General Edmund Kirby Smith commanded the Confederate Trans-Mississippi District, in which the Army of the West was assigned to cover western Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), Texas, and the territories of New Mexico and Arizona. The army had not been much of a fighting force since its failed Missouri incursion last fall, but Smith urged his men to continue resisting nonetheless:
“Show that you are worthy of your position in history. Prove to the world that your hearts have not failed in the hour of disaster, and that at the last moment you will sustain the holy cause which has been so gloriously battled for by your brethren east of the Mississippi… The great resources of this department, its vast extent, the numbers, the discipline, and the efficiency of the army, will secure to our country terms that a proud people can accept, and may, under the Providence of God, be the means of checking the triumph of our enemy and securing the final success of our cause.”
Major-General John Pope, commanding the Federal Military Division of the Missouri, dispatched Colonel John T. Sprague to E.K. Smith’s headquarters at Shreveport, Louisiana, on May 8. Under a flag of truce, Sprague notified Smith that the armies of Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and Richard Taylor had all surrendered. If Smith was to do the same, he would receive the same terms as the other three Confederate commanders.
Pope asserted that with resistance east of the Mississippi at an end, “a large part of the great armies of the United States are now available for operations in the Trans-Mississippi Department; that they are sufficiently strong to render effective resistance impossible.” If Smith surrendered now, Louisiana and Texas would be saved “from the devastation and misery which have been the lot of nearly every Southern State east of the Mississippi.” If Smith refused, he alone would be responsible for any further loss of life or property.
The next day, Smith informed Sprague that Pope’s terms were “not such that my sense of duty and honor will permit me to accept.” Smith explained that he wanted peace, but without honorable terms, “life would lose its attractions.” He contended that Pope “menaced only from a distance,” and Smith could not surrender until he had “resisted to the utmost.” Smith added that he was still hopeful the French army occupying Mexico might reinforce him against the U.S., which had warned France not to interfere in Western Hemisphere affairs.
But it was a bluff. After Sprague left, Smith admitted that most of his 50,000 men had “dissolved all military organization and returned to their homes.” Even so, he continued holding out while other Confederate commanders gave in. Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson, the “Swamp Fox of the Confederacy” who had harassed Federals in Missouri and Arkansas throughout the war, surrendered the remnants of his brigade at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas. Major-General Samuel Jones surrendered his small command in Florida at Tallahassee. And notorious raider William C. Quantrill was mortally wounded in Spencer County, Kentucky, thereby ending most of the guerrilla warfare in the border states.
Knowing that it was only a matter of time before Federal troops headed west to confront him, Smith called a conference with the exiled governors of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas at Marshall, Texas, on May 13. Smith told the attendees that it was his duty to hold out “at least until President Davis reaches this department, or I receive some definite orders from him.” Smith was still unaware that Jefferson Davis had been captured.
Most of the governors disagreed, considering it “useless for the Trans-Mississippi Department to undertake to do what the Cis-Mississippi Department had failed to do.” Missouri Governor Thomas C. Reynolds was alone in supporting continued resistance. Brigadier-General Joseph O. “Jo” Shelby, another holdout, threatened to arrest Smith, his superior officer, if Smith followed the governors’ advice and surrendered.
The governors ultimately agreed to allow Smith to surrender if he would be permitted to send his troops “with their arms and effects” either back home or anywhere outside the U.S. without Federal interference. They also demanded to remain in power until conventions could be formed to resolve “any and all conflicts between the people of the respective States.” Lastly, the governors wanted to be able to maintain armed militias “to preserve good order and to protect the lives and property of the people.”
Two days later, Smith told Colonel Sprague that if Pope accepted the governors’ amended terms, then he would surrender. Sprague countered by offering Smith a choice between unconditional surrender or “all the horrors of violent subjugation.” Smith replied that he could not “purchase a certain degree of immunity from devastation at the expense of the honor of its (the Confederacy’s) army.”
Smith instead opted to shift his headquarters from Shreveport to Houston, Texas, where Major-General John B. Magruder’s small Confederate army was stationed. Smith intended to “concentrate the entire strength of the department, await negotiation, and, if possible, secure terms alike honorable to soldiers and citizens.” If Pope refused the governors’ terms, Smith planned to “struggle to the last,” with “firm in resolve and battling for the right.”
Meanwhile in Washington, General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant issued orders to Major-General Philip Sheridan, who was preparing for the Grand Review:
“Under the orders relieving you from the command of the Middle Military Division and assigning you to command west of the Mississippi, you will proceed without delay to the West to arrange all preliminaries for your new field of duties… Your duty is to restore Texas, and that part of Louisiana held by the enemy, to the Union in the shortest practicable time, in a way most effectual for securing permanent peace… if Smith holds out, without even an ostensible government to receive orders from or to report to, he and his men are not entitled to the considerations due to an acknowledged belligerent. Theirs are the conditions of outlaws, making war against the only Government having an existence over the territory where war is now being waged.”
Sheridan was to take command of 50,000 troops to destroy what remained of Smith’s army. Sheridan asked to stay in Washington to participate in the Grand Review, but Grant insisted that he leave immediately. Grant explained that not only would Sheridan be forcing Smith’s surrender, but he would also be discouraging France from colonizing Mexico in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Sheridan’s fearsome reputation for pillage and destruction would surely precede his arrival.
On the 21st, E.K. Smith learned from Magruder that his Texas army had dissolved. The troops were deserting at an alarming rate, taking supplies with them that the troops refusing to desert badly needed. Texas Governor Pendleton Murrah joined with Magruder and Major-General John G. Walker in calling on “all persons capable of bearing arms” to come to Galveston to continue resisting. But Walker admitted that “the troops of this district cannot be relied upon. They consider the contest a hopeless one, and will lay down their arms at the first appearance of the enemy.” Louisiana Governor Henry W. Allen called on the remaining Confederates at Shreveport to “maintain discipline, preserve order, and protect the people and property of the city.”
Finally, without approval from E.K. Smith, Lieutenant-General Simon B. Buckner and Major-General Sterling Price of Smith’s department decided to try negotiating a peace. They would negotiate not with Pope at St. Louis, but with Major-General Edward R.S. Canby at New Orleans. They took a steamer down the Red River and arrived at the city on the 25th. Buckner and Price began conferring with Canby that day, and Buckner made a decision without consulting Smith on the 26th.
Buckner surrendered Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi to Canby’s chief of staff, Major-General Peter J. Osterhaus, under the same terms that Grant had given Lee. Canby said that had Buckner waited another 24 hours, his surrender would not have been accepted and Federal troops would have invaded Texas to put the Confederates down by force. Buckner, who had surrendered the first Confederate army at Fort Donelson in 1862, had now surrendered the last as well.
E.K. Smith arrived in Houston on the 27th. His army rapidly disintegrated on the march from Shreveport, and now Smith learned that his army had been surrendered the day before. Buckner and Price returned to Shreveport, where Buckner declared that he would lead the Confederates there to Mexico. Price urged the troops, mostly from Price’s home state of Missouri, to follow Buckner, but by this time, they were tired of fighting and just wanted to go home.
Back at Houston, Smith refused to endorse the Buckner-Canby agreement. But on the 30th, he was forced to confess to Colonel Sprague that he no longer had an army: “From one extremity of the department to the other the troops, with unexampled unanimity of action, have dissolved all military organization, seized the public property, and scattered to their homes.” Smith acknowledged that his department was now “ready to accept the authority and yield obedience to the laws of the United States.”
All Smith could do, he said, was to hope for a merciful U.S. policy toward the South, otherwise it could “rekindle the flames of civil war with a fierceness and intensity unknown even in this sad and unfortunate struggle.” Smith then issued a final order to his deserting soldiers in the form of an admonition:
“Soldiers! I am left a Commander without an army–a General without troops. You have made your choice. It was unwise and unpatriotic, but it is final. I pray you may not live to regret it. May God, in his mercy, direct you aright, and heal the wounds of all our distracted country.”
Smith finally relented and signed the articles of surrender on June 2, aboard the steamer Fort Jackson at Galveston. Those who refused to give up were paid in gold and mustered out, including Jo Shelby and others hoping to continue the fight from Mexico. Smith himself would join them later.
The surrender of E.K. Smith’s Trans-Mississippi District meant that the last significant Confederate fighting force was no more. Some commanders who led small, less organized units continued holding out, including Brigadier-General Stand Watie. Others just went home, ultimately accepting that the war was over at last.
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