My bride, Carol, has been keeping me up to date on some of the posts here. I thought I might take the time to share what I know, or think I know about the movements of this unit, based on the letters and documents of Caleb M. Brown, Carol's great great grandfather.

First, Caleb could not read nor write, so his letters were all written by someone else for him. Some are more legible than others. I believe that I was able to get good enough copies that all will be able to be deciphered, even the worst of the bunch. Camp headings on his letters include:

Choctaw Nation
Camp Bankhead
Camp Bonham
Camp Garlen
Camp Garland
Camp Herrington, near Columbus (TX)

When he died, the 30th was wintered "about 40 miles from Clarksville (TX) and in sight of Lanesport (AR) on the bank of the Red River". In a letter, written one month earlier, on November 18, 1863 they were "6 miles from the river and 26 miles from Clarksville". The December (later) letter was headed Camp Garland, while the earlier letter was headed Camp Choctaw Nation.

I've begun to speculate that these camp names, in some cases, were named after whoever's (Commanding Officer) command happened to be camped on the site. Camp Bankhead, for example, could have been in Bonham, TX area or, one account, has it about 1 1/2 miles north of Warren, OK.

Caleb would have been pretty familiar with this area, because his family had settled in Lamar County (Paris) when they moved here from Alabama. From his letters it seems that there were several times that he was able to visit his family near Paris, so he probably had a pretty good idea about the distances to where the unit was camped.

In McCurtain County, near Tom there is a Garland Farm that was owned by a Choctaw Indian Chief by the name of Samuel Garland. It's not on the river but he could have been the principal land owner there, thus the name Camp Garland. Right now, a local historian from the area, is trying to see what she can find out for me.

Lanesport, Arkansas doesn't appear to be on any current maps, but there are some historical accounts of it and I think the location shows up when you search the Maptech website. I'm speculating that it may have been some sort of ferry crossing on the Red River. I'm also looking for a place called Dokesville (Doaksville) mentioned in one of the letters.