Peter V. Green (1837–1869)

Confederate colonel Peter V. Green, an attorney of Bradley County, Arkansas, served during the Civil War as a company and regimental commander of the Fifth Arkansas Infantry. He led the regiment after promotion to colonel upon the death of Colonel John E. Murray and continued in that role until the final surrender. 

Peter Green was born in 1837 in Rutherford County, North Carolina, the third child of seven of William H. Green and Unicy Green. His early life is not documented, but in 1850 he was residing in Cleveland County, North Carolina, and was evidently educated in the local schools; it is unknown if he attended any college or university. At some point, he passed the bar exam, relocating to Arkansas and settling in Bradley County by 1860, where he established his law practice. 

Upon the secession of Arkansas from the Union in May 1861, Green enlisted and was elected captain of Company C, Fifth Arkansas Cavalry, State Troops, later redesignated as Company C. Sent to northeastern Arkansas, the regiment was transferred to Confederate service in July and ordered to Bowling Green, Kentucky, in October 1861 as part of General William Hardee’s command of General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Army of Central Kentucky. During the April 6–7 Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, the Fifth Arkansas did not take an active combat role, being ordered to picket the approaches into Corinth, Mississippi. 

At the reorganization of the Confederate army near Corinth, Green was elected major on May 12, 1862. As such, he participated in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, April 29–May 30, 1862. That fall, he and the Fifth Arkansas fought at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, on October 4, during the 1862 Kentucky Campaign, and due to heavy losses, the Fifth and Thirteenth Arkansas regiments were permanently consolidated. Returning to Tennessee, Green saw action at the Battle of Murfreesboro in Tennessee (December 31, 1862), the Tullahoma Campaign and Battle of Liberty Gap in Tennessee (June 25, 1863), and the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia (September 19–20, 1863). Colonel Lucius Featherston was killed at Chickamauga, elevating Lieutenant Colonel John E. Murray to command and Green to lieutenant colonel. Green would serve in this capacity through the Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge battles and at Ringgold Gap, Georgia, on November 27, 1863, during the retreat.  

In the spring of 1864, Green participated in all the battles of the Atlanta Campaign. At the July 22, 1864, Battle of Atlanta, Colonel Murray was killed, and Major General Hardee appointed Green as colonel by special order. Green led his combined regiment through General Hood’s disastrous 1864 Tennessee campaign, fighting at Columbia, Spring Hill, and Franklin in late November, and on December 15–16, the two-day Battle of Nashville, resulting in the complete defeat and retreat of Confederate forces. Afterward, during the Carolinas Campaign, Green commanded the Arkansas brigade formerly led by Brigadier General Daniel Govan during the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, in March 1865. At the surrender of the Army of Tennessee on April 26, 1865, Green’s combined regiment numbered barely 100 survivors. 

Upon returning home, Green moved to Millville in Rusk County, Texas, to be near his parents. He never married. 

Green was a professional gambler and heavy drinker. On the night of April 3, 1869, after one of Green’s drinking bouts, he stopped by the plantation cabin of a local Black family demanding supper. He laid his pistol on the table but failed to notice one of the family members take it, and Green was forced to have his hands tied behind his back. Three men then led him almost a mile away and hanged him from a hickory tree. The murder was discovered and the guilty parties arrested. Three days later, a mob led by the brother of Green took the men from jail and hanged them on the public square fronting the courthouse.  

Green is buried in the Millville Cemetery in Rusk County, Texas. 

For additional information:
Barnhill, Floyd R., and Calvin L. Collier. The Fighting Fifth: Pat Cleburne’s Cutting Edge: The Fifth Arkansas Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. 

King, Major Michael R., USMC. “Brigadier General St. Joh R. Liddell’s Division at Chickamauga: The Study of a Division’s Performance in Battle.” MMAS thesis, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1997. Online at https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA331812.pdf (accessed March 27, 2025).  

Masters, Daniel A. Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862–January 1863. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2025. 

Sanders, Stuart W. “‘Literally Covered with Dead and Dying’: Leonidas Polk and the Battle of Perryville.” American Battlefield Trust, November 7, 2023. https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/literally-covered-dead-and-dying (accessed March 27, 2025). 

Willis, James. Arkansas Confederates in the Western Theater. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1998. 

Anthony Rushing
Benton, Arkansas