Lee, the significance of Dallas, Arkansas, lay in its location. The typical Arkansas volunteer company was recruited at large within a township or county, and the recruits ordered to report to a central location at a specified time, to be organized into a company. The company normally did not undergo any sort of training until it reported, with other companies, to another central gathering point to be organized into a regiment. Some regiments then received rudimentary training in a camp of instruction, while others were sent directly to the field for active service, depending on the needs of the service at the time.

Depending on the area in which the company was recruited, the central gathering point might be a town, a church-house, a store, etc., or even a prominent geographic feature. So in the case of Dallas, it was a convenient, centralized population center at which to muster the company, but had no training camp or other military installation.