November 17, 1861

A secret Unionist organization called the Peace Society, which opposed Confederate military service, was betrayed by John Holmes in Van Buren County, and word of the society spread rapidly. Investigations of the Peace Society, first in Fulton County then in Izard County, led to its discovery on the (1861) Izard–Searcy county line. When the organization was discovered in Searcy County on November 20, Colonel Samuel Leslie called out the Searcy County militia. The militia investigated and arrested more than 100 men, and, in early December, marched eighty-seven of them in chains to Little Rock (Pulaski County). Forced into the Confederate army, they were sent to Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Peace Society existed in several counties in north-central Arkansas.