[2][3] On July 23, 1862, General Hindman wrote to Captain Adams and ordered him to take command of the companies now raised, organized and armed in the counties of Randolph, Green, Lawrence and Poinsett and "move them to a rendevous [sic?]

point near Jacksonport, ....and make a temporary organization of them into battalion or regiment depending on the number of men and companies.... to be used against enemy vigorously on Crowley's Ridge.

[8] The 38th Arkansas was assigned to Colonel Robert G. Shaver's 2nd Brigade of Daniel M. Frost's 3rd Division of Major General Thomas C. Hindman's 1st Corps of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi for the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.

The portion of the regiment with weapons, which totaled men 152, from Companies A, C, G, H, and probably K, were placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William C. Adams and supported General Joseph Orville Shelby's brigade during the battle.

[10] According to Lieutenant Colonel William C. Adams' report of the engagement, the unit lost 5 killed, 25 wounded, 22 missing at Prairie Grove.

[12] Tappan's Brigade was present at the Battle of Goodrich's Landing on June 29, 1863, where they helped force the capitulation of two companies of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, African Descent.

[16] Upon the launch of the Union Army's Red River Campaign, seizing Alexandria, Louisiana and moving on Natchitoches and Shreveport, General Kirby Smith ordered Churchill's Arkansas Division which had most of his infantry (including Tappan's and Gause's brigades) south to Shreveport, Louisiana, in early March, 1864 to assist in countering Union General Nathaniel Banks' advance along the Red River.

Churchill's division reached Keatchie, Louisiana, in time to support Richard Taylor's main force who routed Banks’ army in the Battle of Mansfield (Sabine Crossroads) on April 8, 1864.

The Union troops held a formidable position, and although the Arkansans and Missourians fought valiantly, they were repulsed and retreated six miles to the nearest water.

[19] On 17 November 1864, a union spy reported that the Tampan's Brigade and Churchill's Division was in the vicinity of Camden, in Ouachita County, Arkansas.

[21] Union commanders in the Department of the Gulf reported on March 20, 1865, that General Tappan's brigade minus Shaver's regiment, was located a Minden, Louisiana, with the rest of Churchill's Division.

As the state had been so ravaged by war and thus was unable to subsist large numbers of troops, General Kirby Smith had sent most of his infantry to Texas the previous fall.None of the regiments camped around Marshall actually participated in a formal surrender.