September 7, 2010

Not long after enlisting in the Confederate army, future governor James P. Eagle was transferred to the Second Arkansas Mounted Rifles. He was wounded on at least two occasions and spent time in a Union prison camp. He is shown here proudly wearing a new major’s star on his uniform after being promoted in May 1863. Eagle fought in many of the major battles of the Army of Tennessee and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel before the army’s surrender in 1865.