William B. Ochiltree served as secretary of the treasury and the last attorney general of the Republic of Texas. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Secession Convention and an influential member of the Provisional Congress, which drafted the Confederate Constitution, mobilized manpower, set up a financial structure, and elected political leaders. He resigned to raise the 18th Texas Infantry and led troops to Arkansas in 1862 when the regiment was called in a campaign to repel Union forces from the state.