"I believe the initial motivation for sending these troops east stemmed from Lee's growing admiration of the 3 Texas regiments in his army [and of course the 3rd Arkansas regiment]. Lee wanted to organize two brigades of these westerners."

Certainly the reputation of Hood Texas Brigade, the 2nd Arkansas Batt. and 3rd Arkansas Inf. played some part in this desire for sending troops from the Trans Mississippi to the east. But it was much more than that. It started with the decision from Richmond for A.S. Johnston to order Van Dorn to consentrate their commands together to repell Grant at Shiloh.

The desire to consentrate these troops from the Trans Mississippi east to Tennessee and Virginia was a desire of Richmond as a source of replacements for casualities lost in the eastern battles and was continually requested all during the war. In Dickert Book, "The Histroy of Kershaw's Brigade", the author laments of the 55,000 troops setting west of the Mississippi River, doing nothing while the Army of Northern Virginia and Army of Tennessee were being cut to pieces in the fights against Grant and Sherman.

Of course we know how the people of Arkansas, Texas, Missouri and Louisiana felt about raising troops and sending them east and then being abandoned. Why did they Join the Confederacy if they were not going to be defended from the invading Yankee's? On the other hand the Union Army was able to transfer entire Corps from Theater to Theater quite readily. And that played a big part in the ability to mass large numbers of troops for Grant at Petersburg.