In the aftermath of the American Civil War, Pope County, Arkansas experienced a tumultuous seven-month period during the Reconstruction era known as the Pope County Militia War. This time was characterized by political and civil unrest, as four county officials, aided by an unofficial militia, purportedly manipulated county affairs to benefit their own agenda. These officials persistently urged the Arkansas governor to impose martial law in the county, with the aim of exerting greater control over voter registration and the November 1872 election.
By the end of this "militia war", three of the four county officials had been killed—and martial law had not been declared.
The fourth official, the county's superintendent of schools, left the state.
This troubling period in Pope County was covered extensively in local, state, and national newspapers, including front-page spreads in the New York Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Memphis Daily Appeal.
On October 10, 1872, a Special Commission appointed by the Arkansas Governor reported, "We are satisfied that much of the bad feeling existing in Pope county has been engendered and fostered by unscrupulous politicians."
Reconstruction
During the military reconstruction period (1867-1868), companies E and G of the Nineteenth Infantry, were stationed in Pope County and headquartered at Dover for a year and a half. Arkansas became the second former Confederate state to be fully restored to the Union in June 1868. However, political and social stability was still years away.
In 1868, a militia law passed by the general assembly authorized the governor to enroll a state guard modeled, generally, after the U. S. Army. Elements of this guard would be used four years later in Pope County, during the period that became known as the Militia War.
Troubles
Between 1865 and 1870, at least five officials in the county were assassinated: Sheriff Archibald D. Napier and Deputy Sheriff Albert Parks on October 24, 1865, County Clerk William Stout on December 4, 1865, Sheriff W. Morris Williams on August 20, 1866, and Russellville Postmaster John L. Harkey on July 27, 1868.
On March 1, 1870, the new Pope County jail in Dover was burned. A man named Glover later claimed responsibility.
Militia War
A period of a little over seven months in 1872 and 1873 came to be known as the Pope County Militia War. However, there were no battles or skirmishes. There were no engagements between organized opponents of any kind. Instead, an irregular armed group sometimes referred to as a militia, and headed by four county officers, exerted excessive and harsh control over the county, including threats to burn Dover, the county seat. By the end of the period, three of the four officials were dead.
In 1872, an Independence Day celebration in Pope County, held at a camp ground at Center Valley, was attended by prominent ministers and county officials, most of whom were aligned with and appointed by the Radical Republican state administration. Many "patriotic" addresses were given "in which much was said in condemnation of 'rebels' in general and those of the county in particular." A day or so after the celebration, news spread over the country that the sheriff's chief deputy, John Herald Williams, after leaving the celebration, "had been seriously, if not fatally, wounded from the brush at his home near Scottsville." Concerned neighbors were told by a physician that there were two holes in Williams' jacket, "one in the left sleeve, corresponding with an abrasion on his arm, the other is in front opposite a dent in his belt buckle and a bruise on his abdomen." There was also a hole in the crown of his hat. After being mortally wounded just two months later, Williams admitted his alleged shooting in July was a ruse, part of a plot "arranged in Little Rock and perfected at the celebration on the 4th of July," a plot whose purpose was to maintain county officials' control of the county through the 1872 election.