To Serve

Near the Cleveland County, Arkansas community of Woodlawn, a small isolated cemetery contains two graves whose tombstones stand scarcely 50 feet apart. Both are military markers, erected sometime during the 20^th Century, identifying veterans of the American Civil War.

One identifies George W. Harris of the First Indiana Cavalry. A unit that occupied and defended my hometown of Pine Bluff from Confederate forces in 1863, and participated in the Battle of Helena, Arkansas on July 4 of that year.

The other tombstone identifies William M. Coats of the 26^th Arkansas Infantry. That unit was present but not used at the Battle of Prairie Grove, AR, and took part in the Battle of Jenkins Ferry and other actions of the ill-fated Camden Expedition by federal forces under General Steele.

These men were my maternal great-grandfathers. Neither owned slaves. Both farmed and raised families in the rolling land of that part of the state. I'm sure that provided only a minimal existence at the time.

Tombstone of
George Harris

Little is known of George Harris except that he served in the war, his first wife died young, and he re-married. It is said that his son, my maternal grandfather, didn’t get on well with the second wife.

 

William Coats

Of William Coats, a bit more information exists. My grandmother related to me once that her he had told her of the danger he faced, from roving bands of brigands he called “gray legs,” who preyed on former soldiers returning home. He termed it a particularly dangerous part of his experience as a soldier.

What made these men, from the same neighborhood and similar backgrounds, choose whom to serve? I asked my grandmother this once. Her answer? “Well,” she said, seeming to be surprised that I would ask, “Poppa was a Democrat, and Mr. Harris was a Republican." One can only hope that the differences never again become so extreme in our country.

His obituary stated that Great-Grandpa Coats died suddenly of a heart attack. It also stated that his dream was to be a minister, but the demands of raising a family confined that to a part-time endeavor. It stated that he was a well-respected man, and, in an odd bit of phrasing, “… never took part in any of the neighborhood brawls.”

Good for him, whatever that meant.