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A lot of people don’t realize that Arkansas has had a long history of producing art pottery. From Arkansas’ earliest years through more modern times, Arkansas has had a tradition of creating unique and interesting art pottery.

The Old State House Museum has a large collection of over 500 pieces of Arkansas Arts Pottery, including pieces of Niloak, Camark, Hywood, Rumrill and Ouachita Pottery Company pottery. Here are few pieces from our collection:

Camark Swan Planter

Niloak Pottery

The entire collection can be viewed online from our website.

Among the many interesting Civil War artifacts the Old State House Museum has are numerous canteens. We believe at least one of our canteens (images below) has an interesting story.

Civil War Canteen - J.T. Carter

This Confederate canteen, stained, sealed and with a metal banding around the circumference, has two different names carved on it. Carved on one side is the name, “J.T. Carter”. Carved on the other side is “E.B.G., Lt. Col. 28th Wis. Vol.”

Based on the research originally attached to the canteen, we know E.B.G. is Edmund B. Gray of the 28th Wisconsin Volunteers. Because this kind of canteen would not have been issued to Union soldiers, we had to assume that the original owner was J.T. Carter…which also made us assume that this canteen was picked up on a battlefield by Gray.

We then wondered where Carter and Gray might have crossed paths and how the canteen came to be picked up. Was it lost during battle or was Carter killed leaving the canteen to be picked up by another soldier?

We discovered that the 28th Wisconsin had mustered into service in October, 1862 in Milwaukee, soon after leaving for Kentucky and then into Arkansas. The regiment was in Arkansas from January, 1863 until February, 1865 fighting in several battles including the Battle of Helena. It was at the Battle of Helena that we found a J.T. Carter who was a private with the 32nd Arkansas Infantry. Carter was killed during the battle on July 4, 1863. So far, this the only place we can find where Edmund B. Gray may have crossed paths with a J.T. Carter. We still have more research to do on the canteen, but as of right now we believe Gray picked up this canteen during or after the Battle of Helena where J.T. Carter was killed.

We welcome any other information or research that may help us establish the provenance of the canteen.

Officer's Commission for Coleman Lehan

Although many letters and official documents during the Civil War were often handwritten, both Union and Confederate troops also used portable printing presses to create invoices, requisitions, newsletters, broadsides, orders for troop movements, and commissions (to name a few). The press was called the Field Press and was invented (patent 1861) by Albert Adams of New York.  Adams’ press was a New York cylinder press originally called the Cottage Press.  He began advertising it at the start of the war and it quickly grew in popularity. 

Field press prints are somewhat rare. The Old State House recently acquired an Arkansas related field press print of an officer’s commission.

On June 20, 1863, Col. John E. Josey appointed Coleman Lehan as 1st Sergeant in the 13th & 15th Arkansas Regiments.

Lehan enlisted as a private on July 31, 1861 into Co. K of the 13th Arkansas Infantry under Colonel (later General) James Camp Tappan. He fought at Shiloh, Corinth, Richmond (Kentucky), and Perryville. He was wounded at Perryville and taken prisoner after being left in the hospital. He was sent to Vicksburg and paroled in December, 1862. Lehan then fought at the Tullahoma Campaign in June of 1863, the time period this field press was printed. After Tullahoma, he fought at Liberty Gap, Chickamauga and Chattanooga. He was then promoted again to 1st Lieutenant in November, 1863. He then fought at Ringgold Gap, the Atlanta Campaign, Dalton, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, the Battle of Franklin, Nashville, the Carolina’s Campaign and finally Bentonville, North Carolina at the end of the war. He surrendered in Bentonville on April 26, 1865.

John E. Josey enlisted as a 1st Lieutenant in July, 1861 in the 1st Infantry Regiment State Troops (Arkansas). This was later changed to the 1st Infantry Regiment (Cleburne’s) and then became the 15th Arkansas Infantry. Josey was promoted to Major in April, 1862 and was promoted to Colonel in April, 1863. He fought at Shiloh. Captured at Madison, Arkansas, Josey was sent to Camp Chase where he stayed for over a year. He was transferred for exchange in February, 1865.

We’re gearing up for the Civil War Sesquicentennial and while doing so, we’re going through our entire collection of Civil War and Civil War Reunion artifacts to ensure that each artifact has an image. For the past two days, we’ve been photographing some Civil War reunion related flags. One of the most interesting ones we’ve come across was a flag made from the material that covered the Arkansas monument at the Shiloh Civil War Battlefield before its unveiling in 1910. We’re hoping to prove through research that it was exhibited during the 1911 Little Rock Reunion. You can see the flag in the photograph above.

After photographing the flags, we re-rolled them in new acid free tissue and muslin and then rehung them. Ah, the life of a registrar.