The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-03-12

Gen. E. Kirby Smith, who, early in 1868
was placed in supreme command of the
Confederate armies in the Trans Missis-
sippi Department, including Louisiana,
Arkansas, Texas and the Indian Territory.
with headquarters at Shreveport, where he
held command until the surrender in May,
1865, was stationed at Camp Colorado in
1859, ''forty miles from the line of settle
ments, and 200 northwest of San Antonio"
He was then captain in the Second Cav
airy Regiment, Albert Sidney Johnston
colonel, whom Major General Zachary
Taylor had called "the best soldier he had
ever commanded and whose appointment
Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, COM
mander-in chief ofthe u nited States Army,
declared was "a godsend to the army and
the country" Robert E. Lee was lieuten-
ant colonel and the ma ors we're William j.
Hardee, afterwards lieutenant general in
the Confederate Army, and George H.
Thomas, 6 the greatest officer in the Fed
eral army" Among the captains COM
manding companies in the Second Cavalry,
who We're appointed generals in the Con-
federate Army, were Earl Van Dorm, John
b. Hood, Fitzhugh Lee, L. L. Lomax and
Cosby.
The official family of the Second Cavalry
Regiment played a most important part
later in the war between the States, but it
is not Of that service, but Of their life and
experience on the plains in the fifties,
which we shall refer to-when the almost
UNEMPLOYED west abounded in countless
herds of buffalo and elk and all other kinds
of game, the mere mention of which is
enough to make the present day Nimrod 8
mouth water as he sighs for the good old
days, when there was game "as is" game.
The following paragraphs are copied
from Noll's Life of E. Kirby Smith,
There was no part of Western Texas which
Captain Smith did not explore and know
thoroughly-as a soldier in pursuit of
marauding Indians and as member of a
Boundary Commission. Writing from
Camp Colorado, on Christmas Eve, 1859,
to his mother at st. Augustine, Florida,
Capt. Smith says:
Game is abundant; the woods are full
of deer, the streams are filled with ducks
and geese, and turkeys roost by thousands
within few miles of the Post. Yesterday
evening brought in six fine turkeys from
roost within fifteen minutes ride of the
Post, where there were more than thou
sand turkeys within space two hundred
yards square. Teal and mallard we have
been shooting within few hundred yards
of the quarters, and hams of fat venison
hang around the kitchen door.
. wish | could stock your larder for the
Christmas holidays, and receive in return
some butter and eggs. Of the latter com
modities, and milk and vegetables, there is
perfect dearth. Our Christmas will be a
dry one, without a glass of egg nog tc
celebrate it with. Our nomadic life and
continual shifting of home cuts US off from
all Injuries. 1t is true, modern inventions
give US a portable garden in the shape oil
canned and dessicated vegetables; but how
| should relish a dish of ripe tomatoes
some old-fashioned boiled potatoes, or 8
generous pile OF smoking roasting ears!
.'Our winter here has been unusually
severe. The ground has been covered fol
several days with snow and sleet. One oil
the severest northers of the season caught
me out thirty miles from the Post. We
fortunately found shelter under large
bank, where there was plenty of wood, and
with demijohn of whisky, which was in
the party, we kept up sufficient animal
heat to weather the night through; though
some of our party we're frost bitten, and a
temster, who got up in the night, was found
frozen to death next morning. These
northers come up suddenly, and often with
out 'premonitory symptoms and when