Joe, by the end of 1863 the Union Army had occupied Little Rock and more or less controlled the State north of the Arkansas River. The triple-whammy of July 4, 1863--Confederate defeats at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Helena--coupled with the loss of Little Rock, loss of confidence in their generals, not to mention the extreme economic hardships suffered by a war-weary civilian population, all combined to nurture the belief among many Arkansans that the war was as good as lost. When Confederate conscription officers began stepping up their activities to replace the killed, wounded and captured, even to the extent of occasionally using hounds to chase down recalcitrant conscripts, many men made the pragmatic decision to switch sides.