When I started researching Arkansas regiments, I was curious why the troops in the Northeast Division, over around Pocahontas, elected overwhelmingly to transfer to Confederate service, while those of the Northwest Division refused to transfer and disbanded. Primary source information is very sketchy, but from all the bits and pieces I've come across over the years, Pearce comes across as the "person of interest", as CSI would put it.
The Articles of Transfer, and follow-on correspondence, specified that the Confederate War Department would accept the Arkansas regiments with their command structures intact, both regimental and company officers. General officers and some staff officers (quartermasters and commissaries) would not be accepted, the War Department retaining authority to make appointments to those positions. The transfer would put Pearce out of a job.
Some 15 or 20 years ago, I corresponded with one of Pearce's descendents, who stated that family lore held that the petitions of August 11, 1861, were spontaneously generated by Pearce's adoring troops, clamoring to keep him as their division commander. However, the Governor stated that he had received reports that it was Pearce himself who was responsible for the dissension in the Northwest Division. I have seen nothing that supports the Pearce family oral traditions, nor have I seen the reports that Governor Rector referred to. Pearce wrote a disengenuous explanation of the disbanding of his troops, a couple of months after the affair, but makes no mention of the petition. In fact, the explanation outlined by Pearce does not correspond consistently to the known timeline of events.
My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is that Pearce was probably responsible to some degree in the disbanding of the troops.