Country Boys
THE 3RD ARKANSAS INFANTRY arrived in western Virginia truly ducks out of water. It was the only regiment from Arkansas in the entire Eastern Theater, and the men’s coarse appearance made their Virginia comrades view them as “ignorant country boys.” While the regiment would go on to greater fame as part of John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, it spent much of its first year of service in the foreboding mountains of western Virginia, taking part in fighting at Greenbrier and Camp Allegheny.
Sergeant Major Frederick Lawrence of the 3rd Arkansas penned the
