Old State House Museum Collections Blog

     As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been spending time over the past few months working on the Old State House’s Civil War and Civil War Reunion Collection.  I’ve handled literally more than a thousand objects related to Arkansas in the Civil War and many, such as the subject of this post, deserve more attention.  The image above is a portion of an 1863 petition to Abraham Lincoln signed by officers of various Arkansas regiments supporting Isaac Murphy  as military governor of the state.  Of course, Murphy was eventually named as the eighth Governor of Arkansas, the lone member of the General Assembly to refuse to support secession from the Union.   The petition is signed by more than 160 Arkansas soldiers and includes a flattering account of Murphy’s loyalty to the Union.  Below is an image of the first page of the petition, as well as links for more information regarding Isaac Murphy and the petition on our eMuseum site.
                          eMuseum entry on the above petition with scans of each page