Timeline
1847 The Dynasty
Folks back home eagerly awaited news from the Mexican War, which was usually two months old by the time it reached Arkansas. General Taylor's victory over Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista ended the war in northern Mexico and a Mexican lance took the life of Archibald Yell. A controversy arose when Albert Pike questioned the bravery of some of the Arkansas troops at Buena Vista. John S. Roane strongly defended those troops and a court of inquiry settled the issue, but not for long. After their enlistments expired, Pike and Roane exchanged shots in a duel in Indian Territory without injury to either.
Other Arkansawyers continued to fight the enemy. Two of them, Solon Borland and C.C. Danley, were captured, escaped and served with distinction in the assault on Mexico City. Borland returned to Little Rock on December 1, but Danley remained in a military hospital with a crippling wound to the knee.
Although the "dynasty" lost a strong ally when Yell died, others were waiting to accept leadership roles in that wing of the Democratic Party. Governor Thomas Drew remained the most established outsider in the "family" which still looked to Ambrose Sevier as its leader. Congressman Robert W. Johnson and State Auditor Elias Conway were the "dynasty" members most eager for higher office. That leadership faced the formidable challenge of William E. Woodruff, whose press once helped bring the "dynasty" to power and who now represented the opposition Democratic faction. Woodruff's primary concern rested with promoting Chester Ashley, but he quickly latched onto war heroes Solon Borland and C.C. Danley as potential opposition candidates. Whigs in Arkansas and throughout the nation, were already touting another war hero, General Zachary Taylor, as their candidate for president in 1848.
