Ephraim Sharp, namesake of Sharp County, and his brother William were prominent businessmen in Evening Shade when the Civil War began. William served in the state legislature in 1860 and opposed Arkansas’s secession. The Sharp family was divided by the war, as Ephraim and William remained loyal to the Union while other family members fought for the Confederacy. Ephraim served in the Unionist legislature in Little Rock in 1864 and represented the area in the 1868 General Assembly when Sharp County was created from western Lawrence County. In Sharp County, loyalties were divided during the Civil War, with some men joining Confederate units after Arkansas seceded on May 6, 1861, while others continued to support the Union. U.S. troops passed through Evening Shade in early 1862, both sides patrolled and camped in the area, and skirmishes took place in Sharp County in 1863 and 1864. Violence continued after the war with the murder of a Freedmen’s Bureau agent on Dec. 25, 1867. In postwar politics, Sharp County was created on July 18, 1868, with Evening Shade as the county seat, which was later moved to Ash Flat.