The 19th and 24th Consolidated Arkansas Infantry Regiment (1863–1865) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War. The unit was assembled from the portions of Dawson's 19th Arkansas Infantry Regiment and the 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, that excaped being captured when the garrison of Arkansas Post surrendered. The unit is most often referred to as Hardy's Arkansas Infantry Regiment, but by the late stages of the war, the unit was simply referred to simply as Hardy's 19th Arkansas Infantry Regiment[1]. The portions of the 19th Arkansas and the 24th Arkansas which did surrender with the garrison of Arkansas Post were ultimately released east of the Mississippi River and were also briefly desinaged as the 19th and 24th Consolidated Arkansas Infantry Regiment, in Govan's Brigade of the Army of Tennessee, but that consolidation ended after the Battle of Chickamauga. The 19th and 24th Consolidated Arkansas Infantry Regiment served in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi from it's formation in February 1863 until the close of the war.
Organization
Hardy's Regiment was organized around February 1863 by consolidating the portions of the 19th (Dawson's) and 24th Arkansas and Crawford's Arkansas Infantry Battalion that were not captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post on January 11, 1863. The regimental commander was Colonel Charles L. Dawson, originally from the 19th Arkansas, and assisted by Lt. Col. William R. Hardy and Major Francis H. Wood of the 24th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.[2] The companies of the regiment were reorganized from the remnants of the 19th and 24th Arkansas Infantry regiments in the following manner:[3]
Company A, composed of Companies A & B, Crawford's Battalion.
Company B, composed of Companies B & E, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company C, composed of Companies D, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company D, composed of Companies F, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company E, composed of Companies H, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company F, composed of Companies C & G, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company G, composed of Companies B & C, 19th Arkansas Infantry.
Company H, composed of Companies A & K, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Company I, composed of Companies F, G & I, 19th Arkansas Infantry.
Company K, composed of Companies D, E & K, 19th Arkansas Infantry.
Captain Torbett's Company, composed of Companies A & H, 19th Arkansas Infantry; and Co. I, 24th Arkansas Infantry.
Battles
Initially assigned in an unattached status to Frost's Brigade in southeastern Arkansas in May and June 1863. Daniel Frost took command of the "defenses of the Lower Arkansas River" with the departure of Major General John Walkers Division to Louisiana in late April 1863. Colonel John Clark assumed command of Frost's old brigade and Fort Pleasent. Clark's Brigade included the 19th and 24th Consolidated Arkansas Infantry.[4] Fort Pleasent was eventually abandoned and Frost's Division was added to the defenses of Little Rock. On August 15, 1865, the unit was marched through Little Rock, and entrench north of the Arkansas river. The unit retreated from Little Rock without becoming engaged in the Battle of Bayou Fourche.[5]
During the winter of 1863-64, the regiment was reassigned to Tappan's Brigade.[6] Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hardy, the regiment participated in the Red River Campaign with Tappan's Brigade in northwestern Louisiana in March and early April 1864, and was engaged at the Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. They then slung their knapsacks and went back north into Arkansas in time to fight at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry on April 30, 1864.[7] The 19th/24th suffered a total of 8 killed and 18 wounded in this battle.[8][9] Consolidated again with the 15th and 20th Arkansas Infantry on November 29, 1864, and the consolidated unit renamed as the 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment.[2] The unit participated in the following engagements.[10]
Red River Campaign, Arkansas March–May, 1864
Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana April 9, 1864
Battle of Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas April 30, 1864
Surrender
This regiment was surrendered with the Department of the Trans-Mississippi, General Kirby Smith commanding, May 26, 1865. When the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered, all of the Arkansas infantry regiments were encamped in and around Marshall, Texas (war-ravaged Arkansas no longer able to subsist the army). The regiments were ordered to report to Shreveport, Louisiana, to be paroled. None of them did so. Some soldiers went to Shreveport on their own to be paroled, but the regiments simply disbanded without formally surrendering. A company or two managed to keep together until they got home, but for the most part, the men simply went home.