Andy and others interested,

The Confederate Army 1861 – 1865, Virginia and Arkansas (part of the men at Arms series) by Ron Field and Richard Hook, states that the doors of the AMI were closed in 1861 as the Cadets under James B Williamson enlisted as Company I 4th Arkansas Infantry. Repeat 4th Ark Inf.

James B. Williamson, 27 years old, did serve as Captain of Company I, 4th Ark Inf, but he is not listed in Dallas County in the 1860 census.

Also, he enlisted on Oct 26, 1861, in NW Arkansas. I checked the CMRs on two enlisted men of the same co and they also enlisted in Oct, 1861. This hardly matches the idea that the cadets enlisted en masse at the very beginning of the war.

I did not have time to check the CMRs of other men of that company for age or other characteristics. A thorough examination of the ages, etc of the men of CoI, 4th Ark Inf. were or were not cadets.

Do those authors know something “ we” don’t, or did they confuse Company I of the 3rd and 4th Ark Inf??? If the latter is correct I suppose they could have looked up the correct captain, just for the wrong regiment.

I hope this will help (eventually) to clarify the facts, not to muddy the “waters”.