On June 10, 1822, four soldiers at Fort Smith, Elias Staples, Samuel Goldsbury, Benjamin Clark and Daniel McCraney, left the fort to cut wood. They were working about a mile from the fort. On the way to the worksite, Staples testified that McCraney asked Clark for a "due bill" and a dollar which Clark was holding for him in safe keeping. Clark responded that the items were locked up safe at the fort, and he could return them in the evening. Two witnesses testified that when they reached the workplace, McCraney struck Clark on the neck with a broad axe, killing him, and then ran away. Goldsbury testified that he returned to the fort and reported to Captain Young. The two of them returned to the site where Clark lay dead.

On October 12, Goldsbury and Staples gave this testimony before J. Morris, a justice of the peace in Upper Township, Crawford County. Morris then issued a commitment order to Sheriff James Wilson, ordering him to jail Daniel McCraney, who apparently had been brought before the justice of the peace. Also on that day, Staples and Goldsbury made bond that they would appear at the Superior Court in Little Rock at the next term to testify at the trial of McCraney. At that time only the Superior Court had jurisdiction to try murder cases.

At the December Term of the Superior Court, the grand jury returned an indictment against Daniel McCraney. The record book indicates that the grand jurors were Creed Taylor (the foreman), John Douglass, James Pyeatt, William Flanakin, T. Rudolph, N. Rowland, William Hanley, Archibald McHenry, James Lockhart, Samuel Collins, Smith Kelham, Gabriel Greathouse, George Cook, Jesse Blair, Frederick Fletcher, Dempsey Kuykendale, Basil Newton & Robert Patterson.

At the April Term, Clerk David McKinney issued a subpoena to the marshall comanding him to summon four soldiers whose surnames were Young, Spencer, Dickson and Rhodes, to testify in McCraney's defense at the April Term. Sheriff Henry Armstrong was apparently given the subpoena, because he acknowledged receiving it on April 7. At the same time, James Wilson, the sheriff of Crawford County, was ordered to summon a jury of Crawford County residents to travel to Little Rock for the trial. The jurors summoned were William Bradford, William Stagner, John Riley, Isaac Shannon, Samuel Billingsley, John McClaine, John Cureton, John Moore, James Graham, William Maxwell and William Gibson. The writ noted that the jurors would be traveling 160 miles from Crawford County to the territorial capital. Apparently there was a delay, for trial was not held at the April Term. Instead, a new subpoena was issued to George Scott, the marshall, in May, commanding him to summon another dozen jurors. Reuben Blount, Deputy Marshall, served the summons on the jurors, who this time were James Billingsley (the foreman), Andrew Buel Shannon, William G. Shannon, John Titsworth, Samuel Washburn, Basil Newton, George C. Pickett, Lorenzo Clark, Joseph Batey, Henry Cureton, John Joy and James Gibson. (This time the writ noted that the jurors would be traveling 200 miles one way from Crawford County to Little Rock.) A scrap of paper found in the case file indicates that an additional witness may have been someone named Hastings.

On August 21, Judges Joseph Selden and Andrew Scott presided. Samuel Roane, U.S. Attorney, and Chester Ashley represented the United States; Robert Oden and Ambrose Sevier represented the defendant. McCraney was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The jurors actually sworn in did not include Joseph Batey and Basil Newton, but instead included James Peel and William Thompson. The jury found the defendant not guilty. The August 26, 1823 issue of the Arkansas Gazette contains an article about the trial and states that the defense argued insanity. Some witnesses, according to the Gazette, testified that McCraney had been insane for awhile; others, only on the day; and others testified that he was drunk, not insane. An entry by Sam Roane on a list of Territorial lawsuit published in vol. 19, p. 543 of Terr. Papers states that McCraney was "acquitted on the ground of Insanity in the Defendant." If this is true it is interesting that McCraney was simply released--there were no institutions for mentally ill people in Arkansas at the time--and perhaps even returned to the Army.

Another Gazette article in the same issue relates that Elias Staples, who had testified at the trial, died from intoxication several days later

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