The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 283
434 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Confederate Trans'-Mississippi Department, 1863-1865 283
Despite these and other urgent messages, the Federals were in
full control of the Mississippi before any response came from
Richmond. By this time the people in the west were in the
depths of despondency and mutterings against the government
were heard from disaffected spirits. There were rumors that the
states of this department would secede from the Confederacy.
General Smith, realizing the danger in this crisis and fearing that
this spirit of despondency and hopelessness might lead to measures
harmful to the department and to the Confederacy, had sent a
circular letter, July 13, to the governors of the four states of his
department asking them, with the judges of their Supreme Courts,
to meet him in a conference at Marshall, Texas, August 15, 1863.
His purpose, as he stated it, was to acknowledge the civil govern-
ment supreme over the military; to invoke the power of the states
to aid him; to try to make the people feel that a government re-
mained to them capable of administering to their wants and neces-
sities; and to secure the confidence, advice, support, and co-oper-
ation of the leading spirits and judicial minds of his depart-
ment.1o
Before time for the conference to assemble, the commanding
general's position was greatly strengthened by suggestions from
Richmond that he follow the very policy he had already entered
upon. On almost the same day that General Smith had sent out
his invitations to the conference, the President wrote advising
him to explain so much of his plans to the governors as would
prevent them from misconstrung his actions, and to confer with
them, thus making them "valuable coadjutors without surrendering
any portion of the control necessary for a commander to retain."
Secretary Seddon also recommended, July 14, that he call to his
aid the ablest and most influential men of the country, and that
he establish a civil and a military government for the, department."
In answer to the commander's call, a group of prominent men
gathered in Marshall, August 15, 1863. From Arkansas, came
Robert W. Johnson, who represented Governor Flanagin, C. B.
Mitchell, and W. K. Patterson; from Louisiana were Governor
Thos. O. Moore, Colonel T. C. Manning, W. Merrick, and Albert
00ff. Recs., XXII, ii, 935-936.
110ff. Recs., XXII, ii, 926, 1004.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/289/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.