Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/53

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blockaded by warship-, and, as wa- stated \>\ the ( ial\ eston \ews at that time, about a month was required to get reliable news from Virginia, Tenne-see and the Carolina*. During this season ol"doiil)t and suspense discipline was fairly maintained ainoni; the troops, though it \\a> evident that the determination to fight to the last man did not prevail in the ranks to a great extent.

I HI. M.K( Ks IN (,.M.\ I.STON.

On May I2th, the day the news of Johnston's capitulation reached General Magruderat Houston, he went by train to Galvcston. assem- bled the forces there on parade, and, in a speech to them, said that he had determined to make any sacrifice of life and property, how- ever unavailing, rather than yield an inch of ground to the enemy; that he confidently expected to meet and repel any attempt the enemy might make to invade the country. The comment made upon his speech at the time by an intelligent observer was : " His remarks were listened to with silence and respect by the troops, but without any manifestations of enthusiasm."

Even before the news of Lee's surrender reached Texas there had been signs of discontent apparent among some of the soldiers who were scattered in regimental and brigade camps principally through- out the southern and what was then the western part of the State the section of greatest abundance of food supplies. While none openly admitted that the fall of the Confederacy was a possibility, many read in the march of Sheridan through the Valley of Virginia, of Sherman through Georgia, and in Lee's reverses the presage of coming disaster.

In some regiments acts of open insubordination had been com- mitted during the early spring. In one instance quite a number of cavalry took a furlough without leave, not deserting, but openly leaving with the avowed intention of visiting their families more than a hundred miles away, and of returning when it should suit their pleasure. They reached their homes, but were not permitted to re- main, for their heroic and patriotic wives and mothers, devoted to the cause as were all the women of the Old South, promptly sent them back to their old commands, not permitting some who had arrived during a storm to remain long enough to dry their blankets.

Besides this feeling of unrest and the consequent tendency to in- fraction of discipline, and the natural effects of disheartening reports from across the Mississippi, there were other potent causes for de-