Smith, Arkansas; Cobb's Battery, 4th Brigade. ORN I-19, pg 74, wherein this R. B. Mathews, 1st Lt. of Cobb's Battery lists the men he is taking to the ram Arkansas: "Sergeant James Brindley, Corporal John Leonard, privates Benjamin [G.] Moore, Daniel Black, and Charley Thornton, and Sergeant T. Watts. As soon as the volunteers were ready to move, which was about five minutes after, I took the men and reported myself and command to Captain Brown, of the ram, as being a portion of the number required of your brigade. Captain Brown immediately assigned us to a gun."

Lt. Robert B. Matthews has been memorialized on the Kentucky Confederate States monument in the Vicksburg National Park as being in command of the Cobb's Battery volunteers onboard the Arkansas.

On pg. 51 of John S. Jackman's Diary of a Confederate Soldier, a footnote tells us that it was Lt. Robert B. Matthews of Cobb's battery who led the Kentuckians who volunteered to work aboard the Arkansas, and that Matthewsactually worked one of her guns in battle. (See ORN I, vol. 15, pp. 1122-1124) On pg. 43, the editor tells us that some of the Kentuckians became temporary crewmen when the CSS Ram Arkansas was attacked. "As many as" 60 assisted in operating the ram and manning her guns."

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