One of the things to keep in mind Diane is that very few people thought the war would last longer than six months, a year tops. Many young men of Union sympathies in Arkansas had no place to go except to Missouri. Springfield at the time was a town of barely three-thousand people but was the economic center of SW Missouri. Springfield became the gathering place for many organizations that would be formed there. But after Wilson's Creek and the area abandoned for the next six months these organizations were moved primarily to Rolla where much of the 6th Mo. Cavalry was organized. After Springfield was recaptured in early '62' and the State began to estabish control, the Missouri Militia bill went into effect requiring military aged men between certain ages to either enroll, leave the state, give bond or get killed. Given all these pressures little options were open to these men. I should imagine if a young man was a sympathizer from Arkansas he had even fewer options. Thus the quick creation of the 2nd Arkansas Union Cavalry at Springfield. The 73rd EMM was a large organization with a great deal of political influence. Many of its companies were later absorbed in the PEMM, or Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia, which in this case became the 6th & 7th PEMM cavalry operating in SW Missouri. These organizations became bitter enemies of the border bushwhackers and guerrillas.