Between the Enemy and Texas: Parsons's Texas Cavalry in the Civil War

13. The Last Year

13· The Last Year " From the action at Yellow Bayou, on the 18th of May 1864, to the close of the war in the following year," wrote Richard Taylor, "not a shot was fired in the 'TransMississippi Department. ,,11 Although this statement is incorrect, it reflects the prevailing attitude in the last year of the war as well as current opinion among many historians. Events west of the Mississippi had little bearing on the ultimate outcome; operations in Virginia and Tennessee far outweighed affairs in the Trans-Mississippi. West of the Mississippi, Southerners still refused to concede defeat although Confederate successes in the spring campaigns of 1864 had not brought relief to the department. As summer drew to a close, Robert E. Lee was on the defensive in Virginia and William T. Sherman's Federal army was advancing toward Atlanta. Southerners hoped, however, that when Northern voters visited the polls in November, Abraham Lincoln would not win reelection. In an effort to rally Confederate sympathizers in Federal Missouri, the department commander Edmund Kirby Smith authorized yet another raid. The primary purpose of the expedition was to enlist recruits, collect weapons, and gather needed supplies, but Major General Sterling Price, who headed his columns north early in September, had higher aspirations . He hoped to take the state's capital and install a Confederate government. If all followed according to plan, he expected to disrupt the Northern presidential election.2 Southerners had confidence in Price. Captain George Ingram of the Twelfth Texas wrote his wife on October 20 that he had heard welcome news of Price's victories. "The Citizens hail him as a deliverer at almost evry step he advances," noted Ingram. "The ladies meet him, hug and kiss him, and shout for joy.... It is thought by some that Price's operations in Missouri will cause the Yankees to leave Little Rock and Pine Bluff and even now it is believed that they are getting away." 3 But John B. 195 196: Between the Enemy and Texas Magruder, the new district commander who reached Arkansas just as Price left with twelve thousand cavalrymen, feared the enemy might try to take advantage of his state's weakened condition and petitioned Kirby Smith for reinforcements.4 Kirby Smith ordered Major General John Wharton to place his cavalry where Price's had been. Significantly, Wharton distinguished between Carter's and Parsons's commands when he wrote Smith from Alexandria in August: "Parsons' brigade (with Carter's regiment now in Texas, which can reach Arkansas almost as soon as troops from here) is very full, and having operated in Arkansas would be more efficient there than any other troops of my command." 5 These Texans recognized the adversaries they would meet in Arkansas, like their old antagonist Powell Clayton, who commanded the Federal garrison at Pine Bluff. As soon as the Texans arrived in the state, part of the brigade was promptly sent to watch Clayton's movements. 6 Trans-Mississippi Confederates counted on Price's raid being a success , however, and their hopes fell as his army began retreating. John S. Marmaduke, who led a division under Price, was captured on October 25 while fighting a rear-guard action along the Kansas-Missouri border. On the next day Joseph H. Pratt, now a major commanding a battalion of artillery assigned to Marmaduke, was seriously wounded.? Of the other Texas artillerymen, William Hewitt was captured at Mound City, Kansas , on October 24 (while manning the guns of Captain S. S. Harris's Missouri battery), and John Coffey was shot at Mine Creek, Kansas, on October 28.8 For the members of Parsons's Twelfth Texas October 28 was more than just a date for a battle somewhere in Kansas. On that day, a Monday in 1861, with bright hopes and anxious anticipation, many of these same men had sworn their allegiance to the Confederacy. But now, three years later, they were tired and disillusioned-the troops longed to return to Texas. "Nearly all of the men in some of the companies say the[y] are going home after the 28th of this month," Captain Ingram reported to his wife. The discontent resulted partly from a shortage of forage for the horses and food for the men. But Ingram's company, The Last Year: 197 which was on scout at the time of the letter, had plenty of provisions. "I think," he predicted...