Following Shiloh, Hindman was promoted to major general and sent to the Trans-Mississippi Department to command Arkansas, Missouri, the Indian Territory, and part of Louisiana.

[16] He formed a law partnership with John Palmer and gained attention in a political debate with the cotton planter James L. Alcorn at a Fourth of July barbeque.

[23] When a yellow fever epidemic struck Helena that fall, only Hindman, Cleburne, and a local minister volunteered to aid doctors as nurses.

[27] During 1856, Hindman had also began courting Mary Watkins Biscoe, at one point sneaking into a convent to see her when her father attempted to force an end to the romance.

[32] By the late 1850s, the strength of the Family was waning, as one of their most successful tactics had been to stress Democratic unity in the face of the Whigs and Know-Nothings, both of whom had largely lost power in Arkansas after 1856.

[54] In the election for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in 1859, Hindman joined other southern Democrats in opposing the candidacy of Republican John Sherman.

[58] Hindman viewed the election of Lincoln as meaning that slavery was no longer safe, and supported secession while knowing that it could lead to civil war.

On April 12, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter,[65] bringing on the American Civil War,[66] and Lincoln called on the states to furnish troops to put down the rebellion.

[75] In September, General Albert Sidney Johnston was placed in command of all Confederate forces west of the Allegheny Mountains, excluding the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

[81] Shortly before the battle, Hardee reorganized his corps into two ad hoc divisions, and Hindman's included both his original brigade (now commanded by Colonel Robert G. Shaver) and that of Brigadier General S. A. M.

[82] The battle opened with Hindman's men fighting with Colonel Everett Peabody's Union brigade, in an exchange that prevented the Confederates from achieving complete surprise.

[91] Major General Earl Van Dorn had recently transferred almost all of the men and supplies in the Trans-Mississippi Department to east of the Mississippi, leaving very little in Arkansas.

Planters objected when Hindman ordered cotton burned to prevent Union forces from capturing it, or when he impressed slaves for military construction projects.

[111] Holmes, who had been transferred west after performing poorly in the Seven Days' Battles, upheld some of Hindman's unpopular decrees, including martial law.

[114] Hindman arrived three days later;[114] the Confederate troops in the area were largely unprepared for an offensive, and only a few months remained until the onset of winter would make movements in the Ozarks very difficult.

Brigadier General Allison Nelson had fallen terminally ill, and Holmes needed Hindman to take care of administrative matters.

After learning that Union Major General John Schofield had advanced into Arkansas with 8,000 to 10,000 men, Hindman withdrew his force south across the Boston Mountains.

The Confederates fought the combined forces of Herron and Blunt to a draw, but Hindman decided to withdraw to Van Buren, Arkansas, after the battle.

Hindman was assigned to a court of inquiry related to the Confederate defeat at the Battle of New Orleans in February, and finally left the state on March 13.

[139] During the early afternoon, Colonel John T. Wilder's Union brigade struck Hindman's left flank, blunting the division's attack.

Wilder wanted to drive through Hindman's line to the other side of the Union position, where troops under Major General George H. Thomas were still holding out, but was ordered to retreat.

[140] After this incident, Hindman was ordered to stop his pursuit of retreating Union forces and move his division north to rejoin other units of Longstreet's command.

[148] Not wanting to serve under Hood, Hindman requested a transfer to an inspector general or behind-the-lines duty in Florida or southern Georgia before he was replaced.

His hopes of a transfer or promotion had been blunted by his support for Cleburne's proposal to arm slaves, the hostile Bragg's position as an advisor to Davis, and his continuing unpopularity in the Trans-Mississippi due to his previous actions in Arkansas.

[149] In early May 1864, Union Major General William T. Sherman began the Atlanta campaign by moving almost 100,000 men against Johnston's army in northern Georgia.

[152] Union cavalry raided the Confederate rear, striking Hindman's division's field hospital, destroying supplies and taking prisoners.

[157] On June 27, Sherman was bloodily repulsed in frontal attacks at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and then outflanked Johnston's line, forcing the Confederates to retreat.

Hindman was part of a plan formed by several ex-Confederates in 1866 to establish a colony in the Yucatán Peninsula, but this failed as foreign support for the rule of Maximilian ended.

He was permitted to remain at liberty until his trial, but the pending charges excluded him from a July 1868 amnesty proclamation by President Johnson that pardoned almost all former Confederates.

[172] He then became the leader of a political faction known as the Young Democracy, which supported taking a loyalty oath mandated by the 1868 constitution and then participating in future elections.