Shoup's Mountain Battery

Shoup's Mountain Battery (Confederate)
Arkansas state flag
Active	March 1862 – January 1863
Disbanded	January 16, 1862
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	Arkansas
Branch	Confederate States Army
Type	Battery
Role	Artillery
Engagements	American Civil War Battle of Cane Hill Battle of Prairie Grove
Commanders
1862-1863	James C. Shoup

American Civil War

The Shoup's Mountain Battery (1862–1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. It was also known as Shoup's Battery. At least two of the battery officers later served in the 8th Arkansas Field Battery.

After the battle of Pea Ridge, General Earl Van Dorn was ordered to move his Army of the West across the Mississippi and cooperate with Confederate forces in Northern Mississippi. Van Dorn stripped the state of military hardware of all types, including almost all the serviceable artillery. When General Thomas C. Hindman arrived to assume command of the new Trans-Mississippi District, he found almost nothing to command. He quickly began organizing new regiments, but his most pressing need was for arms for the new forces he was organizing, including the artillery. With Hindman's first order, dated May 31, 1862 at Little Rock, he announced his staff, including the appointment of Major Francis A. Shoup, Chief of Artillery. Shoup had served as chief of artillery under General William J. Hardee. He was involved in the formation of the artillery position known as "Ruggle’s Battery" during the Battle of Shiloh. Shoup, and his son, James C. Shoup came west across the Mississippi with General Hindman in May 1862. Hindman ordered guns, which the United States Arsenal had decommissioned and buried as property markers around the Arsenal in Little Rock, to be dug up and refurbished as best possible as serviceable weapons. Hindman was almost totally destitute of military quality weapons and could hardly arm or issue ammunition to the few troops that he had in June 1862. Until the shipments of arms in August 1862, General Hindman struggled to arm his conscripts.

Hindman sent numerous requests for arms back across the Mississippi River. In one report he requested that he be sent twelve Model 1841 12 Pound Mountain Howitzers. These guns were considered useless in other theaters because of their short range. Most of the weapons transferred to the Trans Mississippi District from Vicksburg in the "Fairplay Affair" were the castoffs and unusable weapons from the various state armories which had been returned to those armories after the Confederate armies east of the Mississippi had been re-equipped from the "Battlefield Quartermaster" of 7 Days, 2nd Manassas and Harper Ferry.