1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles (1861–1865) was a Confederate States Army cavalry regiment during the American Civil War.

The unit participated in the earliest battles in the western theater at Wilson's Creek and surrendered with the remnants of the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina in April 1865.

The McNair's Brigade reconsolidated at Van Buren, Arkansas, then marched overland to Des Arc where the regiment was transported by steamboat to Memphis in an attempt to unite the Army of the West with the Confederate Army of Mississippi to attack Grant at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, but arrived too late for the Battle of Shiloh.

The regiment deeply resented being forced to give up their horses and continuously requested to be allowed to resume their place as a mounted command.

[13] All twelve-month regiments had to re-muster and enlist for two additional 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.

[16] General Smith pushed rapidly into the bluegrass region of Kentucky, and defeated the Union army at the Battle of Richmond.

[21] In June, 1863, McNair’s Brigade was reassigned to Walker's (later French's) division of the Army of the Department of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana, under the overall command of General Joseph E. Johnston who was assigned the mission of organizing a force to attempt to relieve General Pemberton’s besieged army at Vicksburg.

[16][22] Johnston had been gathering troops at Jackson, intending to relieve pressure on Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's beleaguered garrison.

Johnston hastily withdrew his force across the Big Black River and Champion's Hill battlefields with Sherman in pursuit.

At the Battle of Chickamauga, McNair's was one of the eight brigades which, under Lieutenant General James Longstreet's direction, rushed through the gap in the Federal line and put one wing of the Union army to rout.

now under the command of Colonel Reynolds, moved back to central Mississippi to oppose General Sherman's Meridian Campaign.

To counter the threat, Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered troops to the area from other localities, including McNair's Brigade.

[33] Through the summer and fall of 1864 the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles (dismounted) and the rest of their brigade, participated in the Atlanta Campaign through Georgia as a part of the force attempting to stop Sherman.

The unit is entitled to the following Campaign Participation Credits:[34] The unit is entitled to the following Campaign Participation Credits: After the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee, the Arkansas regiments of Reynolds' Brigade marched via Bainbridge, Alabama, Tuscumbia, Iuka and Corinth to Tupelo, Mississippi, where they went into camp on January 10, 1865.

[36] After the surrender, the men were offered free rail transportation (where available) in the direction of their homes, by what was left of the Southern railway companies.