Stone Gardens: Union soldier who fought at Battle of Backbone Mountain rests in a Newton County cemetery
- Dennis McCaslin
- Aug 2
- 4 min read
Thomas Campbell Bethell was born on February 6, 1837, in Carroll County, Tennessee, the son of Alfred Bethell and Elizabeth Betsy Campbell Bethell. His father, born March 13, 1809, in the same Tennessee county to Green Floyd Bethell and Nancy Zillah Busey, had married Elizabeth on August 5, 1828, in Obion County, Tennessee.
Elizabeth, born March 15, 1812, in Obion County to James William Campbell and Prudence Roles, joined Alfred in raising a large family that included Thomas among ten children from their union.
Alfred later remarried after Elizabeth's death and fathered additional children. As one of the early pioneers who settled in Scott County, Arkansas, Alfred established the family in the Petit Jean Valley, where the Bethells adapted to frontier life amid the hills and timbered lands of western Arkansas.
Thomas spent his formative years in this pioneering environment, moving with his parents from Tennessee into the Arkansas territory as settlement expanded. By the mid-1850s the family had roots in Scott and neighboring counties.
On August 31, 1857, in Greenwood,, Thomas married Martha Ann Clayborn, who had been born November 20, 1838. The couple began their own family in the years that followed, welcoming children that included Mary E., Nancy Jane, George Newton, William Thomas, Julia Ann, Lovisa Caroline, Martha Emma, and Laura C. Their household reflected the patterns of rural Arkansas life, centered on farming and community ties in the Ozark region.
When the Civil War divided the state, Thomas aligned with the Union cause that found strong support among many residents of northwestern Arkansas. He enlisted on February 12, 1863, at Fayetteville and served as a corporal in Company C of the First Arkansas Infantry.
The regiment, organized from Unionists of Washington, Madison, Newton, and surrounding counties, was mustered in on March 25, 1863, under Colonel James M. Johnson.
Still lacking proper uniforms and equipment in its early days, the unit remained on duty at Fayetteville through April.
On April 18, 1863, it helped repel Confederate General William Cabell's attack on the town, with portions of the regiment forming the center of the Federal line while others stood in reserve.
Later that month, the First Arkansas marched to Springfield, Missouri, remaining there until July and performing duty that included an action in Newton County on June 14. In early July the men moved to Cassville, then joined the Army of the Frontier at Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation by mid-August.
From August 22 to 26 they pursued Cabell's forces to Perryville, engaging the enemy there on August 26. On September 1 the regiment took part in the fighting at Devil's Backbone, or Backbone Mountain, and the subsequent capture of Fort Smith.
Stationed at Fort Smith through the winter, the unit conducted scouting operations, including a scout from Waldron to Mount Ida, Caddo Gap, and Dallas in early December, and other expeditions into the surrounding countryside.
In the spring of 1864, the First Arkansas left Fort Smith on March 24 as part of Brigadier General John M. Thayer's Frontier Division to join General Frederick Steele's Camden Expedition. The regiment rendezvoused with Steele's main force at Prairie d'Ane on April 9 and skirmished through the following days.
It fought at Moscow on April 13, entered Camden on April 16, and after the engagement at Poison Spring conducted reconnaissance before departing Camden on April 26. On April 30 the men saw action at Jenkins' Ferry on the Saline River as part of the Union left wing during the fighting withdrawal.
The regiment reached Little Rock on May 1 and returned to Fort Smith by May 17. For the remainder of the war, it performed garrison duty at Fort Smith, escorted trains, and maintained order along the frontier, including skirmishes in Bates Township on November 2 and in Newton County on November 15, 1864.
Thomas and his comrades were mustered out on August 10, 1865.
After the war, Thomas returned to civilian life in Newton County, settling in the Limestone community. He resumed farming and became an active figure in local affairs, serving at times as a justice of the peace and performing marriage ceremonies for neighbors.
Martha Ann remained his partner through the raising of their children and the challenges of Reconstruction and the decades that followed. She died on March 31, 1918, and was laid to rest in the Bethel-Clayburn Cemetery.
Thomas lived another four years, passing away on April 21, 1922, at the age of eighty-five in Newton County. He was buried beside family members in the same Bethel-Clayburn Cemetery at Limestone, where his headstone records his rank as corporal in Company C of the First Arkansas Infantry.
The cemetery holds the graves of several generations of the Bethell and Clayborn families who helped settle the valley.
The family's role as early settlers of Scott and Newton counties and Thomas's own service as a Union corporal mark their quiet but enduring place in the story of Arkansas's frontier and Civil War years.
