Uncle Harry's Little War

          Harry, as a young man, (fifteen when the Civil War started)  had been in many hard battles for the South – Poison Springs, Marks Mill, Prairie De Ann, and others. Then he went back, after the war, to his 32 acre farm at Dover, which he eventually grew into 1200 acres with the best house in Dover.  But not before he and his rebel buddies fought their own little war at home. And they won. The Pope County Militia War. I have studied three versions of this war, the first being the rebel version, found in Aunt Lula Belle's trunk after her death. To protect your tender twenty first century sensibilities as much as possible, I am mostly using the historian's version, many years removed from the fray.

     After Lincoln was killed, his plan to move the South back into the fold as quickly as possible was  changed.  Johnson liked the plan also, but lacked the power to sway Congress. They and many other government officials wanted to punish the rebels a while. They called it The Reconstruction. In some places, government did whatever necessary to eliminate rebel vote and participation, leaving the ex-rebels at the mercy of greedy and dishonest northern political officials, who hated them.

     Dover had few slaves. Most didn't need or want them.  A few acres here and there of rich river bottom land was not conducive to that. The mountains around Dover are tough as a boot. I know. As a young man, I rode in the back of a pickup each day one summer to Dover and worked in those mountains. I wore out two good pair of leather boots that summer. And, hard mountains produce hard people. The vets returning home from the war were a mixture of North and South. And they still hated each other.  No rebels held government jobs or offices. Without a strong county government, everybody suffered from roving bands of outlaws, scalawags, and carpet baggers, and much land was stolen by corrupt northern officials.

     Dodson Napier was the first Sheriff. He and his deputy were promptly shot.  William Stout, the county clerk, was shot through a knothole at his home. The replacement sheriff was shot while plowing.  Later, Confederate Major George Newton  was credited with all these killings, but too late to help this situation. Major Newton moved to Texas later and became a preacher.

   Feeling a little insecure one would suppose, a Dover native, Elisha Dodson, who had fought for the north, was awarded the job of sheriff. The next clerk, Wallace Hickox, was a Yankee, an able, brave and bold leader. But he was a schemer, made no local friends, and considered the rebels to be some short of human. The rebels hated him. By 1872,  John  Williams, a brother of a former sheriff, became deputy. Probably with no long expectations of life.

 The officials were justifiably scared. They needed protection. In an effort to get martial law declared, with Army protection, they took Williams out in the woods and faked a shooting. They shot holes in his clothes, hat, even his belt buckle. The word was passed that someone had tried to kill him. He hid out at home a while.  His neighbors, from both sides, gathered around him. One ex-rebel even offered to guarantee Williams life with his own.  He was refused.

At some point here, Uncle Harry took his wife and child, along with my Grandma, up to the mountains around Clarksville, twenty miles away, and hid them out in a mountain cave. He knew things were about to get hot around Dover. I don't know how long they stayed there, could have been up to two years, the duration of this war.

 On July 8, 1872, Hickox, the County Clerk,  had a bright idea. Round up a group of local men who might have been involved in the shootings, kill them on the way to jail, blame the killings on local people who they will say ambushed them. This should get martial law declared, plus the worst ones will be dead.

 They formed a posse of 30 men, including all the local officials, even the Superintendent of Schools. They went looking for likely suspects for all the killings.   Uncle Harry and the other most likely suspects heard about it, and skipped. They went to arrest Matt Hale, but he had skipped, so they arrested his father, Jack Hale, and his brother, William Hale.  Liberty West, a blacksmith, came up and begged them to release the two. He continued following them and begging, so they arrested him too. They finally arrested Joe Tucker (likely one of my relatives). They continued on toward Dardanelle, supposedly to deliver the suspects to jail. Finding no feed for their horses near Shiloh church, they continued on into the night. Near the Shiloh bridge, an official said, “If we are attacked, be sure to save the prisoners.” A voice said, “It's dark.” Another voice, “Dark as Egypt.” A third voice, “Egypt has no eyes.” On that signal,  the officials began shooting the prisoners and the horses started bucking. It's hard to shoot a man in the dark from a bucking horse.  Jack Hale laid over on his horse's side and lay spurs to its flanks. He rode out of it, his horse getting several wounds but he was untouched. His son, William, rode out of it too, but so severely shot in the back that he had to unhorse a little later. His horse got away and quickly caught up with Jack Hale. William crawled to a house, dying a few days later. Liberty West was thrown from his horse, hid behind a log and listened.  Joe Tucker was shot severely in the head and lay groaning. An official walked over and shot him again.

 Jack Hale did not stop running until he reached Dover, his son's horse with a bloody saddle beside him.  When he told his story, it spread like wildfire in Dover.  By daylight, Uncle Harry and other leaders, along with 50 or so other men, were on their way to Shiloh. They did not find the posse.   

 The Posse was never found, likely having disbanded and gone to Little Rock. About two weeks later, Governor Hadley came to Dover, but refused to declare martial law.

     Now, the officials, Hickox, Dodson, and Williams were in a bad spot. Give up their position, or return to their jobs. About the end of August, they came back to Dover and resumed their jobs On Friday, August 30, Dodson's son drove a wagon to the courthouse, and all the county records were loaded on, and hauled off, later found hidden in a cave.  The court house was boarded up. The next day, word had spread that the officials were about to leave. Tension was in the air. Armed men were in the streets.

 I am going to switch to the rebel version of what happened next, because it was told later by a Judge who was Uncle Harry's friend, and I think he was in the know.

 About middle of the afternoon, the three officials completed their work at the courthouse. They got on their horses and began walking toward Russellville down the street Reece B. Hogins, Uncle Harry, and John F. Hale  had agreed to kill the three men as they started out, in retribution  for the Shiloh killings. The officials made their start a little earlier than expected, and Uncle Harry was the only one in his proper place to discharge his duty when the 3 men started out. He was there; and when the three men saw him they began to draw  pistols, and at the crack of Uncle Harry's gun, Hickox  “ bounced from his saddle like a squirrel shot from a tree.” The other two men fired at Uncle Harry, but missed, and ran out of town shot at by a large number of people. It may sound cruel, but good women in the town of Dover looked at the dead man lying in the street, and rejoiced,  feeling that the greatest enemy to their peace had been killed. An “over the body” inquest was held, and Harry was not charged.

    But this did not fly in Rusellville.  Later, a 30 man posse was deputized to go to Dover and Arrest Uncle Harry. They found him, two pistols strapped on, a double barrel shotgun in his hand. Lots of Dover people were around, friendly as could be to the posse.  After showing Harry the arrest warrant, Harry said he was willing to be tried if they could guarantee his safety. He was told they could only guarantee it to the best of their ability. They asked for his guns. Harry reply made him a local legend.  “I will only give up my guns with my life, and I will make the man who takes it pay a heavy price.”

    Much discussion among the deputies followed. It was said, “These people would kill Jeff Davis himself to prevent us from taking Harry by force.” And that was true. Behind the scenes, many of the women had armed themselves, and swore to fight to the end for Harry. The men were determined that Harry would not be taken. Finally, the Deputy turned to a friend of Harry's and said, “I hereby deputize you, and order you to hold Harry under arrest until we get back to you.”  And they left. One deputy said on the way out of town, “Well, if that is an arrest, we have arrested him. I don't think it was much of an arrest, but we have discharged our duty as best we could, safety considered.

   The army kept peace for periods, during which times the town was practically deserted. Only a couple of killings were recorded for awhile. 

      Warrants were issued for ten citizens of Dover, but they could not be arrested. Finally, the Militia agreed to let the ten men bring in ten bodyguards each, if they would come in to Rusellville to stand trial. It was agreed. 110 Men, armed to the teeth, rode in, dismounted, walked in the courtroom and the ten men announced themselves ready for trial.

   Now I revert back to the rebel version, which gives a better look at the inside goings on.The trial commenced, and proceeded with until the noon hour, at which time John F. Hale proposed that they should go back to the courtroom and kill out the entire court and officials, leaving no one to tell how it happened but their friends. It was agreed to, but they postponed the act until the following morning, in order, as they said, that they might be completely organized in every detail, and not kill someone that ought not to be killed.  However, from some sort of conduct, or for some reason, the court became suspicious. Court adjourned that afternoon to reconvene the following morning. The prisoners and their guards returned, but that court never did reconvene, and stands adjourned to this good day.

    With the change to a democratic governor, this period was over, and these men were allowed to again run their town. Every leader of the Shiloh ambush was dead, except for the Superintendent of  schools, who fled to Iowa. They became prominent men of the community. Uncle Harry became an alderman, raised seven children in Dover, founded the Bank of Dover, became well off. However, as I looked through hundreds of issues of Pope County Historical Society publications, I found that if I looked under shootouts, or the like, Uncle Harry was sometimes there.   

    From the  Courier Democrat, Russellville, Ar. April 16, 1931.

{4}         "The death of “Uncle Harry” Poynter, at Dover, April 14, removed from the walks of life the last confederate veteran of this county who took an active part in the Pope County Militia War that raged with fury around Dover in 1872 and 73. His funeral was one of the most largely attended events ever held in Pope County.

   Dover was ravaged by the carpet bagger forces, suffered the loss of the county seat, and was twice reduced to ruins by fire, but the passing of W. H. “Uncle Harry” Poynter  was one of the town's darkest and saddest hours.

    At the funeral an orchestra was present, in keeping with a request made by Poynter. The band played sacred hymns at the church, then retired to the site of his home recently destroyed by fire and there played “Home Sweet Home”. And as a fitting tribute to this fallen Chieftain and at his request, played his favorite tune of Dixie as the last rite of the funeral."     

     Now lets get back to grandma's milk cow problem. Uncle Harry came over and set out to find the thief. Family Members were able to give him a pretty good idea about where to start, I would imagine.After a time, he came back with the milk cows.  No questions asked, no answers given.

      I am told that the Yell County Sheriff wished to question Grandma about this matter but was afraid to, Possibly because she was very close to a very dangerous man. It seems a man was missing.