(Fort Smith: Cradle of The First Southern Free State - continued)
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last peg of the Rebellion ... Richmond and Lee's Army inside it! The Arkansas River was rising at the end of January and steamers Alamo, Ad Hine and Lotus came in with needed supplies and rations. GENERAL BUSSEY REPLACES The New Era reported that General Thayer's heart was right but he surrounded himself with men who had caused problems in General McNeil's administration in late 1863 and 1864. He was regarded as a victim rather than a leader. Bussey, on the other hand was a man of unblemished reputation and sterling integrity. Brigadier General Thayer and his staff left for Little Rock on February 15, on Virginia Barton. The same day Brigadier General Cyrus Bussey arrived on Carrie Jacobs from Little Rock with his family and staff. President Lincoln was sent a petition from Fort Smith citizens February 9th. The citizens were very upset by the governments’ seeming inability to send enough supplies into Fort Smith for the civilians to purchase in order to eat and be clothed. There were two thousand destitute people in and around the fort, along with five thousand or more loyal refugee Indians at Fort Gibson who were on the verge of starvation. The request was responded to in several ways. General Reynolds in Little Rock authorized General Bussey in Fort Smith, to raise a company of men who were farmers. These men would guard the farmers against guerrillas while farmers were raising crops. The military authorities were authorized to sell supplies from military stores to the people who were farming. Best of all, the river water was still high and during the week of February 19th, steamers Rose Hambleton, Greene Darbin, Annie Jacobs, Lotus, and Virginia Barton showed up from Little Rock with supplies. Many boats docked at the wharfs of Fort Smith during the years of 1863-1865. The following is a list of the boats known to have come into Fort Smith during the Union occupation: TheLeon, Chippeway, Alamo, Ad Hine, Carrie Jacobs, Des Moines City, The Sunny South, Ben Coursens, The elegant light draught Roddlph, Mattie Cabler, Kate Bruner, Convey #2, Argos, Ida King. E. O. Standard which at 700 tons made it to Fort Smith from St. Louis in six days and twelve hours in August, 1865, The Gem, The Iron City, American, Rose Hambleton, Greene Darbin, Lotus, Virginia Barton, Annie Jacobs, Sir Wm. Wallace, Ingomar, Silver Wave, Enterprise, Linnie Drown, Glide #3, D. C. Horton and Arizonia. Twenty-six families pooled their money and sent 55,000 to a commissionary house at Little Rock for the supplies to be shipped up river to Fort Smith under guard by the military. Many women and children had no way to pay for supplies however, for it had been months since the husbands and fathers in the troops had been paid. On February 25th, a train of nearly two hundred wagons arrived from Lewisburg on the Arkansas River. The wagons brought back the Quartermaster's stores that had been shipped from Fort Smith in December and January under the evacuation orders. The muddy, bad state of the roads caused the delay in the return of the wagons and supplies. Under General Orders #2 of 1865, a sales tax of one cent was ordered on all goods and brews to help pay the cost of the |
Provost Marshal's office and the policing of the city such as the
dead animals from the streets. Cows, horses, dogs, hogs, etc. were laying on streets
and in alleyways and were causing a health problem. On March 4th a mass meeting was held on the parade ground of the garrison in honor of Abe Lincoln's inauguration and the recent magnificent victories of the National Arms over the enemies of the country. It was a clear, cloudless day as the 40th Iowa Infantry, led by Colonel Garrett, marched into the garrison with flying colors and martial music. Other regiments and crowds of people from the city and beyond kept pouring in until thousands were gathered on the parade ground. It was a day with big hours of speeches. Brigadier General Cyrus Bussey, Commander 3rd Division, 7th Army Corps, led off the speech making by dwelling on the Union Army's recent victories and how everyone was trying to end it all and go home to parents, wife, brother or sister. Brigadier General John Edwards, Commanding, 1st Brigade, 3rd Division of the 7th Army Corp, decanted eloquently upon the suicidal folly of the secession movement. Lieutenant Colonel E. J. Searle, Commander, 1st. Arkansas Infantry was called upon to speak last and discussed briefly exploits of Sherman, Sheridan, of peace and the brighter future in store for Arkansas. The New Era was from Illinois, he would no doubt, settle in Arkansas when this cruel war is over. The Sir Wm. Wallace, a large stern wheeler, came up river March 9th with two hundred seventy tons of government freight. The Sir Wm. Wallace was considered a marvel as it drew only 5'2 feet of water. FARMERS PLANT WHILE MILITARY GUARDS The plan to establish agricultural communities began to take hold in most parts of Northwest Arkansas. Citizens and soldiers alike were repairing fences and preparing to cultivate the land. The DuVall Plantation was to be used as gardens by the soldiers and General Bussey ordered all kinds of seeds from St. Louis to be used in the planting.General Orders were given at the post for all men between the ages of 18-45 to report for an enrolled militia to guard farmers. By April 15, there were two hundred eighty-one enrolled and farm colonies were set up under the direct supervision of the militia. Colonel Harrison, at Fayetteville, was ahead of these plans, and had already established colonies at Fayetteville, Cane Hill, Huntsville and Bentonville. Two hundred families wanted to colonize near Van Buren. Confederate General Burrows, who had taken the garrison at Fort Smith from the United States in 1861 for the Rebels, arrived on a steamboat in mid-March. He was pale and thin, not the same man who had taken down the Stars and Stripes of America to replace it with a flag that waved for slavery. Signs of re-awakening of Fort Smith were being seen `in the spring of 1865, particularly with the change in military administration. People were farming, confident of protection. It was noticed that citizens were holding up their heads, or at least those citizens who were still left. There was probably not one-fourth of the original citizens of Arkansas left who were in the state in the 1860 census. But in March of 1865 it was as if the citizens were saying "I feel as though I had some chance again to live and call my life my own." Bushwackers were still in the outlying country, still killing, but there was not much left to plunder. It wasn't long before General Bussey was feeling weary about his troop situation and the number of refugees around the fort. He only had one thousand eight hundred men fit for duty, while the summer before there had been six thousand troops. The |