That summer Yell resigned from Congress to fight in the Mexican War. He was elected colonel of the Arkansas regiment. John Roane was elected lieutenant colonel and Solon Borland was elected major. This Democratic sweep enraged Albert Pike, a Whig whose Pulaski County company was unquestionably the best trained Arkansas unit. Pike avenged himself by writing a series of letters to the Gazette vilifying Yell's leadership.
The Arkansas regiment was, in fact, undisciplined and unruly on its march into Mexico, earning it the nickname: "the Arkansas Mounted Devils." Among their crimes was at least one genuine atrocity. Samuel A. Colquitt, a straggler from the Arkansas regiment, had been lassoed by a group of Mexicans, dragged behind a horse, and then hanged from a palm tree. The belongings of a missing Illinois soldier had been found along with Colquitt's body. In response troops from the Arkansas and Illinois regiments raided nearby Rancho Agua Nueva, massacring as many as thirty civilians. A commission headed by General Joseph Lane conducted an inquiry, but Yell either could not or would not reveal those responsible.
This did little to improve the strained relations between Yell and his immediate commander General John E. Wool. Wool, who was something of a spit-and-polish martinet, wrote to General Zachary Taylor complaining that Yell's troops were "wholly without instruction and Colonel Yell is determined to keep them in that condition." Wool had little regard for volunteers in general and considered the Arkansas regiment beneath contempt. He went out of his way to assign the Arkansans the worst spot in the campsite. Josiah Gregg, an impartial observer who kept a diary of the campaign, noted that the Arkansans were always placed downstream of the other troops so they had "filthy water to drink." Finally Yell refused to camp where Wool ordered. Wool had him arrested. Roane was placed in command and he refused to camp where ordered. Wool arrested him as well and then Borland in turn. Ultimately, however, all the Arkansas officers were released without charges.
In his biography of Yell, William W. Hughes reports another incident between the two men. His source is the family papers of Major Thomas Jefferson Kelly, a veteran of the Seminole War who was Yell's wagon master. Two days before the Battle of Buena Vista, Kelly was seeking Yell and had tracked him to Wool's tent. Hearing a commotion he stepped inside just as Yell was swinging a camp stool at the General's head. Kelly reported grabbing the stool in time to "save Wool's life and at the same time prevent the Colonel from killing his superior officer." No charges were filed and no official account of the incident exists.
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