Confederate Recruitment in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1862

Thomas C. Hindman was charged with recruiting Confederate soldiers in the Trans-Mississippi West when he arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas in May of 1862. Hindman was put into a very chaotic situation when he first arrived, as the organization of the state government of Arkansas had completely collapsed. State officials and the governor had left the capital by the time Hindman got there. The courts had also been suspended and Confederate money was bascially obsolete in this area. Hindman was also left with Confederate soldiers all over the state unable to unite.

Hindman's first order of business was to take control over Confederate troops, and resources and recruit new troops across the state of Arkansas. He demanded that Arkansas state governor, Henry Massie Rector, that if state troops were not transferred to the Confederacy, Hindman would apply the Conscript Act to them. Rector agree and all Arkansas state troops were then transferred to under Hindman's authority. After Hindman figured out control of the state, he began to recruit his army based on two modes of warfare. The first being field troops that would be trained to fight in open battles and second being guerilla troops that would use guerilla tactics to slowly diminish the strength and resources of the Union army. The guerilla unit would become known as the Partisan Rangers and would require much less formal training and organization as they were not expected to fight in open field, conventional battles. They also did not need to have a very organized supply system as many of their operations were just small raids against Union camps and supply systems.

The organization of the Partisan Rangers, for Hindman, was a simple and easy task as putting together these small, untrained units was not very difficult. But amassing a larger, more conventional army would prove to be more complex and difficult for the general. He needed thousands of men in his army, all of them well equipped for battle with good equipment and weapons. Hindman could not legally create new regiments under the Consciption Act. He could also not wait for permission to create new regiments from Richmond, so Hindman decided to raise and recruit soldiers unlawfully. He immediately commanded that all men who would legally be subjected to conscription be enrolled in the army and then organized into new regiments. He went further and limited exemptions from conscription and prohibited the use of substitutions for the required military service. Many people in the state of Arkansas were not happy with the harsh enforcement of conscription. As a result, many men fled to Missouri to escape enrollment and others joined the Union army.

This use of conscription by Hindman did drastically raise the number of soldiers in his army, but most of them were completely untrained and unequipped for battle. Many of these men were also very reluctant to serve under General Hindman. He then decided he would use previously organized units to serve as a core, which he would use to build his army. He asked commanders in Texas to send him unemployed units and many regiments were sent to Hindman from Texas. Using these units, Hindman slowly organized his incapable soldiers into a capable fighting force.