The 1st Arkansas Volunteer Infantry was still there participating in basic training when the war effectively ended with the fall of Cuba and the signing of an armistice in early August. The 1st Arkansas Volunteer Infantry mustered out of Federal Service on 25 October 1899 at Little Rock, Arkansas. The Militia Act of 1903 (32 Stat. 775), also known as the Dick Act, organized the various state militias into the present National Guard system. The act was passed in response to the demonstrated weaknesses in the militia, and in the entire U.S. military in the Spanish–American War of 1898. U.S. Senator Charles W. F. Dick, a Major General in the Ohio National Guard who chaired the Committee on the Militia, sponsored the 1903 Act towards the end of the 57th United States Congress. This legislation, passed 21 January 1903, gave federal status to the state militia, and required them to conform to Regular Army organization within five years. The act also required National Guard units to attend 24 drills and five days' annual training a year, and provided for pay for annual training for the first time. In return for the increased Federal funding which the act made available, militia units had to meet certain standards, and were subject to inspection by Regular Army officers. In Arkansas, re-organization of the Arkansas State Guard actually began in 1901 under Governor Jeff Davis. Major General W.M. Maynes, in a biennial report dated 31 December 1906 provided an overview of the status of the Arkansas Militia. The Militia was subdivided by statute into the State Guard, or active organize militia, and the Reserve Militia. The State Guard, or regularly enlisted, organized and uniformed militia, was at a total strength of 1,274 personnel. The Federal Government appropriated $35,956.86 for the support of the Arkansas State Guard in that year and the Adjutant General applied to the General Assembly for appropriation of one half the Federal appropriation. Beginning with the passage of the "Dick" Act, the Arkansas State Guard was henceforth called the 'Arkansas National Guard'. The units retained their designations as the 1st Arkansas Infantry, 2nd Arkansas Infantry, etc., until the beginning of World War I, when all National Guard units were redesignated with federal numbers. For several years, the state had been organized with the 1st Infantry being stationed north of the Arkansas River and the 2nd Infantry stationed south of the river. But in 1909, the Adjutant General, General Green, determined that the disposition of new railroads and highways had made the existing stationing plan inefficient.