While doing research at the Virginia Historical Society recently, I found an interesting document in the Robert E. Lee Headquartes Papers. I cannot find that it has been published in the ORs or any compilation of Lee's papers. ON March 24, 1865, he wrote to Kirby Smith telling him that Jeff Davis wanted him to take charge of "military operations on both banks of the Mississippi" with the goal of "as promptly as possible to cross the river with as large a force as may be prudently withdrawn from your present Department." Lee went on to say that most Union forces had been withdrawn from the Mississippi Valley to go to Virginia or the Carolinas, hinting that Kirby Smith thus had no reason to keep large numbers of men west of the river when the Confederates in the east were so greatly outnumbered. The letter closed, "Please give me as soon as possible your views as to the practicability of the measure proposed."

Without access to Kirby Smith's papers or the Trans-Mississippi records in the National Archives, I do not know if Kirby Smith responded. My guess is probably not. He may not have received this letter until after Lee's surrender. Lee either had forgotten or did not mention Dick Taylor's failure in the fall of 1864 to cross the river with two of his infantry divisions. If Taylor could not succeed, Kirby Smith could not have either. Besides, the latter would have balked at such a movement, IMHO.

If nothing else, this letter indicates the desperation felt in Richmond at the time.