"Dec 2, 1864 - Expedition returns to Arkansas at Laynesport
next thorough Richmond, crossing the Little River at Fulton
Dec 28, 1864 - Missiouri Expedition ends at Washington"
What action was there between December 2nd and December 28th, occurring between Laynesport, Fulton or Washington, Arkansas, which could have lead to Thomas Carr being wounded and captured during the month of December?
For Thomas Carr to have been wounded and captured in December one could reasonably assume that he had to be somewhere near the enemy. I am not aware of any long range Union expeditions towards Washington Arkansas during that time period.
It would be reasonable to conclude that at least Thomas Carr, and there by MAYBE the 2nd Arkansas, was not with the main body of Prices command. Maybe the 2nd Arkansas was acting on their own and had detached themselves from Prices command during his retreat. Or Thomas Carr was by himself and simply trying to get home and bumped into a yankee patrol and was shot while trying to get away from them.
This is all speculation and we will never know exactly. But Carr's record in one of the very few from the 2nd Arkansas Cav., which has any recorded event happening in December 1864. And that record of events had to have come from federal Hospital and POW records.
That observation tends to make me think that maybe he and possibly a few friends were just trying to get home and call it quits, and just got unlucky. Who could have blamed him after Price's defeat.
Again assuming that his home in 1864, was in Faulkner County where he died in 1867, you could draw the possible scenario that he probably had enough time to have gotten home before December once the 2nd Ark. Cav got around the Fort Smith area. His presence back at home became known to the Federals, Probably by way of an informant, that a patrol was therefore sent out to pick him up and that he was shot while he was trying to excape from them.
These are all assumptions to be sure. BUT, they were also common place occurance in Arkansas also.