Daniel Marsh Frost (1823–1900)

Confederate brigadier general Daniel Marsh Frost participated in several engagements in Arkansas. Commanding troops from Missouri, Frost served in the Missouri State Guard before joining the Confederate army.  

Daniel Marsh Frost was born in Mariaville, New York, on August 9, 1823, to James Frost, who was a lawyer, and Mary Marsh Frost. The family had one additional child after Frost who lived to adulthood. Frost was a descendant of Edmund Frost, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1835. 

Frost attended the Albany Academy before receiving an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1840. Receiving his commission four years later as the fourth-highest-ranking cadet in his class, Frost joined the First Artillery. After serving in Rhode Island, Maine, and Florida, Frost transferred to the First Mounted Rifles in 1846 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Frost served on the staff of General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War and received a brevet for his actions at the Battle of Cerro Gordo.  

After the war, Frost served in Oregon, where he was wounded in action against Native Americans, and returned to Missouri in 1851 on recruiting duty, where he married Eliza Brown Graham. Additional assignments followed, with a posting to Europe, where he studied cavalry tactics, and a brief stint in Texas before resigning his commission in 1853. Frost returned to Missouri, where he operated a lumber mill and practiced law. He also received an appointment to the West Point Board of Visitors in 1853. In his single term in the Missouri state legislature, Frost passed a bill related to discipline in the state militia. 

His family connections and military experience led to his appointment as a brigadier general in the state militia in Missouri in 1858. He led an expedition to the southwestern corner of Missouri in 1860 in response to threats from jayhawkers in Kansas, but little came of the endeavor.  

Actively involved with efforts to seize the Federal arsenal in St. Louis, Frost commanded the militia during the Camp Jackson Affair on May 10, 1861, where Federal troops forced the Missourians to surrender before attacking the arsenal. Frost was held as a prisoner for a short period, formally paroled on October 26, 1861.  

Traveling to Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, Frost spoke with various Confederate officers about the military situation in Missouri. Major General Leonidas Polk worked with Frost and nominated him as a brigadier general on December 7, 1861. Entering the field, Frost took command of the Seventh and Ninth Divisions of the Missouri State Guard. While not part of the Confederate army, these troops fought alongside Southern troops against Federal forces.  

In this role, Frost commanded his units at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862. On the march to the battle, many of his men fell out due to the pace and did not participate in the engagement. The losses his men suffered were not recorded. After the battle, the Confederate Army of the West reorganized, and Frost took command of an artillery brigade. Moving with the bulk of Confederate forces from Arkansas to Mississippi, Frost received a short appointment as the inspector general of the Army of the Mississippi on May 8, 1862, serving only until May 28. Frost returned to Arkansas in October and took command of a division consisting of a brigade of Arkansas infantry and a brigade from Missouri. Few of his troops had a positive opinion of the New York–born general.  

Leading his division at the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862, Frost received the compliments of his commander, Major General Thomas C. Hindman. He later led troops to oppose the capture of Van Buren (Crawford County). Frost temporarily commanded Hindman’s division after his former commander was transferred to the Mississippi. Frost and his brigade did not participate in the Battle of Helena, guarding fortifications along the Arkansas River with headquarters at Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). During the Little Rock Campaign, Frost commanded Sterling Price’s division as Price led the Confederate defense of the capital. After the defeat at Little Rock (Pulaski County), Frost resumed command of his brigade at Arkadelphia (Clark County).  

As he led his brigade back to the defenses along the Arkansas River in the fall of 1863, Frost’s command was criticized during an inspection by an officer from the Confederate Department of the Trans-Mississippi. The inspector found the brigade lacking in training and the camp unclean while the men suffered from a lack of clothing and shoes.  

While serving with the army in Arkansas, Eliza Frost remained in Union-held St. Louis, where she was watched closely due to her husband’s service. Along with ten other women and eight men, Eliza Frost was banished from the city in April 1863. Taking a circuitous route, she arrived in Arkadelphia that summer.  

With his wife in poor health following her journey, Frost requested leave to care for her, and Sterling Price approved; however, Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes, as the commander of the Department of Arkansas, rescinded the order. Frost did not return to his brigade and was eventually labeled a deserter. Frost took his family to Mexico, where he resigned from the army on November 30, 1863. Traveling through Cuba and New York City, Frost took his family to Montreal, Canada. Further efforts to gain another command were not met with success, and Frost remained in Canada for the remainder of the war. He took the oath of allegiance to the United States on August 7, 1865, in Canada, and received a presidential pardon that October.  

Returning to St. Louis, Frost became active in politics and veterans’ affairs. Upon the death of his first wife in 1874, Frost married Harriet Chenie LaMotte. She died in 1878, and Frost married Catherine Clemens Cate. Frost had five children by his first wife and three by his second. Efforts to clear his name of the desertion charge were met with some success, but questions continued to follow him for the remainder of his life. Frost died on October 29, 1900, and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.  

For additional information:
Bearss, Edwin C. “The Federals Raid Van Buren and Threaten Fort Smith.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 26 (Summer 1967): 123–142. 

Christ, Mark K. Civil War Arkansas, 1863: The Battle for a State. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2010. 

Huff, Leo E. “The Union Expedition Against Little Rock.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 22 (Fall 1963): 224–237. 

Miller, Robert E. “Daniel Marsh Frost, C.S.A.” Missouri Historical Review 85 (July 1991): 381–401. Online at https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/mhr/id/45330 (accessed May 13, 2025). 

Oates, Stephen B. “The Prairie Grove Campaign, 1862.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19 (Summer 1960): 119–141. 

Shea, William L., and Earl J. Hess. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992. 

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University