2nd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment

The 2nd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry (1864–1865) was a Confederate Army infantry regiment during the American Civil War. The regiment is separate from and has no connection with the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment which served in the Confederate Army of Tennessee and is also separate from the 2nd Regiment, Arkansas State Troops, which participated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

Organization
In September 1864, the remnants of several Arkansas Infantry Regiments in the Trans-Mississippi Department were consolidated. There is some evidence that this consolidation may have occurred as a field consolidation as early as May 1864. The 2nd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment was created by combining the following depleted units:


 * 12th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
 * 18th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
 * 23rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment
 * 8th Arkansas Infantry Battalion
 * 12th Arkansas Infantry Battalion

Col. Thomas J. Reid, Jr. was selected to command the new consolidate regiment. All of these regiments had been captured at either the Siege of Vicksburg or Port Hudson and exchanged back in Arkansas.

The consolidated regiment was assigned along with the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment (Trans-Mississippi) and 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiments to the 2nd (McNair’s) Arkansas Brigade, 1st (Churchill’s) Arkansas Division, 2nd Corps, Trans-Mississippi Department, from September 1864 to May 1865. Because of the lack of subsistence or forage in the devastated State, all of the infantry brigades were moved to camps around Marshall, Texas, where they remained inactive for the rest of the war.

Surrender
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 the regiments simply disbanded without formally surrendering. A company or two managed to keep together until they got home. For example, Company G, 35th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, traveled back to Van Buren, Arkansas where they surrendered to the U.S. post commander in a formal ceremony, drawn up in front of the court-house, laying down their weapons, etc. But for the most part, the men simply went home. Many of the Arkansas Cavalry units, which had largely been furloughed for the winter of 1864-1865 following Price's disastrous Missouri Expedition did formally surrender at Jacksonport, Wittsburg, and a few other locations.