Here's an exerpt from some of my notes:

General Nathaniel G. Smith was chosen president of the schools; Thomas O. Benton and George D. Alexander headed the Institute; Ben Watson and J. S. McAlister headed the Seminary. With the new institutions of learning in Tulip its Golden Age was ushered in, for students came from all over Arkansas. The cadets at the military institute were sturdy young men, wearing the same style of suits as the West Point cadets, differing only in the buttons of their uniforms.

Just a note here. As far as I know no Arkansas Military Institute buttons have been found at the sites that the school purportedly occupied at Tulip yet one was found at Perryville, Kentucky, and another was located west of Camden.