Archibald S. Dobbins - Misplaced Pages

Confederate cavalry officer

Archibald S. Dobbins
Dobbins in uniform, c. 1862
Born	Archibald Stephenson Dobbins c. 1827 Maury County, Tennessee
Disappeared	c. 1878 (aged 51) Patagonia (present-day Santa Cruz Province), Argentina
Status	Missing for 146 years, 11 months and 18 days
Monuments	Dobbins Memorial Marker, Confederate Cemetery, Helena, Arkansas
Occupations	Merchant officer farmer
Spouse	Mary P. Dawson (m. 1849)
Children	3

Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States
Branch	Army
Years of service	1862–1865
Rank	Colonel
Commands	Dobbins' Arkansas Cavalry Regiment 1st Arkansas Cavalry Brigade
Battles	American Civil War Battle of Prairie Grove Battle of Helena Battle of Big Creek Battle of Bayou Fourche Battle of Pine Bluff Price's Missouri Expedition

Criminal details
Criminal status	Remitted, restored to duty

Criminal charge	Disobedience of Orders in the face of the enemy
Penalty	Dismissed from Service

Colonel Archibald Stephenson Dobbins (c. 1827 – c. 1878) was an officer of the Confederate army who commanded a cavalry regiment in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War. Initially refusing to serve under Marmaduke after the Marmaduke-Walker Duel, Dobbins was court-martialed for insubordination.

Born in Maury County, Tennessee, Dobbins entered Confederate service in 1862 as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Major-General Thomas C. Hindman. That same year, Dobbins was commissioned a colonel of cavalry. Paroled as a prisoner of war at Galveston, Texas, on July 13, 1865, he went into the mercantile business in New Orleans. Moving without his family to Santarem, Brazil, in 1867, he settled two years later near Itaituba, where he opened a sawmill and gristmill. In 1878, he immigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina where he was engaged in business. The circumstances surrounding Dobbins' death remain a mystery to this day.

Early life

Archibald Stephenson Dobbins was born c. 1827 in Maury County, Tennessee, to David and Catherine (née Gilchrist) Dobbins. Shortly after his marriage to Mary Patience Dawson, he moved to Coahoma County, Mississippi, then relocated to Phillips County, Arkansas, acquiring Horse Shoe Island Plantation, near Helena.

American Civil War

When Confederate Major-General Thomas C. Hindman was appointed commanding officer of the District of Arkansas in the summer of 1862, he brought Dobbins with him from Mississippi to Little Rock as a volunteer aide-de-camp on his personal staff. Following the Battle of Prairie Grove, he was appointed colonel of a new unit colloquially known as "Dobbins' cavalry regiment".

Dobbins' cavalry regiment was assigned to a division commanded by Brigadier-General Lucius M. Walker and fought in several battles, skirmishes, and raids throughout the Trans-Mississippi Department. After Walker was killed in a duel with Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke, Dobbins assumed command of Walker's cavalry division. When Marmaduke took command at the Battle of Bayou Fourche, Dobbins refused to serve under him. Marmaduke ordered his arrest. Court-martialed at Camp Bragg, Arkansas, on November 23, 1863, Dobbins was found guilty of "disobedience of orders in the face of the enemy." President Jefferson Davis remitted the sentence of the court-martial and Dobbins returned to the Trans-Mississippi Department for the duration of the war. Dobbins received a field promotion to brigadier-general, but was never nominated by President Davis nor confirmed by the Confederate Senate in part due to the isolated condition of the Trans-Mississippi Theater toward the end of the Civil War. He was paroled as a prisoner of war at Galveston, Texas, on July 13, 1865.

Later life

After the Civil War, Dobbins went into the mercantile business in New Orleans. In 1867, he and a brother relocated to the Para region of Brazil. Two years later, he wrote for his wife and children to join him there. But as Mary made travel plans, the letters stopped coming. In June 1878, records indicate he immigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina where he was engaged in business. An article in the August 7, 1881, edition of The Standard, an English language newspaper out of Buenos Aires, states that eight Scottish colonists from Greenock had contracted with Dobbins five years earlier for their passage to Port Desire, Argentina.

Speculation on disappearance

Theories about Dobbins' fate range from murder at the hands of Indians, a natural death in the Patagonia region of Argentina, to a desire to abandon his family.

Monuments and memorials

Dobbins' cenotaph is in a cemetery in Helena, Arkansas. It notes that his body was never recovered.

Notes

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration.

References

^ Sesser, David (November 10, 2020). "Archibald Dobbins (1827–?)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. CALS.
^ Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas. War Department Collection of Confederate Records. RG 109, M-317. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
^ "Archibald S. Dobbins Collection (MS D651 238)". University of Arkansas Libraries. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
Memoria del Ministerio del Interior Correspondiente al Ano 1878 — Presentada al Congreso Nacional en 1879 [Memory of the Ministry of the Interior Corresponding to the Year 1878 — Presented to the National Congress in 1879] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: La Tribuna. 1879. pp. 105–107. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
"Immigration Delusions". The Standard and River Plate News. No. 5, 755 (Packet ed.). Buenos Aires. August 7, 1881. p. 1. OCLC 643033664.
"Nationwide Gravesite Locator". National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved April 9, 2022.