The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 355
434 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Confedera.te Trans-Missisissippi Department, 1863-1865 355
conscript age serving in state organizations, believing that this
proclamation applied to them, went home. In a conference be-
tween the governor, General Smith, and Major General Magruder,
Murrah claimed that the state had a right to the conscripts, giv-
ing as his reason that when "the Confederate states and the state
had concurrent jurisdiction, the party which occupied the ground
first was entitled to the exclusive jurisdiction." Both military
officers opposed the principle on which this claim was based and
denied the right of the state to claim the conscripts. This point
was finally compromised to allow conscripts to go directly into the
Confederate service or first into the state service and at the end
of six months into the Confederate army. Under the Texas law
the state troops were offered to the military officials organized into
brigades, while the acts of the Confederate Congress prohibited
the Confederate officials from recognizing such organizations.
The controversy continued until Banks's campaign up the Red
River brought danger to the door; then Murrah yielded and agreed
to urge the state troops to organize under the laws of Congress.99
Nothing could be more productive of utter demoralization than
the stubborn attitude of Governor Murrah or better illustrate the
difficulties which General Smith had to face.
It was probably in keeping with the governor's theory that the
state had prior jurisdiction over its conscripts that the legislature
provided for the enrollment into a frontier regiment of all the bona-
fide citizens of military age within the frontier counties.100 This
regiment when organized was to be turned over, under certain con-
ditions, to the Confederate commander. It was reported to con-
tain 4,000 able-bodied men, of whom two-thirds were liable to, con-
scription.0' The regiment remained under state control, and
General Smith appealed to Governor IVhurrah to obtain either a
repeal of this law or the enactment of another directly transfer-
ring the frontier regiment to the Confederate service. The result
of this was a resolution by the legislature authorizing the Gov-
ernor to discharge any member of the regiment who was not en
"For this entire controversy see- Off. Recs., XXXIV, ii, 886, 905, 973-
975, 1087-1095, 1103; ibid., iii, 726, 735, 739, 747-750, 769.
'0Approved December 15, 1863. Gammel, Laws of Texas, V, 677-679;
amendment, May 31, 1864, ibid., 771.
10,Smith to Davis, February 10, 1865, Off. Recs., XLVIII, i, 1373-1376.
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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/m1/361/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.