It was originally organized as Pettus Battalion, Arkansas State Troops but was later enrolled in Confederal Service and Robert C. Newton was elected Colonel.

The constant transfer of Arkansas troops into the eastern theater of the war, across the Mississippi River from their homes, was a major objection by the remaining population of men eligible for military service.

6 from Arkadelphia, which called into service the militia regiments of the counties of Clark, Hempstead, Sevier, Pike, Polk, Montgomery, La Fayette, Ouachita, Union, and Columbia in order to resist the Federal army.

Only six physicians, one druggist, millers to supply the wants of the country, clerks, sheriffs, postmasters, and persons in the employ of the Confederate States were exempted from the order.

[2] On October 26, 1863, Governor Flanagin directed his Adjutant General Gordon N. Peay to: visit Lewisville, in La Fayette County, and see Captain Ford, who has been raising a company of mounted riflemen under the State.

If the colonel is inefficient, and Captain Holloway has not got his company formed, let him swear his men in and get the militia together, and compel those who are liable to the conscript law to go into the State or C. S.

[4]These new units of Arkansas State Troops were placed under the overall command of Col. William H. Trader who was detailed to Governor Flanagin by General E. Kirby Smith.

In August 1864 when the term of enlistment for these state troops was about to expire, Adjutant General Peay issued an order which directed that companies be allowed to vote on the subject of being transferred into Confederate service.

It served until May 31, 1865, when the encampment, which was near Dooleys Ferry, in Hempstead County, Arkansas, was abandoned, most of the men having been given furloughs to go home and cut wheat.