Ed, a parole camp, also called Camp of Exchange, was a rendezvous point where paroled soldiers were quartered while awaiting exchange. Off the top of my head, there were parole camps at Richmond, Virginia; Demopolis, Alabama; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Washington, Arkansas.

Normally, soldiers were granted a furlough following their parole, with orders to rendezvous at a parole camp at the end of their furlough. Upon reporting to the parole camp, companies and regiments were reorganized, the sick were treated at the camp hospital (or furloughed to recuperate at home), and clothing and equipment was issued. Under the terms of their paroles, the soldiers were not permitted to perform any military duties, apart from routine camp duties and administrative functions.

The Vicksburg and Port Hudson parolees spent three or four months at the parole camp before being declared exchanged.

I think the reference in the pension application to a parole camp in northwest Arkansas is the result of a faulty memory. There were no parole camps in that part of the State for Vicksburg parolees. Northwest Arkansas was pretty much out of Confederate control by that time. I'm sure the reference was intended to be a parole camp in southwest Arkansas, i.e., Washington.