The Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Camp Holmes
In Response To: Camp Holmes ()

Don't know if this will be of much help, but I did a search for Camp Holmes in my files and found the following references [1862]:

6/24/62 Meanwhile the 24th & 25th began Infy drilling & soon orders came for them to join the 6th Tex at Camp Holmes, 10 miles from

The 24th & 25th Regts were assigned to Garland's Bgde, & were sent to Camp Holmes at Sulphur Springs

7/28 on this day, the soldiers got the news about the dismtg order. At this time, the 2nd Lancers Regt was designated as the 24th Tex Cav (Dismtd). The 3rd Lancers (which had remained behind in La) became the 25th Tex Cav (Dismtd). The soldiers were very unhappy about the situation, because Texans didn't want to be parted from their horses. Capt Wooldridge appointed ten men to take the horses back to Tex. These men were called "details."
From El Dorado, the soldiers marched on foot to a camp near Pine Bluff, & there they stayed, training as Infy men, until Sept, when they were ordered to march to Ft. Hindman at Ark Post. Meanwhile, the 24th Regt had been assigned to Garland's Bgde
Mack was noted on the Aug muster roll at Camp Holmes, Sulpher Springs, as “Absent on Detail,”

8/3 Hindman to Col Garland- move from your present camp to Pine Bluff & report to Roan
-left for Camp Holmes Pine Bluff 8/3

8/27 The 24th Tex DC reported to Col Garland cdg 2nd Bgde at Camp Holmes

9/5 Camp Holmes, QM’s office, 2nd Bgde, TM Army, Capt Wolfe acting QM 2nd Bgde to Capt Jno Adams acting QM Little Rock-The 2nd Regt [Wilkes’] of this Bgde arrived in camp 8/27

9/6 Hqs 2nd Bgde-Camp Holmes-Garland to Gen Cooper, Richmond-return of troops under my command for month of Aug

9/14 Camp Holmes-Swearingen of 24th Tex Cav signs for camp equipment from QM Udolphus

9/23 Camp Holmes, McCulloch’s Div-Gen McCulloch pass for Capt Robertson to pass the lines at any & all hours

9/26 Camp Holmes, Robertson delivers 70 oz quinine to J Boring, Bgde surgeon of McCulloch’s Bgde

9/26 Camp Holmes, 25 miles NE of Little Rock-Has been much sickness in the army, but all are improving. Men are all anxious to be led against the enemy to avenge the poor people of this state Gen McCulloch is anxious to keep me with him

10/9 Des Arc-[Robertson of McCulloch’s staff] we are about 75 miles from Helena-country full of scouts from Parsons’ & Carter’s Regts. Col Buford’s Cav Regt has been attached to Parsons’ Bgde & came up from Clarendon tonight
McRae’s Bgde of Ark troops left for Hickory Plains arrived at Camp Holmes [Oakland Grove] yesterday & this morning left for [the express man could not tell where]
http://www.civilwarbuff.org/Places/Lonoke/OldAustin.htm [In 1823 the town of Oakland Grove was founded. By 1861 the name had been changed to Austin]

Re: List of Confederate Camps in Arkansas
By:Doyle Taylor
Date: 8/5/2012, 9:52 pm
In Response To: List of Confederate Camps in Arkansas (Damon Cluck)

Camp Holmes,
June 1862
Camp Holmes was established 3/4 miles east of the Community of White Sulphur Springs with the arrival of Col Robert Garlands 6th Texas Infantry as a camp of Instruction.
July 1862
Col Garland's command was increased to a Brigade with the addition of the Col. Francis C. Wilkes 24th Texas Cavalry and Col.Clayton C. Gillespie's 25th Texas Cavalry with were dismounted under general order and converted to infantry.
August 1862
Col Garlands Command is increased with the reorganization and reconstitution and addition of Hart's Battery of Arkansas Light Artillery.
September 1862
Col Garland's Brigade is ordered to the lower Arkansas River to support the Construction of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post.
January 1863
Used as a brigade campsite for Flournoy’s Brigade of Texas Infantry Gen. John G. Walkers Texas Division Possibly until April 1863

13th Tex Cav
Spartan band : Burnett's 13th Tex Cav in the Civil War
By Thomas Reid
Sept 9-They arrived near Austin, Ark at Camp Hope, known in some documents as Camp Holmes, on the ninth, & remained several days waiting for further orders. Thomas Rounsaville of Co C wrote his niece on Sun, Sept 14, 1862.
[It] is with pleasure that I take the present opportunity of writing you a few lines this beautiful & bright Sabbath morning after a long & fatiguing travel of about three months. We left home the seventh of June & arrived at this camp the ninth of Sept, which was three months we was on the road. We was dismounted some two hundred miles from this place. Matt, we had a long & wearisome trip of it since we left home. When we was dismounted we was sadly disappointed for we was compelled to take it afoot & we walked about two hundred miles & our feet was blistered considerably. Some of our boys entirely gave out. We are at this time twenty five miles north of Little Rock near White River.

Conditions were already bad at the camp near Austin, Ark, when the 13th arrived. James Rounsaville of Co C wrote, "We number at this place I suppose about 20,000 strong, though there is a great deal sickness in different Regiments from 4 to 6 buried every day. . . . The poor people in this country are about to starve, provision is so scarce, we get about half rations of poor beef once a day & musty meal, also have some molasses occasionally." The extreme scarcity of food was the result of crop failures in Ark in 1861 & 1862 as well as thriving speculation & a black market in Little Rock. In addition to crowded conditions, one soldier observed, "There is an odor about camps, that is sickening after one has been absent from there awhile. I do not care how nice they are kept they will smell badly. & anything that is cooked taste[s] like the camps smell. It is a disagreeable Kitchen smell that I cannot describe."
Sanitary conditions in camp were not as bad as the odors indicated, & the 13th had no fatalities in September after arriving at Camp Holmes. Capt William Blewett, after sitting up in bed & being told by the doctor that "he needed no more medicine" on Wednesday, died of a hemorrhage of the bowels early Fri morning, Sept 19th. Both the regimental chaplain John B. Renfro, & Blewett's brother-in-law Major Charles Beaty were with him in Little Rock when he died...

From here, [Devall's Bluff] we went up the river to Des Ark; remained a few days & returned to old Camp Nelson. On this trip many of the men fell sick from exposure. Being unaccustomed to hardships, many died. A man named [W. F.] Baxter of our company died at Des Ark. On this expedition, Maj. [Wilburn Hill] King of our Regt, rejoined us; he had been to Richmond, Virginia, to procure arms for the Regt. At the old camp, we resumed our drill & guard duty

9/13 near Austin, Ark, Camp Holmes-Dr. Bone to Minerva: his Regt is entering the war zone...

9/16 Camp Holmes-there are 13 Tex & 8 Ark Regts here. Also several other Tex Regts in the state & en route here. Col Randall now commands a Bgde of Clark’s, Roberts, Speight’s Waterhouse, Randall & Gould’s Bn

Butler Center for Ark Studies
Allen A. Cameron Civil War Letters

9/16 Camp Holmes, Ark. Soldier of 18thTex Infy (A. A. Cameron, Co. C) writes wife...

9/20 Camp Holmes, Ark

9/18 Camp Holmes ref in letter from man in 12th Tex Infy
Gen McCulloch is here & will command a Tex Div

9/23 ref to death in 14th Texas Infy at Camp Holmes

10/1-recd at Camp Holmes-forage for 18th Tex Infy

10/18 death at Camp Holmes [14th Tex Infy

10/18 ref at Camp Holmes for 22nd Tex Infy

10/19 Death-J. A. Watson, 28th Tex, Camp Holmes, Ark.

10/24 Camp Holmes, Dr. Bone to Minerva: many men are sick & he is very busy, no prospects of fighting this winter, it's snowing.

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