the next army that came through was the southern army and general ben mccole you can from texas sent his -- ben mcculluck sent him to the door and knocked and said tebbetts was under arrest for being a traiter to the united states of america and he was taken to fort smith where he would be tried and hung as a trader for having a union flag and for supposedly not accepting confederate money, for allowing union general into his house. many people wanted to help jonas tebbetts as much as they could. members of the confederate army even and they were kind of working with the union army to try to get him released. there was a union jailer who sent a letter to matilda tebbetts saying that he would do everything he could to help jonas and to make his stay comfortable. he was sure everything would turn out all right but while jonas was in fort smith in jail, the soldier would help to watch out for him. matilda was allowed to send one of their slaves to fort smith to kind of tend to jonas' needs as he was a gentleman. he was allowed to have a slave with him. matilda sent some messages through