Thetrans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War was the scene of the major military operations west of theMississippi River. The area is often thought of as excluding the states and territories bordering thePacific Ocean, which formed thePacific coast theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865).
The campaign classification established by theNational Park Service of theU.S. Department of the Interior[1] is more fine-grained than the one used in this article. Some minor NPS campaigns have been omitted and some have been combined into larger categories. Only a few of the 75 major battles the NPS classifies for this theater are described. Boxed text in the right margin show the NPS campaigns associated with each section.
Activity in this theater in 1861 was dominated largely by thedispute over the status of the border state ofMissouri. TheMissouri State Guard, allied with the Confederacy, won important victories at theBattle of Wilson's Creek and theFirst Battle of Lexington. However, they were driven back at theFirst Battle of Springfield. A Union army underSamuel Ryan Curtis defeated the Confederate forces at theBattle of Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas in March 1862, solidifying Union control over most of Missouri. The areas of Missouri,Kansas, and theIndian Territory (modern-dayOklahoma) were marked by extensiveguerrilla activity throughout the rest of the war, the most well-known incident being the infamousLawrence massacre by Confederate raiders in the Unionist town ofLawrence, Kansas of August 1863.
In the spring of 1862, Confederate forces underHenry H. Sibley pushed north along theRio Grande fromEl Paso, Texas intoNew Mexico Territory, but despite their initial success at theBattle of Valverde, were stopped at theBattle of Glorieta Pass (March 26–28, 1862). In 1863, GeneralEdmund Kirby Smith took command of the ConfederateTrans-Mississippi Department, and unsuccessfully tried to relieve thesiege of Vicksburg by Maj. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant on the opposite eastern banks of theMississippi River in the state ofMississippi. As a result of thelong campaign, siege, and surrender in July 1863 by Gen.John C. Pemberton, the Union gained control of the entireMississippi River, splitting the Confederacy. This left the Trans-Mississippi Department almost completely isolated from the rest of the Confederate States to the east. It became nicknamed and known as "Kirby Smithdom", emphasizing the Confederate Government's lack of direct control over the region.
In the 1864Red River Campaign, a U.S. force under Major GeneralNathaniel P. Banks tried to gain control over northwesternLouisiana, but was thwarted by Confederate troops commanded byRichard Taylor.Price's Raid, an attempt led by Major GeneralSterling Price to recapture Missouri for the Confederacy, ended when Price's troops were defeated in theBattle of Westport that October. On June 2, 1865, after all other major Confederate armies in the field to the east had surrendered, Kirby Smith officially surrendered his command inGalveston, Texas. On June 23,Stand Watie, who commanded Southern troops in theIndian Territory, became the last Confederate general to surrender.
In 1861, theConfederate States Army launched a successful campaign into the United States' recently organizedTerritory of New Mexico (1851), of the present day states ofArizona andNew Mexico. Residents in the southern portions of this Territory adopted a secession ordinance of their own and requested thatConfederate States of America military forces stationed further east in nearbyTexas assist them in removingUnion Army forces still stationed there. TheConfederate Territory of Arizona was proclaimed by Col.John Baylor after victories in theFirst Battle of Mesilla on July 25, 1861, atMesilla, New Mexico, and the capture of several Union forces. Southern forces advanced northward through the Rio Grande Valley, capturingAlbuquerque andSanta Fe in March 1862. Attempts to press further northward in the territory were unsuccessful, and Confederate forces withdrew from Arizona completely in 1862 when Union reinforcements arrived fromCalifornia.
TheBattle of Glorieta Pass on March 26–28, 1862, was a relatively small skirmish in terms of both numbers involved and losses (140 Union, 190 Confederate). Yet the military/political strategic issues were large, and the battle was decisive in resolving them. The Confederates might well have takenFort Union further north in theRio Grande river valley and evenDenver, the territorial capital of the northernColorado Territory had they not been stopped atGlorieta. As one Texan put it, "If it had not been for those devils fromPike's Peak, this country would have been ours."
This small battle dissolved any possibility of the Confederacy taking New Mexico and the far west territories. In April, theCalifornia Column, Union volunteers from California, pushed the remaining Confederates out of present-day Arizona at theBattle of Picacho Pass. In theEastern United States, the fighting dragged on for three more years, but in the Southwest the war against the Confederacy was over, but the war against the Apache, Navaho and Comanche continued for the California garrisons until they were replaced by U. S. Army troops after the Civil War ended.
Several battles occurred between Confederate soldiers and or militia withinConfederate Arizona, the height of the Apache campaigns against rebel forces was during mid to late 1861.
Though a slave state with a highly organized and militant secessionist movement, thanks to the pro-slavery "border ruffians" whobattled antislavery militias in Kansas in the 1850s, Missourians sided with the Union by a ratio of two or three to one. Pro-Confederate GovernorClaiborne F. Jackson and his small state guard under GeneralSterling Price linked up with Confederate forces under GeneralBen McCulloch. After victories at theBattle of Wilson's Creek and atLexington, Missouri, Confederate forces were driven out of the state by the arrival of large Union forces in February 1862 and were effectively locked out by defeat at theBattle of Pea Ridge,Arkansas, on March 6–8.
A guerrilla conflict began to wrack Missouri. Gangs of Confederate insurgents, commonly known as "bushwhackers", ambushed and battled Union troops and Unionist state militia forces. Much of the fighting was between Missourians of different persuasions; both sides carried out large-scale atrocities against civilians, ranging from forced resettlement to murder. Historians estimate that the population of the state fell by one-third during the war; most survived but fled or were driven out by one side or the other. Many of the most brutal bushwhacker leaders, such asWilliam C. Quantrill andWilliam T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson, won national notoriety. A group of their followers remained under arms and carried out robberies and murders (which they may have considered to be ongoing guerilla resistance) for sixteen years after the war, under the leadership ofJesse James, his brotherFrank James, andCole Younger and his brothers.
By most measures, the Confederate guerrilla insurgency in Missouri during the Civil War was the worst such conflict ever to occur on American soil. By one calculation, nearly twenty-seven thousand Missourians died in the violence. Historians have offered various explanations for the anomalously high level of guerrilla activity in Missouri, including the possibility that the violence was linked to thousands of court-ordered sales of property belonging to the state's Confederate sympathizers, beginning in 1862 and continuing throughout the war. The property sales arose from court judgments for defaulted debts incurred early in the war to arm rebel troops.[2]
Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861, three months before the opening battle of the war at Fort Sumter. In August, 1863, Quantrill led his raiders into Kansas destroying much of the city of Lawrence and murdering over 150 unarmed men and boys in what became known as theLawrence Massacre. On October 25, 1864, during Confederate Major GeneralSterling Price'sraid into Kansas and Missouri, in three interconnected actions, Price's forces were defeated at the Battles ofMarais des Cygnes,Mine Creek (one of the largestcavalry engagements of the war), and a final battle atMarmiton River, sealing the fate of Price's campaign and forcing his withdrawal into Indian Territory, and eventually Texas, before returning to Arkansas.
The Union mounted several attempts to capture the trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or captured, Texas in particular became ablockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to providecotton crops that were transferred overland to theMexican border towns ofMatamoros and the port ofBagdad, and shipped to Europe by means ofblockade runners in exchange for supplies.
Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful. Confederate victories atGalveston, Texas, theBattle of Sabine Pass and theSecond Bayou Teche Campaign repulsed invasion forces. The Union's disastrousRed River Campaign in western Louisiana, including a defeat at theBattle of Mansfield, effectively ended the Union's final invasion attempt of the region until the fall of the Confederacy. Jeffery Prushankin argues that Kirby Smith's "pride, poor judgment, and lack of military skill" prevented GeneralRichard Taylor from potentially winning a victory that could have greatly affected the military and political situation east of the Mississippi River.[3]
Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued at a low level in the trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Lee's surrender in April 1865. The last battle of the war occurred atPalmito Ranch in southern Texas from May 12–13. The battle ended in a Confederate victory.
Indian Territory occupied most land of the current U.S. state ofOklahoma and served as anunorganized region set aside for Native American tribes of theSoutheastern United States after beingremoved from their lands more than thirty years before the war. The area hosted numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles[4] involvingNative American units allied with theConfederate States of America, Native Americans loyal to the United States government, and Union and Confederate troops. A campaign led by Union GeneralJames G. Blunt to secure Indian Territory culminated with theBattle of Honey Springs on July 17, 1863. Though his force included Native Americans, the Union did not incorporate Native American soldiers into its regular army.[5] Officers and soldiers supplied to the Confederacy from Native American lands numbered at 7,860[5] and came largely from theCherokee,Chickasaw,Choctaw,Creek, andSeminole nations.[6] Among these was Brig. Gen.Stand Watie, a Cherokee who raided Union positions in Indian Territory with his1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles regiment well after most of the Confederate forces abandoned the area. Watie led his troops inguerrilla warfare by attacking Union positions, supply wagons, and by attacking other Cherokee and Native Americans who supported the Union. He became the last Confederate General to surrender when he signed a cease-fire agreement with Union representatives on June 23, 1865.[7]
TheConfederate States Army'sTrans-Mississippi Department was formed May 26, 1862, to includeMissouri,Arkansas,Texas,Indian Territory (nowOklahoma), andLouisiana west of the Mississippi River. It absorbed the previous Trans-Mississippi District (Department Number Two), which had been organized January 10, 1862, to include that part ofLouisiana north of theRed River, the Indian Territory (later State ofOklahoma, 1907), and the states ofMissouri andArkansas, except for the country east ofSt. Francis County, Arkansas, toScott County, Missouri. The combined department had its headquarters atShreveport, Louisiana, andMarshall, Texas.
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