James Phillip Eagle was born on August 10, 1837, in Tennessee; the son of James and Charity Swaim Eagle. John was educated in the public schools. The family eventually settled Prairie County (now Lonoke Co.), Arkansas, in the 1850s.

Eagle was appointed a deputy sheriff until the Civil War, when he enlisted as a private in the Fifth Arkansas Mounted Rifles, serving in Indian territory.

He was a member of the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Rifles at the Battle of Richmond, serving the Brig. General Thomas Churchill’s division. His unit was not engaged during the first two stages of the fight, but were heavily involved in the Confederate flanking maneuver against the Union right at the Richmond Cemetery.

Eagle finished the war as a lt. colonel, participating in campaigns throughout the Western Theatre.

Returning to Arkansas, he became a wealthy farmer, mostly in Pulsaki Co., Arkansas. Eagle enrolled as a student at the Mississippi College, but left after one year due to ill health.

In 1872, he was elected to the Arkansas General Assembly, and served as a delegate of Arkansas’ constitutional convention of 1874. He served as Speaker of the Arkansas House in the mid to late 1870s.

Eagle was elected governor of Arkansas in 1888, and was re-elected in 1890. His term saw improvements in prison reform and support for education. He was instrumental in women's suffrage, and opposed many of the racially discriminatory legislation being enacted by the Arkansas legislation.

Eagle did not run for a third term as governor.

He was appointed, then later removed, as a commissioner on the Arkansas State Capitol Commission by Gov. Jeff Davis, apparently over a personal/church politics issue.

While governor, Eagle welcomed U.S. President Benjamin Harrison, the first time a sitting U.S. president visited the state.

A very religious man, Eagle was also a Baptist minister, as well as serving for 24 years as president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention.

Eagle died in Little Rock on December 20, 1904, and is buried in Mt. Holly Cemetery.

Eagle married Mary Kavanaugh Oldham, of Madison County, Kentucky, in 1882. Eagle met Oldham at the annual fair in Richmond in 1870. They had no children.

Mary’s brother, William K. Oldham, was also governor of Arkansas, serving for a short time in 1913.

Smith (no relation to Edmund Kirby Smith) was born December 25, 1823, in Giles County, Tennessee. He was the son of Drury and Lucinda Smith.

He attended schools locally and enrolled in Jackson College in Columbia, Tennessee. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. He opened his law practice in Waynesboro, Tennessee. He eventually re-located to Memphis, where he was rather successful.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith was commissioned colonel of the 154th Tennessee militia regiment, which was mustered into Confederate service under its old state designation.

He received a severe wound to his right shoulder at the Battle of Shiloh in western Tennessee in April 1862, rendering it temporarily useless.

Smith recovered in time to participate in the advance into Kentucky in the late summer of 1862, being attached to Edmund Kirby Smith’s Provisional Army of Kentucky’s 4th Division under Patrick Cleburne.

At the Battle of Richmond, Smith assumed command of the 4th Division when Patrick Cleburne was wounded. He was able to continue Cleburne’s battle plans and outflanked the Federals on the Federal left during the battle for Mt. Zion Church. His units were not engaged during the Battle of White’s Farm, but again attacked the Federal center and left at the Richmond Cemetery late in the day.

His units saw limited action at the Battle of Perryville in early October 1862. Smith was promoted to Brigadier General on October 27, 1862. Smith commanded mostly Tennessee troops under B. F. Cheatham during the Murfreesboro/Stones River & Chickamauga campaigns.

At Chickamauga, just after dark on September 19, 1863, Smith and one of his most trusted aides, Captain Thomas King, rode in the front of what they thought were Confederate infantry, but turned out to the remnants of the 77th Pennsylvania infantry. Recognizing Smith and King as Confederate officers, the Pennsylvania troops fired a volley into them, killing King outright and mortally wounding Smith. Smith died within an hour. He was one of three Confederate generals killed at Chickamauga. His death was lamented by his commanders.

Smith was initially buried in Atlanta, but was reinterred in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis in 1868.

Smith married Mary Amanda Crofford in 1846, and they had two children, Callie Smith Sykes (1849-1932) and Preston C. Smith (1851-1907).

What is Christmas without a Christmas dinner? The following menu doesn’t mean that all these items were included in just one meal but was just a series of suggestions of foods in which the cook couold choose as many or as few as desired.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S DINNERS.

Boiled turkey with oyster sauce, roast goose with apple sauce, roasted ham, chicken pie, stewed beets, cole-slaw, turnips, salsify, winter squash; mince pie, plum pudding, lemon custard, cranberry pie.

Roast turkey with cranberry sauce, boiled fowls with celery sauce, boiled ham, goose pie, turnips, salsify, coleslaw, winter squash, beets; mince pudding boiled, lemon pudding baked, pumpkin pudding.

Mock turtle soup, roast turkey with cranberry sauce, boiled turkey with celery sauce, roasted ham, smoke-tongue, chicken curry, oyster pie, beets, cole-slaw, winter squash, salsify, fried celery; plum pudding, mince pie, calf’s-foot jelly, blanc-mange.”

Godey’s, December 1863

Oyster Pie Recipe

A hundred large fresh oysters

Yolk of six eggs boiled hard, a

Large slice of stale bread grate

Teaspoonful of salt

Tablespoonful of mixed nutmeg

Cinnamon

Take a large round dish, butter it, and spread a puff paste round the sides, but not at the bottom. Drain off part of the liquor from the oysters, put them into a pan, and season them with pepper, salt, and spice; stir them well with the seasoning. Have ready the yolks of the eggs, chopped fine, and the grated bread. Pour the oysters with the liquor into the dish with the puff paste: strew over them the chopped egg and grated bread, roll out the lid of the pie and put it on. Bake the pie in a quick oven.

Submitted by Emily Burns

Chicken pies, cranberry and apple sauces, pickled beets, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, roast apples, wheat bread, butter, cheese, suckatash [sic], plum and custard pudding, apple and mince pies, and green tea was on that particular menu.

THANKSGIVING DINNERS — Oyster soup; boiled fresh cod with egg sauce, roast turkey, cranberry sauce; roast goose, bread sauce or currant jelly; stuffed ham, apple sauce or jelly; pork and beans; mashed potatoes and turnips, delicate cabbage, canned tomatoes and corn, baked sweet potatoes, boiled onions, salsify, macaroni and cheese; brown bread and superior biscuit; lobster salad; pressed beef, cold corned beef, tongue; celery, cream slaw; watermelon, peach, pear, or apple sweet-pickles; mangoes [stuffed and pickled young melons, bell peppers, peaches, or cucumbers], cucumbers, chow-chow, and tomato catsup; stewed peaches or prunes; doughnuts and ginger cakes; mince, pumpkin, and peach pies; plum and boiled Indian puddings; apple, cocoa-nut, or almond tarts; vanilla ice-cream; old-fashioned loaf cake, pound cake, black cake, white perfection cake, ribbon cake, almond layer cake; citron, peach, plum, or cherry preserves; apples, oranges, figs, grapes, raisins, and nuts, tea and coffee.

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Take ripe cranberries, wash and stew them with a little water till they are soft and become a gelatinous mass, stirring it constantly at the last. To a quart of the pulp allow three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar; mix them well, put it into a mould, and when it gets cold, turn it smoothly into a glass or china dish. Send it to table with any kind of roasted or baked poultry or game. Ladies’ Repository in 1848, a Thanksgiving dinner was described. Turkey, savory ham, broiled chickens.

Submitted by Emily Burns