Arkansas True Democrat [Little Rock],
July 4, 1861
When the tocsin of war was sounded throughout the land none were more prompt to respond to their country’s call than Arkansians, and none in the State more prompt than the citizens of Little Rock and Pulaski county. Pulaski county has furnished and sent to the seat of war eight full companies, and the ladies of Little Rock have worked night and day for months making uniforms, not only for the soldiers of their own county, but for soldiers from all portions of the State.
It is not our purpose to speak in praise of one section of our State over another–we believe all are alike devoted in this struggle for liberty and sanctity of our hearthstones–but since an unjust and malicious report has been circulated to the prejudice of the Little Rock ladies, it becomes us not only to correct it, but to accord to the ladies their full merit. It has been reported of them that they were paid for their work out of the State treasury.–The report is false, and the originator of it a malicious slanderers. What the ladies did, and they did much, as thousands of soldiers will attest, was a free-will offering to the State and its gallant defenders.–They labored night and day–spent their time and their money–in equipping the many soldiers that passed through our city on their way to the war, but they neither charged or received one cent of remuneration for any service. The report to the contrary was a cruel slander, and should be accordingly denounced.