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Omer Rose Weaver is recognized as  the first soldier from Arkansas to be killed in the

War Between The States. 

 

Born in Kentucky in 1837, Omer and his parents moved to Little Rock the following year. The Weavers were one of the most socially prominent families in the city. His father Samuel built one of the largest homes in Little Rock and served as Arkansas Secretary of State. Omer graduated from the University of Nashville in 1856 at the age of nineteen, and by 1860 was working as his father’s secretary.

 

Omer became a lieutenant in the Pulaski Light Artillery, a militia unit organized in Little Rock, in late 1860.  The battery was originally known as the Totten Light Artillery, named for William Totten, a prominent physician in Little Rock, and his son Captain James Totten, the commander of the U. S. Arsenal in the city. When Captain Totten announced he was staying with the U. S. Army and not joining the secessionist forces, the battery’s name was changed.  Governor Rector commanded federal forces to leave the Little Rock Arsenal and the State of Arkansas, and Totten went with them.

 

On August 10, 1861, at Wilson’s Creek, MO, the Pulaski Battery engaged in a counter-battery duel with a Union battery commanded by Captain Totten, thus pitting teacher against student; Lieutenant Weaver was struck in the chest by a solid shot and mortally wounded. Lieutenant Weaver was 24 years old when he died. His body was removed from the battlefield and buried next to his father in

Little Rock’s Historic Mount Holly Cemetery.

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