The 46th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted) (1864–1865) was a Confederate Army Mounted Infantry regiment during the American Civil War. While authorized by the State Military Board as an infantry regiment, the unit was mounted for Price's Missouri Expedition and served as mounted infantry. Due to its mounted status, the unit is sometimes referred to as the 46th Arkansas Cavalry when a numerical designation is used. The unit is almost always referred to as either Coleman's Arkansas Cavalry Regiment or Crabtree's Cavalry in official reports from the period.
Organization
In 1862, Colonel William O. Coleman returned to Carter County, Missouri and recruited heavily among former Missouri State Guard soldiers to form Coleman's Missouri Cavalry Regiment. Many of the same men appear on the rosters (compiled from individual service records) of Coleman's Missouri Cavalry regiment as the roster of the 4th Missouri Cavalry. Several of these men were from Arkansas, including Captain Wiley C Jones, who was the commander of a company in Coleman's 4th Missouri Cavalry. Apparently, Coleman's Missouri Cavalry Regiment operated for some time without formal recognition, until the summer of 1864, and it was granted in July 1864 official status as a Partisan Ranger Regiment (Independent Cavalry Command) under the Partisan Ranger Act of 1862. It was only an officially independent command for a few months, before the reorganization of commands for Price's Raid in Missouri which occurred between August and October 1864. At some point several of the previously independent cavalry regiments, battalions, and companies were organized into new commands.
In May 1864, General J. O. Shelby occupied Northeast Arkansas, well behind Union army lines. In early June 1864, General Shelby commissioned Colonel Thomas Hamilton McCray, among others to begin raising regiments in Northeast Arkansas. By June 13, Shelby reported to General Sterling Price that McCray's efforts were bearing fruit.
Colonel McCray's efforts led to the recruitment of at least three regiments, the 45th, 46th and 47th Arkansas Infantry Regiments. These 40-series regiments consisted mostly of conscripts, and absentees from existing units, organized around a small cadre of detailed from infantry regiments, which were expected to be idle during the fall and winter of 1864.
The decreasing availability of fodder for horses in 1864 led the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department to issue an order proscribing the raising of additional mounted regiments in Arkansas. However, when General Sterling Price received authorization to conduct a campaign in Missouri that fall, several of the new regiments were mounted in order to accompany him. As a result, the 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th were officially mounted infantry regiments instead of cavalry regiments. They were rarely referred to in contemporary reports and orders by numerical designation. Price referred to them as McGehee's Cavalry, Crabtree's Cavalry, etc., which eventually resulted in their later being referred to as 44th Cavalry, 46th Cavalry, etc.
William O. Coleman was formally assigned as the commander of the 46th Arkansas Mounted, while several of the former Coleman's officers and men (e.g. Captain Jones) were reassigned to other regiments such as the 45th Arkansas Infantry (Mounted). The unit was composed of companies from Greene, Independence, Jackson, Van Buren and White counties:
Officer appointments in the 40-series regiments date from the June to August 1864 time frame, so it is assumed that the regiments were mustered into service about the same time at various points in northeast Arkansas. The list of regimental officers follows: Colonel William O. Coleman Lieutenant Colonel John W. Crabtree Lieutenant Colonel S. J. McGuffin Major E.N. Floyd Captain James Rutherford, Acting Quartermaster First Lieutenant Robert Weaver, Adjutant Captain A. C. Dunaway, Acting Commissary S.W. Allen, Surgeon P.N.A. Billingsly, Sergeant Major
There are no known muster rolls of the 46th Arkansas Mounted Infantry and no record of enlistments. Apart from a few prisoner of war records, the records of this regiment consist of paroles of soldiers who surrendered at Jacksonport, Arkansas, on June 5, 1865. The following list commanders is composed almost entirely from the Jacksonport parole records: