Rev. Jehu CHASTAIN ^{1 2}

   Cause of his death was Attacked by bushwackers near Flint Creek, Arkansas.

   Ancestral File Number: GC1X-Q0.

   General Notes:

He married Martha Carter 1825. In 1829, Jehu joined the Baptist church and entered the ministry . He was ordained in Rabun County, Georgia. He served churches in western North Carolina and Georgia. He was moderator of his association and was several times chairman of the General Convention in North Carolina. He was a successful evangelist. He was also severa l times correspondent from the General Convention in North Carolina to the General Association of East Tennesse and was instrumental in keeping up that union. He moved his family from Georgia to Washington County, Arkansas, either living with his brother, Edward Bruce, in 1843 and arriving in the spring of 1844, or following very soon thereafter. Instead of going on to Crawford County, Arkansas, with his brother, he moved to Texas. The length of time he was in Texas in not certain, but by 1851 he had returned to Arkansas and was living in Benton County. Here he lived and continued his ministry until his death, July 20, 1862. He was surprised by "bushwackers" and killed at Flint Creek, near his home, Obituary "Resolved - That in the death of Brother Jehu CHASTAIN , this Association has lost of of her strongest, ablest and most efficient ministers, but we would say to his most esteemed widow and orphans not to worrow, as those without hope, but let us look forward to the time when we shall meet him in that General Association above, whose congregation never breaks up and Sabbath never ends." (Vol. 8. No. 4, May 1963 "The Benton County Pioneer." ⁴

   Research Notes:

In the 1970's a report was published in the Benton County Pioneer on a Civil War skirmish that occurred near Springtown, in the center of the county. The report cited the incident as the Battle of Springtown, which was to have occurred between a southern Home Guard and members of a Union Cavalry regiment. This report has since "gained legs" and is widely reported, including on a map of Civil War Engagements of Northwest Arkansas.
The report was recounted by Roy Taylor, who was raised near Springtown. Taylor wrote that local Southern sympathizers formed Home Guard units that engaged in guerilla warfare against Union troops. The battle was fought, according to Taylor, 1 mile west of Springtown, just south of Flint Creek, "500 yards south of the Northwest corner of Sec. 7 of Twp. 18N - Rge. 32W."
Taylor reports "six or eight northern soldiers killed were buried 350 yards north of the battle ground. There were headstones of flint rocks marking their graves until a county road went through. There was one old man from Arkansas killed. His name was Rev. Chastain and he rode a mule into battle."
Since that time, this battle has been reported by others with some claims of up to 15 Union casualties. A map also suggests that the 11th Kansas Cavalry was the unit involved in the fray.
Because these reports were strikingly different from oral traditions handed down from the Chastain family to this author, a descendent of the Rev. Jehu Chastain, the author has investigated the Battle of Springtown and the death of Jehu Chastain.
Jehu's son, Jehu Thomas Chastain (J. T.), was 18 at the time of his father's death, and told his grandson, Arthur Shields (the author's grandfather), the following. Rev. Jehu was 61 years old. He and several neighbors had traveled to Springtown, the closest post office, for word from relatives in Georgia. Papers and official reports were frequently posted in the lobby of a post office for all to read. Returning from Springtown, Jehu and his friends were surprised by bushwackers at a spring. Jehu's mule shied or balked and the renegades were able to get close enough to shoot Rev. Chastain. Mortally wounded, he managed to ride his mule home, near the present day Fairmount Cemetery, before dying. He was buried as the first person in that cemetery and the date of death is well known as July 20, 1862. J. T. never suggested that his father was involved in any organized resistance, nor did he suggest his father's murderers were Union military.
In the report of War of the Rebellion, the Record of the Union and Confederate Armies, a compilation of official records, commissioned in 1880 by Congress and published in 1884, records of all field reports and letters between commands were published. The author was unable to locate any reference to actions by either side at or near Springtown during July of 1862.
A list of battles, CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY AND RECORD of Every Engagement Between the Troops of the Union and the Confederacy in the American Civil War During the year of 1862 Collated and Compiled from the Official Records of the War Department mentions only that considerable guerilla activity was taking place. Militia and Home Guard units are reported in the compilation, and these Home Guards were frequently well organized and reported to the regional Officers, although they often took an independent course of action.
The claim that the 11th Kansas Cavalry was involved also is flawed. The 11th was not formed until August of 1862 and did not see action until October when it arrived at Pea Ridge after an 8 day forced march. Also, it was formed as an Infantry unit and converted to Cavalry later. There were Kansas units in Indian Territory. The 6th and 10th Kansas Infantry units were active in Southern Missouri and near Fort Gibson. On the 20th of July, the same day Jehu died, units of the Missouri State Militia was engaged and damaged severely by the notorious Rebel rogue, Quantrill. Missouri Militia (U. S.) units were forbidden to leave the state and would not cross the state line.
Actions around Fort Gibson was also reported July 27, 1862 as Union units tested the strength of Col. Stand Watie's troops. The summer was extremely dry and Confederate soldiers burned the fields and prairies in an effort to deny Union horses grazing. Meanwhile, most of the Union soldiers had moved towards Helena and the Mississippi River. But minor engagements with Confederates occurred at Elm Springs, Lowell, Maysville, Fayetteville, and Cane Hill in those months between Pea Ridge (March) and Prairie Grove (December), but these were well organized and well documented. Foraging occurred, but Watie was near Maysville, and any small unit who dared forage near Springtown would have been in dire danger of being cut off and attacked.
During this time lawlessness abound and atrocities were frequent. Union soldiers frequently entered farms and took all the livestock, crops, and food. Union sympathizers were shot by guerilla forces such as Quantrill, who was roaming Southern Missouri partly to distract the Union Army from the regular Confederates activities recruiting in that area. Fully 1/3rd the men who fought for the South at Prairie Grove were from Southern Missouri.
The Pin Indians were not operating as renegades at this time, at least to the scale of later years. The Pin Indians began the war as Confederates and converted from Confederate soldiers during the first year of the war. The Cherokee Mounted Rifles remained true to the Southern cause under the leadership of General Stand Watie. Watie's troops consisted of Cherokees, half-breeds, and whites who sympathized with the south. The Pin Indians were more nearly full bloods and were avowed enemies of Watie and his Regiment, although they both fought for the South early in the war. Many of the Pin Indians were in the First and Second Home Guard organized in Kansas under Col. Ritchie.
The hatred between the Pin and Watie was an outgrowth of the deep division between allied elite members of the Cherokee Tribe such as Watie and his father in law, The Ridge, and those Cherokees who were driven from their homes forcibly and came to Indian Territory on the "Trail of Tears."
The Pin Indians eschewed white man ways, dressed traditionally, and although aligned with the North, they fought mostly without supervision from Union commanders. In later years, they became notorious for killing, stealing horses and cattle, and terrorizing the general populace. Typical was the execution of Simon Sager, one of the founding family patriarchs of Siloam Springs. Simon was called out of his cabin and shot point blank for no other reason than his sons were in the Confederate Army. Ironically, Simon had helped build both the male and female Cherokee Academy in 1847 in Talequah and some of his children had attended the school.
During the summer of 1862, Union Generals issued several orders threatening any person with death should they join Guerilla bands. Many of the larger guerilla units became Confederate units, but others were small. Becoming a guerilla was not a causal decision.
Finally, the headstones referred to by Mr. Taylor, are unmarked. Local residents Irene Ward and Margaret Shields recalled those stones were no more than 3 or 4 in number. The cemetery was called the Hall Cemetery after the family buried there by most accounts. Robert Hall owned land in Sec. 7 of Twp. 18-32W, prior to the Civil War near the reported site of the battle. The stones reportedly were moved to Fairmount Cemetery after the road was widened and disturbed them. There is no evidence uncovered that any soldiers were ever buried there.
CONCLUSIONS
The two oral traditions clash on some points, but do agree on the following. Rev. Jehu Chastain was killed at or near a spring along Flint Creek about 1 mile west of Springtown. He escaped upon a mule but died later. Negatives are hard to refute. Lack of proof that a unit was in a particular area may be an omission in official record or a report simply was not made. The Home Guard may have been so loosely formed that it had no recorded history.
Becoming a guerilla was not a light matter, and any who dared was subject to immediate execution if caught by the Union. The Rev. Jehu Chastain was not even known to be armed. The Rev. was 61 years age, and unlikely to be involved in fighting.
The 11th Kansas was not formed and most Kansas units appeared to have been in Indian Territory or Missouri at the time of Jehu's death. No identifiable Union Regiment was operating in the Springtown area. No reports of anywhere near the casualties reported were likely to have occurred. The Battle of Maysville had no more casualties than that, and it was a battle that involved hundreds of troops. The number of casualties reported suggests it is exaggerated.
The more likely scenario was that Jehu was attacked by a roving band of Pin Indians or bushwhackers, perhaps even southern sympathizers themselves, but outlaws nonetheless. They were intent upon robbing Jehu and his companions, or they feared they would report their position to authorities.
The named unit (11th Kansas) did not even exist July 20th . The number of casualties are far greater than one expects in a small skirmish, and, Jehu Chastain's involvement with a "Home Guard" is not supported. This author is forced to conclude that it is unlikely an organized battle at Springtown, on or about the date July 19-20, 1862 occurred but welcomes any evidence to support that notion. The author would be keenly interested in any evidence that the Rev. Jehu Chastain deliberately and willingly engaged in a battle with troops or individuals sympathetic to the Union.

Jehu married Alica Martha CARTER, daughter of Jesse Martin CARTER and Lavina SAMS, on 22 Aug 1822 in Rabun County, Georgia. (Alica Martha CARTER was born on 2 Apr 1806 in Adkins Branch, Buncombe County, North Carolina ^{2 5 6}, died on 21 May 1883 in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas ^{1 2 5 6} and was buried in 1883 in Fairmount Cemetery, Benton County, Arkansas ¹.)