Was this Home Guard unit from Tennessee or Louisiana. I enjoy meeting fellow Home Guard descendents. My 2nd great-grandfather Solomon Cole was discharged in June 1861 from the 8th Louisiana Infantry because of illness but later joined the Louisiana Home Guards. This must have been a terrible time (Red River Campaign 1864) for that side of my family as some fought for the CSA and others enlisted in Louisiana Union Cavalry units. These units were famous for jayhawking but the home guard didn't have a popular profile with the home folks either. Anyway, Solomon Cole fought at Mansfield with the 12th Louisiana and was paroled with that unit at Alexandria in the summer of 1865. His brother Phillip Cole died at Camp Ford, Texas, a P.O.W. and is buried at the National Cemetery at Alexandria. I wonder how the post-war family relations survived.

Back to Kirby Smith... it seems Davis and the war dept. in Richmond sent him west not as a reward but to simply get rid of him. Their mistake seems to be having not sent him far enough west. In retrospect maybe Smith & Braxton Bragg should have been named to defend the west coast of Arizona LOL!