In March 1862, the movement of the Confederate army in northern Arkansas to the Mississippi River left the northern frontier of the Trans-Mississippi virtually defenseless, prompting immediate efforts in Texas to raise new regiments for service in Arkansas. In April 1862, the Eastern Camp of Instruction was established at this site to train recruits, and the facility was renamed Camp Ford after Col. John S. "RIP" Ford, superintendent of conscripts for Texas and a former Texas Ranger and Indian fighter. In the early summer of 1862, the camp was in full operation, and as quickly as the men were trained they were rushed toward Little Rock. By the summer of 1863, recruiting had slowed and the camp was staffed only by Captain S.M. Warner and a handful of militia. In June 1862, the North and South formally executed a cartel creating a system for the orderly exchange of prisoners of war, but by December 1862 the system began to break down after CS President Jefferson Davis ordered no further exchange of officers because of alleged atrocities of Union General Benjamin Butler. Late in 1862, the North also began experimenting with recruiting African-Americans into military service, and the political issues surrounding this, especially the use of white officers for black troops, together with alleged violations of the cartel by both sides, collapsed the system entirely in July 1863. The only exception allowed commanding generals in the field to arrange exchanges of prisoners taken by their forces with their opposing counterparts. In late 1863 and early 1864, CS General Richard Taylor and US General Nathaniel Banks entered into an agreement for the exchange of prisoners captured west of the Mississippi, with Banks stipulating that there could be no distinction made as to corps, meaning no discrimination based on race, and Taylor agreeing that he did not believe he had in his possession any white officers of black troops. Banks commanded the US Department of the Gulf, and Taylor the CS Department of West Louisiana. Taylor had taken a few prisoners by the summer of 1863, and there were only a handful of prisoners in Texas. US regulars captured west of San Antonio in 1861 had been exchanged in early 1863. US prisoners captured at Galveston on January 1, 1863, and at Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863, were held at Camp Groce near Hampstead, which served as the prisoner of war camp for the Department of Texas under CS General J.B. Magruder.