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Chapter 4 Duty duncan was back in camp at grigsby’s bluff on Monday, June 30, when a thunderstorm arrived with the day’s mail. It carried a letter from Celima telling Duncan that Chessie, their seven-month-old baby girl, was sick. Most Confederate officers would soldier on after receiving such news, but not Duncan. He requested and was granted leave and left the next day on horseback for Liberty. He rode hard and arrived home at 9:30 Thursday night, reporting he was “very tired but all was well.” The next day was America’s Fourth of July Independence Day and Duncan abruptly changed hats, transforming himself from a Confederate cavalry officer to an independent cattleman . He met a friend in Liberty and organized a cattle drive unlike any other in which he had ever invested. A herd moved out of the Liberty area onto the eastbound Atascosito Trail on Monday, July 7, but Duncan did not ride with it. Instead he left the house at 7 a.m., rode to town where he loaded his horse on a rail car and took the train to Beaumont, arriving at 12:30 p.m. He unloaded his horse, climbed into the saddle, and rode to camp at Grigsby’s Bluff where he talked with Captain Spaight until midnight. Four days later, Duncan stabled his horse at 11:30 p.m. in New Iberia, Louisiana, and went to bed hungry. The next morning, he rode to Camp Pratt, a Confederate training camp five miles north of New Iberia on Spanish Lake. There Duncan met the camp’s namesake, Confederate Gen. John G. Pratt. After the two men exchanged greetings, the General excused himself because of illness. He apologized to Duncan, saying he wanted to see him again as soon as his health permitted. Duncan then walked to another area of Camp Pratt and “reported beeves.” His brief meeting with the general and the subsequent transaction prove Duncan had resolved one of the major questions he had when he hesitated to join the Moss Bluff Rebels: could he fold his personal commercial interests into his military obligation? The answer A4950.indb 28 A4950.indb 28 10/17/08 8:54:14 AM 10/17/08 8:54:14 AM Duty 29 was yes; Duncan had sold the herd making its way toward Louisiana to the Confederate army. Duncan spent the next two weeks in Louisiana, losing $7 at cards in Alexandria on Friday, July 17 then winning it back plus an additional $2 the following Sunday. Between card games on Saturday, Duncan reports he “called on General Pratt, finding him well enough to talk.” Duncan packed his things, paid his bills, and headed back to Texas on July 24, arriving in Sabine Pass on Wednesday, the 30th. He took tea with Spaight at the local tavern and stayed the night. Rising at 2:00 the next morning, he rode quickly to catch the northbound ferry and made it back to camp at Grigsby’s Bluff for breakfast. The meeting with General Pratt in Alexandria on July 18 and his subsequent conference with Spaight at Sabine Pass when he returned to Texas are evidence Duncan interacted easily with senior C.S.A. field officers in Louisiana as well as Texas. His deal to sell cattle to the army while serving as an active duty officer would be considered a conflict of interest in the twenty-first century, but in Confederate Texas and Louisiana, it was a win-win deal. Armies move and fight on their stomachs and Lt. William B. Duncan had the contacts, cash, and know-how to help feed his fellow soldiers. More beggar than chooser, the army obviously did not object to buying supplies from one of its own. Once again Duncan proved his extraordinary value to Ashley Spaight and the Confederate army. Duncan hung around camp at Grigsby’s Bluff on Friday and Saturday that week and attended a religious service with the men on Sunday, August 3. A boat carrying Spaight and the five hundred bushels of corn Duncan bought in June arrived at the bluff on Monday. While Company F riders unloaded the corn, Spaight paid Duncan $4 he owed him for a bottle of whiskey bought “in Houston long ago.” While Duncan was on leave, Confederate brass promoted Captain Spaight two ranks to lieutenant colonel. At a dress formation on Wednesday , August 6, the colonel told the men that in...

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