(Fort Smith: Cradle of The First Southern Free State - continued)
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command
of the Department of Kansas which included the State of Kansas, the Territory of
Nebraska and Colorado, the Indian Territory, and the military post of Fort Smith.
Headquarters were to be at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On January 6, the War Department announced that Major General Frederick Steele would command the newly constituted Department of Arkansas. This Department included all of Arkansas except the post at Fort Smith. This decision which was made in Washington was obviously made without knowledge of the area geography and left everyone in command up in the air on who had control over what. The big question from both Generals: was the military reservation on which the garrison was erected, along with Belle Point and the town of Fort Smith, attached to Curtis' department or only the garrison itself. The problem was, troops were camped all around the city with no soldiers being within the garrison itself for lack of space. It appeared to all except those in Washington who had made the decision, that General Curtis' command of the post of Fort Smith was of no value to him and greatly hindered command operations out of Fort Smith to Waldron, Van Buren, Clarksville, and Dardanelle by it not being under the Arkansas Command. General McNeil was relieved of his duties as Commander of the Army of the Frontier January 4, because of the change in department commands. McNeil left January 7th for St. Louis putting Colonel William R. Judson of the 6th Kansas Cavalry in charge of the District of the Frontier and Colonel John Edwards 18th Iowa Infantry in charge of the post of Fort Smith. General Blunt, meanwhile, was still staying in Fort Smith since his November arrival with no specific further orders. The two Senators from Kansas had been attempting to get him a hearing with President.Lincoln. The request was finally heeded and General Blunt left January 15 for Washington. The New Era reported that a Captain Loring remained in charge of the Recruiting Commission for the 11th U. S. Colored Troops during the Generals absence. General Steele in Little Rock finally decided to send Brigadier General John M. Thayer to Fort Smith. He arrived on January 31st and he immediately began trying to determine whether or not the town of Fort Smith was in the Department of Arkansas or Kansas. General Curtis arrived in Fort Smith February 10th and began looking around at what he had inherited from the Department of Missouri. He began drawing up plans to improve fortifications of the area and was partial to the area around Van Buren for his headquarters and for the improvements rather than Fort Smith. On February 22, General Steele, saying he had been assured by the War Department that the town of Fort Smith was included in his department, directed General Thayer to designate his command the District of the Frontier. Thayer was told he had his choice of Fort Smith or Van Buren as the command post. He chose Fort Smith. This was a poker player's bluff on Steele's part and eventually the bluff paid off. Without knowing of the decision by General Steele, General Curtis ordered General Blunt "to resume command of as much of the District of the Frontier as is included within the boundaries of the Department of Kansas" and by March 9 Blunt was back in Fort Smith from Washington. |
What in sued was a tug-of-war between two
generals, with Fort Smith being the tug. Finally in
April, headquarters in Washington could no longer
ignore the problem. In a general order from the
President August 17, Fort Smith and the Indian
Territory was formally transferred to the
Department of Arkansas under the direction of
General Steele and General Thayer.
MANY ANSWER CALL TO UNION SERVICE Heroes come at all ages in war, and one who gained attention at sixty-one years of age was David P. Rupe of Sebastian County. He was a member of Company E, 1st Arkansas Infantry and he had had many close escapes under Rebel rule. He came into Fort Smith early in 1862, took a Rebel wagon, loaded it with sixty-eight guns, a keg of powder and some lead and got away with it to a band of Union men in the mountains who were carrying on guerilla warfare. He then joined Federal lines. But in early January, 1864, he really had given his all to the United States he loved. His eleventh son, age fifteen, joined the Federal troops with his ten other brothers.General Orders from the District of the Frontier, early in January, 1864, emphatically declared that every able-bodied man either had to enter the service or be gainfully employed. The area was rapidly becoming a den of iniquity with many idle people waiting around to be fed and no one was wanting to go back to the farms to begin work for spring planting. In addition to the people from surrounding counties who were coming into the fort, refugees from Texas with Union sentiment were arriving daily. At one point, the General Orders were taken too seriously by soldiers. One old, staunch Union man was hauled from his walk on Garrison Avenue and told he had to join the service. As he was protesting, he was sworn in at the recruiting office before the proceedings could be stopped. Some recruiters were accused of enlisting men who were already in regiments to make their records look good. RECONSTRUCTION STATE CONVENTION
The convention drafted a new constitution to be presented to the voters for ratification on March 14, 1864. It was the old constitution of 1836 with some minor changes. The preamble declared the act of secession of 1861 was null and void and there was an article prohibiting slavery. All action taken by the |