I agree with your assessments of Van Dorn's intentions. Had he remained west of the Mississippi river he could have been more successful in defending the Mississippi by any number of several moves such as moving north into Missouri or Helena or even falling back to Little Rock.

While, he was partically correct about Curtis' Army being unable to subsist off of the land, By Van Dorn's abandonment of Arkansas he allowed Curtis to get to a line of supply (Helena) that farther soliditified the union's hold on the very Mississippi that he was so interested in protecting. And had it not been for Gen Roane's and Hindman's bluff at Whitney lane and De Vall's Bluff Curtis could have as easily marched straight into little Rock and Pine Bluff in May of 1862 and been resupplied by both the Arkansas and White Rivers, as well as by Rail and overland from Memphis.

Now just how destitute did Van Dorn leave Arkansas? I have been studing the reconstruction of the Army in Arkansas from May until December 1862 for some time. General Hindman's copybook of telegrams June until October 1862 give a very good picture of the situation.

General Roane reported that to defend Little Rock in May of 1862 he had 8 companies of infantry that were untrained and had only the arms that they had brought from home with them. 4 of these companies were Morgan;s battalion which had just been mustered into service May 12th. And a regiment of cavalry (12th Texas) which Roane had stopped at Pine Bluff on it's way to join Van Dorn's. Plus Chrisman's Volunteer's Squadron of Cavalry.

Van' Dorn had taken all the military ordiance from the Arsenal at Little Rock to include the machinery, ammunition, powder, and cartridge papers. This even included arms and equipment which had been purcahsed by Albert Pike with his own money (according to Pike) for use in the Indian territories. Pike was in fact later ordered to sent his troops (Dawson's 19th Ar. and Woodruff's Battery) to assist in the defence of Little Rock.

In July 1862 Hindman was so lacking in arms and ammuntion that he could only issue the 21st Texas Cavalry (just arrivig from Texas) 20 rounds of ammuntion per man to hold the White River against the Union patrols. It and the 12th Texas were the 2 units most activily engaged with the Union Cavalry at points along the White River.

The most revelent comment that I have found. In August '62 General Albert Rust at Brownsville had captured 2 spys and had telegraphed Hindman what he should do with them? Hindman's comment was, that if the facts were proven that these men were spys then, Rust was to quote "Hang them, we don't have the powder to spare".

It wasn't until the return of M. M. Parson's Missouri Brigade and a shipment of arms from Vicksburg in late August of '62 that Hindman had any arms or military supplies to work with for his Arkansas Troops. Even Dawson's 19th Arkansas had been sent from Oklahoma to Little Rock without arms. Only the Texans had any weapons at all and even Walker's Texans in late 1862 were still mostly unarmed as late as September '62. The Confederate Army in Arkansas really didn't reform until the general order of September 28th, 1862.

I could go on but that's enough to make my point.