(CIVIL WAR) Smith Thomas Kilby Pair of reports on the Red Ri

Sale 2310 - Lot 91

Price Realized: $ 780

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(CIVIL WAR.) Smith, Thomas Kilby. Pair of reports on the Red River campaign in Louisiana. Manuscript letters as Brigadier General of a division of the 17th Army Corps; 4 and 2 pages, various sizes; unsigned retained drafts with emendations and minor wear. Fort DeRussy, LA, 16 March and aboard the steamer Hastings, 5 April 1864

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The Red River Campaign was a poorly executed Union campaign to capture Shreveport, LA and separate Texas from the Confederacy. Thomas Kilby Smith (1820-1887) was one of the few Union generals who came out of Red River with his reputation enhanced rather than diminished. The earlier of these two reports describes his progress up the Red River from 10 to 16 March, culminating with the capture of Fort DeRussy near Marksville: "My command is in occupation of the fort & will be engaged today & tomorrow in the demolition of the casemates, bridges &c & finally the blowing up of the magazine." The final version of this report was published in The War of the Rebellion, pages XXXIV: 376-8, giving Major General McPherson as the addressee.
The second report was written two weeks after the Red River Campaign's formal conclusion. Smith describes an action further north at Campti near Natchitoches, LA: "Through scouts, negroes & the people of the country I learned that the enemy was two thousand strong & were eight miles in advance & rapidly retreating in the direction on Shreveport. . . . The town of Campti I found mostly destroyed by the cavalry." This report, addressed to Captain John Hough but prepared for General Andrew Jackson Smith, appears to be unpublished.