William K. Patterson (1822–1911)

Confederate colonel William Kerr Patterson, a lawyer and farmer from Jacksonport (Jackson County), served during the Civil War as commander of the Eighth Arkansas Infantry. He led the regiment from 1861 until after the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6–7, 1862), when he resigned his command and returned home to Arkansas, serving as a military court judge until the end of the war.

William Kerr Patterson was born on October 22, 1822, in Sumner County, Tennessee, to Hugh K. Patterson and Cynthia Murray Patterson. His father was a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. William attended Wirt College of Sumner County, obtaining an education allowing him to begin practicing law at the age of seventeen in 1839. Patterson practiced law in Sumner County and, in 1849, married Samuellan J. Ridley; they had four children. By 1853, the Pattersons had moved to Jacksonport, where William purchased a farm and began his law practice. He served a single term in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1854 to 1855 and as the prosecuting attorney for the Arkansas Third Circuit from 1856 to 1860.

After Arkansas seceded in May 1861, companies in northeastern Arkansas came together at Jacksonport, forming the Eighth Arkansas Infantry. Patterson was elected colonel and was transferred to Confederate service in July and later ordered to Bowling Green, Kentucky, as part of General William Hardee’s command of General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Army of Central Kentucky. During the April 6–7, 1862, Battle of Shiloh, the Eighth Arkansas was placed in Brigadier General S. A. M. Wood’s brigade, seeing heavy combat both days, resulting in very heavy casualties. During the battle, Colonel Patterson, as senior colonel, took command of Wood’s brigade after Wood was wounded, leading it through the remainder of the battle. After the battle, the Eighth Arkansas could only muster 272 men.

On April 26, 1862, Colonel Patterson resigned as commander of the regiment and returned to Arkansas and his law practice. As Union forces took control of most of the northeastern portions of Arkansas by 1864, Patterson was requested by Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith to serve as presiding judge, with the rank of colonel, for Major General James F. Fagan’s cavalry division in all military courts. He continued in this duty until the close of the war when the Army of the Trans-Mississippi was surrendered at Marshall, Texas, on May 26, 1865.

At the end of the war, Patterson returned to Jacksonport and continued with his law practice. Being an active member and supporter of the Presbyterian Church, he served as one of the trustees at the creation of Arkansas College (now Lyon College) in Batesville (Independence County). In 1876, he retired as an attorney and returned to Tennessee. Moving to Smyrna in Rutherford County, Patterson purchased a 600-acre farm, where he spent the remainder of his life as a successful farmer and stock raiser, active in his church and the Masonic fraternity.

After the death of his wife, at some point Patterson moved to Nashville, most likely to be near his children as he experienced health issues related to heart disease. At midnight on November 22, 1911, he died of “angina pectoris.” He was survived by two of his children, William K. and Ella M. He was buried that same day in an unmarked grave in the Patterson Cemetery near Smyrna, Tennessee.

For additional information:
“Col. William Kerr Patterson.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107986081/william_kerr-patterson (accessed June 5, 2026).

“Colonel Patterson Buried Near Smyrna.” Nashville Banner, November 25, 1911, p. 15.

Cunningham, O. Edward, Gary D. Joiner, and Timothy B. Smith. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2007.

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

Anthony Rushing
Benton, Arkansas