Col. John M. Harrell, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.2, Arkansas
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

One of these gentlemen voluntarily addressed to Mr. Davis his individual suggestions:

Mr. President: . . . I believe a thorough reorganization of our army there (district of Arkansas) would be productive of good results. Both Generals Holmes and Price have their friends and their enemies there, but they themselves do not agree. The good of the service requires the removal at least of one or the other of these generals. Which one ought to be removed, I will not undertake to say at all. I would suggest that the general commanding the department say which one should be removed. This being done, send General Hood, when he is ready for duty, there in place of the one removed. . . . Recommend that Congress pass a law authorizing the President to appoint persons {say inspectors) to visit that department and investigate the management of the quartermaster and commissary departments, etc.

Thus the non-military element saw the way clear to redeem the State from military mal-administration in all its branches. The obvious truth was, that with well-equipped armies of sufficient strength, Generals Price, Holmes, Kirby Smith or Robert Lee could win victories. Success attends upon the heavier battalions, and these they did not have. Circumstances over which he had no control prevented General Smith from making Little Rock the center, and Arkansas the granary, of the department. Those circumstances were the swarms of soldiers in blue uniforms, recruited from every land and every race, which swelled the ranks of the enemy, while sheer exhaustion of resources was rapidly diminishing the armies of the Confederacy. The regions of the State which were engaged in planting sent their soldiers to aid the cause. The little county of Phillips, of which Helena is the county seat, furnished the Confederate army seven generals before the termination of hostilities. They were Brig.-Gens. Archibald Dobbin, Charles W. Adams, D. C. Govan, J. C. Tappan, Lucius E. Polk and MajorGen-erals Hindman and P. R. Cleburne.