I think you are onto something here.
My GGG-Grandfather is discussed in the Godspeed history of south Arkansas. It states that he served in the Confederate Army in "State Troops" beginning in October 1863, until April 1864 when he fought at Poison Springs and at Mark's Mill, where he was badly wounded and kept from further service.
We know Col Trader commanded State Troops, and we know a little about Pettus' battalion, but those records are conspicuous in their absence of Dallas County and a few other counties in south Arkansas.