Mankins and the Civil War

After Pete Mankins’ initial run-in with Yankee soldiers, this man of resolution, raised a company of volunteers to fight for the Confederacy. Using his own money from his fortune earned after he returned with a nest egg from the California gold fields, Pete outfitted 64 of the volunteers himself at a cost of $500. Many of these men had been comrades in arms in Captain H.W. Fincher’s old militia outfit in the 1840s.

Mankins made C. Catil 1st Lieutenant, Peter Van Hoose 2nd Lieutenant, George Ballard 3rd Lieutenant, George Van Hoose Ordinance Sergeant and Pete himself would of course be the Captain of the White River Hundred, a name he came up with. Actually, there were ten messes of eight men each in the company, and they included men such as his brother Wat, Adam, Ben and Jordan Carter, John and Jim Shumate, John Lewis, William Schumate and Alfred Fine.

The complete roll of Mankins’ Company is listed in the February, 1976 Flashback, available at the Fayetteville Public Library in the Genealogical Section.

Many stories are told about Mankins and his devotion to the Confederacy, yet he only remained with the White River Hundred for a short time. He soon decided he could be of more help to his beloved Confederacy in other ways and turned over command of the company to W.H. Brooks, a Confederate colonel. The equipment Mankins bought for the company went to outfit another company organized under Captain George Van Hoose.

A conflicting story is told, however, as to why Pete gave up fighting. One concerns his daughter, who died at the age of 15. It is said that at the time of her death he was so devastated that he vowed to leave the company and return home, never to fight again. However, this story has no basis in fact, and is probably just a romantic notion developed by those who actually had no first-hand knowledge. It is said in his younger days he killed a bear single handedly with only a knife as a weapon, but these stories are told of many “larger than life” heroes of that day. Look at the tall tales that evolve around Daniel Boone. And who is left today to say whether they are true or not?

Prior to the war, Pete Mankins was said to be the wealthiest man in Washington County, but the Civil War changed all that. However, he remained a prominent figure in the community around Sulphur City, originally known as Mankins.

Years after the war Captain George Van Hoose wrote of that conflict: “Until the war between the states came up we scarcely ever saw anything that made our hair stand on end, but when we joined McCulloch’s and Price’s army, and was brought face to face with a foe who knew how to shoot straight as well as we Arkansas hunters, and were not careful how they handled their guns, it made the old fellow wish sometimes that he had stayed in Kentucky at first, or had stayed with dear brother (Jake) in the Pike’s Peak gold mines, where Leadville stands now, where we were hunting gold when the war began to brew and we, like a fool, let go and came back to these old White River hills to get in with the friends and kinfolks of childhood.”

George became a prisoner of war on Johnson’s Island during those difficult times.

There is probably further information relating to what happened to tarnish the early popularity of folk hero Pete Mankins. Or perhaps heroes went out of style for a while during the post-war years, considering many fought on the losing side. However, Mankins reputation seems to have faded after the Civil War. That conflict changed many things in the county and the state. Fortunes made were lost, homes built were burned, families treasured were scattered or killed by bushwhackers. Perhaps he simply grew older and wiser and stopped being such a daredevil.

Next Month: Ned Christie, Cherokee Outlaw