| Notes |
- Private Caswell Hall Barnhill
5th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
Caswell Hall Bar nhill enlisted in the 5th Arkansas Infantry at
Pocahontas, Arkansas on Novemb er 10, 1861. He was assigned to Company H
and was sent to Pittman's Ferry on the Current River for training and
then on to Greenville, Missouri. He is kno wn to have been at Corinth,
Mississippi during the battle of Shiloh and proba bly participated in the
later defense of that place. He fought with his unit across the South
until captured at Paint Rock, Alabama on August 23, 1863. He was sent to
Louisville, Kentucky for processing as a prisoner of war. Caswel l was
given the choice of joining the Federal Army or spending the rest of th e
war at Rock Island Prison in Illinois. Wisely he choice to "galvanize",
a t least temporarily.
He was assigned to Independent Battery C of Kentucky Art illery (Union) on
February 24, 1864. He was promised a bounty of three hundre d dollars, of
which thirteen were paid. He listed his occupation as wagon-mak er. He was
paid a further sixty dollars of his bounty on March 24, 1864. On A pril
18, 1864 he was granted a 20 day furlough. He promptly made his way back
to Confederate lines, purchased a horse with his Union bounty money, and
j oined Company E, Davies' Battalion, Arkansas Cavalry (Confederate).
Embarrass ed Union officers at first listed him as deserted, and then
changed his listi ng to killed in action in order to get him off of their
rolls.
He fought wi th the Arkansas Cavalry for almost one year until his
recapture at Mound City , Kansas. He was sent immediately to Rock Island
Prison where he spent the re st of the war. An old family story says that
while at the prison, he made con tact with a jailer who was a fellow Mason
and imposed on him to allow in item s sent from his family. He was paroled
on May 25, 1865.
Caswell returned ho me to Greene County, Arkansas. He went back to his
work as farmer, carpenter, mechanic, timberman, wagon-maker, and
businessman. He had three more daughte rs and four more sons after the
war. He died July 2, 1879 in Paragould, Arkan sas and is buried at Pruit's
Chapel Cemetery.
Caswell, like most of his bro ther Confederates, survived four years of
war and privation by his skill and wit alone. His devotion to the cause
he believed in is witnessed by his effor ts to rejoin the Confederate Army
after his escape. After three years of endl ess fighting and being
captured, he risked his life by returning to fight for the South, knowing
that if captured again he could be executed as a Union de serter.
Copyright 1998, Arkansas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans ,
all rights reserved
http://members.tripod.com/~ardvscv/rgs1655s.html
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1828 - 1879 (51 years)
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