than one-third its original size, badly equipped, and in no position to mount an offensive. Buckner was virtually useless to the Confederacy here, and on April 28, he was ordered to join Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy. Buckner had difficulty traveling to the West, and it was early summer before he arrived. He assumed command of the District of West Louisiana on August 4. Shortly after Buckner arrived at Smith's headquarters in Shreveport, Louisiana, Smith began requesting a promotion for him. The promotion to lieutenant general came on September 20. Smith placed Buckner in charge of the critical but difficult task of selling the department's cotton through enemy lines. As news of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender, on April 9, 1865, reached the department, soldiers deserted the Confederacy in droves. On April 19, Smith consolidated the District of Arkansas with the District of West Louisiana; the combined district was put under Buckner's command. On May 9, Smith made Buckner his chief of staff. Rumors began to swirl in both Union and Confederate camps that Smith and Buckner would not surrender, but would fall back to Mexico with soldiers who remained loyal to the Confederacy. Though Smith did cross the Rio Grande, he learned on his arrival that Buckner had traveled to New Orleans on May 26 and arranged terms of surrender. Smith had instead instructed Buckner to move all the troops to Houston, Texas. At Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Buckner had become the first Confederate general of the war to surrender an army; at New Orleans, he became the last. The surrender became official when Smith endorsed it on June 2, (Only Brigadier General Stand Watie held out longer; he surrendered the last Confederate land forces on June 23, 1865). Conditions set forth in Buckner's surrender were the following: "All acts of hostility on the part of both armies are to cease from this date." The officers and men are to be "paroled until duly exchanged." All Confederate property was to be turned over to the Union. All officers and men could return home. "The surrender of property will not include the side arms or private horses or baggage of officers" and enlisted men. "All 'self-disposed persons' who return to 'peaceful pursuits' are assured that may resume their usual avocations . . . "." Postbellum life The terms of Buckner's parole in Shreveport, Louisiana, on June