Hindman was promoted to the rank of major-general to date from April 14 and commanded the Second Corps of Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee during the siege of Corinth before being appointed commander of the desolate Trans-Mississippi Department to prevent an invasion into eastern Arkansas by Samuel Curtis. Events in Arkansas had taken a terrible turn for the worse. Most units had been stripped from the state for service east of the Mississippi River. When Hindman arrived in Little Rock, he found that his command was "bare of soldiers, penniless, defenseless, and dreadfully exposed" to the Federal Army that was approaching dangerously from the northeast.