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Transcribed from the Van Buren County, Ar Probate Docket Book by Lynn Risener At top of first page: Certificate to be furnished auditor that the Pensioner is still living from the first Monday in July to the last Monday in August each year. List of Pension Claims Filed Aug 6th 1892 Bethans?, Stewart Lexington $125.00 allowed Widow of Samuel Stewart Possibly this Samuel Stewart (since he was last listed on the 1860 census) Stewart, Samuel Private—Enlisted at Quitman, Arkansas, November 9, 1861; age 30; absent sick since May 1863; captured and paroled at Yazoo City, Mississippi, July 13, 1863; reportedly died. This company, the “Quitman Sharpshooters”, was organized at Quitman, Arkansas, on October 30, 1861, Captain Jesse E. Martin commanding. When McCray’s Battalion was organized on January 25, 1862, the Quitman Sharpshooters was assigned as Company B. The company retained this designation when McCray’s Battalion was reorganized as the 31st Arkansas Infantry on May 27, 1862. A total of 85 men are known to have served with Company B. Nearly a third of them died of disease during the war; and only three of them were still with the colors at the surrender in April 1865. One member, Sergeant J. Greene Read, was posthumously awarded the Confederate equivalent of the Medal of Honor for his heroism at the Battle of Chickamauga. [From the website: http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/31stcob.html] For Yazooans the War Between the States at first seemed far away. For its first full year, though scores of Yazoo boys had already enlisted and many were fighting in distant Virginia, life at home went on quietly. And in those early, heady days of the conflict, most Yazooans expected things to remain that way. Then in the Spring of 1862, in rapid succession, came stunning, sobering Confederate losses nearer home in the Western Theater. Union victories at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and Shiloh in Tennessee brought the war to Mississippi’s doorstep. The U.S. Navy entered the Mississippi River in force from both north and sough, quickly capturing New Orleans and Baton Rouge, then Memphis. With Vicksburg as President Lincoln’s next target, and Admiral Farragut steaming toward it, Yazoo City and Yazoo County, in the space of a few weeks, found themselves almost in the center of the storm. During the rest of the war, the Yazoo River was controlled by Union gunboats, and Yazoo County saw many raids out of their Vicksburg stronghold by Federal Expeditions. Yazoo City itself was temporarily occupied six times. A few of the most important military actions in Yazoo County were these: On May 22, 1863, General U.S. Grant dispatched 12,000 troops to meet Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, who was said to be massing a large force to relieve Vicksburg. The Union troops were placed under General Frank Blair. In the Yazoo County village of Mechanicsburg, Blair met Colonel W. Wirt Adms’ Mississippi Calvary. Greatly outnumbered by the Union troops, the Confederates were forced back toward the Big Black River. Southeast of Mechanicsburg, the Confederates rallied and made one last attempt to stop the Union advance, but were outgunned by the Union artillery. However, the Union expedition returned to Vicksburg. A historic event occurred on July 12, 1863, when one of the first underwater mines was used to sink the Union ironclad, the USS Baron DeKalb, which still rests on the bottom of the Yazoo River and can still be seen during times of low water. You can visit the gravesite of the designer of that mine in Glenwood Cemetery. A Confederate Navy Yard at Yazoo City produced the Ironclad Ram CSS Arkansas in the summer of 1862, which single-handedly blazed its way into the midst of the huge Yankee fleet besieging Vicksburg. Causing great damage, it was among the reasons leading the U.S. Navy to call off the siege and return downstream. [From the Website: http://www.yazoo.org/website/history/history_civil_war.htm] References
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