Stirpes, Volume 37, Number 3, September 1997 Page: 70
80 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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STRE SETMER19
under my command, less my own regiment
were turned over to General Rust.
Soon I was ordered with my own
command and the Montgomery fleet of gunboats
to drop down to Fort Randolph and take
post there. We did not remain long. Soon we
were ordered to Corinth. Reaching there only
a few days before the Fannington fight, the
day before the fight I learned my wife and
daughters were at Grand Junction whither
they had come, learning I had been killed, to
remove my body home. As soon as the
troops were ordered to fall back in the direction
of Mississippi. I obtained a leave of
absence, followed my family finding them at
Watervalley in Mississippi. I returned to
Grand Junction, tendered my resignation,
received a discharge from General Van Dorn,
returned to my family, went to Memphis,
thence to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where I
remained for time sufficient to procure transportation,
and in the latter part of July I
landed with my wife and children at my
mother's in Parker County, Texas.
Thankful to God that I was safely and
honorably with my family again, I was in condition
to profit by my experience and to begin
life anew. When I left my family we had
home and plenty. When I landed in Texas we
had nothing but life, health, the wide, wide
world, and a will to do. Thus equipped we
entered the struggle for existence. I entered
the schoolroom in Weatherford, succeeded in
building a fine school, commenced trying to
preach feeling as if I was newly commissioned.During the summer following I
assisted Rev. May and others in conducting
services in the courthouse in the Town of
Weatherford for 47 days and nights without
missing, 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. every day. The
result was 96 professions of faith in Jesus
Christ and the addition of 73 to the M. E.
Church South.
After looking over the above I have
thought that something more might be satisfactory
to my children when I am gone in
regard to my connection and actions in connection
with the Confederate Army. The
regiment I organized and led into the field
were what was then known as State Troops,
volunteers for one year, under call from the
governor. I was appointed by the adjutant
general of the state to organize and report all
troops, responding to said call in the military
district in which I lived.During the fall after we went into the
field during the summer, we were at Pocahontas,
Arkansas, a call was made for the transfer
of all state troops to Confederate service,
yet the matter was left to the troops. Only
they were expected to fill out the term for
which they enlisted in case they declined
entering the Confederate service. Most of the
troops were on the home side of the Mississippi
River, and as no regular field service
had been required and they saw, or thought
they saw, the transfer to mean crossing to the
scene of active operations, some considerable
stir and dissatisfaction was the result.
Yet very few but were willing to comply with
their obligation taken when they enlisted as
State Troops.
Without any specified object, as in
view, I was requested to raise two additional
companies, eight companies of 100 men
each was a regiment under the militia law of
the state, and to recruit the companies
already in the field, if not full, to 100 effective
men. I appointed recruiting officers and sent
them back into the territory where the troops
were enlisted, and with little effort the
required troops were in camps with us at
Pocahontas Arkansas.
Soon a requisition was made on me
for five companies from my regiment. The
regiment was enlisted, mustered, and
received as skirmishers to report to General
Hardeb as skirmishers at Columbus on the
Mississippi River. This order revealed to the
troops the facts of the intention in increasing
the regiment, and putting the men under strict
rule, allowing no leave of absences, and
requiring drill every day. About this time the
Missouri State Guards, enlisted for one year,
were mustered out of service at Pittman's
Ferry, nineteen miles north of us on the
Arkansas side of the line dividing the states.
They refused to transfer to the Confederate
service before their time expired, or to enlist
after they were mustered out. They could not
return home. The federal troops invested
their country, and they were a source of trouble
and discord. If we did not furnish them
subsistence they would forage on the country,
and their proximity to our troops was a source
of discord rather than otherwise, so that soon
a general sentiment was openly avowed that
state troops would not crop the Mississippi
River, and if not allowed to serve out their
enlistment west of the river whenever ordered
to cross, they would return home.70
SEPTEMBER 1 997
STIRPES
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Texas State Genealogical Society. Stirpes, Volume 37, Number 3, September 1997, periodical, September 1997; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39854/m1/76/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Genealogical Society.