HEADQUARTERS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT,
Camden, Ark., May 4, 1864.

Soldiers of the Trans-Mississippi Department:

The campaign inaugurated at Mansfield on the day of national fast and supplication has, under Providence, been crowned with most glorious and brilliant successes. You have defeated a foe three times your own. The fields of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Cloutierville, Poison Springs, Marks' Mills, and Jenkins' Ferry attest your devotion. Eight thousand killed and wounded, 6,000 prisoners, 34 pieces of artillery, 1,200 wagons, 1 gun-boat and 3 transports are already the fruits of your victories. The path of glory is still open to you; permanent security to your homes before you. Call together your comrades, and shoulder to shoulder we will yet free the soil of our beloved country from the invader's footsteps. Soldiers of Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana, you have the thanks of a grateful people. Your living will be respected; your dead honored and revered.

E. KIRBY SMITH,

General.

No. 94. Narrative of Lieutenant Edward Cunningham, Aide-de-Camp and Chief of Artillery.*

SHREVEPORT, LA., June 27, 1864

MY DEAR UNCLE: I stated in my letter to you, written about two weeks since, that I would inclose some orders and an address from General Taylor to his troops. I neglected to do so at that time, but send them now. General Taylor has been relieved from the command of the District of West Louisiana and ordered to Natchitoches, there to await the pleasure of the President. The circumstances under which he was relieved it is not my business to tell. All that is generally known is that General Taylor requested to be relieved. I do not wish to be regarded as writing in a mischief-making or partisan spirit. An effort will very probably by made by General Taylor's friends at Richmond to excite dissatisfaction against General Smith, or even to have him relieved from command. As they will no doubt take issue on the conduct of the campaign, rather than directly upon any point of difference which may exist between General Smith and General Taylor, I shall endeavor to give you an account of the course of events, together with the reasons, as far as I understand them, for which the principal movements of troops were made. This explanation may enable you to appreciate correctly any discussions of this subject which may come under your notice. Here let me say you cannot depend upon the truth of many statements you may hear. General Taylor's friends will doubtless get their information from him and those around him here, among whom there is a disposition to criticize, misrepresent, and condemn everything done by or connected with General Smith. General Taylor is a very bad man. You understand that I speak deliberately senti-

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*This document was captured in transitu and as forwarded to the U. S. War Department by General Canby.

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