John Crowell Wright, lieutenant-colonel of the 26th Arkansas Infantry, resigned from that regiment to take command of a newly-organized battalion of cavalry.  On December 17, 1863, the 2nd Battalion Arkansas State Troops, was organized with seven companies from southern Arkansas, and Wright was elected lieutenant-colonel.

By mid-January, 1864, three additional companies had been attached to Wright’s battalion, and, on February 15, 1864, the battalion was officially enrolled in Confederate service as the 12th (Wright’s) Regiment Arkansas Cavalry.  The regiment was assigned to Colonel Crawford’s Brigade of Brigadier-General Fagan’s Cavalry Division in Major-General Price’s cavalry corps of the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi Department.  The other units assigned to this brigade were Crawford’s 10th Arkansas Cavalry, and Poe’s and McMurtrey’s Arkansas cavalry battalions.

Wright’s Cavalry was engaged in the battles associated with the Camden Expedition in the Spring of 1864, particularly in the battles at Poison Springs and Marks’ Mills.   Later that year, the regiment took part in Price’s Missouri Campaign in the Fall of 1864, and was engaged in the battles of Pilot Knob, Independence, and Marais des Cygnes.  Returning to southwestern Arkansas in November, 1864, it served in that area to the end of the war, and was included in the general surrender of Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on May 26, 1865.
 

Company Rosters

Field and Staff.
Company A—Bradley County.
Company B—Drew County.
Company C—Drew County.
Company D—Drew County.
Company E—Calhoun County.
Company F—Chicot County.
Company G—Ashley County.
Company H—Ashley County.
Company  I—Saline County.
Company K—Arkansas and Jefferson Counties.

If you have any questions or comments or if you would like to have more information about the Civil War and Pension Records of the men who  served in these Companies, contact Bryan Howerton or Jeri Helms Fultz