On the morning of May 4, 1861, a company of Arkansas State Troops known as the Hempstead Rifles prepared to leave for the Civil War. Standing in front of the Jones Hotel in Washington, Arkansas, the men of Company B were given a flag in a presentation ceremony. That afternoon, accompanied by the town's band, the Rifles marched away, eventually joining Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch's Western Army and fighting at Wilson's Creek on August 10, 1861. Mustered out shortly after the battle, many of the company's members re-enlisted in other Confederate units.
