During the Civil War, thirteen companies were raised and organized in Ashley County for Confederate service: Co. F, 2nd Arkansas Cavalry; Cos. A, B, K and L, 3rd Arkansas Infantry; Co. F, 8th Arkansas Infantry Battalion; Co. K, 9th Arkansas Infantry; Cos. G and H, 12th Arkansas Cavalry; Cos. A and G, 37th Arkansas Infantry; Co. A, 13th Louisiana Partisan Rangers; and Tiner’s Co. Home Guards. The county’s only combat was a March 30, 1864, skirmish at Longview in which Union cavalry surprised a Confederate force and captured 260 soldiers. The 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment, the only Arkansas regiment to serve in the Army of Northern Virginia, originated with two Ashley County companies, and two more joined later. Hamburg lawyer Van H. Manning led the regiment for most of the war. The 3rd Arkansas saw action at Harper’s Ferry and then suffered heavy casualties at Antietam, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga. Only 300 men were left to fight the 1864 battles at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, and only 144 of the 1,353 men who served with the 3rd remained at war’s end.