Rust was one of Arkansas' Confederate Congressmen. Dr. W.H. Tebbs and Van H. Manning, a lawyer at Hamburg, Ashley county, organized two volunteer companies in 1861 and marched them to Vicksburg, where they offered them to the Confederate States at Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate secretary of war refused to accept them. The two officers then went to Montgomery, and through the influence of Congressman Rust, succeeded at length in securing their admission to the Confederate Army, for the war;. Manning knew Congressman Albert Rust, then the Congressional representative for his district in southern Arkansas, obtained the assistance of his influence, and when Rust decided to enter the military service of the Confederacy, persuaded him to return to his home at Champagnolle, raise eight more companies, and follow on to some rendezvous where together they could organize a regiment for the service quot during the war.; Rust did so, and joined Manning at Lynchburg, where the regiment was organized, really the first, regiment from Arkansas, as regular troops of the Confederacy, enlisted for the duration of the war. The 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment was organized by companies in Lynchburg, VA on July 5, 1861 and mustered into Confederate service for the duration the War.