to relieve Vicksburg, during the Vicksburg Campaign, leading to the Union's victory. Holmes, operating from Arkansas, protested that the troops in that state were nearly useless and there was no realistic possibility of using them to relieve Vicksburg. For the most part, the Confederate forces in this remote area were little more than a disorganized mob of militia scattered across all corners of the state. There were few weapons available and even fewer modern ones. The soldiers for the most part had no shoes, no uniforms, no munitions, no training, organization, or discipline, a situation worsened by the fact that many communities in Arkansas had no government above the village level. People did not pay taxes or have any written laws and strongly resisted any attempt to impose an outside government or military discipline on them. Soldiers in the Arkansas militia did not understand the organization of a proper army or obeying orders from above. Even worse, many of them were in poor physical condition and unable to handle the rigors of a lengthy military campaign. Holmes for his part believed that he could muster an army of about 15,000 men in Arkansas, but there would be almost no competent officers to lead it anyway. Further compounding his difficulties were multiple Union armies converging on the state from all sides. In this situation, Holmes wrote to Richmond that if by some miracle, he could organize the Arkansas militia into an army and get them across the Mississippi River, they would simply desert as soon as they got to the east bank. As one other serious difficulty, the remote Trans-Mississippi region had considerably lower levels of support for the Confederate cause than the states of the east. Seceding from the Union in 1861 had largely been the decision of the state legislature of Arkansas, and was not well received among much of the population. Attempts to enforce conscription into the Confederate army met with resistance and many locals dodged the draft, became guerrillas, or even joined the Union army, resulting in harsh penalties being imposed by state governments against draft dodgers. After numerous complaints were sent to Davis, who had little understanding of events in a region almost 900 miles from Richmond, Holmes was relieved as head of the Trans-Mississippi Department in March 1863. District of Arkansas After Holmes was relieved as head of the Trans-Mississippi Department, General Kirby Smith appointed