Some background information on Camp Townsend published on this message board can be found at:

http://history-sites.com/cgi-bin/bbs62x/lacwmb/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=9268

The following correspondence found in the Official Records will give you a glimpse of the situation in the Vicksburg area at the time.

HDQRS. EXCHANGE BUREAU, VICKSBURG DISTRICT,
Camp Townsend, April 4, 1865.

Captain W. F. BULLOCK, JR.,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Meridian, Miss.:

CAPTAIN: In addition to my letter of yesterday in relation to the necessity and justice of protecting the planters of this county from the jayhawking which has so recently become so very common and indiscriminate, let me further state that if a company of good men were stationed for this ostensible purpose they could not only suppress jayhawking, but inasmuch as the men could constantly operate closer to Vicksburg than any other body of scouts have done (because of the immunity from capture which would be observed by the enemy), they would be able to prevent a large amount of desertion to the Yankee lines, which I now regret to say is constantly going on, and would be able to drive out from Warren County the hundreds of lawless deserters who now seek a place of safety between our lines and that of the enemy; also they would keep you supplied with the latest papers, &c. I am satisfied such a company on such a service here would save ten times their number to the Confederacy, and at the same time give security to life and property to a people who, amid all the disasters which have overtaken them in this [war] have continued eminently loyal to us. And here let me recommend to you, should the lieutenant-general see fit to detach a company for this service, that the men who are at present assigned to duty with me, and who will be relieved in a short time, are in every way suited to carry out the object proposed. They are discreet, clever, orderly men; they have been on duty here three months (selected specially for the purpose by Brigadier-General Adams, because of his high estimate of them) as scouts and pickets, and in all that time not a single trespass upon citizens can be laid to their charge. The best citizens along the lines testify to their uniform good conduct, and they proved themselves the most reliable set of men ever on duty on this line. The planters desire them in preference to any others, because of their full confidence in them. I have reference to Captain John Wilkinson's company (C), Twenty-fourth Mississippi Battalion of Cavalry. He has eighty effective men, and the citizens of Warren County will cheerfully provide forage and rations for them. Since writing the above the most atrocious outrage, by Yankee negroes, has been perpetrated. The particulars have just reached me. Another reason why the protection asked for should be granted: Last night, about 11 o'clock, the residence of Major Reese Cook, an old and highly respected citizen of this county, was plundered of everything valuable, and himself and wife fired upon in their bedrooms, mortally wounding the latter and dangerously wounding the former. This is the second dark tragedy of this kind which has been perpetrated by Yankee negroes since I have been here on duty. Can you not administer the remedy asked for? What with Yankee negroes on the one side and Confederate outlaws on the other, the life and the property of the people of this county are rendered fearfully insecure. The people cry for protection. For God's sake give them your protection. They are with us heart and should and should not be abandoned.

Your early attention to this matter will greatly oblige the parties mostly interested as well as your most obedient servant, &c.,

N. G. WATTS,

Colonel and Agent. [CSA]
OR, Ser. 1, V. 49, Pt. 2 pp. 1198/9

………….

CAMP TOWNSEND, May 2, 1865.

Major General N. J. T. DANA,

Commanding Department, Vicksburg:

GENERAL: I have the honor to send extracts from a letter to me from Brigadier-General Tucker, showing the true feelings of the Southern soldiers.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

N. G. WATS,

Colonel and Agent.

[Inclosure,] HEADQUARTERS,

Jackson, Miss., April 29, 1865.

Colonel N. G. WATTS, Agent of Exchange:

COLONEL: Your letter, 27th instant, just received, * * * I am pleased with the tone of General Dana's letter to General Davidson, published in the Herald of the 25th instant. Every Confederate must view the assassination of President Lincoln with horror and disgust. No Southern hand struck the blow, nor did Southern brains hatch the plot. Lincoln was not a bad man. Johnson has as much intellect as his predecessor. * * * President Lincoln's death is universally considered a calamity to the South.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, &c.,

W. F. TUCKER,
Brigadier- General.

…

GENERAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DISTRICT OF VICKSBURG, Numbers 30.
Vicksburg, Miss., May 2, 1865.

Official notice having been furnished these headquarters that the armistice affecting this front will terminate at 9 a. m. May 3, 1865, it is ordered that from and after the hour before mentioned hostilities on the part of the troops within the limits of this district will be resumed against all rebels in arms or disloyal persons according to the rules and discipline of war.

By order o Brigadier Ten. Morgan L. Smith:

A. C. FISK,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
OR Ser. 1, V. 48, Part 2, p. 290

………….

HEADQUARTES DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI,

Vicksburg, Miss., May 6, 1865.

Lieutenant Colonel H. A. M. HENDERSON,

Assistant Agent of Exchange, C. S. Army:

Major-General Dana directs me to inform you that Captain G. A. Williams, of the department staff, will be in readiness to turn over to you about 2,500 Confederate prisoners of war, commencing at about 8 o'clock to-morrow a. m., from on board the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company's wharf boat and the steamer Indiana. You are requested to have an officer with you to superintend the transfer, in order that it may go on from both places at once.

I am, sir, respectfully,

FREDERICK SPEED,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
OR Ser. 2,V. 8, p. 537

………….

VICKSBURG, MISS., May 8, 1865.

Brigadier General M. L. SMITH, Commanding District of Vicksburg:

GENERAL: The times upon which we have fallen are peculiar and require prompt and discreet action. I suppose it is the desire of all well-meaning men to see peace restored to the country. Neither of the late contending sides wishes to see inaugurated a predatory warfare. You are aware of the fact that many thousand Confederate soldiers whose homes are remote from the place or [of] surrender are now in the country. I submit the following facts: First, these men are without money that can, in the present state of affairs, be employed as currency; second, all Confederate commissaries east of the Mississippi River have been surrendered, together with their supplies; third, the people in this section have been devastated by armies, and the heaviest levies for supplied have been impose by each army in turn; fourth, a sordid and mean selfishnness will pervade the feelings and actions of a great many, and the third fact mentioned will be used as an apology. Now, I submit if it not probable that men, who have fought for four years in a hopeless cause, when surrounded by such circumstances and denied by the Federal authorities the privilege of returning to their homes and transportation to enable them reach them, will not league themselves together and determine by force to sustain themselves. Now, as corollaries to the foregoing I append: First. If a real peace, one which will enable peaceful avocations to be resume and large armies to be disbanded, is the actual desire of the U. S. authorities, is it not a trivial matter, compared with the public good to ensue, to give these men transportation to their homes? By this means you prevent them from herding and organizing. Soon the United States proposes to muster out large forces. Among them are many restless, lawless characters who will strike hands with Confederate outlaw, and in large, roving bands of highwaymen desolate what remains of Southern prosperity and employ to a considerable extent the energies of the U. S. War Department. Around a nucleus large organizations may be gathered. To prevent an inauguration from necessity of guerrilla warfare every facility be afforded Confederate soldiers to return to their homes. Second. I do not consider it good policy to require paroled prisoners to take the oath in order to receive transportation for the following reasons; First. The oath at present is taken from necessity and a morbit desire under all the circumstances to return to their homes. As such it appears to have the semblance of an oath given under duress. Second. The parole itself is an oath, and the furlough provides that the bearer is permitted to return to his home subject to proper respect of constituted authority in that locality. Third. Numbers of these men will refuse to take the oath at present, though denied transportation or any other privilege.

For four weary years, through unparalleled sufferings, they have followed the fortunes of the Confederate flag. With many of them their career as soldiers has been one of pride. As yet the Confederate States have not been announced defunct. If they take the oath now they will be branded by their comrades as deserters and wear that badge of shame down to an ignominious grave. They already stand impeached by the United States as traitors. Is any strategy to be employed to necessitate linkig with that disrepute the crime of desertion? Do you suppose that good citizenship can be founded and built up upon a character wretched [wrecked?] by such bitter humilation? I have no doubt but that when the events of a few weeks transpire all good men will feel it a high duty to resume allegiance to the United States. For the present I think good policy dictates that paroled men be allowed to return to their homes upon furloughs and that, in view of the fact of a general surrender of all forces east of the Mississippi, they be furnished with transportation. I trust, general, that you know me well enough to understand that I have no motive in laying this communication before you but that which relates to the public welfare and the individual good of all.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. A. M. HENDERSON,
Lieutenant Colonel and Assistant Agent of Exchange, C. S. Army
OR, Ser. 2, V8, pp. 540-2