According to Nathaniel Hughes Jr. in his book "Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Confederate" ISBN 0-8071-2587-3 reprint with introduction copyright 2000, from original, The Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley (1909),
John Rowland became associated with a Col. Ingram (we believe to have been colonel Benjamin Ingram of Jefferson Co. Arkansas) in New Orleans in 1859, where he had been working on the wharfs, and worked for him on his plantation in Talledaga Township of Jefferson County for a while. According to Hughes in his book Rowland left Ingram and began working on the Arkansas River at Redland, Ar. in Jefferson County. The story goes that he was embarrassed into joining the Confederate Army (Company "E", the Dixie Grays, 6th Arkansas Infantry) after a young lady of the community accused him of being a coward, when all the other young men were enlisting, by sending him a corset.

Therefore given the dates of other enlistments in that company and the eventual deployment of the regiment that Stanley's date of enlistment would have been by June of 1861. It seems that he would have been a part of a larger group of simular enlistements of men into this company at Little Rock at the same time. It would seem that the majority of the enlistments in this company began at Pine Bluff on May 24th, 1861 and ended June 7th at Little Rock. It would seem that the majority of the enlistments at Little Rock enlisted between June 1st and June 7th, 1861.

Of course there are many "stories" surrounding John Rowland AKA; William Henry Morton Stanley from Stanley himself. Stanley himself was very mysterious about his early life and appearently fabercated much of it. So who is to know the truth of the matter?