The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 11, July 1907 - April, 1908 Page: 202
vii, 320 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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202
Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
escaped and were with Johnston. Anxiously tidings were awaited
from this general. There was a widespread belief that he was
about to cross the Mississippi and join with Kirby Smith. Then
came the crushing news of his surrender to Sherman. The next
attack of the Federals would be upon Texas. All was gloom and
anxiety.
A desperate effort was made to preserve a bold front. Governor
Murrah and Generals Smith and Magruder made speeches and
issued stirring addresses urging the soldiers to fight to the last.
Patriotic editors demonstrated conclusively that it would be im-
possible for the Federals to invade Texas and maintain themselves
in its vast stretches without a year's preparation; and that mean-
while help could be secured from abroad, or at least better terms
would be offered than had been granted Lee and Johnston. Every-
where public meetings were held and citizens pledged themselves
never to submit to Northern tyranny or to abandon the cause of the
South. Meetings of a similar nature were held in the army in
the effort to revive the waning devotion of the discontented and
the disheartened. Most of these army meetings were meagrely
attended; many of the men held aloof while others attended in
order to pass resolutions expressing withering contempt for the
war meetings of "exempts and details," and bitter hatred of the
cotton speculators, upon whom they placed the blame for the
failure of the war.1 But meetings and speeches and valiant "last
ditch" resolutions were all in vain. The majority of the soldiers
were convinced that the war was over because it was so evidently
hopeless. The accumulated discontent of the past month expressed
itself in desertion. Magruder declared as early as April 29 that
the men at Galveston were deserting by tens and twenties every
night.'
In the meantime by order of Grant, General Pope had de-
spatched Colonel Sprague to Shreveport to demand of Kirby Smith
the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department upon the same
terms that were granted to Lee. Smith immediately, May 9,
1The Tri-Weekly Telegraph (IHouston), April 26, and throughout May,
1865; The Patriot (La Grange), May 6 and 20, 1865.
'Magruder to Boggs, Official Records, War of Rebellion, Series I, Vol.
XLVIII, Part II, 1291.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 11, July 1907 - April, 1908, periodical, 1908; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101045/m1/206/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.