Archibald Stephenson Dobbins ( presumably on or after 1878) was an

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

who commanded

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

in the

Trans-Mississippi Theater The trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War was the scene of the major military operations west of the Mississippi River. The area is often thought of as excluding the states and territories bordering the Pacific Ocean, which formed ...

of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Initially refusing to serve under Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke after the Marmaduke-Walker Duel, Dobbins was

court-martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...

ed for

insubordination Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying a lawful order of one's superior. It is generally a punishable offense in hierarchical organizations such as the armed forces, which depend on people lower in the chain of command obeying orde ...

. Born in

Maury County, Tennessee Maury County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Middle Tennessee region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,974. Its county seat is Columbia. Maury County is part of the Nashville-Davidson– Murfreesb ...

, Dobbins entered

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

service in 1862 as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Major-General Thomas C. Hindman. That same year, Dobbins was commissioned a colonel of cavalry. Paroled as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...

, on July 13, 1865, he went into the mercantile business in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Moving without his family to Santarem,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, in 1867, he settled two years later near

Itaituba Itaituba is a city and municipality located in the state of Pará, Brazil, and one of the most important socioeconomic centers in the western region of the State. Location Itaituba is the fifteenth largest city (by population) in the State of ...

, where he opened a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

and

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

. In 1878, he immigrated to the

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

region of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

where he was engaged in business. The circumstances surrounding Dobbins' death remain a mystery to this day.

Early life

Dobbins was born in

, to David and Catherine (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Gilchrist) Dobbins. Shortly after his marriage to Mary Patience Dawson, he moved to

Coahoma County, Mississippi Coahoma County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,390. Its county seat is Clarksdale. The Clarksdale, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Coahoma County. It is loc ...

, then relocated to

Phillips County, Arkansas Phillips County is a county located in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas, in what is known as the Arkansas Delta along the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,568. The county seat is Helena–West ...

, acquiring Horse Shoe Island Plantation, near

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer * Saint Helena (disambiguation), this includes places Places Greece * Helena ...

American Civil War

When Confederate Major-General Thomas C. Hindman was appointed

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually give ...

of the District of Arkansas in the summer of 1862, he brought Dobbins with him from

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

as a volunteer aide-de-camp on his personal staff.Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas. War Department Collection of Confederate Records. RG 109, M-317.

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

, Washington, D.C. Following the

Battle of Prairie Grove The Battle of Prairie Grove was a battle of the American Civil War fought on December 7, 1862. While tactically indecisive, the battle secured the Union control of northwestern Arkansas. A division of Union troops in the Army of the Fronti ...

, he was appointed colonel of a new unit colloquially known as " Dobbins' cavalry regiment". Dobbins' cavalry regiment was assigned to a division commanded by Brigadier-General Lucius M. Walker and fought in several battles, skirmishes, and raids throughout the

Trans-Mississippi Department The Trans-Mississippi Department was a territorial department of the Confederate States Army that embraced Arkansas, Louisiana west of the Mississippi river, Texas (including what is now New Mexico and Arizona), and the Indian Territory. It w ...

. After Walker was killed in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

with Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke, Dobbins assumed command of Walker's cavalry division. When Marmaduke took command at the Battle of Bayou Fourche, Dobbins refused to serve under him. Marmaduke ordered his arrest. Court-martialed at Camp Bragg, Arkansas, on November 23, 1863, Dobbins was found guilty of "disobedience of orders in the face of the enemy." President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

remitted the sentence of the court-martial and Dobbins returned to the Trans-Mississippi Department for the duration of the war. Dobbins received a field promotion to brigadier-general, but was never nominated by President Davis nor confirmed by the Confederate Senate in part due to the isolated condition of the Trans-Mississippi Theater toward the end of the Civil War. He was paroled as a prisoner of war at Galveston, Texas, on July 13, 1865.

Later life

After the Civil War, Dobbins went into the mercantile business in New Orleans. In 1867, he and a brother relocated to the

Para Para, or PARA, may refer to: Businesses, professions, and organizations * Paramount Global, traded as PARA on the Nasdaq stock exchange * Para Group, the former name of CT Corp * Para Rubber, now Skellerup, a New Zealand manufacturer * Para ...

region of Brazil. Two years later, he wrote for his wife and children to join him there. But as Mary made travel plans, the letters stopped coming. In June 1878, records indicate he immigrated to the Patagonia region of Argentina where he was engaged in business. An article in the August 7, 1881, edition of '' The Standard'', an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

newspaper out of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, states that eight

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

colonists from

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

had contracted with Dobbins five years earlier for their passage to Port Desire, Argentina.

Speculation on disappearance

Theories about Dobbins' fate range from murder at the hands of Indians, a natural death in the Patagonia region of Argentina, to a desire to abandon his family.

Monuments and memorials

Dobbins'

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

is in a cemetery in Helena, Arkansas. It notes that his body was never recovered.

Notes

References

External links

*
Archibald S. Dobbins Collection
at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobbins, Archibald S. 1820s births 1870s deaths 1870s missing person cases 19th-century American criminals 19th-century American merchants 19th-century Argentine businesspeople 19th-century Brazilian businesspeople American Civil War prisoners of war held by the United States American expatriates in Argentina American expatriates in Brazil American slave owners Businesspeople from New Orleans Cavalry commanders Confederate expatriates Confederate States Army officers Confederate States Army personnel who were court-martialed Farmers from Mississippi Farmers from Tennessee Military personnel from Arkansas Missing person cases in Argentina People from Coahoma County, Mississippi People from Maury County, Tennessee People from Pará People from Phillips County, Arkansas People from Santa Cruz Province, Argentina People of Arkansas in the American Civil War