Col. John C. Wright

Wright’s Arkansas Cavalry

Col. John C. Wright 

John Crowell Wright was born near Talbotton in west central Georgia on March 14, 1835. Wright was 8 years old when his family relocated to Union County, Arkansas.

In 1861, Wright raised a company that became part of the 15th Arkansas Infantry, sometimes referred qualified as Gee's-Johnson's regiment to distinguish it from other Arkansas regiments designated as the 15th. When the regiment was organized Wright was elected its lieutenant colonel. In February 1862, this regiment was part of the surrender of Confederate forces at Fort Donelson, but Colonel Wright was able to evade capture. Wright returned to northwestern Arkansas to do more recruiting. Out of this came the 26th Infantry Regiment (also called 3rd Trans-Mississippi Regiment] organized during the summer of 1862. Again, Wright was elected its lieutenant colonel. Wright fought with his regiment during the Battle of Prairie Grove.

In the fall of 1863, Wright resigned his commission with the 26th Infantry Regiment and at the end of 1863 accepted a commission of colonel in the 2nd Battalion, Arkansas State Troops. When the battalion reach battalion strength, it was designated the 12th Arkansas Cavalry in Confederate service but was commonly known as Wright’s Arkansas Cavalry. During Price’s 1864 invasion of Missouri, Wright’s regiment was part of Slemons’s Brigade in Fagan’s Division.

After the war, Wright returned home to Arkansas and following Reconstruction held the office of Circuit and County Court Clerk and was elected to the State Legislature

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