The conditions cited in General McRae's letter got progressively worse as the war dragged on. Things got so bad that by the Fall of 1864, Kirby Smith had to pull virtually all the infantry out of Arkansas and send them to winter in northeast Texas. Arkansas was so ravaged that she could no longer sustain the army. Many of the mounted troops who survived Price's foray into Missouri were sent home on indefinite furlough, again because of the lack of forage.

The sharp spike in desertions in September 1863, however, was overwhelmingly due to the damage to morale caused by the fiasco at Helena, and the surrender of Little Rock, and the resultant loss of faith in their generals. General McRae did not mention this in his letter, of course. It's kind of hard to blame "The Man" when you are "The Man", but the soldiers' own words -- in letters and diaries -- make it very clear just how fed up they were.

One of my g-g-grandfathers was a lieutenant in the 38th Arkansas. He was granted a 45-day leave of absence to go home to Lawrence County and try to pursuade his wayward boys to return to the ranks. He rode from farm to farm all through the hills and hollers to talk to the AWOL soldiers. I've often wished I could have heard exactly what he said to them, but he returned to the regiment with most of his men in tow. Captains and lieutenants from just about every regiment went throughout the State on similar missions. They managed to bring back about half the men who had deserted in the weeks after the fall of Little Rock.