3rd Regiment, Arkansas State Troops

3rd Infantry, Arkansas State Troops
Flag of the Pike Guards, Company C, 3rd Reg, AST
Active	1861
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	CSA
Branch	Infantry
Engagements	Battle of Wilson's Creek

The 3rd Infantry, Arkansas State Troops (1861) was an Arkansas State infantry regiment that served during the American Civil War. The regiment was designated as the 2nd Infantry, Arkansas State Troops, by the State Military Board, but it was named the 3rd Arkansas by Brigadier General Nicholas Bartlett Pearce, Commander, 1st Division, Provisional Army of Arkansas. The regiment is generally referred to as the "3rd Regiment, Arkansas State Troops", or "Gratiot's Regiment" in contemporary accounts. This unit is distinguished from the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment which served in the Eastern Theater of War in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The unit is also distinguished from a later state organization known as Adams' 3rd Arkansas State Troops, which was organized in 1862 and participated in the Battle of Prairie Grove before being disbanded.

At the beginning of the war, the Arkansas Succession Convention created the Provisional Army of Arkansas. The Provisional Army was to consist of two divisions: the 1st Division in the western part of the state was to be commanded by Brigadier General Pearce, and the 2nd Division in the eastern half of the state, commanded by Major General James Yell. The intent of the Secession Convention was to transfer these state troop regiments into Confederate service as quickly as possible, to avoid the cost of paying for a large state army. The troops of the eastern division were transferred to the command of Brigadier General Hardee in July 1861, but the troops of the western division under Brigadier General Pearce were not transferred to Confederate service before they became engaged in the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

The unit's designation as the 3rd Regiment, Arkansas State Troops has its origins in the confusion caused by Brigadier General Nicholas B. Pearce's failure to comply with the numbering system for regiments adopted by the State Military Board. The State Military Board authorized a 1st and 3rd Arkansas Regiment of State Troops. The 1st Regiment was commanded by Colonel Patrick R. Cleburne and was organized a Mound City, in the 2nd or Eastern Division of the Army of Arkansas. The State Military Board had authorized a 3rd Regiment of State Troops as a cavalry regiment under Colonel DeRosey Carroll, and ordered it to join the 1st Division" of the Army of Arkansas commanded by General Nicholas B. Pearce in northwest Arkansas. The free-spirited General Pearce ignored the unit designations authorized by the State Military Board, and assigned his own designations, based on when each regiment showed up in camp to muster. The first units to arrive at the designate assembly point were naturally the mounted units which became Carroll's regiment, so the 3rd Regiment Arkansas State Troops was re-designated the 1st Regiment. The officially-sanctioned 2nd Regiment Arkansas State Troops, under Colonel John R. Gratiot, arrived at the assembly point third, and was immediately renamed the 3rd Regiment. Thus, all accounts of the State Troops in northwest Arkansas, including the battle of Wilson's Creek, refer to Gratiot's regiment as the 3rd Arkansas.