Chuck, in my opinion the Yanks used the term jayhawkers in a generic sense. South Arkansas had almost no incidents of jayhawking, in the traditional sense, as they did in northern Arkansas. There are many reasons for this, I think. First, southern Arkansas remained, for the most part, under Confederate control -- or at least influence. Civil government continued to function in most places, and the larger towns had home-guard companies and "vigilance committees" to maintain law and order. Those areas of southern Arkansas which were in dispute were continually patrolled by U.S. cavalry patrols. And finally, there were no overt Union loyalist communities in the region for jayhawkers to predate upon.

There were a number of independent mounted companies which were active in the area in the last year or so of the war -- guerrillas, according to the U.S. authorities -- regularly commissioned by the Confederacy, who made life miserable for Union patrols, couriers and supply trains. These are probably the "jayhawkers" referred to in Union reports. Interestingly, the Official Records include numerous reports of the surrender of those companies at the end of the war. They were, for the most part, treated as the Confederate troops they were. Communication was established, terms of surrender agreed upon, place and date of surrender established, and regular parole procedures followed. That's not how you deal with jayhawkers. There were a couple of exceptions, and I think I'll post some reports on them when I get a chance. Pretty interesting reading.