May 11, 1865---“Another disaster to the Confederacy”

MAY 11, 1865:  

“Another disaster to the Confederacy” --- The Shreveport Semi-Weekly News

I

Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens is arrested at his estate, Liberty Hall, in Crawford, Georgia.

II

Caddo Parish (LA) Courthouse today. The Parish finally struck its Confederate colors in late 1865. In 1902,  The Order of The Confederate Rose erected this C.S.A. memorial. The Blood-Stained Banner flew there by State action until the 2010s when a black juror, threatened with arrest for refusing to be empaneled under that flag, brought suit against Caddo Parish and the State of Louisiana. Although the juror prevailed and the flag was taken down, the Memorial was quickly purchased by the Sons of Confederate Veterans who raised the Blood Stained Banner again on what was now their private property 

The Shreveport, Louisiana, Semi-Weekly News reports on “another disaster to the Confederacy,” the surrender of Robert E. Lee and The Army of Northern Virginia. (This gives some idea of just how slow news was traveling to the Trans-Mississippi.)

General Kirby Smith C.S.A.’s troops are still in garrison in the city, and it remains the Headquarters of the Military Department of The Trans-Mississippi. In fact, Shreveport would become the last major Southern American city to surrender in the Civil War, holding out long after even Texas struck its colors.

With news of the fall of Richmond and the defeat of Lee, Louisiana’s Confederate Governor Henry Wise unilaterally declares Shreveport the capital city of the Confederacy.  He fully expects Jefferson Davis and the Cabinet to arrive any day. He has no idea, of course, that the Confederate central government has already been dissolved.  

III

At Chalk Bluff, Arkansas, Brigadier General Meriwether Jeff Thompson C.S.A., “The Swamp Fox of The Confederacy” agrees to surrender his forces to the Union. Upon surrendering, Jeff Thompson immediately takes the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Thompson’s disgust with the war is palpable. His Farewell Address is scathing. He refers to the men of his command as “bushwhackers” and castigates them for living off the labor of honest farmers and workingmen. After the war, Thompson returns to his peacetime occupation as a Civil Engineer.