Major-General Thomas Carmichael Hindman was born in Tennessee in 
November, 1818.  He received a common school education, then 
studied law and moved to Mississippi.  He was engaged in his 
professional business when the Mexican war aroused the country to 
arms.  Forsaking peaceful pursuits, he went as lieutenant in one 
of the Mississippi regiments.

Returning home after the war he again took up his former 
occupation.  From 1858 to 1861 he served in Congress as a 
representative from Arkansas.  He was intensely Southern, 
believing with all his heart in the justice of the position taken 
by his section.  Of course, it was to be expected that a man of 
his views would be quick to take up arms.

He entered the army and was appointed colonel of the Second 
Arkansas infantry, June 21, 1861, and brigadier-general September 
28, 1861.  His first service was in Arkansas under Gen. William 
J.  Hardee, with whom he crossed the Mississippi when everything 
possible was being concentrated at Bowling Green, Ky.  He and his 
brigade took a conspicuous part in the battle of Shiloh.  He was 
wounded in this battle, and promoted to major-general April 18, 
1862.

On the 26th of May he was assigned to the command of the Trans-
Mississippi district, and hastening to Little Rock, he 
established his headquarters there on May 31st, and took command 
of his district.  He had to create an army and restore order and 
confidence.  This he quickly did; for he was a man of great 
energy and administrative ability of the very highest order.  He 
declared martial law, sent his provost-marshals in every 
direction, and enforced the conscript law in the most rigid 
manner.

His recruiting officers went all over northern Arkansas and even 
into Missouri.  He established shops for the manufacture of all 
needed supplies, such as arms, clothing, etc.  In every way he 
managed so well that early in July he had gathered a considerable 
army, and had saved for the time Little Rock and the valley of 
the Arkansas to the Confederacy.  But about this time Gen. T. H. 
Holmes was sent to take command of the Trans-Mississippi 
department.  Hindman, going into western Arkansas, was about to 
lead an expedition into Missouri when he was recalled to Little 
Rock by General Holmes to help organize the troops in that 
neighborhood.

During his absence, disasters befell his army.  Returning, he 
fought the battle of Prairie Grove, December 7, 1862, against the 
forces of Herron and Blunt, winning a victory, but on account of 
the concentration of the enemy in superior numbers found it 
necessary to withdraw.  He was afterward ordered back to the east 
side of the Mississippi, where he commanded a division at 
Chickamauga.

There and all through the Atlanta campaign Hindman and his 
division were found among the bravest and the best.  After the 
Atlanta campaign he served in the district of North Mississippi.  
At the close of the war General Hindman went to Mexico, but in 
1867 returned to the United States and settled at Helena, where 
he was assassinated by some unknown person on the 28th of 
September, 1868.