Pope County soldiers served in at least 10 companies raised for Confederate service during the Civil War, fighting in battles east of the Mississippi River and in Arkansas. Two companies were raised in Pope County to serve in the 3rd Arkansas Cavalry (U.S.), engaging in anti-guerrilla operations in the Arkansas River valley. Although no major battles were fought in Pope County, skirmishes occurred there on Jan. 25 and Feb. 5, 1863, at Dover on March 25, 1864, at Norristown on May 19 and Sept. 6, 1864, and at Glass Village on Sept. 8, 1864. After the Civil War, bad feelings ran deep in Pope County. Arkansas’s Unionist Gov. Isaac Murphy appointed a former U.S. soldier as county sheriff in 1865, and a former Confederate officer killed him, a deputy, and the county clerk. A new sheriff was murdered in 1866, and federal troops occupied the county from 1867-69. Violence flared again in 1872, and a militia unit formed to restore order instead killed several prisoners. Martial law was declared, but murders continued. Calm returned with Reconstruction’s end.