The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 232
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
the Secretary of War mentioned above, said that thousands had
been obtained by swimming them over the Mississippi."3
The trans-Mississippi Department was not only concerned
with shipping beef to the east, but also with subsisting the
large numbers of troops stationed within its own limits. To
feed these men, cured meat, in all forms, had to be supplied.
Various ways of packing beef were practised, as evidenced by
Northrop's statement that large quantities of pickled beef came
from the west.32 The great center of Jefferson, Texas, besides
being an important quartermaster depot,33 was the site of a
number of commissary activities. One of these enterprises was
the meat-packing establishment of J. B. Dunn. In late 1863 this
firm entered into a contract with the Confederate States to
slaughter and pack 150 beef cattle per day. The manner of
packing was specifically stated: "The hind quarter. . . with the
bone extracted to be smoked and dried the balance of the
beef (or Such parts as are usually used in making a prime
article of mess beef) to be pickled in the best manner. . ."
Major W. H. Thomas, chief commissary of the trans-Mississippi
Department, was to furnish 440,000 pounds of New Iberia salt
to Dunn to enable him to cure the beef and to pack it. Major
Thomas was also to furnish Dunn with 4,000 head of beef
cattle before the 10th of January, 1864."' This is but one indi-
cation of the importance of the Texas beef supply.
Five days before all the beef should have been delivered,
Kirby Smith directed that a "Board of Survey" should convene
in Major Thomas' office to investigate the quality of beef packed
by Dunn. The board, on the same day, reported the meat to
be in good condition."3
a1See supra, note 28.
32Ibid.
33See the papers of Capt. N. A. Birge, A. Q. M., Jefferson, Texas, in
The University of Texas Archives.
34MS. Contract between Major W. H. Thomas, representing the Confed-
erate States, and J. B. Dunn, Sept. 19, 1863, in the Confederate Army
Papers, Department of Archives, Louisiana State University.
3"Special Orders No. 2, Hdqrs. Trans-Miss. Dept., Shreveport, La., Jan.
5, 1864, and appended report of the Board of Survey. MSS. in the Reid
Collection of the Confederate Army Papers, L. S. U. Archives. There is
some doubt about the date of the board's report, but the date given in
the text is probably correct.
The quality of the packing by Dunn must have fallen off later, as it
caused widespread complaint. MS. Letter, Maj. W. H. Thomas to Maj.
John Reid, Jan. 11, 1865, in Reid Collection, loc. cit.232
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944, periodical, 1944; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146054/m1/263/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.