Grant at Vicksburg and quickly became a force in the move to organize a new loyal, pro Union Government in Arkansas. Following the war, during Reconstruction, he would become general superintendent of the Southwest District of Arkansas of the Freedmen's Bureau, a federal agency created at the end of the war to help former slaves. Port Hudson The reorganized regiment underwent several field consolidations during the months following its exchanged and was eventually incorporated the garrison of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi river. The regiment, once it regained sufficient strength to operate independently, became a part of Brig. Genl. William Beall's Center Brigade in the Port Hudson entrenchments. The regiment endured forty-eight day siege, and was surrendered to General Nathaniel P. Banks on July 9, 1863. Following the capitulation of Port Hudson, the enlisted men were paroled, but the officers were sent to Johnson's Island. Camden Expedition, Red River Campaign There are few records of the 12th Arkansas after the fall of Port Hudson. After being paroled, the enlisted personnel of the 12th Arkansas made their way to parole camps near Camden in south Arkansas and were eventually declared exchanged. They served as mounted infantry as a part of Colonel Thomas Pleasant Dockery's Brigade during the Camden Expedition in the Spring of 1864. As part of Dockery's Brigade, remnants of the regiment saw action at the Battles of Prairie D'Ane, Marks' Mills, and Jenkins Ferry. Final year of the war In the summer of 1864, the survivors of the 12th Arkansas were consolidated with the remains of several other regiments surrendered at Port Hudson or at the Siege of Vicksburg and formed into the 2nd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment. T. J. Reid Jr, originally from the 12th Arkansas, became the Colonel of the new consolidated regiment. The consolidated regiment was assigned along with the 1st and 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiments to the 2nd (McNair's) Arkansas Brigade, 1st (Churchill's) Arkansas Division, 2nd Corps, Trans-Mississippi Department, from September 1864 to May 1865. On 22 January 1865, Major General Churchill was ordered to move his division to Minden, Louisiana, and occupy winter quarters. Union commanders in the Department of the Gulf reported on March 20, 1865, that General McNair's brigade was located at Minden, Louisiana, with the rest of Churchill's Division. In early April 1865, the division concentrated near Shreveport Louisiana, and then moved to Marshall Texas by mid April 1865. Campaign