been engendered and fostered by unscrupulous politicians."
Reconstruction During the military reconstruction period (1867-1868), companies E and G of the Nineteenth Infantry, were stationed in Pope County and headquartered at Dover for a year and a half. Arkansas became the second former Confederate state to be fully restored to the Union in June 1868. However, political and social stability was still years away.
In 1868, a militia law passed by the general assembly authorized the governor to enroll a state guard modeled, generally, after the U. S. Army. Elements of this guard would be used four years later in Pope County, during the period that became known as the Militia War.
Troubles Between 1865 and 1872, at least five officials in the county were assassinated: Sheriff Archibald D. Napier and Deputy Sheriff Albert Parks on October 24, 1865, County Clerk William Stout on December 4, 1865, Sheriff W. Morris Williams on August 20, 1866, and Russellville Postmaster John L. Harkey on July 27, 1868.
Other violence also occurred during that period.
On March 1, 1870, the new Pope County jail in Dover was burned. A man named Glover later claimed responsibility.
A fire on February 6, 1872, destroyed a store belonging to Joseph H. Battenfield. Losses included a large stock of general hardware, wood and willowware, and tinner's tools and stock. The loss was estimated at $7,800, with $5,000 covered by insurance. Battenfield ascribed the fire as reprisal for his publishing facts about the plundering of the county by county officials, Sheriff Elisha W. Dodson, Deputy Sheriff John H. Williams, School Superintendent W. A. Stuart, and County Clerk Wallace H. Hickox.
Militia War A period of a little over seven months in 1872 and 1873 came to be known as the Pope County Militia War. However, there were no battles or skirmishes. There were no engagements between organized opponents of any kind. Instead, an irregular armed group sometimes referred to as a militia, and headed by four county officers, exerted excessive and harsh control over the county, including threats to burn Dover, the county seat. Note 1: West and Cox were members of John Williams' militia company Note 2: The affidavit was first published in the Russellville Tribune which was burned with all its back issues on September 8, 1872. By the end of the period, three of the four officials were dead.
In 1872, an Independence Day celebration in Pope County, held at a camp meeting ground at Center Valley, was attended by prominent ministers and county officials, most of whom were aligned with and appointed by the Radical Republican state administration. Many "patriotic" addresses were given "in which much was said in condemnation of 'rebels' in general and those of the county in particular." A day or so after the celebration, news spread over the country that the sheriff's chief deputy, John Harold Williams, after leaving the celebration, "had been seriously, if not fatally, wounded from the brush at his home near Scottsville." Concerned neighbors were told by a physician that there were two holes in Williams' jacket, "one in the left sleeve, corresponding with an abrasion on his arm, the other is in front opposite a dent in his belt buckle and a bruise on his abdomen." There was also a hole in the crown of his hat. After being mortally wounded just two months later, Williams admitted his alleged shooting in July was a ruse, part of a plot "arranged in Little Rock and perfected at the celebration on the 4th of July," a plot whose purpose was to maintain county officials' control of the county through the 1872 election.
Incident at Shiloh Creek
On July 8, 1872, four men, William Hale (age 32), Nicholas J. (Jack) Hale (age 59), Joe Tucker (age 32), and Isham Liberty "Lib" West (age 34), were arrested and held for a short time at the courthouse in Dover. That afternoon, the prisoners, under the guard of a sheriff's posse of about twenty-four men that included Sheriff Elisha W. Dodson, Note: Regiment organized at Little Rock, Ark., February 1864. The regiment mustered out on August 20, 1865. Deputy Sheriff John H. Williams, School Superintendent W. A. Stuart, and County Clerk Wallace H. Hickox, Note: Regiment organized December 25, 1862, Regiment assigned to District of Eastern Arkansas, 7th Army Corps, Dept. of Arkansas, to January, 1865. consolidated with 10th Illinois Cavalry January 26, 1865. were moved for the purported purpose of taking them to Dardanelle "for examination" where Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge William N. May resided. (Statement was originally made to a reporter of the Arkansas State Journal and published July 10th.) Upon reaching the old camping ground at Shiloh, the posse stopped, supposedly for the purposes of gathering forage for the horses and spending the night before proceeding to Dardanelle. After a period of time, the posse remounted with the prisoners at the front and proceeded toward Russellville. Soon after, one of the posse remarked—"It is as dark as Egypt," and another replied "Egypt has no eyes," immediately followed by shots from unseen parties and the guard opened fire on the prisoners. William Hale Note: Originally published in the Russellville Tribune which was burned on September 8, 1872, along with all back issues and Joe Tucker were hit. When Lib West Originally published in Russellville Tribune which was burned on September 8, 1872, and all back issues lost. leaned hard to one side, his saddle shifted and he fell to the ground, scrambling to hide in the brush along the road. N. J. Hale "ran his horse forward" and made an escape. During the melee, Wallace Hickox was thrown from his horse, suffering a severe injury to his arm. On the ground, Tucker was shot a second time by Dodson with a shotgun. The wounds of Tucker and Hale indicated they had been shot at close range and could not have been from shots fired from the roadside.
Subsequently, Dodson, Williams, Stuart, and Hickox traveled to Little Rock seeking a declaration of martial law from Governor O. A. Hadley under the claim that they had been bushwhacked on the way to Dardanelle. It was widely believed in Pope County that the affair that resulted in the killing of Tucker and Hale and the attempted murder of West and the elder Hale was part of a plot concocted at Little Rock to place the counties with strong anti-Clayton factions under martial law to control voter registration and the upcoming election and that the escape of two intended victims and the sworn statements of Jack Hale, Liberty West, and the mortally wounded William Hale likely prevented the plot from being carried out.
A correspondent for the New York Tribune wrote from Russellville on August 10, 1872:
The gist of the Pope County affair is this: A sheriff and a clerk finding their terms of office about to expire, and nine-tenths of the people determined to put honest men in their places, connive to have martial law declared so that there will be no election, and they could hold over. They take a Deputy-Sheriff and a School Superintendent into the plot. The Deputy fires at his hat and coat one evening and says he has been bushwhacked. The Sheriff, Clerk, and School Superintendent raise a posse. They try to arrest some men against whom they have personal grudges, but not finding them at home, they take others whom they can conveniently lay hands on. They kill two of the prisoners, and immediately start for the State Capitol, saying that they have been bushwhacked, and that the prisoners were shot by their own friends. They raise a hue and cry that the county is in insurrection, and declare that nothing but martial law will put down the insurgents. I cannot believe that this stupid, barbarous piece of business was planned by anyone beside the ruffians who carried it out. Nevertheless the people of Pope County, with almost unanimity, are convinced that the plot was formed at Little Rock by the Ring that controls the State Government. They think a scheme was laid to try the effect of martial law on one county, and in the event of its success to put in force in several of the strong Democratic counties... Note: text is from page 2, column 2
After N. J. Hale made it back to Dover before midnight, he roused people in Dover to tell of the prisoners' misfortunes and his escape. By dawn (5:14 A.M.Googe search on "Sunrise on July 9, 1872, Dover Arkansas", search result: 5:14 AM, Tuesday, July 9, 1872 (GMT-5:50:36), Sunrise in Dover, AR) on July 9, the courthouse square was "a wild spectacle" of armed and angry men and upset citizens. An armed body of about 40 "skirmishers," some mounted, some on foot, had already departed toward Shiloh camping ground and the scene of the shooting with a larger armed party remaining in Dover. The scouting party found the body of Joe Tucker, trampled by horses, next to the road. Young William Hale was found in a home less than half a mile away, mortally wounded and fearful, believing that Dodson meant to hunt him down and finish "the killing of him."
Citizens organized into a protection organization they called a "police force."
The week after the incident at Shiloh Creek, Governor Hadley traveled to Russellville, staying overnight and meeting the next day with leading citizens of the Dover area. He was told that they could not disband their "Dover Guards" until Williams's militia was dispersed. On his way back to Little Rock on July 13, he issued Special Order No. 1 at Perry Station, relieving from the "First Company of Pope County State Guards" and requiring them to return to their homes "as quiet and good citizens."
On July 30, Hadley issued a lengthy proclamation to the citizens of Pope County, stating, "I do not desire to place Pope county under martial law, or subject its citizens to the loss of property consequent upon quartering militia in the county, but the law must and shall be enforced, respected and obeyed, and, if necessary, the entire forces of the state will be employed for that purpose. Citizens must return to their homes, lay down their arms and attend to the daily avocations of life... Two sheriffs of Pope county and one clerk have already been assassinated and murdered, and no attempt has been made, so far as I am advised, to bring the murderers to justice."
Arrests