"I held my Regt together for several days for mutual safety as the enemy was still near at Ft Smith and Gray back guerrillas infested the area …and there we turned south east towards Ark
On reaching the line at Polk County..."

Question about the quote from Wright -- Where did they turn southeast to Arkansas? What is the omitted portion between "guerrillas infested the area" and "and there we turned south east"? I'm wondering what road they may have taken to Polk County. There was an east-west road to Waldron but Waldron was undoubtedly occupied by a Union outpost. My guess would be they had to stay in Indian Territory to avoid Union cavalry until just west or west-northwest of Dallas (aka Panther) in Polk County. I believe there was a road near the line from Sugarloaf to Laynesport on the Indian Territory side. The Ft Smith-Ft Towson road was west of that -- and in poor condition.

I don't recall if there were any Confederate outposts on the Ft Smith-Ft Towson road or east of it. There had been a Choctaw & Chickasaw battalion at Lenox Mission (east of present Talihina) the year before but invasion down these roads was not expected because they were such poor condition.

Ken