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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published by Southern Publishing Company in 1891.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Dr. Robert H. Dacus was born in Tipton County, Tenn., October 7, 1843. In March, 1851, his father having died in 1848, his mother came to Arkansas, settling in Yell County, where she died in 1852. He and his sister, Julia A. (now Mrs. Gillette), who was three years younger than himself, went to live with their half-brother, James A. Dacus. Here he remained, working upon the farm and attending school when opportunity afforded until the breaking out of the war in 1861. He then entered the Confederate Army, enlisting in Company H, First Arkansas Mounted Rifles, with which he served until the close of the war. He was in the battles of Oak Hills, Mo., and Elk Horn, Ark. Soon after the latter battle he was transferred east of the Mississippi River. Here he served under Beauregard, Bragg, Johnston and Hood, and was engaged in the battles of Farmington, Tenn., Richmond, Ky. (where 5,000 Confederates under Gen. Kirby Smith, on an open field, fought and captured 7,000 of the enemy), was at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn., the siege of Jackson, Miss., and the battle of Chickamauga, Ga., where he was severely wounded. Afterward he was with Johnston on his campaign in Northern Georgia during the spring and summer of 1864, known as Johnston’s retreat through Georgia. It would be too tedious to mention all the battles and skirmishes in which he participated during this three months’ campaign. Suffice it to say that every time the roll was called he was there to answer to his name; and as evidence of the part Reynolds’ brigade, to which he belonged, took part in the fighting done during this, one of the hardest as well as the most noted campaigns of the war, it is only necessary to state that when the campaign began at Dalton they reported 1,000 men for duty, and when they retreated from Atlanta, three months later, their official report showed 800 killed and wounded on the campaign. During the following winter Dr. Dacus went with Hood on his campaign into Tennessee, carrying the colors of his regiment. Here he was engaged in the battles of Franklin, Nashville and Sugar Creek. In the spring of 1865 the little remnant of the Army of Tennessee was transferred to North Carolina. Here he was in the battle of Bentonville, the last regular engagement of the war. The company to which he belonged consisted of 118 men. Of that number, 85 were killed and wounded; and 25 died from other causes. When, at the final surrender and close of the war, the last roll was called, there were but seven to answer to their names, he being one of that number. On their way home the freight train upon which they were being transported was wrecked, and ten of his comrades were killed and fifty others injured, he being one of the latter receiving injuries at that time, from which he will never fully recover. After coming home he spent about eight months in school. The balance of the time he spent partly on the farm and partly as salesman in a general mercantile business until 1870, when he entered the medical department of the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). In the fall of 1871 he went to the Cherokee Nation and began the practice of medicine. He remained here seven years, when, his health failing, he returned to his old home in Yell County, where he has, up to the present time, been following his profession, and has been favored with quite a lucrative practice. December 23, 1869, he married Miss Hettie A. McCarty at Evansville, Washington County, where she had moved in 1867 from Charleston, East Tenn., with her mother and family, her father having died in prison during the war. From this marriage they have had born to them four children: Lena M. (deceased), Minnie L. (now in her sixteenth year), Walter P. (deceased) and Hugh (now in his fourth year). Dr. Dacus is a member of the Baptist Church, and serves as deacon and corresponding secretary. His wife and daughter are members of the Baptist Church also. Socially, he is a member of the Masonic fraternity and K. of H. Both the Doctor’s and Mrs. Dacus’ parents were among the pioneer settlers of Tennessee. His grandfather, though but a boy at the time, was with his father in the army during the latter part of the war of the Revolution.

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This family biography is one of 124 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Yell County, Arkansas published in 1891.  For the complete description, click here: Yell County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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