Tom Hindman's Western Adventure

A Trans-Mississippi Civil War Novel

By: Philip Leigh

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

When the Confederacy concentrated their forces at Corinth, Mississippi preparatory to attacking General U. S. Grant’s army at Shiloh in April 1862, the Rebel brass ordered the largest army west of the Mississippi River–The Army of the West–to join the concentration. Although it did not arrive at Corinth until after Shiloh had been fought and lost, the bulk of the Army of the West remained east of the Mississippi River until the end of the war. Consequently, the Northern front of the Confederate battle line west of the River was almost defenseless.

Even after Arkansans complained to Richmond about being abandoned, General P. G. T. Beauregard—who had assumed command of the Confederate army group that fought at Shiloh—declined their request to return the Army of the West. Although he promised that it would eventually be returned, he declared that the Shiloh defeat required that he temporarily keep nearly all of its troops east of the River. His new priority to defend Vicksburg was more important than protecting the Arkansas River Valley and the allied Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory west of Arkansas.

He did, however, agree to send newly promoted 34-year-old Major-General Thomas Hindman to Little Rock to command the freshly minted Trans-Mississippi Military District that included all armies west of the Mississippi River. Seventy-five days after he arrived on 1 June 1862, he had created a new army to replace the Army of the West. He also organized factories to make a multitude of military supplies ranging from munitions, food, medicine, artillery, and firearms. He constructed fortifications, training camps, and supply depots. He obtained soldiers by strictly enforcing a new Conscription Act, encouraging Texas commanders frustrated with the comparative idleness in their area to send troops to Arkansas, and by sending volunteer recruits into Missouri which had half the population—and more than half of the manufacturing—of the entire Trans-Mississippi region.

As a harbinger of his ambitions, he asked for permission to name his army, The Army of Missouri, but had to settle for Army of the Trans-Mississippi. He made the Confederacy's supreme bid to regain control of Missouri at the battle of Prairie Grove in 7 December 1862.