Pvt. John Henry

In June 1864 a 20-year-old formerly enslaved man named John Henry enlisted in Battery H of the 2nd United States Colored Artillery regiment as a Private in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is not known how John Henry made his way to Arkansas from Franklin County, Virginia, where he was born March 10, 1844. He gave his occupation as a farmer. He was likely sold by his original owner; had he escaped from captivity in Virginia, he probably would not have made his way to another southern state. He occasionally used an alias, sometimes giving his name as John Henry Jones.

 

The 2nd US Colored Artillery was a ‘Light Artillery’ regiment, a designation which referred to the regiment’s mobility, not the size of its cannon. In a light artillery unit, gunners were mounted on horses as the army moved, so they could keep up with the cavalry units to which they were assigned. The cannons they fired and the caissons carrying powder and shells were drawn by six-horse teams.

 

In January 1865 Private Henry’s unit was assigned to join a large cavalry raid on Mount Elba, Arkansas, 36 miles away from Pine Bluff, commanded by Brigadier General Eugene A. Carr, a career Army officer. Carr was a veteran with many years of experience; his first combat assignment had been in the Battle of the Diablo Mountains in Texas, where he was wounded by an Apache arrow. Carr’s force set out from Little Rock, Arkansas on January 22, and stopped at Pine Bluffs to pick up more troops and the six cannon that would provide artillery support during the raid. All told 3519 Union soldiers would participate in the expedition.

 

The Union force set out from Pine Bluff at daylight on January 26. They arrived at Mount Elba the following day, after their advance party had skirmished with a party of about 60 Rebels, capturing 10 of them. One Union trooper and two Confederates were killed. At Mount Elba the Federal troops built a pontoon bridge over the Saline River. Leaving his infantry units to guard the river crossing, Carr led his cavalry across the bridge to continue the raid farther south, at one point approaching within two miles of the town of Camden, Arkansas where they engaged another small Confederate force.

 

They returned to Little Rock on February 4, 1865, marching much of the way through cold rain on muddy roads, and having captured 34 Confederate prisoners and killed three Rebels. One of the Union raiders was killed, and three were wounded.

 

On mustering out of the Army in 1866 Private John Henry would make a home Lincoln County, Arkansas - only 45 miles from Pine Bluff –and marry a woman named Flora, who was born in Alabama. In 1880, the couple farmed in Choctaw, Lincoln County, Arkansas. Twenty years later, in 1900, they are still there and in the household are two “grandchildren,” born in Arkansas, Harvey Tate, 15, and Lillie Ann Hadden, 11. The children are working as farm laborers. No record of children for John and Flora was found in the 1880 Census, so we are not certain that the youngsters present in 1900 were actually their grandchildren.