[Little Rock] Old-Line Democrat, September 20, 1860
We are glad to note the spirit with which our citizens enter upon the military training of our militia musters. On Saturday we drove out to Fourche township in the war-like association of a Colonel, a Major, an Adjutant, two Captains, a Sergeant, and a fifer; we ourselves being a ‘prigh-hivate’ in the Pulaski Lancers. Arrived upon the ground, we met three companies of militia, from as many townships of the county, under command of Capts. Vance, Johnson and Robertson. They were drilled and reviewed for about three hours by Adjutant Newton, detailed for the duty, assisted by Sergeant Lockman, acting as his aid, mounted, of course, and in “full feather.” Major McAlmont and Capt. Peay were on the ground, and assisted actively during the review, in teaching the manual of arms as well as the marchings. The protest of the “ear-piercing fife and the spirit-stirring drum,” together with a broad bunting, which unfurled the “stars and stripes,” gave a great deal of the “pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war” to the scene.
Col. Peyton was present, a watchful observer of the exercises, and at the conclusion of them, offered the battalion some very appropriate remarks, upon the subject of their duties, under the requirements of the militia law.
He said the South was threatened by aggressions, which might any day assume a shape to bring into practical requisition the military skill he was anxious for them to acquire. That the State of Arkansas, to which they owed their first allegiance, could afford no standing army in the mere dread of this danger, and the first aggression upon her rights would have to be repulsed by the bravery and discipline of the militia. She had no forts, no arsenals, and her only defence was the brave hearts of her sons. That, coupled with discipline, would, he thought, serve her utmost need.