The actual purposal to re-arm the Trans-Miss with the caseoff arms of the eastern armies, that were being returned to the state armouries, is contained in the correspondence between Hindman, Holmes and Randolph in the O.R.'s. When Holmes was given the command of the Trans-Miss. Department he was in the perfect position, then being in command of the North Carolina district, to lobby for just such things before he came to Arkansas.

It also benefited President Davis, and the Confederacy as a whole, to keep Arkansas in the war for the Confederacy, because the loss of Arkansas, particularly the Arkansas River valley, would have extended control of the west bank of the Mississippi River all the way to the Arkansas-Louisiana border.