WOuld love to see where they got their documentation for Co I 4th Ark being the cadets from AMI. Williamson is not even from Dallas Co. I wonder if they mean Dallas Ark and not Dallas Co? Most of the men I have found so far all seem to be from Polk County (Mena) hundreds of miles from Tulip. The research I did on AMI pointed to the fact that the military school ceased to be a military academy around 1856 or so and that the equipment they had rec'd from the state or bought, went back. It did show that it remained a boys school until the start of the war, but George Alexander and MAJ Benton both left AMI around 1856. I have never found anything documenting that it did indeed continue as AMI. No unit in any Ark CS organization is shown to be made up of a large group of "cadets". THey definately did not man the ranks of Co I (Tulip RIfles) 3rd Ark Inf, which was led by the former head of the school, George Alexander. Most of the men there were adults and documented in 1860 census of Dallas Co.

BUt again, the button was found, I thought, at Richmond, KY. IF, and I say if, (because the info I researched did also not have a good paper trail for documentation) all military equipment was returned to state control at Little Rock, then any number of units could have issued clothing that had once belonged to cadets at Tulip including those with AMI buttons. I don't think Co I 4th Ark is a Dallas Co unit at all so not sure where they came up with that. Co I 3rd Ark under Alexander did enlist as a unit from Dallas Co. but they did not fight in the KY battles at all.