Danny, I know what you mean. I need a score-card to keep up with all the in's and out's of the 12th and 14th Arkansas Regiments.

The field consolidation of September 10, 1862, involving the 12th, 14th and 23rd Arkansas Regiments, was a sort of temporary marriage of convenience. About half of the 12th Arkansas Regiment was captured at Island No. 10 in April, and would not be exchanged until September 23. However, a lot of the men who escaped capture were milling about in Mississippi, many having joined up with the 6th Arkansas Regiment. Others were being "held captive" by the Trans-Mississippi Department, to beef up the regiments in Arkansas. The September 10 field consolidation basically provided the uncaptured members of the 12th Arkansas with a "home" in the 23rd Arkansas until their own regiment was exchanged and reorganized -- a source of rations, clothing and other supplies from the 23rd's quartermaster and commissary officers, and supervision from the 23rd's field officers. When the 12th Arkansas was exchanged a couple of weeks later, all of its wayward boys were ordered to report to Jackson, Mississippi, to reorganize.

The situation with the 14th Arkansas is a little murkier, and I don't have all the kinks ironed out yet. Basically, as I read the limited records available, the 14th Arkansas had a fairly serious leadership problem, a virtual avalanche of desertions, and a near mutiny over the length of service the regiment had originally agreed to. Like the 12th Arkansas, it appears that the officers were sent back to Arkansas to recruit, and the men (those which remained with the colors) were temporarily consolidated with the 23rd Arkansas. The regiment later regained its independence, only to lose it a few months later in a consolidation with the 18th and 23rd Arkansas Regiments.

The 23rd Arkansas appears to have been a rock-solid regiment, with good leadership, comparatively few desertions, and fewer deaths in the notorious measles epidemic that ravaged the Arkansas regiments in the Spring of 1862. Unlike many of the other Port Hudson regiments, the men of the 23rd Arkansas rejoined their regiment, after being exchanged, in substantial numbers. This all points to a regiment with high morale and inspired leadership.