| Governor Henry M. Rector, Arkansas |
Honorable J. P. BENJAMIN:
Our men under Hardee in Kentucky have not been paid. They are so far from home that our bonds are worthless to them. We learn also that the paymaster of the Confederate Government from some cause has not paid them either. Great dissatisfaction exists among those troops, and I have no doubt they are suffering for the want of a small amount of means. Forty thousand dollars would afford great relief. We have bought a large amount of clothing for your Government and paid for it, but it will take some time to prepare the accounts for payment. We ask that $50,000 be advanced to us upon this clothing account or in any other way, that we may pay off Hardee's men the balance due them by the State.
H. M. RECTOR,
Governor of Arkansas.
Official Records, Series I., Vol. 52, Part 2, Page 192
As with the Union armies in the field, paying the troops was a great concern. Not only had state governments not planned for war, there were questions as to the responsibility of the national governments to pay state troops. The ability to keep armies in the field was directly influenced by the states ability to pay them, as troops were gravely concerned with their ability to provide for their families at home.
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