Living conditions in Arkansas during the post Civil War era.
By Laveral Rogers
Copyright

The Civil War began in may, 1862 and ended midyear 1865, with the surrender of the Confederate states.
The war was devastating to the Arkansas economy and to the honest, hardworking families that lived within the state lines.
The farmers and ranchers were somewhat victims of circumstances. Their farms, ranches and stores were raided by both Union and Confererate soldiers, not only for food and livestock for their soldiers, but to keep the food and livestock from being used by their foes, both North and South.
The Arkansans were as sly as a fox. Families and communities would hide food and supplies where the opposing armies couldn't find it. Families and communities would station sentries where they would pick up raiding parties before they reached their community. Then, as silent as wolves they would slip out of sight, hiding in their preselected caves, thick timber and other hiding places until the raiders had left their community. Peach Orchard, Arkansas was one fine example of this shrewdness.
The war was indeed devastating but families and entire communities stuck together to help each other survive one of the most savage and destructive wars ever fought on American soil.
Arkansas hosted several key battles during the Civil War. The Battle of Pea Ridge, the Battle of Helena, the Battle of Arkansas Post, and the list goes on and on. But who really was the real loser of these battles? Was it the officers and soldiers that wore the blue of the Union states or the officers and soldiers that wore the gray of the Confederate states? Could it have been the wives and children of both sides of the Civil War?
Let's make no mistake about it, times were very hard then. They didn't have the modern equipment that we have today and most of the inhabitants, at the time, lived in the woods with very little cleared land. Those that lived in the cleared areas, called the land 'new ground'; That's land that's been recently cleared to farm but that still has tree roots, stumps and chunks of wood scattered about that has to be picked up to farm those areas. The ground was hard enough for a man to plow and nearly impossible for a women or young teenage boy to work up and plant their crops. But it was left for the women and boys to do, and they did it! Some of the surnames listed on the rosters of the North and South armies, are the surnames that are still working the farms today, thanks to the hardworking women and boys of the Civil War families.
Farming and keeping the remaining family together was not all that the women of the war had to worry about. Raids from outlaws such as Quantrill's Guerrillas often raided outlying farms. Frank and Jesse James were amoung some of the ruffians that rode with Quantrill, when he would make a sweep down into Arkansas.
That strong family bond is still so prevalent in most Arkansas families, even today.
The war brought out both, the best and worst in the people of the era. Luckily for the descrndants of the Civil War survivers, that strong love and family bond overrode what evil persisted in the days following the Great American Civil War.
This era in Arkansas and Southern Missouri, is the era that my latest novel Mahan Mountain is written about.