Greyhound Commander: Confederate General John G. Walker's History of the Civil War West of the Mississippi

Editor’s Preface

Editor’s Preface While doing research in the 1990s for a history of John G. Walker’s Texas Division in the American Civil War, I came upon a document that had been examined by previous researchers but was not widely known among non-specialists in the war west of the Mississippi River. General Walker himself, shortly after the conflict ended, had written a history of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Considering that Confederate generals in that region left few—arguably, only one—published memoirs of their wartime experiences, Walker’s history seemed a good candidate for publication to a wider audience. The general’s account, dictated to one of his daughters while his family lived in London in 1866–67, covered the war west of the Mississippi River from the outset of hostilities to the late spring of 1864. Walker had evidently intended to carry the story down to the end of the American conflict in 1865, but his return to the United States in 1867 and his heavy involvement in a long string of business ventures apparently intervened, and the narrative ended with the last day of the Red River Campaign in May 1864. A family member, Myron Gwinner of Tulsa, Oklahoma, later donated the history to the rich collections at the United States Military History Institute in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where it now resides in the Myron Gwinner Collection of Civil War documents . Mr. Gwinner’s family generously made the manuscript available to all researchers and put no restrictions on publication. Thus, nearly 150 years after it was written, General Walker’s history is presented to scholars and general readers interested in the man himself and in the Civil War in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. As editor, I have generally left the text alone, wishing to preserve the account as cleanly and as close to its original form as possible. Words that were clearly misspelled have been included as originally written unless the misspelling could create ambiguity ix x � Editor’s Preface or confusion in the minds of readers. The general’s organization of the long story into chapters has likewise been retained. The habit of the general (or his daughter, who typed up the narrative) of using “it’s” to mean the possessive “its” is not accompanied by a long string of “[sic]” notations. Instead, I have changed “it’s” to “its” where appropriate. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent spelling of certain words (especially “volunteer ”) has been left as in the original. Walker often reeled off long sentences of complex structure—so complex in some cases that I have added a comma or some other editorial aid in brackets to clarify his meaning. I have identified people, places, and events mentioned in the history to give it context and meaning for a later audience, and I have pointed out those errors of fact that crept into the narrative. The result, I hope, is an account that stands on its own and does not require long training in the history of the Civil War to appreciate and understand. As every author admits (at least to himself), the final product of a long research project is the result of the knowledge and kindness of many people who helped along the way. Myron Gwinner of Tulsa, Oklahoma, deserves thanks for making the manuscript available to the public at the U.S. Army Military History Institute. The unparalleled master of the Civil War collections at that great archive, Richard J. Sommers, introduced me to the Walker history as well as numerous related collections for my work on Walker and his men. Joan M. Wood, an archivist in the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives in the Handley Regional Library of Winchester, Virginia, was very efficient in tracking down documents about Walker’s family life. James McGhee of Jefferson City, Missouri, who knows more about Confederate military units in Missouri than anyone else, guided me to sources on the war in his state. Four generous colleagues—the late Arthur W. Bergeron Jr., of Carlisle Barracks, the leading specialist on Louisiana Confederate units and related topics; Steven Mayeux of Cottonport, Louisiana, the expert on the war in central Louisiana; Carl Moneyhon of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, an authority on the mid-nineteenth century in both Arkansas and Texas; and Daniel Sutherland of the University of Arkansas, author of numerous major works on the Civil War—all helped me in various ways, but especially in understand- [3.144.189...