In previous E-mail to Mr. Loeser I'd questioned either Dallas, Ark. or Fordyce, Dallas Co., Ark. as likely places for the origin of Hart's Battery. This was before my correspondence with Mr. Biggs, who informed me of you and your statement that Dallas, not Dallas Co. was the location of the raising of the unit. Assuming therefore we can totally discount Fordyce/Dallas Co., my objection to Dallas, Polk Co., was due to its size and remote location in what I understand was basically a wilderness frontier. Since then, a couple of weeks ago I decided to take a look for myself, and made what is one of at least a couple of annual visits to Queen Wilhelmina State Park and its wonderful lodge. Before going any further towards Eureka Springs, my ultimate destination, I went through Mena, then down to what I heard from a local I asked directions of is now known as Old Dallas. I knew that Mena only dates from the late 1800's when the railroad came through, much like towns here in East Texas like Longview, Gladewater, and Mineola. But I read while in Mena that it actually replaced Dallas as seat of Polk Co., so suppose in the 1860's Dallas certainly must've been relatively more substantial than it is now.
My questioning has most to do with my understanding of where and how most Confederate artillery units seem to have originated, from well-settled urban or semi-urban areas: The Richmond Howitzers, Rockbridge Artillery, Pulaski Battery, etc. Even Capt. Good's battery had to be formed by combining 50 men from the almost-frontier settlement that was 1860's Dallas with a like number from the pineywoods town Tyler. Even then, it's unlikely they would've been issued precious guns from the stock of the recently siezed Federal arsenal at San Antonio if Good himself hadn't had the necessary "pull" and some tiny bit of previous experience serving on a military comission. Artillery units, unlike infantry, needed a pool of potential recruits with various talents such as teamsters, farriers, veteranarians, clerks, coopers, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, etc.; these were usually more obtainable in towns or cities than isolated rural communities. I was wondering both how and where Hart was able to "swing" this in Polk Co.; perhaps he had previous experiance simillar to Good? Not realizing until very recently the existance of a Dallas, Ark., I always thought Judge Fitzhugh was probably correct in his statemeent about the origin of the name "Dallas Artillery" being affixed to Hart's Battery in the aftermath of Pea Ridge.