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Civil War Arkansas, 1863: The Battle for a State. By Mark K. Christ. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. Pp. xii, 321. Acknowledgments, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.)
The year 1863 was not a turning point in all the Confederate states, but it was for Arkansas. In his well-written and researched book, Mark Christ examines the failure of Rebel military forces to throw back the Federal invaders (or were they liberators?) in 1863. From the Union attack at Arkan sas Post in January to the October battle of Pine Bluff, the Confederate cause suffered a string of disasters in the state.
Christ begins his book not with a battle but the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. He does not go into much detail concerning the effect emancipation had on Arkansas in 1863, but Lincoln's executive order began a new military phase of the conflict. The battle of Arkansas Post- fought shortly after the United States' victory at Prairie Grove 300 miles to the northwest-revealed how serious the Union was about conquering Arkansas: Federals outnumbered the 4000-man Confederate garrison ten to one. Christ...