Ditto with the Arkansas troops. The volunteers and experienced officers of the 1861 regiments were sent to fight east of the Mississippi. Except for Slemons' 2nd Arkansas Cavalry, only the Vicksburg and Port Hudson parolees of Van Dorn's 1862 army ever returned to Arkansas -- and they returned unarmed and dispirited.

The bulk of the Arkansas troops in the Trans-Mississippi Army were those conscripted in the summer of 1862 and beyond.