As Richard Current pointed out in his book, "Lincoln's Loyalists" these men should be counted as a double loss for the Confederacy. Not only was their service to the federal government important from the Union side, but it also meant that there were 100,000 Southerners who were not serving in the Confederate army. And as we all well know, the Confederates could not afford such a loss of manpower, especially by late in the war.

I have always found it interesting that out of all the Confederate states, Arkansas supplied the second highest number of men to the Union army. Tennessee was, of course, first. But what makes this even more amazing is the fact that Tennessee had two and half times the population of Arkansas. Clearly, there was a strong Union sentiment in Arkansas however you slice it. Sure it was the minority, but it was a sizeable minority.