Courtesy of the Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office Born on
August 10, 1837, in Maury County, Tennessee, Eagle moved with
his family to Arkansas when he was only two years old. The Eagle
family, descendants of German immigrants who had settled in
Pennsylvania in the colonial era, farmed first in Pulaski County
and later outside Lonoke. In 1859, Eagle was elected deputy
sheriff of Prairie County, a position he held when he enlisted
in the Fifth Arkansas Mounted Rifles in June 1861. Entering the
Confederate ranks as a private, he rose to the rank of captain
and saw action at Hominy Creek and Pea Ridge and was taken
prisoner at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In May 1863, he returned to
his unit as part of a prisoner exchange and fought in the
battles at Jackson, Chickamauga, and Atlanta, where he was
seriously wounded in the abdomen. Remarkably Eagle recovered and
rejoined his troops after only two months. It was said that men
either found God or lost Him forever during the Civil War. Eagle
was among the former. Foll