The Confederate Congress passed the first of its three conscription acts on April 16, 1862. Conscription Act in April of 1862 applied to men between 18 and 35, and provided for substitution (repealed Dec. 1863) and exemptions. A revision was approved September 27. 1862, which raised the maximum age to 45. The intent of the April 1862 Conscription act was to conscripts replacements for those regiments already in Confederate service, not to raise new regiments. When Major General Thomas C. Hindman was ordered to assume command of the new District of the Trans-Mississippi, he found the state had been stripped of almost all organized Confederate forces and was facing an imminent invasion. General Hindman consciously ignored the letter of the April 1862 Conscription Act’s intent and instead used the Act to conscripted men for new regiments to replace those units which had been transferred east of the Mississippi under Generals Hardy and Van Dorn.
General Hindman encouraged men to volunteer by directing that units formed before June 20th 1862 would still be allowed to elect their officers, but units formed from conscripts after that date would have their officers appointed. Later, the Confederate Congress authorized the acceptance of these somewhat illegally formed regiments and battalions, and in legislation which was announced by the Confederate Adjutant and Inspector General Officer Order Number 108 dated August 4, 1863 gave these conscripted regiments the right to elect their officers just as volunteer regiments had traditionally been allowed to do.
The 26th Arkansas spent part of the winter of 1862-63 near Little Rock at Camp Anderson. The regiment Camp Anderson on May 20, 1863 and arrived at Camp Cabell near Fort Smith on June 1, 1863. Apparently Colonel Morgan, who had been appointed Colonel of the 26th at its formation, had become dissatisfied with his command to the point that he tendered his resignation on 19 Aug 1863, but General Holmes, who had by then replaced General Hindman in command of the Department of the Trans-Mississippi, did not accept his resignation until weeks later. Word of Morgan’s dissatisfaction and subsequent resignation must have gotten around, however, as evidenced by attempts of many officers to curry favor with the men in hopes of advancing themselves via election. The regimental politics soon came to a standstill due to pressure from an advancing Federal Army, which resulted in the evacuation of Fort Smith by troops under Brigadier General Cabell and the subsequent Battle of Devil’s Backbone on September 1, 1863. Colonel Morgan remained in command until December 1863 when the regiment underwent re-organization at Camp Bragg, near present day ______. Colonel Morgan did not stand for re-election. F. P. Yell was elected Colonel and accepted his commission on December 6, 1863, and Morgan was relieved as of that date.
Colonel Yell remained in command until he was killed at the battle of Pleasant Hill, LA, in the spring of 1864 and he was succeeded by I.L. Brooks.