Who is archibald yell

January 13, - January 11, This searchable database identifies former governors by state and dates of service. The governors' biographies available on the NGA website provide summary biographical information only and are edited infrequently. Source Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Recent Arkansas Governors. Frank D. White January 19, - January 11, Learn More.

Search For Former Governors This searchable database identifies former governors by state and dates of service. In , Yell helped form the first Masonic lodge in Arkansas.

Washington Lodge 82 was at that time the westernmost lodge in the nation. When Arkansas began drafting a state constitution in , Yell, the leading Jacksonian Democrat of the Ozark upland, endorsed equal white male suffrage. Yell arrived in Washington DC in the fall of at the end of the session of the twenty-fourth Congress. When President Martin Van Buren called a special session in May of , Yell was forced to run again, although he had no organized opposition; he and other state leaders thought that his original election also covered the twenty-fifth Congress, but this was not the case.

Yell won a convincing three-to-two victory and took his seat in the twenty-sixth Congress. Although Yell could not spell, his speeches were well received in Washington, and his attack on a bill to tear down the new treasury building because it blocked a view of the White House was humorously sarcastic.

For Arkansas, he brought home appropriations for roads and river improvements. Following the death of his third wife in , Yell did not seek reelection to Congress and was succeeded by Edward Cross.

The next year, he began campaigning for governor, having finally met the residency requirements. Yell, who had supported Jackson in the destruction of the Bank of the United States, was now faced with the consequences of having no national institution able to ride herd of wild-cat state banking. Yell resigned his gubernatorial seat in the spring of for reasons unknown. His retirement proved to be short-lived when the Whigs nominated the popular Fayetteville lawyer, David Walker , as their candidate for Congress.

Yell charmed the voters and ignored the issues, displaying his charismatic character to the fullest. One story has it that Yell bought a chance at a shooting match for beef and made the best shot. He then gave his prize of beef to a poor widow and bought drinks for everyone.

On another occasion, they came upon a camp meeting on the Kings River. Before the session began in , incoming president Polk tapped Yell to bring Texas into alignment with a joint resolution annexing the Lone Star republic to the United States. This mission he successfully completed, and a Texas convention approved the annexation, thus setting the stage for the war with Mexico. The private rose to command the Arkansas Mounted Volunteers when, at the mustering in, he was elected regimental colonel.

At the same time, Yell attempted to keep his House seat and also indicated he wanted elevation to the Senate. Woodruff saw an opportunity to embarrass Yell.

A hostile legislature forced him to resign his congressional seat on July 1, , and the Senate seat went to Chester Ashley. The large Mexican army, commanded by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, demanded that Taylor surrender and, when he refused on February 23, , launched attacks on several fronts. The Arkansas troops did not fight as one unit. Some Arkansans ran away, but Yell, with about a thousand Mexicans in front of him, led a charge forward with his sword in hand, apparently killing several Mexicans until brought down by multiple lance wounds.

During one morning of the campaign, he won a shooting match, donated the beef to the poorest widow in the community, and ordered a jug of whiskey for the crowd. That same day he led the singing at a camp meeting a few miles up the road. He won the election easily. Yell accompanied Donelson from New Orleans to Texas to accept the republic's offer of annexation. He was active in stimulating public meetings, and he was unstinting in his promises of benefits to accrue to Texas and Texans should the measure be consummated.

Yell took his seat in Congress in the fall of , but with the outbreak of the Mexican War he raised and took command of the First Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry. The regiment compiled a record of insubordination and near mutiny in camp and ineffectiveness in battle. In the words of Justin Smith, whose history of the war with Mexico remains the standard, "What the Arkansas men lacked was not courage, but discipline and the resulting skill and confidence " with which to meet the enemy.

United States History Commons. Advanced Search Help using Search. Skip to main content. Finding aids. Title Archibald Yell papers, Description This collection contains correspondence, a will, and newsclippings related to the Yell family.