From Fold 3
Content Source:The National Archives
Publication Number: M317
Publication Title: Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Arkansas
Content Source: NARA National Archives Catalog ID: 586957
National Archives Catalog Title: Carded Records Showing Military Service of Soldiers Who Fought in Confederate Organizations, compiled 1903 - 1927, documenting the period 1861 - 1865
Record Group: 109
State: Arkansas
Short Description: NARA M317. Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers from Arkansas units, labeled with each soldier's name, rank, and unit, with links to revealing documents about each soldier.
Roll: 0193
Military Unit: Twenty-sixth Infantry, W-Z AND Twenty-seventh Infantry, A-Be
Given name: Fountain P Surname: Yell Age: 29
Regardless, it appears you are referring to this particular date as “in October 1862”. The year should be 1863, but I do not know where you got the month as being October.
Second-You say
“It sounds like the election occurred on April 30, 1862 while the regiment was at Fort Smith”
The year should be 1863
The General Orders for 1863 as found in the link provided show the following:
G O #108 in the publication is dated August 4, 1863
The orders issued under date of April 30, 1863 are numbered 52
Third- The Confederacy passed its first of 3 conscription acts 16 April 1862.
The first Confederate conscription law also applied to men between 18 and 35, providing for substitution (repealed Dec. 1863) and exemptions.
A revision, approved 27 Sept. 1862, raised the age to 45; 5 days later the legislators passed the expanded Exemption Act.
The Conscription Act of Feb. 1864 called all men between 1 7 and 50.
Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust
Fourth-General Hindman’s report includes these remarks related to forming regiments:
http://archive.org/stream/reportofmajorgen00conf#page/8/mode/2up
…Such calamities could not be averted without an army. I had no army, and had not been authorized to raise one, the instructions of Gen Beauregard limiting me to the enforcement of the conscript act, prohibited new Regts. To wait until the necessary authority could be applied for and received from Richmond, even if the Govt should not deem itself precluded by the conscript act from granting such authority, would be nothing else than the surrender to the enemy of the country from which the troops must be obtained. I therefore resolved to accept the responsibility, which the situation imposed, of raising and organizing a force without authority of law, and that I would do all acts necessary to make that determination effective. In coming to this conclusion I considered that the main object of all law is the public safety, and that the evident necessity of departing from the letter of the law in order to accomplish its object would more than justify me in the eyes of my superiors and of intelligent patriots everywhere.
I now directed the enrollment and organization into Co’s and Regts of all men in Ark subject to conscription. Absentees from commands east of the Ms were to be included, but with a memorandum stating their proper companies and Regts. Substitution was prohibited, because I regarded it as certain to increase the difficulties, already too great, that were in my way.
To encourage volunteering, it was announced that they who should form Co’s by June 20th, 1862, would be permitted to elect their company officers, but that in all other cases the company officers, and in all cases the field and staff officers, would be appointed. Under the conscript law these men were to be distributed among the old Regts, depriving them of all right to elect officers of any grade. I enlarged, instead of curtailing, their privileges.