Lion of the South

Thomas C. Hindman, an ardent defender of slavery and state rights, was the most explosive force in Arkansas politics in the years leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War. Energetic in championing a cause, fiery of temperament, and persuasively eloquent in speech, Hindman successfully led fights against Know Nothingism and the machine that had controlled the state's politics. He carried his fight against the abolitionists to Congress and vigorously campaigned for Arkansas' secession from the Union. Mindman raised a regiment at his own expense and drafted the ordinance that created Arkansas' military board. He quickly advanced from the rank of colonel to major general and for a time was commander of the Trans-Mississippi district. When he was reassigned east of the Mississippi, he participated in some of the most pivotal battles of the war, receiving injuries at Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign. After the war, Hindman joined other Confederate refugees in Mexico. When Maximillian's government collapsed, Hindman returned to Arkansas, unpardoned and disenfranchised, and became the leader of the "Young Democracy, " a group willing to work within the bounds of the first Reconstruction Act. He had begun to build a biracial coalition to compete with the state's Republicans when he was shot at home by an unknown assassin on 27 September 1868.