SEPTEMBER 26, 1863:
General
Edmund Kirby Smith C.S.A., Commander of The Department of The Trans-Mississippi,
issued an appeal to the civilians in his Command, isolated from the rest of the
Confederacy since the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson:
“Your homes are in
peril...You should contest the advance of the enemy, thicket, gully and stream;
harass his rear and cut off his supplies.”
The locals, essentially abandoned, who were
well aware of the precarious military situation in the West, could only shrug.
Smith had only 30,000 regular troops to defend an area extending from El Paso,
Texas east to Pilot Knob, Missouri
