Trans-Mississippi Department
The Trans-Mississippi Department was a former geographical subdivision of the Confederate States Army comprising the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana (west of the Mississippi river), Texas, the Arizona Territory (to include the southern portion of present-day New Mexico) and the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). It was the last military department to surrender to United States forces in 1865.
History
The Trans-Mississippi Department was established on May 26, 1862, at Little Rock, Arkansas. It absorbed the previously established Trans-Mississippi District (Department Number Two) which had been organized on January 10, 1862, to include the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas (except for the country east of St. Francis County, Arkansas, to Scott County), Missouri, and that part of Louisiana north of the Red river. The Trans-Mississippi Department had its headquarters at Shreveport, Louisiana, and Marshall, Texas. It was responsible for the Confederate theater of operations west of the Mississippi. Its forces were sometimes referred to as "Army of the Southwest" and, as a result of being largely cut off from the Confederate government in Richmond late in the War, became popularly known as "Kirby-Smithdom."[1]
Commanding generals
The department's commanding generals from May 26, 1862, to May 26, 1865:
- Brig. Gen. Paul O. Hébert (May 26, 1862 – June 20, 1862)
- Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder (assigned June 20, 1862, but did not accept)
- Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman (June 20, 1862 – July 16, 1862)
- Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes (July 30, 1862 – February 9, 1863)
- Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith (March 7, 1863 – April 19, 1865)
- Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner (April 19, 1865 – April 22, 1865)
- Gen. Smith (April 22, 1865 – May 26, 1865)
References
- Jones, Terry (2002). Historical Dictionary of the Civil War. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 785. ISBN 9780810841123.