14th Arkansas Infantry Regiment ( Powers ' ) The 14th ( Power ' s ) Arkansas Infantry ( 1861 – 1865 ) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War . Two Arkansas units received the designation 14th . The other 14th Arkansas Infantry Regiment was commanded by Colonel James H . McCarver . The unit participated in the Pea Ridge Campaign in Arkansas and then moved east of the Mississippi River , with General Earl Van Dorn ' s Army of the West . After participating in the Iuka - Corinth Campaign , the unit became part of the garrison of Port Hudson , Louisiana . Following the surrender of Port Hudson , the unit returned to Arkansas and was consolidates with other units that had been released following their capture to form the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment ( Trans - Mississippi ) . Organization . 14th ( Powers ' ) Arkansas Infantry was composed of ten companies from Carroll , Fulton , Izard , Marion , Newton and Searcy counties , which were mustered into service in July 1861 at Camp Adams , near Yellville , Arkansas . There were originally 939 officers and men mustered into the regiment . The driving force behind the organization of the regiment was State Senator William C . Mitchell , who notified the Governor that he had gathered his own company and nine other companies at Yellville , and was ready and able for service . The Governor accepted their services , and the State Military Board assigned Mitchell ' s regiment the designation of 14th Arkansas Regiment . There are practically no surviving regimental records of the 14th Arkansas ' first year of service . The muster - in rolls were never sent to the Confederate War Department at Richmond , and the regiment ' s copies of the records were lost at the Battle of Pea Ridge , where the wagon containing the adjutant ' s portable desk was lost , burnt or captured . Thus , nothing comprehensive is known about the original members of the regiment , or deaths , discharges , promotions , etc . The regiment ' s records , for all practical purposes , begin in May 1862 , when the 14th Arkansas was reorganized for the war . The regiment was composed of volunteers , despite being drawn from a part of the State with strong pro - Union sentiments . The 14th Arkansas was very poorly armed with a bewildering variety of shotguns , old flint - lock muskets , and about every kind of muzzle - loaded musket and pistol available . Many of the men were originally armed only with home - made knives and hatchets . They had no uniforms , only homespun clothing , and virtually no accoutrements or camp equipment . Despite all these drawbacks , the 14th Arkansas Regiment was mustered into service at Yellville in August 1861 , for a period of twelve months . The field officers were Col . William C . Mitchell , Lieut . Col . Eli Dodson , and Maj . John Allen . The names of the original company commanders are not known . The company commanders listed are those elected when the unit was reorganized in 1862 . The regiment was organized with volunteer companies from the following counties : Battles . After being mustered into service , Brig . Gen . William J . Hardee , commanding Confederate forces in northeast Arkansas , refused to accept the poorly armed and completely untrained 14th Arkansas into his command . Hardy didn ' t have the arms to equip them , or the time to train them , so the regiment waited in camp . Eventually Brig . Gen . Ben McCulloch , commanding Confederate forces in northwest Arkansas , and badly in need of additional troops ( Brig . Gen . Nicholas B . Pearce had just disbanded all of the Arkansas State Troops in McCulloch ' s command , leaving McCulloch in a lurch ) , invited the 14th Arkansas to join his command and provided about 300 muskets for them . The 14th Arkansas fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge , and performed well in that very confusing battle . Sadly , the men who were killed in the battle are , for the most part , unknown because of the lack of regimental records . From Union prisoner of war records we know that Colonel Mitchell and over 30 of his men were captured . And , as stated above , the regimental adjutant ' s records were forever lost to history . After the battle of Pea Ridge , the 14th Arkansas , along with the rest of Major General Earl Van Dorn ' s Army of the West , was ordered to Mississippi . The regiment reported 17 casualties out of the 116 engaged at Iuka , and there were 12 wounded and 2 missing at Corinth . The regiment was reorganized at Camp Churchill Clark , near Corinth , Mississippi , on May 8 , 1862 , and new company rolls were drawn up and sent to Richmond . This reorganization was to prove a troublesome period for the regiment . The reason for the army - wide reorganization in May 1862 was the Conscription Act enacted by the Confederate Congress the previous month . All twelve - month regiments had to re - muster and enlist for two years or the duration of the war ; a new election of officers was ordered ; and men who were exempted from service by age or other reasons under the Conscription Act were allowed to take a discharge and go home . The reorganization was accomplished among the other Arkansas regiments in and around Corinth , but it basically destroyed the 14th Arkansas Regiment . The regimental officers apparently did not make clear to the men just what was happening . Most of the officers declined to stand for re - election , resigned their commissions , and quietly left camp . After the men elected their new officers , they were informed that , by participating in the election , they were agreeing to the extension of their term of service from twelve months to two years or the war . The men reacted poorly and felt that they had been cheated . A large percentage of the regiment up and left camp en masse on June 3 , 1862 . These men were not motivated by cowardice or dereliction of duty . They were deeply aggrieved over , as they saw it , being lied to and misled by their officers . If Colonel Mitchell had not been captured at Pea Ridge , things may have turned out differently . Mitchell was a popular and extremely well - liked and respected commander . He almost certainly would have handled the reorganization differently . His successor was Col . Eli Dodson but shortly after Dodson was assigned to duty as regimental commander on May 23 , 1862 , his regiment just melted through his fingers . Interestingly , the great majority of the men who deserted in the flap over their term of service , went home and immediately enlisted in Shaler ' s 27th Arkansas Infantry Regiment for a term of service of three years or the war ! So the dispute with those fiercely independent mountaineers was not the term of service , per se , simply the fact that they had had no say in the matter . By enlisting in a new regiment , they , not a bunch of lying officers , decided how long they would serve . Honor and independence were thus preserved , and most of the former 14th Arkansas soldier served honorably and valiantly for the rest of the war . Back in Mississippi , what remained of the 14th Arkansas , with its numbers reduced to less than 200 officers and men , was basically combat - ineffective . The regiment ’ s roster shrank from nearly 1 , 000 men to less than 300 in a period of about two months . At the battle of Iuka , on September 19 , 1862 , the 14th Arkansas was only able to muster 116 officers and men . Much of the problem can be attributed to lack of meaningful leadership . When the regiment reorganized at Corinth on May 16 , 1862 , the popular Colonel Mitchell was still a prisoner of war , so he was dropped from the rolls , and Eli Dodson was elected colonel in his place . Colonel Dodson was never able to solve the regiment ’ s serious morale problem , and he eventually resigned . Major - General Van Dorn then appointed Frank P . Powers to assume command of the 14th Arkansas , but the Confederate Senate refused to confirm the appointment , stating that Van Dorn had exceeded his authority , that a regimental commander had to be elected . The regiment was used to obtain replacements for other commands . In September 1862 , for example , several of the 14th Arkansas soldiers were transferred to the 27th Texas Cavalry to fill out the ranks of an under - strength company . Recruiting parties sent back to Arkansas were detained by General Hindman and attached to regiments in the Trans - Mississippi Department . The regiment fought at Corinth in October 1862 , and acquitted itself well in that battle . Later it was assigned to General Beall ' s Brigade , Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana and assigned to the garrison of Port Hudson . Due to the unit ' s losses , it underwent several field consolidations with other units while assigned to the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana . Field consolidations were considered to be temporary , and the component regiments continued to maintain separate muster rolls . On January 7 , 1863 Major General Franklin Gardner issued General Order No . 5 which temporarily consolidated several under strength Arkansas units : The order was modified in February 1863 and the 14th Arkansas was placed in a consolidated regiment with the 23rd and 18th Arkansas Infantry Regiment s . Logan ' s consolidated regiment consisted of the 11th and the Griffith ' s 17th Arkansas . The Johnson ' s 15th Arkansas was assigned to Crockett ' s consolidated regiment instead of the 17th . The regiment endured forty - eight day siege , and was surrendered to General Nathaniel P . Banks on July 9 , 1863 . The unit was involved in the following engagements : Following the surrender of Port Hudson , the officers were sent as prisoners to Johnson ' s Island while the enlisted men were paroled spent the winter of 1863 - 1864 in parole camps in southern Arkansas awaiting their official exchange . Consolidation and Surrender . After being exchanged , the 14th Arkansas was consolidated with the 15th Northwest Arkansas , 16th Arkansas , and 21st Arkansas Infantry Regiment s to form the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment ( Trans - Mississippi ) . The consolidated regiment was assigned along with the 2nd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment and the 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment and to the 2nd ( McNair ’ s ) Arkansas Brigade , 1st ( Churchill ’ s ) Arkansas Division , 2nd Corps , Trans - Mississippi Department , from September 1864 to May 1865 . 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 for the most part , the regiments simply disbanded without formally surrendering and the soldier made their way home .