Arkansas Civil War Confederate Units, a list of units formed from that state for service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Like most states, Arkansas possessed a prewar Militia organization, which consisted of seventy one regiments, organized into eight brigades, and divided into two divisions. In addition to its standard militia regiment or regiments, each county was authorized to created up to four Volunteer Militia Companies. While none of the prewar militia regiments were enrolled into Confederate service, many of the existing Volunteer Militia Companies were enrolled into new volunteer regiments. Other new Volunteer Companies were raised with no connection to the prewar militia. Immediately following secession, the State Military Board began organizing regiments of State Troops. Many of these regiments were eventually transferred into Confederate Service. Some Volunteer Regiments were organized under direct authority of the new Confederate Government and were never organized as State Troops. In 1862, the Confederate Congress passed a new conscription law and new companies and regiments were organized almost entirely of conscripted, or drafted men. The secession convention also authorized each county to organize Home Guard organizations made up of men too young or too old or otherwise exempt from conscription or militia service.

Militia

At the beginning of the war, the Arkansas Militia consisted of 71 Regiments, which were organized into two divisions, each division having four brigades. Each county had at least one regiment, several had more than one regiment within the county.^[1] The Arkansas Militia Act allowed each regiment to form up to four volunteer companies.^[2] While the regular militia regiments were required to drill three times per year and were required to supply their own weapons, the volunteer companies drilled much more often and were actually supplied with some equipment from the state.

Only one Militia Regiment, the 45th Arkansas Militia Regiment of Searcy County was actually mobilized for service during the war. Governor Rector mobilized the regiment in the fall of 1865 in order to deal with perceived threat to the new Confederate government from Arkansas Peace Societies. The 45th Arkansas Militia conducted a brief campaign to round up individuals suspected of participation in these movements in the mountain of northwest Arkansas. The many of the prisoners form this operation were forcibly enrolled in Marmaduke's 18th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.

A provisional battalion of militia was organized under the command of Colonel Solon F. Borland, in April 1861, before the State actually seceded from the Union, for the purpose of seizing the federal installation at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Borland's Arkansas Infantry Battalion was composed of three Volunteer Infantry Companies and One Volunteer Artillery Company belonging to the 13th Arkansas Militia Regiment, Pulaski County. Borland's Battalion found that the federal installation at Fort Smith had already been abandoned. One Volunteer company was left to guard the installation, and the other's returned to Pulaski County and eventually joined new Volunteer Regiments being formed in the summer of 1861.

A decision was made by the state Arkansas Secession Convention not to activate the militia in mass, but form a series of new State Troop regiments for the new Army of Arkansas.^[3] Many of these volunteer militia companies were enrolled in the new volunteer regiments which were formed by the Military Board of Arkansas.^[1]

State Troops

Provisional Army of Arkansas

The Arkansas Succession Convention decided that rather than activating the existing militia regiments, they would raise new volunteer regiments. The convention was concerned that if the militia was called out and transferred into Confederate Service, they would be subject to being transferred out of the state, leaving the state defenseless. The convention was also concerned with the cost involved in paying for a large standing state force. These new volunteer regiments would be a part of the Provisional Army of Arkansas and would be transitioned into Confederate service as quickly as possible. The Provisional Army of Arkansas was to consist of two divisions, the 1st Division in the western part of the state, and the 2nd Division in the eastern part of the state. The new regiments of State Troops were mustered in to service for 90 days. The regiments in the eastern division were transferred into Confederate Service under the command of Brigadier General Hardee. The regiments in the western division participated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek as a brigade under State Brigadier General N.B. Pearce. Following the battle of Wilson's Creek, the western division was marched back to Arkansas and given the opportunity to vote on whether or not they would be transferred into Confederate Service. The units of the western division voted to disband rather than transfer into Confederate service. The Secession Convention appointed a new state military board to organize the new regiments and coordinate their transition into Confederate service.

Left to its own defenses

In the Spring of 1862, the state again attempted to gather its own force of State Troops. General Van Dorn had been ordered to take his Army of the West, east of the Mississippi River in order to support Confederate efforts in western Tennessee that would ultimately lead to the Battle of Shiloh and the Corinth Campaign. The State Military Board authorized the establishment of several new regiments for the defense of the State, and ordered the conscription of the requisite number of men from the militia to fill the ranks. The new regiments were organized fairly quickly, and were mustered into service in June, July and August, 1862. They were mustered into service as the 1st (Rector), 2nd (Brooks) and 3rd (Peel) Regiments, Northwest Division, District of Arkansas. Colonel Peel was eventually superseded by Charles W. Adams, resulting in what is known as 3rd Regiment, Arkansas State Troops (Adams') , which, was disbanded after breaking under fire during the Battle of Prairie Grove. The 1st and 2nd Regiments, Northwest Division, finally assumed their authorized designations of 35th (Rector) and 34th (Brooks) Arkansas Regiments, respectively.^[4]

The last ditch recruting effort

Following the fall of Little Rock to Union Forces in September, 1862, the State of Arkansas was again forced to raise regiments of State Troops in order to provide for its own defense. Governor Harris Flanagin (who had defeated Governor Rector in his re-election bid of 1862) issued a proclamation on August 10, 1863, just a month before the capitol fell, announcing that he had been authorized to raise new regiments of state troops and that by special agreement these new units could not be transferred out of the state by Confederate authorities.^[5] After the fall of Little Rock, recruiting was far more difficult than it had been in the first years of the war. The constant transfer of Arkansas troops into the eastern theater of the war, across the Mississippi River from their homes, was a major objection by the remaining population of men eligible for military service. With Federal forces now occupying the state capitol, the Confederate state government had no way of enforcing conscription laws in the counties behind the Union lines, except during raids by Generals Price and Shelby in 1864. The remaining Confederate regiments were plagued by desertions.^[6]

On September 16, 1863, Governor Fagan issued General Order No. 6 from Arkadelphia, which called in to service the militia regiments of the counties of Clark, Hempstead, Sevier, Pike, Polk, Montgomery, La Fayette, Ouachita, Union, and Columbia in order to resist the Federal army. The Governor's order directed the regiments to march to Arkadelphia at the earliest possible day. Companies were to be mounted and commanders were to compel persons evading the call to come to the rendezvous. The intent was to form companies of twelve-month mounted volunteers.^[7] In describing this call in a letter to General Holmes dated October 18, 1863 from Washington, Arkansas, the new Confederate state capitol, Flanagin stated that he issued the order calling out the militia, as an experiment, expecting to get volunteers. The order succeeded so well as to get companies organized in the counties where the call for the militia was enforced which resulted in seven companies being collected under the call.^[6] Flanagin also stated that "the troops raised by the State are more than double all the troops raised by volunteering, or by the conscript law, within the past few months".^[6]

These new units of Arkansas State Troops were placed under the overall command of Col. William H. Trader who was detailed to Governor Flanagin by General E. Kirby Smith. Col. Trader remained in command of the state troops until he resigned in June 1864.^[8]

On January 14, 1864, Governor Flanagin, through General Peay, issued General Orders, No. 8. which directed that certain named companies of Arkansas mounted volunteers, which had been called into the service of the State under the proclamation of the August 10, 1863, and be designated as the 1st Battalion, Arkansas State Troops, more often referred to as Pettus's Battalion Arkansas State Troops. The unit participated in the battle of Marks Mill on April 25, 1864 as a part of Brigadier General William L. Cabell’s Division. Lt. Col. Pettus was killed during the battle and Capt. P.K. Williamson of Company A commanded the battalion until the unit was increased to a regiment and transferred to Confederate service.^[9]

In August 1864 when the term of enlistment for these state troops was about to expire, Adjutant General Peay issued an order which directed that companies be allowed to vote on the subject of being transferred into Confederate service. On September 5, 1864, the State Troop companies, including Pettus Battalion, were formed into one regiment of cavalry to be designated as the 3rd Regiment of Arkansas State Cavalry, with Col. Robert C. Newton assigned to the command of the regiment until an election could be held for field officers.^[10] This unit was mustered into the Confederate Service on the October 31, 1864^[11] as the 10th Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (Newton's), and Col. Newton was elected Regimental Commander.^[9]

List of Arkansas State Troop units

Confederate Forces raised in Arkansas

Infantry

Tracking Arkansas Confederate Infantry Regiments can be extremely complicated due to the fact that numerical designations were often issued to multiple units. Some of these duplications were due to the competing authorities attempting to organize forces in the state. Other duplications were due to poor and or delayed communications between the various mustering agents, the Arkansas State Military Board, which was in charge of organizing forces with in the state, and the Confederate War Department in Richmond. Additional duplications occurred when parts of various regiments were captured, only to be paroled, exchanged and returned to active status at some later point. Finally, many duplications occurred after effective communications had been severed between Richmond and the Department of the Trans-Mississippi. General Sterling Price's staff made an attempt to renumber Confederate Regiments in the Trans-Mississippi, resulting in many regiments serving west of the Mississippi having duplicate designations with units serving east of the Mississippi River.

Competing Authorities

An example of the confusion caused by the competing authorities organizing forces is the numbers of the regiment organized by Colonel, later Major General Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne's regiment received the designation of 1st Arkansas when it was mustered into state service at Mound City on May 14, 1861. Cleburne's regiment was accepted into Confederate service by General Hardeee on July 23, 1861, at Pitman's Ferry, Arkansas as the 1st Arkansas Volunteer Infantry. However Confederate authorities had authorized Colonel T. B. Flournoy to raise a regiment of Arkansas Volunteers in April 1861, before the state had actually seceded. The regiment raised by Flournoy, which elected James F. Fagan as its original Colonel, was never mustered in to State Service, so it never received a state designation. When Cleburne's regiments documents reached the war department, the duplication was discovered and Cleburen's regiment was re-designated as the 15th Arkansas. Unfortunately there would be two other regiments which were also numbered the 15th Arkansas, one commanded by Colonel Dandrige McRea and another commanded by Colonel James Gee.^[13]

Additionally, at various times during the war, the State Military Board attempted to organized State Troop organizations, which were not intended to be transferred to Confederate Service. Most of these regiments were eventually transferred into Confederate service but they existed, often with duplicated state number designations for some period of time as state organizations. An example of this confusion involves the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment and Adams Arkansas Infantry Regiment. After the battle of Pea Ridge, General Van Dorn took most of the organized regiments in the state, and all military supplies that he could lay hand on and moved them across the Mississippi River to Corinth, Mississippi, leaving the state basically defenseless. the State Military Board authorized the establishment of several new regiments for the defense of the State, and ordered the conscription of the requisite number of men from the militia to fill the ranks. The new regiments were organized fairly quickly, and were mustered into service in June, July and August, 1862. Among the newly-organized regiments authorized by the State Military Board were the 34th (Col. William H. Brooks), 35th (Col. Frank A. Rector) and 36th (Col. Samuel W. Peel). True to form, these designations were ignored, and they were mustered into service as the 1st (Rector), 2nd (Brooks) and 3rd (Peel) Regiments, Northwest Division, District of Arkansas. Colonel Peel was eventually superseded by Charles W. Adams, resulting in what is known as Adam's 3rd Arkansas Infantry, which, was disbanded after the Battle of Prairie Grove. The 1st and 2nd Regiments, Northwest Division, finally assumed their authorized designations of 35th and 34th Arkansas Regiments, respectively. To further confuse matters for when the United States War Department clerks who put together the Compiled Service Records, decades after the war, ran across scattered records of certain men of the 3rd Arkansas who had been paroled at Springfield, Missouri, after the battle of Prairie Grove, they compiled them with the records of Colonel Van H. Manning's 3rd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In fact, these men belonged to Adams's so-called 3rd Arkansas.^[4]

Confusing Communications

Communications with the Confederate War Department also led to much confusion. When a new regiment was organized, state officials issued the next available number under its numbering scheme. Before a new unit obtained its final or Confederate designation, the regimental muster rolls and election returns had to be forwarded to the Confederate War Department which would assign the next available number, according to its numbering scheme. Given the great distance involved, even before Union forces established effective control of the Mississippi River, many duplications occurred. When a duplication was identified, the Confederate War Department would attempt to renumber a regiment to relieve the confusion, but often only confused the issue further. A good example of this type of duplication is the regiment organized by Dadridge McRea. McRea's unit was originally designated as the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Battalion, because it lacked the required number of companies to organize as a full regiment. By the time sufficient companies were added to bring the unit up to regimental strength, the unit was designated as the 21st Arkansas Infantry Regiment. However, Confederate authorities realized that they had also accepted Colonel Jordan E. Cravens regiment as the 21st Arkansas. To rectify the confusion, the Confederate War Department redesignated McRea's Regiment as the 15th Arkansas Infantry. Almost immediately, the Confederate War Department realized that it had just awarded this designation to Cleburne's former 1st Arkansas, so McRea's Regiment was redesignated as the 15th (Northwest) Arkansas Infantry Regiment.^[14]

Designations affected by surrender, parole and exchange

The designations of some units became conflicted as parts of units were captured and later paroled, exchanged, and re-entered active service. An example of this is Dawson's 19th Arkansas Infantry. The regiment completed its organization at Nashville, Arkansas, in November, 1861 and C. L. Dawson was elected Colonel. The unit was assigned to the garrison of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post, a large part of the regiment was captured when the fort was surrendered on January 11, 1863. Some of the men, including the regimental commander, Col. Dawson, were absent from Arkansas Post at the time it surrendered. This remnant of the 19th was consolidated with similar remnants of other units captured at the post, and with Colonel Dawson, in command, they continued to be referred to as the 19th Arkansas, some times being referred to as Hardy's Regiment (who succeeded Dawson in command), and operated in the Trans-Mississippi department for the remainder of the war. The part of Dawson's original regiment that was captured at Arkansas Post, were sent to prisons in the North, and when exchanged in April 1863 at City Point Virgina, and then transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where they spent the rest of the war, also being referred to as the 19th Arkansas. There was also a third regiment that was given the designation of 19th Arkansas. This regiment was organized on April 2, 1862, at DeValls Bluff, with Col. Hamilton P. Smead in command. Smead was eventually replaced by Colonel Thomas P. Dockery, and surrendered with the garrison of Vicksburg Mississippi.^[15]

Re-organization of the Trans-Mississippi Department

In 1863, General Price's staff decided to designate the Arkansas infantry regiments in the District of Arkansas as Trans-Mississippi Rifle Regiments. Col. Asa S. Morgan's 26th Arkansas Regiment was designated as the 3rd Trans-Mississippi Regiment. Immediately the officers and men begin to refer to themselves as the 3rd Arkansas Regiment. This leads to confusion for researchers who find Col. Van H. Manning's 3rd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry serving under General Lee in the Army of Northern Virgian and a group in Arkansas who insist on also calling themselves the 3rd Arkansas.^[4]

Consolidated units

As Confederate units lost access to the geographical area's that they were organized in, they lost any ability to recruit replacements for their battlefield and non battlefield losses. This was particularly true of the regiments that found themselves isolated east of the Mississippi River after the fall of Vicksburg in in 1863. As the regiments continued to dwindle in size, it became necessary to combine or consolidate units in order to eliminate unnecessary, redundant command and staff positions and field units at or near full strength. Most of these consolidates were considered "field consolidations" which were intended to be temporary organizations, until recruits could be obtained. Attempts were made to maintain the separate identity of the original regiments in these temporary or field consolidations. Later as the man power shortage became more extreme, it became necessary to make these consolidations permanent. In these Department of the Trans-Mississippi, these permanent consolidations began in 1864, resulting in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiments. In the Army of Tennessee these permanent consolidations did not occur until the final month of the war, resulting in the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Infantry and the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Mounted Rifles.

The 40 Series Regiments

The 40-series Arkansas infantry regiments, regiments with a number higher than 40, are actually listed as Cavalry Regiments in most histories.^[16] These regiments were originally authorized as infantry regiments, but were mounted in order to accompany Price's 1864 Missouri Campaign, which was planned as an all-cavalry affair. The rare references list them as mounted infantry, for example, 44th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted). However, they were almost always referred to as Cavalry units 44th Arkansas Cavalry, when the numerical designation was used. Usually, however, they were simply designated by the name of the regiment's colonel, for example, McGehee's Arkansas Cavalry. These regiments were for the most part raised in northeast Arkansas, and seem to have consisted in large part of absentees from other regiments. The 45th Arkansas, for example, consisted largely of absentees from the 38th Arkansas Regiment.^[17]

List of Arkansas Confederate Regiments

Infantry Battalions

Infantry Battalions were not intended to be standing organizations during the civil war. The regiment was the standard organization for both Union and Confederate Armies. Battalions most often came into existance when there were not enough infantry companies present to form a full regiment, as when Dandrige McRea's 3rd Arkansas Infantry Battalion was formed before the battle of Wilson's Creek. Many of these ad hoc organizations, like McRea's, eventually gained enough companies and received recognition as a full regiment. Some battalions were formed by the detachment of several companies from a parent regiment as when several companies were detached from McCraven's 14th Arkansas Infantry and transfered to Kentucky with Brigadier General Hardee in 1861, and were designated the 9th Arkansas Infantry Battalion. A few battalions, like the 12th Arkansas Infantry Battalion, actually saw signifigant combat as a separate command.

Volunteer Companies

The basic building blocks for regiment during the Civil War period was the volunteer company. Many Volunteer Militia Companies were organized under the authority of the Arkansas Militia Law during 1860 and 1861. Most of the companies raised during this period had their elections certified by the local militia regimental commander and their commissions were issued by the Governor as the Commander in Chief of the State Militia. This practice continued until the fall of 1861. Other Volunteer Companies were raised directly for Confederate service and were never organized in the state militia. Volunteer Companies, whether militia or raised directly for Confederate Service were then organized in to new Volunteer Regiments. a Regiment required 8-10 companies for organization. If a unit was not able to must field enough companies to organize as a regiment, It was often allow to organize as a separate battalion until enough companies were added to comprise a full regiment. A separate battalion was commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel. This list includes only those companies with a distinct name.^[44] Many volunteer companies were simply designated "Volunteer Infantry Company, Conway County," or Volunteer Cavalry Company, Conway County".^[45]

• Ballard's Infantry Company
• Clayton's Infantry Company
• Ernest's Infantry Company
• Hutchison's Infantry Company
• Kuykendall's Infantry Company,
• Willett's Infantry Company,

Cavalry

List of Cavalry Regiments

List of Cavalry Battalions

Misc Cavalry Organizations

• Carlton's Cavalry
• Gordon's Cavalry
• Wright's Cavalry
• Harrell's Battalion, Cavalry
• Nave's Battalion, Cavalry
• Poe's Battalion, Cavalry
• Witherspoon's Battalion, Cavalry
• Reeve's Company, Cavalry
• Abraham's Company, Mounted Volunteers
• Baker's Company, Mounted Volunteers
• Hooker's Company, Mounted Volunteers
• Gipson's Battalion, Mounted Rifles

Artillery

Most Artillery Units seem to have begun the war named for the city or county that sponsored its organization. In the Official Records, artillery units are most often referred to by the name of their battery commander. During the war, some effort was made to organize artillery units into Battalions and Regiments, but the units almost never functioned above the battery level, and were often broken out and fought as single gun sections. For these reasons the Arkansas artillery organizations are list by several names. Several Arkansas batteries served primarily in the Western Theater of the war, but east of the Mississippi River. On November 19, 1864, General E. Kirby Smith, commanding the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, issued Special Orders No. 290, organizing the artillery of the department into battalions. The component batteries rarely, if ever, operated together. They were usually assigned individually to an infantry or cavalry brigade.