 Island Number Ten was a strategic location with an island at the base of a tight double turn in the course of the Mississippi river, near the town of New Madrid, Missouri.The 12th Arkansas, brigaded together with the 11th Arkansas Infantry, under the command of Colonel Gantt, originally acted as the garrison for Fort Thompson, one of two forts that guarded New Madrid.Due to his role as a brigade commander, On December 7, 1861, General Leonidas Polk nominated Gantt to become a Brigadier General, but he was never confirmed at that rank by the Confederate Congress.