I know that the early attitude of the war was that it was going to be a short War and that it would be won in Virginia. This makes me wonder if there was any real thought given to defending the Trans-Mississippi in the first Place? I wonder if the Early Plans wasn't to transfer all the troops that could be obtained east of the Mississippi to concentrate the most fighting force into the smallest defencible area and try to confine the War to Kentucky and Virginia as a Battle front?

There seems to be a pattern that supports this theory in the actions of the Confederate Armies even as late as the Fall of 1862 with the Sharpsburg and Perryville campaigns. The fact that Garland Brigade (6th Tx Inf, 24th and 25th Tx Cav dismounted) were scheduled to be transferred east of the Mississippi from Arkansas Post as soon as 4 other Texas regiments of Infantry could be raised in Texas. Along with a request for the "temporary" Transfer of an additional 10,000 troops to Vicksburg to aid Genrl Johnson Army to move up the east bank of the Mississippi River to at Least Memphis.

If all of this had actually happened, this would have all combined with the previous transfers of 1861 and Van Dorn's army for almost 50,000 to 60,000 Trans-Mississippi troops fight east of the Mississippi by the end of 1862. Considering that Arkansas and Texas were Frontiere States at the time, this seem to be an extremely large percentage of the available fighting force of the Trans-Mississippi.

Maybe I'm off on a tangent, but it seems strange that you intentionally would strip one area of your territory of it available defencive fighting forces without a reason.