The “other” 17th Arkansas Regiment—catalogued by the good people at the U.S. War Department as the 17th (Lemoyne’s) Arkansas Infantry—was a regiment in name only. It was mustered into service with only six companies, and recruited only two more before it was dragged off to Mississippi with Van Dorn.

At Fairfield, in Yell County, on January 3, 1862, six companies from Conway, Johnson, Pope and Yell counties, were organized into a regiment (or an oversized battalion), with Col. George W. Lemoyne, Lieut. Col. Samuel W. Williams, and Maj. Commodore S. Lawrence as the field officers. I have been unable to learn very much about this outfit during the period of January to April, 1862. The seventh company was added on February 15, 1862. The 17th Arkansas was apparently ordered to Pocahontas, and I have found a record of men injured when the steamer Cambridge sank on February 23, 1862, while transporting Lemoyne’s regiment across the White River between Grand Glaize and Augusta. The eighth company, recruited in Prairie County, was added about this time.

The regiment was ordered to accompany Van Dorn to Mississippi, and a return of troops shows Lemoyne’s outfit listed as the 17th Arkansas Battalion at Corinth in early May 1862. During the reorganization of the army at Corinth, the 17th Arkansas was consolidated with McCarver’s 14th Arkansas, and redesignated as the 21st Arkansas Regiment. The existing 21st Arkansas was redesignated as the 15th (Northwest) Arkansas Infantry.

As the 21st Arkansas Regiment, Col. Jordan E. Cravens commanding, Lemoyne’s old outfit suffered heavy losses at Corinth. Accounts of the regiment’s heroic charge are truly memorable. There is a postwar account written by a former member of the 14th Arkansas who fought with the 21st Arkansas at Corinth, that makes you want to stand up and cheer. The 21st Arkansas fought in all of the engagements of the Vicksburg campaign, and ended up surrounded and besieged at Vicksburg with the rest of Pemberton’s command. After being exchanged back in Arkansas, it was merged into the 1st Consolidated Arkansas Infantry in the Trans-Mississippi army.

Next, the two 18th Arkansas Regiments.