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46 The Last Chapter in the History of the War J. M. Bundy, Lieutenant, U.S.V. the details attending the death-throes of the Southern Confederacy east of the Mississippi have been told,by those who witnessed them on each side, over and over again. The surrender of [Robert E.] Lee, which virtually ended the war, was an event of such transcendent importance that every particular incident thereof was portrayed by enterprising correspondents or embodied in official reports.The surrender of [General Joseph E.] Johnston was brought into special prominence by the spicy and trenchant correspondence between [Major General William T.] Sherman and [Secretary of War Edwin M.] Stanton, to which the first negotiations gave rise. When those two surrenders had been made, little interest was felt, in the East certainly, in regard to the manner in which the outlying hosts of the Confederacy should accept the adverse fate of war. It was merely known that west of the Mississippi there was a large force of organized and unorganized Confederate troops, estimated at from fifty to one hundred thousand men, under the command of General E. Kirby Smith. How formidable was this trans-Mississippi army, what were its resources, what its spirit, and what the purposes of its leaders, were unknown. It held, virtually , the whole of Texas; nearly all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi; all of Southern Arkansas not within a few miles’ radius of our military posts,and the Indian Territory. Navigation of the White and Arkansas rivers by Union transports was dangerous; a fleet of eighty-six gunboats, monitors, and other vessels of war was needed to protect transports on the Mississippi from “bushwhackers ” on each side of the river. The Red River was closed, and at its mouth a formidable Union fleet of from six to eight vessels, including a monitor, had lain for two years, with steam constantly up, waiting for the expected descent of the ram Webb, known to be the fleetest and thought to have become one of the most formidable war vessels afloat. From Cairo to New Orleans the life of a Union man who should venture on the west side of the Mississippi, out of the immediate protection of a military post or without a sufficient escort of troops, was not worth a farthing. From southern Missouri to the gulf our hold on the vast country between, enough in extent for a great empire, was merely nominal , that is, we held the spots which our troops actually occupied—no more. To the regularly organized and partisan Confederate forces west of the Mississippi recruits were constantly coming from disbanded and surrendered organizations on the east side of the river. In spite of the utmost vigilance of our The Last Chapter in the History of the War • 553 08.499-564_Cozz 12/2/03, 8:58 AM 553 554 • part 8: the war in 1865 “tinclads,” thousands of the most desperate of [General Robert E.] Lee’s, Johnston’s, [Lieutenant General Nathan B.] Forrest’s, and [Lieutenant General Richard] Taylor’s old soldiers were known to have crossed the river in dugouts, and by every other conceivable means, with the purpose of carrying on a lifelong war against the Union, even if no other style of war than guerrilla operations remained for them. The organized Confederate troops west of the Mississippi were more or less confident. Thousands were too ignorant to know the extent of the disasters which had made further resistance hopeless. They did know how [Major General Frederick A.] Steele’s army had been repulsed on its march from Arkansas toward Shreveport, and how utterly disastrous to the Union Army of the West had been [Major General Nathaniel P.] Banks’s untoward and expensive Red River expedition, and were naturally flushed with the pride of victors. Thousands more were Missourians who had little expectation of being allowed to return safely to their homes, and as many more determined to adopt the nomadic life of the Indians,and live indiscriminately on the loyal and disloyal citizens of Texas and Louisiana, rather than return to their homes on the east side of the Mississippi and confess allegiance to the hated government of the Union. From across the Rio Grande there came constant encouragement to the spirit of resistance.Vague official intimations, nominally from Maximilian, but really from Napoleon, kept alive the hopes of the leaders, and were greatly magnified by common rumors. Could the Confederates...

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