The Trans-Mississippi Department
A letter appears in the
Mississippian from
Mr. J. W. Tucker, and editor of talents and said to be a gentleman of respectable standing making some statements that, if true, merit the immediate attention of the War Department.
He commences by alluding to the reports put forth at the time
Kirby Smith was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department, and when he was preceded a few days by
Gen. Price, that
Gen. Smith was to have supreme command and that
Gen Price was to be assigned to active command in the field, untrammeled, to pursue the enemy when and where he could strike him to best advantage.
Mr. T. learned that upon their arrival in
Arkansas it was certained that
General Holmes was in command there, and that
General Price would be under him; and that
General Smith's presence would be required in
Louisiana.
Gen. P., he continues, who had restored confidence to a number of troops and recruited an army, sought permission to take them to the field; but was ordered by
General Holmes with his whole command to
Jacksonport, Arkansas, "and," says
Mr. T., "he might as well for the time be stationed in
Australia." We extract the following paragraph from his letter:
‘
At the time
Jackson was being burnt by
Grant, and
Vicksburg was being invested, Col
Clay Taylor, of
General Price's staff, crossed the
Mississippi river to
Arkansas, witnessed the efforts making by the enemy to reinforce and feed.
Grant's army, and saw the practicability of cutting off supplies and reinforcements from the west bank of the river.--He made an earnest application to
Holmes to be allowed to take a few heavy guns, and station them at a point where the enemy's transport fleet could be destroyed, offering to work as a private and a gunner.
Holmes's army was doing nothing — never was doing anything, but dying, running, and being captured, as at
Arkansas Post.
But Col
Taylor's application was refused on the ground that the enemy would land and burn the country.
(They did not burn
Mississippi homes and plantations!)
Gen. Price then went in person to second
Col. Taylor's application. "I will go," said he, "and take my division with me; and let the enemy land if he dare; I'll whip him back into the river."
But Holmes would not allow any thing of the kind to be attempted. ’
The writer further states that
Gen. Holmes had at one time 40,000 men, who were demoralized and diminished to 12,000 without striking one blow. "Now," he says, "when our fate trembles in the balance, 15,000 to 20,000 men are held in a vice; they neither help
Kirby Smith opposite
Vicksburg, nor capture
Helena, nor destroy the enemy's means of subsistence, nor threaten
St. Louis, nor anything else in God's world to aid our cause"
These allegations, if just, are certainly serious, and may well arouse an indignant feeling through the country.
General Holmes is by many considered an effete commander, belonging to the class of officers who did mischief around this city during the terrible battles which were to decide its fate through their want of activity and promptness.
When he was sent to the trans
Mississippi the army here was certainly not at all grieved.
But if he has been the mar-plot in
Arkansas that
Mr. Tucker alleges, it were better that he had staid here The facts deserve investigation.
