Copy                                      

Strictly Confidential       

 

Hd Qrs Sub Dist W. La                                                       

Natchitoches La May 16^th 65

 

My Dear General

                        I am in receipt of your letter of yesterday and shall reply to it with great frankness and in the same friendly spirit in which it was written Since the Commission proceeded to Shreveport, I have been left in profound ignorance as to the character of the communications made by, or through them to the General Commanding. Your letter does not enlighten me, and I do not now know—what—if anything has been asked by them, and what—if anything—has been granted or refused by Genl Smith all is left to inference. My inference is, that the surrender of the troops &c has been demanded and has been refused. The purposes contemplated by the General in Command are by no means clearly defined and I am left to conjecture whether he has any plans and if any what they are.

                        As I understood your letter, General Smith has abandoned the command of the Trans-Misissippi Department to which he was assigned by authority of the President, that an organization has sprung up among the troops, wholly independent of Confederate authority, and for an object distinct from that of the independence of the Confederate States—while that independence was the exclusive object for which the Officers and men under my command were pledged— / for which alone they have been organized and whom in their organized capacity the laws of the Confederate States alone can control. You tell me "that at the right time an opportunity will be afforded to such as choose to go to retain their organization and to make their homes in Mexico". I did not enter the Confederate service to make my home in Mexico—the men under my command did not—they have their duties to perform to their several families that might bind them to their respective states by obligations inferior only to those which they owe to their country. An organization looking to the establishment of a colony in Mexico is no part of the end comtemplated by the men in the service. To move these men as organized bodies without the authority of law, would be nothing more than subjecting them to the will of him who was for the time being their commander. As an Officer of the Confederate Army, I can never consent to abandon the flag under which I have served and to order the men under my command to do any act not in furtherance of the independence of the Confederate States. I can follow no leader though he be one for whom I have as much regard and respect as I entertain for yourself, in my capacity as a Confederate Officer, to seek even freedom under a foreign flag. When you tell me you have been selected as the leader of this organization, I should be greatly gratified, to follow you / if this organization was consistent with my duty as an Officer. You know the friendship I have for you, and in declining obedience to your wishes and commands, I do so because I consider them inconsistent with my obligations to the country and to the duty which I owe to the Officers and men under my military control. I hope, nay, I am sure you will not deem the course I have determined upon as just cause for the withdrawal of the kind feelings you have heretofore manifested for me.

 

            The question arises as to my duty. The Trans-Mississippi Department has been abandoned by the Chief and its second in command, what then remains for me to do? I have been lawfully assigned to the command of the Sub-District of Louisiana. In that capacity having now no military superior but the President—who is not within the Department—I consider it my duty to stop the Commissioners on their way down—and learn, if I can, the nature of their communication to Genl Smith. I shall consider first, my duty to the Confederate States & then my duty to the Officers and men whose lives and destiny to a certain extent under present circumstances rest upon my action, and shall pursue such a course as in my judgment befits an Officer upon whom hangs the greatest responsibilities.

 

            I cannot close this letter my dear General without reiterating to you my assurances of respect and friendship / I regret most sincerely that our opinions do not harmonize. I write to you as an Officer, and not in my private character, when the time comes for plain Harry Hays to act for himself and for himself alone, you will find I have changed no opinion, vacillated from no expressed purpose. When that period arrives, it may be that I shall follow where you lead, at all events, you will not find my conduct varying in the least from the purposes I have avowed to you and which I have not yet seen any reason to change. My conduct is dictated exclusively to public considerations without any regard to my own personal interest or my future welfare.

                                   

Believe me as ever

Most truly Your friend

Harry T Hays

Maj Genl

 

Lt Genl Buckner                                                         

            Shreveport La

 

P.S. I wish to see you above all things, and if I can retain the Commisioners here until you can come down or until I can hear from you I shall do it

 

[overwritten]

 

Natchitoches La

May 16^th 65

 

I certify that this is a

true and correct copy

of the original as

forwarded to Lt Genl

Buckner

            JH. Halsey

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