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No military conflict has ever been the theme of so many memoirs by its participators as the American Civil War. The narratives of Sherman and Johnston, McClellan and Longstreet, Grant and Hood, Schofield and Mosby, and of other leading generals are but the vanguard of an almost endless amount of similar testimony. Indeed it seems that the cherished desire of well-nigh every patriot engaged, if he had the gift of self-expression, has been to give to posterity an account of his part in our great national tragedy, and as the ties of mortal life weaken, this desire becomes stronger. Hence as the number of survivors diminishes, the number of memoirists increases, so that during the past decade the publication of personal accounts of the Civil War seems to rival that of the earlier years just after the conflict when the memory of all readers was full of military recollections.
It is therefore eminently fitting that the
Reminiscences of General William R. Boggs should be
given to the public. Their value well merits the
attention of all interested in Confederate military
history. By taste and training General Boggs was a
soldier, having graduated with high honors from West
Point. His military activity under the Confederacy was
entirely in fields which popular interest too often
neglects, the erection of fortifications on the coast and
the Confederate operations in Kentucky and the
southwest. Even
The ancestors of William Robertson Boggs were
distinguished in both civil and military affairs. His
maternal great-grandfather was “Scotch Billy”
Robertson of Chesterfield County, Virginia, who
served in the colonial wars. The next in line, John
Robertson, likewise served the colony and his son,
William Robertson (1786-1859) removed from
Virginia to Abbeville, South Carolina, served in the
South Carolina militia during the Second War with
Great Britain, and afterwards became surveyor, then
Superintendent, of the South Carolina Railroad, and
also manager of a line of steamboats on the Savannah
River. His wife was Pamela Moseley, daughter of
Joseph Moseley, who had migrated from Virginia to
South Carolina contemporaneously with the
Robertsons. Their daughter, Mary Ann, married
Archibald Boggs, a merchant of Augusta, Georgia. To
them were born nine children. Of these seven survived
infancy. Three sons, William Robertson, Robert, and
Archibald, served in the Confederate army. Of the
four daughters two remained single and two married
brothers of the Butt family; one, Pamela Robertson,
became the wife of Joshua Willing Butt, one of their
sons being Major Archie
William Robertson, the oldest of the above named children, was born at Augusta, March 18,1829. Comparatively little is known of his early youth, but his training and associations awakened talents quite in keeping with those of his ancestors. His preparatory education was secured at the old Augusta Academy. To the memory of its rector, William Ernenputsch, he paid the following tribute; “What a kind old teacher he was, a German of a small stature, and small frame, but a large head, and big heart. He used to punish sharply and severely, but not cruelly. There was not a boy in that school who would not have fought for him.”
Very early his interest in science was awakened. Once he heard a lecture on the impossibility of applying steam navigation to the ocean; at another time he saw the principle of “galvanism” illustrated with a small battery, but the impracticability of its use for industrial purposes on account of the high cost of mercury was pointed out. Once he and his playmates gave his great-grandfather, Joseph Moseley, an account of a steamboat they had seen on the Savannah River. According to tradition the old gentleman listened politely, then gave each narrator a sound thrashing for trying to impose on his credulity. Later when Mr. Moseley himself saw a steam boat at Augusta he gave each of the boys five dollars in gold as recompense for the chastisement.
Young Boggs' summers were spent at the Sand Hills, now Summerville, South Carolina, then as now a resort. There an interest in military life was aroused by visits to the army post located near by. Born with traditions of fighting and engineering, with a latent interest in science and military affairs awakened, it was natural for him to find his way to the leading scientific as well as the best military school of the time, the United States Military Academy at West Point. He entered as a cadet from Georgia in July, 1849 at the age of twenty and graduated four years later among the first five of his class.
Among the students at the Academy at that time were many who later gained distinction in both the Union and Confederate armies. Among Boggs' classmates were John B. McPherson, Philip H. Sheridan and John M. Schofield, later Union generals, and John B. Hood of the Confederate service. Cadet Boggs ranked high in his class and in the entire student body. At the end of his first year he was tenth in scholarship in a class of seventy-four, second in conduct among the entire 221 cadets enrolled. At the close of the second year he was second among his classmates in point of scholarship, being surpassed only by McPherson, and in conduct tenth in the entire academy. The third year found his scholarly standing unchanged, but his rank in conduct ninth. At graduation in 1853 his rank in scholarship had dropped to fourth, that in conduct had risen to third.
Traditions of his student life at West Point centre
around artistic rather than military tastes. In 1851
Boggs' talents were evidently for the scientific
problems of military service. On graduation he was
made Brevet-Second Lieutenant, was assigned to the
Topographical Bureau, and spent some time in the
office of the Pacific Railroad Surveys. In 1854 he was
transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was made
assistant at the Watervliet Arsenal, Troy, New York.
In December of the same year he became Second
Lieutenant and in 1856 he was promoted to the rank of
First Lieutenant. While at Watervliet Arsenal he
married Mary Sophia, daughter of Col. John
Symington, the commandant, the date of their marriage
being December 19, 1855. In 1857 he was transferred
to the Louisiana Arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana; in
1859 he became inspector of Ordnance at Point Isobel,
Texas,
Century Magazine Sep., 1910.
In 1861 the choice of fighting with or against his native state was forced upon him. He did not believe in the wisdom of secession, but like many of his countrymen he cast his destiny with the South, resigning from the United States Army the very day that the Georgia Convention adopted an ordinance of secession. Altogether twenty-two relatives by blood or marriage entered the Confederate armies. His father-in-law, however, having been born in Delaware, having been appointed to the Academy from Maryland, and having spent thirty-five years in the Army, remained in the United States service. Yet friendship and interest in his son-in-law were not interrupted. On Jan. 31, 1861, he wrote, - “So my dear Boggs, the deed is done so far as your resignation is concerned, and we must look into the future with hope that this change may eventuate to your full satisfaction and prosperity. You are of the right stuff and I have every confidence that, from your energy, perseverance and upright honesty you will succeed in any object you may give your attention to.”
The nature of Boggs' service in the Confederacy
When Lieutenant Boggs resigned from the Army of the United States, he tendered his services to the State of Georgia and was immediately appointed to the staff of Governor Brown. He was soon entrusted with the duty of purchasing supplies for his native State.
At his suggestion it was determined to send an agent to Europe to procure an outfit for the manufacture of small arms, while Boggs himself was to place orders for heavy ordnance in Richmond. T. Butler King was ordered to Europe but he postponed his departure in order to carry orders for the Confederate government just being organized. The delay was fatal and Georgia never secured from Europe its much needed machinery. Boggs, however, went to Richmond, carrying with him the latest designs for guns that had been worked out in Union arsenals, and placed large orders for the State of Georgia. He also superintended the conversion of the State Penitentiary into a foundry.
Soon he was transferred to the Confederate service,
going first to Charleston where he assisted Beauregard
in preparing its defenses for war. In April he was sent
to Pensacola to assist General Bragg in erecting
defenses. He found the first urgent need to be supplies
for the troops. To meet it he spent $40,000 which had
been entrusted to his use. A second problem was the
rearrangement of the defenses. To this end Boggs
removed the barbette guns from the forts and placed
them along the bluffs overlooking the harbor and along
the beach, and erected a concealed battery south of
Fort McRee. With these arrangements completed, it
was the intention to attact Fort Pickens, which was
held by the Federals. The plan was frustrated by the
credulity of Bragg, who allowed Lieutenant Worden, of
the United States Army, to cross from Pensacola to
the Federal fleet. Immediately Fort Pickens was
strongly reinforced. The effectiveness of the
Confederate defenses was also impaired by the
arbitrary action of Bragg. While Boggs was
temporarily absent he placed a battery of casement
guns in the open, south of Fort McRee. These, having
about one-half the range of the barbette guns, were
ineffective during the Federal bombardment and Fort
McRee was silenced. But the Federal men-of-war, the
Niagara and the Richmond, as they reached the shore
were forced to retire by Boggs' concealed battery. “It
was sometime in the afternoon,” says Boggs, “when I
observed them swing around head on, and saw them
move slowly up to a new position. Having no other
means after they had taken up their new
Inefficiency and lack of judgment were not the only weak points in the military policy of the Confederacy. While at Pensacola Boggs saw places of high rank in the Army given to civilians while young officers like himself failed to get promotion. Bragg, on behalf of the officers under him, complained of the discrimination but the most he could secure for Boggs was a nominal appointment in 1862 as Superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary, a military school. However, the relations between Boggs and Bragg became cool; an estrangement gradually developed, with the result that Boggs resigned from the service of the Confederate States and re-entered that of the State of Georgia.
Again, Boggs' assignment was to engineering work,
being made Chief Engineer with the rank of Colonel by
Gov. Brown. He was sent to Savannah in March,
1862, to aid in erecting fortifications. Again the
impression he received was one of inefficiency and
lack of foresight on the part of those in authority. He
urged the necessity of fortifying the islands on
the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. The
Confederate commander did not think it possible to
stand on these,
In recognition of Boggs' work at Savannah one of
the forts was named for him. Today its site is occupied
by a fertilizer factory. From Savannah he was sent to
the interior of Georgia to erect fortifications along the
upper Appalachicola to protect cotton plantations from
raids by federal gun boats. His mission was not
effective because the civil authorities failed
The campaign that followed forms a new chapter in
the experience of Colonel Boggs. Hitherto he had been
engaged in fortification; now as a member of Kirby
Smith's staff he was in close touch with an aggressive
military movement. Indeed the invasion of Kentucky
was one of the most brilliant, as well as one of the
most disastrous, of the early Confederate campaigns.
Kirby Smith crossed the Cumberland mountains from
Knoxville, while Bragg advanced from Chattanooga
northward across Tennessee, crossing into Kentucky
by way of Gainesville. With their armies united they
hoped to win Kentucky for the Confederacy and to
force Buell beyond the Ohio. Kirby Smith was first on
the scene of operations. By August 30 he reached
Richmond, Kentucky, and drove back the enemy. How
narrow was the margin between victory and defeat is
well described by Boggs. During the afternoon General
William Nelson, commander-in-chief of the Union
forces in Kentucky, personally took the leadership and
formed a new line of battle south of Richmond. “This
was so unexpected,” said Boggs, “that General Kirby
Smith and myself, riding leisurely up the road in
advance of the army, came within short range before
we were aware of it. Seeing an officer gallop down the
road and hearing him command to ‘bring on the
cavalry,’ I rode close up to and alongside
From Richmond the victorious Confederates pressed on toward Lexington. Boggs, with a band of infantry and cavalrymen, marched before the regular army. When the outskirts of Lexington were reached, he rode back to camp and found everything in confusion. “A sudden halt had been ordered, the advance drawn back to where I found it, all the wagons were being unloaded and sent back to bring Heth's division. A herald was being gotten ready to summon the Federal commander at the sound of a midnight bugle to evacuate Lexington or come outside of it and fight. It looked very much like a panic. There was no answer to the bugle and the herald rode into town without being questioned. The Federal commander, Gilbert, had also been seized with an uncertainty, and while we were preparing the herald he was making hot haste in another direction. We now found out that, if we had followed the Federals up closely we could have gone into Lexington the night before and have captured valuable supplies.”5
The tide of success now changed. Instead of
advancing on Cincinnati Kirby Smith awaited orders
from General Bragg, his superior. Bragg's advance
During the Kentucky campaign Col. Boggs won the
confidence of his superiors and on General Kirby
Smith's recommendation he was promoted to the rank
of Brigadier General and became Chief of Staff under
him in the Trans-Mississippi Department in the spring
of 1863. The task in the Southwest was complicated
and difficult. Grant was besieging Vicksburg, and
Banks threatened an invasion from New Orleans.
There was need of co-operative organization of army
posts in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, while the
heavy production of cotton raised the question of its
disposal beyond the lines of the army. Unfortunately
there was a distinct lack of unity in the councils of the
Confederate leaders. Broadly speaking the cleavage
was between Kirby Smith and his subordinates,
especially Richard Taylor; later Governor Allen and Kirby
General Boggs soon found himself out of sympathy
with the two active military plans of Kirby Smith. First
of these was the demonstration against the Federal
lines around Vicksburg, which was then besieged by
Grant. This was entrusted to General Holmes of the
District of Arkansas but his attack on Helena, made
early in July, was too late to change the fate of the city.
The other military purpose, to prevent the conquest of
western Louisiana and Texas, was accomplished, not,
however, without a conflict of wills among Confederate
generals. The Federals took the aggressive and
inaugurated two movements in the spring of 1864, an
invasion by Banks from New Orleans and one from
Little Rock by Steele. Believing that Banks was the
weaker of the two generals Kirby Smith decided to
engage him first and gave that part of the defense to
General Richard Taylor, whose headquarters were in
southern Louisiana. General Price, who succeeded
Holmes in Arkansas, was ordered to forward to Taylor
all his infantry and artillery, keeping only his cavalry to
harass the advance of Steele. However, these
reinforcements were halted at Kirby Smith's
headquarters at Shreveport and it was planned for
Taylor to harass, not engage, Banks. The cause of this
change of plans, according to Boggs, was the influence
of Dr. Sol Smith, Surgeon to Kirby Smith. “The animus
of change was that Doctor Smith
passim.
An estrangement developed between the commanding general and his chief-of-staff soon after the Banks-Taylor campaign. Dr. Sol Smith supplanted Boggs in the councils of Kirby Smith. Boggs resigned and was for a short time commander of the District of Louisiana. He was soon superseded by General Harry Hays. He then returned to Shreveport. Early in 1865 he enlisted in an expedition to enter military service in Mexico. Finding that the purpose of its leaders was to fight for Maximilian, rather than Juarez, he withdrew his name. With the collapse of the Confederate armies in the East, Kirby Smith moved his headquarters to Houston, Texas. The surrender of his army was made by his subordinates, in which General Boggs participated, the parole of Boggs being dated June 9, 1865.
Such was the course of General Boggs' service in the war and such were the impressions made upon him by the military policy of the Confederacy. His unreserved frankness, together with his military training, give his words great weight. No one can read them without being impressed with the inefficiency of the Confederate preparations for the war, the inexcusable failure of the Kentucky campaign of 1862, and the friction among the Confederate generals. If it had not been for the genius of Lee's defense of Virginia, how much earlier might the conflict have ended!
After the close of hostilities General Boggs engaged in the profession of engineering, participating to a great extent in railroad construction in the west. In 1875 he was appointed Professor of Mechanics in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg, a position he held until a reorganization of the Faculty in 1881. Writes one of his colleagues: “He was highly valued by his associates as a man of force and culture; was esteemed by the student body as an attractive and honest teacher; by the people of the community as an upright, genial, agreeable gentleman. Politics was alone responsible for his removal.” The later years of his life were spent in Winston-Salem, N. C., where he died September 11, 1911, at the age of eighty-two.
As previously stated, General Boggs married in
1854 Mary Sophia, daughter of Col. John Symington
and Elizabeth McCaw Johnston Symington. To them
were born five children: William R., Jr., a mining
engineer, who was murdered in Mexico in 1907;
Elizabeth McCaw, John Symington, Edith Allston (deceased),
WM. K. BOYD.
Trinity College, Durham, N. C.,
June 12, 1913
PURCHASE of ARMS: DEFENSES AT CHARLESTON - THE CONFEDERATE ORDNANCE BUREAU - OPERATIONS AT PENSACOLA - CRITICISM OF CONFEDERATE MILITARY APPOINTMENTS.
In 1860 I was an officer of the United States Army, detailed on special duty at the Fort Pitt Foundry at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to superintend the manufacture of the new pattern eight and ten-inch Rodman Guns, under the new Rodman process. I was delightfully situated, proud of my profession and not a secessionist.
The Presidential election of that year was most bitterly partisan; and with election of Mr. Lincoln, I could not see how an intestine war was to be avoided. I was afterwards very much surprised to find that Mr. Davis and his Cabinet had thought that the Southern States would be permitted to withdraw from the union peaceably. I believed then as I do now, that men who held such opinions were unfit to direct our affairs. I believed then as I do now, that an active, determined, and unhesitating policy would have brought about an early and honorable settlement.
But, let me make a fresh start. The Georgia Legislature
had, at its session just previous to the election,
In casting the first fifteen-inch Rodman gun, the Fort Pitt Foundry had, for the want of room, taken the risk of altering one of their furnaces in a manner contrary to all accepted rules. The alteration proved a marvelous success. So soon as Mr. Lincoln's election was assured, I made a very careful drawing of this furnace; I also made drawings of the latest bullet press and other machines and models that I thought would soon be needed down South. When I went I took them with me; but as the New Government proposed to live in peace and harmony with all mankind, especially the Yanks, my labors were cast aside.
On the morning after the election a young man,
Nicholas Wade by name, boasted that he had voted
for Mr. Lincoln for the sole purpose of seeing what
the South was going to do about it. I remarked that “if
When a Convention of the people of Georgia was called to consider their relations with the Federal Government, I obtained a leave of absence for thirty days and went home to Georgia. On the day that the State, in Convention assembled, voted the State no longer a member of the Union, I resigned my commission in the United States Army.
At the request of the Governor I went to
Milledgeville for consultation. One of my first
suggestions was that he send some trusty person to
Europe for the express and sole purpose of purchasing
an outfit for the manufacture of small arms; that if this
was done at once, it could be brought in before a
blockade was established. Mr. King, T. Butler King I
think, was written to and accepted. It was arranged
that I, with a master armorer, should meet him in
Philadelphia,
It had been expected that on Beauregard's arrival the bombardment of Fort Sumter would begin. But his inspections and a few shots to the seaward satisfied him that something was wrong. W. H. C. Whiting, recently of the engineer corps, and I, of the Ordnance, being the nearest available officers, he asked Governor Brown to send us to him for a short time. At the General's request we made a thorough examination.
At Fort Moultrie, the small but important omission of
putting the swinging props under the trails of the gun
carriages had caused the guns to dismount themselves
when fired with shot. Anderson no doubt removed
I had ordered from Anderson's Foundry at Richmond an unlimited number of heavy guns, with the irons for their carriages and four hundred rounds each of shot and shell for each gun. They were to be shipped, as fast as made, in box cars, by the way of the East Tennessee R. R. In daily expectation that these guns would begin to arrive, we determined not only to arm Fort Pulaski, but also to occupy Tybee Island and to place some of the guns in lunettes on the Island. The guns ordered by me were diverted by the Honorable Secretary of War, and sent to Mobile. Therefore Fort Pulaski was never armed or Tybee Island occupied.3
While in Savannah, Senator F. S. Bartow, chairman
of the committee on military affairs in the Confederate
Congress, came there. He asked me what I thought of
his bill for the organization of the army.
It was not long before I was summoned to
Montgomery, and with the consent of Governor
Brown, I went.4 Arrived at Montgomery, I was
requested to take temporary charge of the Ordnance
Bureau, (the head of that department, as of most
others, being held in reserve for others who were
supposed, intended, or might be induced thereby to
come South). Among the first things needful was a
competent clerk. I called upon the only resident of
Montgomery that I knew and requested his assistance
to procure one. The very next morning the Honorable
Secretary of War, Pope Walker, informed me that I
would need a clerk and that he had sent for one for
me. There was no hurry about anything connected
with the New Government except in providing places.
In a short time my Pope Walker clerk came; so far as
his usefulness was concerned he might as well have
remained at home and drawn his salary there. Mr.
Walker was not the only Cabinet member interested in
providing clerks; L. W. O'Bannon resigned his
commission in the United States Army and came to
Montgomery; he received an appointment and was
sent to Pensacola as quartermaster; the night before
he went he received an intimation purporting to come
from Mr. Mallory, as to whom he
My first care was to examine the appropriations for the ordnance department. I found them most picayune; the appropriation for gunpowder was not sufficient to have fired the guns mounted at Pensacola for two days, and the appropriation was for one year. All other material was in the same ratio. I made haste to inform the Secretary of War. He told me that the appropriations were for a peace establishment, that treaty commissioners had been sent to Washington and we must do nothing that implied war. I satisfied him that even for a peace establishment the appropriations were too small. I finally succeeded in getting an additional appropriation. I was then sent to examine a foundry at Mobile to see if it could be converted into a gun foundry; and also to inspect the defences of New Orleans. At Mobile I was surprised to find that the foundry already had orders from Mr. Walker to manufacture an unlimited number of canister shot for twenty-four and thirty-two pounder guns. What he proposed to do with them was past finding out. At New Orleans I suggested that some of the heavy guns be taken out of the Forts and placed in one or, at most, two gun batteries along the banks of the river above the Forts.
On my return to Montgomery, I found several
proposals from English houses to furnish many much
needed supplies. The proposals were very liberal in
An agreement had been entered into that we should make no effort to capture Fort Pickens, nor the Federals to reinforce it, without a previous notice of twenty-four hours. A severe storm accompanied by a gale seemed to suggest an opportunity to capture the Fort. I proposed to General Cooper, Adjutant General of the Army, that he should call Mr. Walker's attention to the opportunity. He insisted that the idea having originated with me that I should see Mr. Walker. I lost no time in doing so; the Secretary left me immediately, I presumed to see Mr. Davis. I heard nothing more of it until sometime afterwards, when, in conversation with General Bragg I happened to speak of it. He told me that he also had seen the opportunity and had telegraphed the Secretary for permission to take advantage of it, but had received no reply until too late, and then it was to ask him, if he had established “reserved batteries,” and that he had never yet understood what the Honorable Secretary meant.
Late one afternoon I was standing at the counter in
a book store, when I felt a gentle touch on the
shoulder. It was the Secretary of War who took me to
one side, and informed me that our commissioners had
All this time I sat patiently waiting the pleasure of the Secretary, or rather that of Jerry Clemens. When Clemens got through with him, he was in no condition for further labor; he could only tell me to take the first train for Pensacola and be governed by circumstances. 5
Arrived at Pensacola I reported to General Bragg.
The General informed me that they were sending him
regiment after regiment; but no supplies of any kind,
nor the means of moving or distributing them if he had
them. Fortunately, at that time, everybody was
enthused and were sending or bringing ample supplies
of food. I informed the General of all the
circumstances of my orders, and thought he need not
hesitate
General Bragg expressed the wish that I would remain with him. Being most heartily tired of the inaction at the seat of government, as well as of preparing a place for someone else, I was glad of the opportunity. That was the way in which I became attached to General Bragg's staff. 7
For a while the work was continuous and heavy. Captains Stevens and S. H. Locket of the Engineer Corps were engaged in putting heavy guns in lunettes along the beach; and in the end, all the heavy barbette guns were taken out of the Forts and placed along the beach. When the rush was over, I went to Georgia and brought my wife and children.
In anticipation of an opportunity, I had prepared two
portable platforms for eight inch guns; which with the
guns and carriages were so placed as to be easily
shipped for transportation to Santa Rosa Island. Special
details were made, who were taught to handle these
guns. Should we attempt to carry Fort Pickens by
assault, it was intended that these guns were to be
mounted in the sand hills near the outer beach to
engage the fleet. All the details had been arranged;
Col. John H. Forney was to command and was to
assault from the glacis, Stevens to attack the sallyport,
and I through the embrasures. During this
Official Records, War
of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 6, p. 752. - (ED.)
Soon after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, Fort Sumter was bombarded and captured. Mr. Lincoln then called upon the different States for their quota of troops to put down the rebellion. This caused the remaining slaveholding States to withdraw from the Union and join their fortunes with the seceding States. The seat of government was now removed to Richmond.
About this time I received a letter from Thomas R.
Cobb, of Georgia, informing me that he had received
authority to organize a legion, to be composed of
Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, and to be known as
“Cobb's Legion,” that I had been recommended to
his
Lieutenant Colonel. From what will appear hereafter, it
would have been a most peculiar act on the part of the
President. When the Government moved to Richmond,
Robert Toombs, Secretary of State, suggested that as
the cabinet had been formed from the first five
seceding states, it would be a proper thing for the
cabinet to resign and permit Mr. Davis to form his
cabinet from all the States. He resigned; but the rest
were too well satisfied with themselves and their
places. By and by, when pressure began to bear and
changes were inevitable, the Secretary of War began
to organize a brigade for himself to command when he
ceased to be Secretary.
In the progress of this organization, Joseph Wheeler,
(“Point Wheeler” of West Point), Lieutenant in the C.
S. Army, detailed as Adjutant General to an Alabama
Brigade, told me of the proposed organization and that
the officers of his Brigade would help him to get
promotion in it, if he would apply. He said he felt a
delicacy in doing so, because there were so many of
his comrades, right there, who had seen so much more
my
writing, for him, the following application,
to wit:
I have the honor to apply for promotion in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States.
I remain sir very respectfully, your obedient servant,
By my advice he made a copy of this letter, which, having shown to the officers of his Brigade, he then forwarded through regular channels. I told General Bragg all of the circumstances. He endorsed the application with his approval and at the same time called attention to his repeated recommendations of O'Bannon, Slaughter, Villepigue and myself, all of whom ranked Wheeler and were equally worthy of promotion. The return mail brought Wheeler his Colonel's commission and orders to proceed to north Alabama.
I have gone into these details for two reasons: one,
to show that the Cabinet was as much governed by
their personal interest at Richmond as at Montgomery;
the other, because this application, written by me, has
After the battle of Bull Run July 21st, 1861, there
was a rush to Richmond. Some of General Bragg's
officers, on short leaves, took advantage of their leaves
to go to Richmond and were promoted. Two went
without leave and were promoted. These things,
Beauregard's two battles, but more specially, the
appointment of Mansfield Lovell, a late comer, to the
command at New Orleans, with the rank of Major
General, (a command that General Bragg wanted and
to which he felt himself entitled) rankled General Bragg
very much and made him feel it was necessary to do
something to bring himself into notice.
9 Having
determined to burn “Billy” Wilson's Camp and the
supply buildings that had been built outside of Fort
Pickens, he sent Lieut. J. E. Slaughter and myself to
Santa Rosa Island on the night before the proposed
attack, for the purpose of ascertaining if it was possible
to surprise them. Our mission was successfully
accomplished. The following night General Richard H.
Anderson with a command of details from all the
different regiments, made a descent upon the Island
and succeeded in burning the camp. Captain L. A.
Nelms and a few men were killed and General Anderson
Official Records, War of the
Rebellion. Series I, Vol. 6, pp. 744, 758, also Appendix,
Commentary IV, page 99. - (ED.)
General Bragg's command was now extended to
include the State of Alabama. He sent me to inspect
the defences at Mobile. When I had completed my
inspection I determined to return on horseback by the
way of Perdido Bay. I took with me an escort of two
cavalrymen. The steamboat landed us low down on
Mobile Bay, at a turpentine distillery. After passing the
turpentine plantations, the roads disappeared. We
came upon a young man leaning upon a gate of a
pretty residence: although living in the house in which
he had been born, he professed to know nothing about
the roads or to have ever heard of Perdido Bay. We
could only keep as near east as the Savannah would
permit and trust to luck. In the midst of the forest we
found a single room cabin, in which there lived a wood
chopper and his family. Upon enquiring our way he
kindly volunteered to take us across what he called the
laurel swamp and the old mill dam: which he said
would be impossible without a guide. He got us across
and pointed out our direction. The man was a native of
Georgia, his occupation to chop wood, which he floated
down the stream, on which the old mill had stood, to
the gulf, where it was loaded on floats for the Mobile
market. He declined taking any pay for his services;
but happening to have some gold
Official Records, War of the Rebellion,
Series I, Vol. e, p. 459. -
(ED.)his report to the Secretary of War. It
was singularly like the one I had made to him, but to
which it made no reference: he did, however at the
close of it, ask the President to make me a Brigadier,
and he would place me in command of the defences of
Mobile. Some little time afterwards, he informed me
that Captain Page, recently of the U. S. Navy, had
been appointed to the command.
11
About this time Billy Wilson's Zouaves had been
reembarked and disappeared. One day, November
22nd, I was crossing to the camp at Live Oak Point,
when Major Brown opened, unexpectedly, with all his
guns. He had selected the moment when our transports
had arrived from Pensacola and tied up at the Navy
Yard Wharf. The pilot of the tug Nelms stuck to his
boat, backed her out, and started up the bay. He got
her safely off, notwithstanding every gun that could be,
was brought to bear upon her. From my position I had
an unobstructed view of the race between the tug and
the shot and shell: one of my darky oarsmen exclaimed,
“ain't that barbarous?” The other crew abandoned
their boat and sought safety in the woods. While
returning across the bay, it occurred to me that so
furious a cannonade must be for the purpose of
covering a landing at Perdido.
12 I joined General
Bragg and was sent to superintend the firing at the
fleet from a battery on our extreme right. Finding that
the fleet was out of effective range, I caused the
battery to cease firing. When the fleet moved up closer
we opened again; after the second shot the fleet again
retired, with the Hartford disabled. The cannonading
lasted for two days, the only result being a great waste
of ammunition and that thereafter our supplies could
not be landed at the dock.
Upon the arrival of the transports, the teams and
With the first gun all the negro employees
disappeared and were not seen again until the firing
had ceased. We then learned that for some time they
had been digging bomb-proof shelters, called gopher
holes, and provisioning them for just such occasions.
Gaps had been cut in the wall surrounding the Navy
Yard; through these women, children and others not on
duty found their way out of range. An orderly brought
Mrs. Anderson a horse without saddle and only an old
rope for a bridle; so mounted, with one
A soldier was placed in the covered way of
Batchelers battery, First Louisiana, to watch the fight
of the shot and caution the men at the guns, when to
take cover: he would call out “that is to the right,” or,
“left,” or, “look out boys;” when a shot from a rifle gun
cut the sand bag on which he was leaning, he never
moved, but in his usual tone remarked “Pretty d--d
close.” Notwithstanding all restriction and care these
same Louisiannians were frequently the worse for
liquor and it was some time before the cause was
ascertained. Mrs. Bragg had sent to this regiment,
from her plantation, a hogshead each of sugar and
Up to the time of General Bragg's visit to Mobile I had enjoyed his full confidence: since then there appeared to be a change. For some time I had very little active employment, in fact all of our duties were simple routine; a number of troops had been ordered from us to Virginia: others upon condition of reorganizing for the war, had been permitted to go home on furlough. I could not understand my treatment in Richmond or General Bragg's cool official manner. I determined to have a talk with the General and let the result of that interview decide my course of action. After the interview I sent in my resignation; it was promptly forwarded and promptly accepted.14
After forwarding my resignation General Bragg
had gone to Mobile and had not returned. When I was
ready to leave Pensacola I called on General Anderson
(Bragg was still absent) to make my adieus and also
wish him and his family the compliments of the
season, - it was new year's day, 1862. While chatting
with them, there was a roar of artillery, followed by the
shrieks of shot and shell. All the officers present
mounted and rode to the Navy Yard. After remaining
with the General a little while I rode back to my
quarters. Finding an extra horse, I took my wife to a
point between Fort McRee and the lighthouse: from
there we witnessed the firing until darkness
MILITARY SERVICE OF GEORGIA - DEFENSES OF SAVANNAH - PROBLEMS OF THE APPALACHICOLA RIVER AND THE INTERIOR OF GEORGIA - CHARLESTON.
I was now, against my will, free to do as I pleased. While in the United States Army I had been frequently detailed to different foundries either to inspect or superintendent the manufacture of heavy ordnance. At New Orleans there was a large foundry; I also considered New Orleans as one of the most important places in the Confederacy; therefore I went to New Orleans. Shortly after my arrival the commanding officer, General Mansfield Lovell, sent for me. He expressed a desire to have me on his staff. I informed him fully of my position and my belief that Mr. Davis would not consent. He insisted on trying, saying Mr. Davis had refused him nothing as yet and if I would consent to serve on his staff with the rank of Colonel he would take the risk of refusal. He was refused. In the interval I had received a dispatch from Governor Brown, saying that the State needed my services and requesting me to come to Milledgeville. On my return to Georgia, my mother gently, but decidedly, made me understand that she did not approve of my leaving the Confederate service, and I have now to admit that she was right.
While journeying home, I travelled with some of the
twelve month volunteers returning home. I was
surprised to learn from them that General Bragg had
I reported to Governor Brown at Milledgeville, and was appointed by him Colonel and Chief Engineer of the State Forces. There were already on his staff Harry Wayne, Adjutant General, and Lachlan McIntosh, Chief of Ordnance. The State had in the field a division under the command of Major General Henry R. Jackson, consisting of three brigades, commanded by Brigadier Generals W. H. T. Walker, G. P. Harrison, and J. W. Capers.
Late in the month of March, 1862, the Governor
received a dispatch from Savannah, stating that the
Federal gun boats had appeared in one of the estuaries
(Vernon River) and were in sight of Causton's Bluff,
four miles from Savannah. Taking the night train, I
reached Savannah a little after daylight and hastened
to the headquarters of the State troops: finding no
General R. E. Lee had arrived and assumed control of operations.2 There were no active operations undertaken by him; whether for the want of troops and material I do not know.3 All that was done, was to build batteries at Causton's Bluff and on Elba Island in the Savannah river.
At State headquarters it was determined to employ
the State troops in building a line of defence around the
city. I expressed a wish to examine the city archives
for the oldest county map. Captain Gladding, a
volunteer aide-de-camp, said he knew where it was
and would get it. I could not have had one better suited
to my purpose. Governor Brown, General Wayne, and
Major McIntosh came down from Milledgeville. It was
desired to establish the line of defence as quickly as
possible: with the map for a guide, and a pocket full of
fencing nails and a hatchet in my belt, I verified the
map. Having found what I thought was a first rate line,
and General Lee having examined and approved, it
was begun at once. About this time we heard that the
Federals were in the habit of landing on Tybee Island
every night and leaving again before day. Tybee Island
being in the State, it was decided, at State
headquarters, that I should go down and if possible
ascertain what they were doing on the Island. Gladding
volunteered to furnish the boat and crew and
accompany me. The following night was fixed upon for
the attempt: but for some reason, unknown to us,
General Henry R. Jackson reported our intentions to
Confederate headquarters and we were forbidden to
go. One morning we found the Federal gun boats in
Wall's Cut on the Carolina side, in which Ives'
torpedoes were supposed to be. They, with the boats
already in St. Augustine Creek, on our side cut off all
communication by water with Fort Pulaski.
Commodore Josiah Tatnall took down one load of
supplies, receiving their fire going and coming. General
W. H. T. Walker was very indignant: he proposed
Governor Brown now insisted upon pushing the line of defence and obstructing the river. While so engaged we received the news of the battle of Seven Pines, of Johnston's being wounded, and also of passage of the infamous conscript law. Gen. Lee being ordered to the command of the army of Virginia, called to make his adieus to General Jackson. During this call he suggested that I should reorganize one of the State regiments, which under the conscript law would soon be claimed by the Confederacy, stating that in so doing I would not be in the way of anyone wishing to be Colonel, as he had no doubt I would soon be given a Brigade. I told the General that “it was not my desire to remain out of the Confederate service: but, for some cause unknown to me, Mr. Davis would not give me a command.”
In that respect I was in good company: General W.
H. T. Walker had been one of the most distinguished
officers of the United States Army, one of a very few
I will mention but one of many cases in contrast, and
that not by way of disparagement of the person: - for
I believe that Pemberton did his very best. Pemberton
came south after the war had begun. He was, at once,
appointed a Brigadier and sent to take command at
Charleston. When Lee was ordered to Virginia, he
was, without having fought a battle, made a Major
General and given command of the States of Georgia
and South Carolina. In less than one year, before his
qualifications had been tested, he was made a
Lieutenant General and sent to command Vicksburg,
the most important command in the southwest: and
which he surrendered on July the fourth, 1863. Steven
D. Lee had been tested at Vicksburg, where he had repelled
With the fall of Fort Pulaski, there was a general move of women and children from Savannah. Major Lachlan McIntosh's mother and half sisters and Mrs. Gladding, wife of my most valuable assistant, Captain Gladding, went to my house in Milledgeville until they could be provided for.
The Army of the State of Georgia having been
reduced by the conscript law, to the Governor, its
commander-in-chief, Henry C. Wayne, its adjutant
general, Lachlan McIntosh, its chief of ordnance, and
myself, its chief engineer, we retired to Milledgeville,
the seat of government, to await events. Within a few
days after our return Governor Brown received a letter
from General Pemberton requesting that I be sent to
him for a special duty. It appeared that sundry persons,
having hid away a large amount of cotton, over 80,000
bales, on the Appalachicola river, were becoming
uneasy as to its safety. The town of Appalachicola, the
Bay, and the mouth of the river were already in the
hands of the Federals. The Honorable Judge Iverson
had been sent to Richmond, on the fall of Pulaski, to
ask help to protect the cotton; the people of Columbus,
Georgia, and Eufala, Alabama, promising to furnish the
labor, tools and supplies necessary to construct such
defences as might be decided upon. The petition and
proposals were sent to General Pemberton; he now
directed me to make a careful examination and after
having decided what to do to report to and call upon
Judge Iverson for the necessary
At Columbus we were furnished with a comfortable
boat and good crew. Our first landing after leaving
Eufala was at the landing of the Chattahoochee
Arsenal. We were now in a distinct civil and military
department and I proceeded to pay my respects to the
nearest commanding officer, Col. (Judge) Finley. He
was encamped with his regiment at the Arsenal, nearly
two miles off. When I suggested, in our interview, that
it would be advisable to station a sentinel at the landing
to protect his supplies, he remarked “why, it is two
miles off!” At Rickoos Bluff I found an effort being
made to plant a battery; the guns were on top of a bluff
at least three hundred feet above the river, with a
range of only half a mile. The most of the cotton was
some twenty miles further down the river: near it was
a small battery of field artillery, behind an epaulment,
supported by a battalion of infantry. Owing to a deep
creek coming up to a very short range in their rear the
position was untenable. Below this point the Federals
were in full possession. Having requested and obtained
a company of infantry for an escort I proceeded down
the river, where I examined all the creeks, lakes and
old river beds. These streams were very crooked but
very deep. Having completed my examinations and
decided what to do, I was about to return up the river
when the captain, who was the principal owner of the
boat and, when at home, a resident of Appalachicola,
suggested that we run down, and if we found it
practicable, to land at Appalachicola, and load up with
machinery, casting, and such other
Having finished my explorations I left the boat at
Bainbridge, Georgia, and went to Tallahassee, Florida,
to report my presence and duties in that district.
Returning to the boat, we went on it up the river as far
as Fort Gaines, Georgia. There I wrote letters to the
mayors of Eufalla and Columbus, stating what labor
and materials I should need and requesting that they be
ready for me on my return to Columbus, on a fixed
On my return to Columbus, I found neither workmen or materials, and no steps had been taken to provide them. The scare was off and the labor was needed in the crops, so it was proposed to put off the work until later in the season. Having read my report to General Pemberton and to Judge Iverson, I then forwarded it by mail and returned to Milledgeville.
I had been there but a short time when the battle of Secessionville, South Carolina, took place.7 This and other fighting on James Island implied that the Federals intended to follow the path of the British and endeavor to take Charleston in the rear.
I obtained Governor Brown's permission to go to
Charleston. This effort of the Federals had created
uneasiness at Richmond and General Cooper was sent
there. I was very glad of the opportunity of meeting
him as it enabled me to enquire into my status at
Richmond. He told me that my resignation had been
I also took advantage of the opportunity to inquire concerning the charges made by General Bragg against General Richard Anderson and to state facts in that case as I knew them. General Cooper asked me if I would object to giving him what I had stated in writing. So far from it, if it would be of any service to General Anderson, I would do so gladly. I did give him a written statement, and shortly afterwards had the satisfaction of seeing the promotion of that chivalrous officer.
The Federal assault on Secessionville, June 16th, 1862, had been made in force; being repulsed with heavy loss they withdrew from James Island.
On my return to Milledgeville I urged the Governor
to permit me to construct defensive lines about
Atlanta. This was objected to, through fear that it
might have a demoralizing influence. It was
determined that I should visit the mines, nitre caves
and foundries in
On my return to Milledgeville I found a telegram from Mr. Davis inviting me to accept a position on his personal staff. I have always thought that this was due to either General Lee or Cooper or both, and that courtesy to them, as well as to Mr. Davis, demanded my acceptance, but I could not possibly make up my mind to do so, and declined.
THE INVASION OF KENTUCKY (1862) - BATTLE OF RICHMOND CAPTURE OF LEXINGTON - THE INAUGURATION AT FRANKFORT - RETREAT.
In August Governor Brown received a letter from General E. Kirby Smith at Chattanooga asking for assistance. The Governor could offer only some artillery harness and my services. He accepted both and I was sent to Chattanooga.
When I reached Chattanooga, General Kirby Smith had gone to Knoxville, leaving General Henry Heth in command: before the harness arrived, General Jno. P. McCown took command and his brother, who was his chief of artillery, took possession of the harness on his arrival. Finding I could do nothing, either within my own State or out of it, without a Confederate commission, I so informed the Honorable Secretary of War, in a most respectful letter: and in reply received a commission as Colonel of Artillery in the provisional army, with orders to report to General E. Kirby Smith.
I found the General completing his preparations for an advance into Kentucky. Leaving General Carter Stevenson's division of infantry, and Colonel Ben Allston's Brigade of Cavalry to hold the Federals in Cumberland Gap, he ordered General (then Colonel) John H. Morgan with his division of cavalry to keep well out towards the center of Tennessee and Kentucky, and to meet him in Lexington on the second day of September.
General Kirby Smith's staff consisted of aide-de-camps, Captains E. Cunningham and E. Walworth; Assistant Adjutant General, Captain (afterwards Colonel) J. F. Belton; H. P. Pratt, private (afterwards captain and assistant adjutant general) of the Eufala Artillery, as clerk; Colonel J. A. Brown, Chief of Artillery and Ordnance; Colonel John Pegram, detached from General Bragg and acting as Chief Engineer;2 Freret, private (afterwards Captain of Engineers) of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, as draughtsman; Captain J. G. Meem, chief signal officer, and also doing duty as aide-de-camp; Dr. Sol Smith, surgeon; Lieutenant Colonel H. McD. McElrath, quartermaster; Major Thomas, commissary; Prince Polignac, with the rank of Colonel, and myself unassigned. The army with which we crossed the mountains consisted of two brigades of Arkansas troops, commanded respectively by Brigadier Generals P. R. Cleburn and T. J. Churchhill; one Texas brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Wm. McCray; one Tennessee brigade, commanded by the gallant Colonel Wm. Baker, afterwards Governor ;3 one Florida brigade, commanded by the same Colonel J. J. Finley, that I had met at Chattahoochee; one brigade of cavalry, commanded by Colonel Jno. S. Scott, of Louisiana; and one by Colonel Gano of Georgia;4 one battery of light artillery from Florida, and one company of Florida cavalry at headquarters.
Taking the route through Clinton and Jacksborough we crossed the Cumberland mountains at Big Creek Gap. At the “Clear Fork” of the Cumberland River we were overtaken by General McCown, who, having expressed a doubt as to the propriety of pushing on to Barboursville, leaving a large force of Federals at the gap in our rear, the afternoon was spent in debating the question. McCown was the only other Major-General in the command and had come up unexpectedly. We persuaded General Kirby Smith that if McCown remained and continued in the same spirit there was no hope of success, and finally to order him back to the command of Tennessee.
We pushed on rapidly to Barboursville, so rapidly as to surprise all the country, capture a few officers, and some supplies. The country through which we had come was intensely Union. Its young men, having to choose between being conscripts or Union soldiers, had enlisted in the Union army. Its elderly men, so soon as they found out who we were, bushwhacked us at every turn of the road. While waiting to hear from or of General Bragg the troops were moved up the Cumberland valley towards the gap.
Not hearing from General Bragg, General Kirby
Smith decided to move on Lexington. When the troops
marched back down the valley they thought it was a
retreat, and marched in silence, with banners furled;
but when they turned north through Barboursville, flags
unfurled, drums beat and the rebel yell was distinctly
audible. One determined young woman stood upon a
balcony and waved the stars and stripes over us as we
passed. The soldiers cheered her. General
The afternoon before the battle of Richmond we
came suddenly upon the Federals in line of battle. It
was nearly sunset and we considered it advisable to
withdraw. When I reached Cleburn's brigade, which
was in advance, he was bivouacing it in line of battle. I
informed him of the disposition of the Federals and how
near they were to his front. P. P. Cleburn was one of
the very best officers in the southern army: he should
have commanded a corps: he was killed at Nashville.5
Shortly after I left him the Federal Cavalry came
dashing down the road; the disposition of his troops
enabled him to give them a warm reception. From
there to headquarters I found that the soldiers had lain
down where they were halted and gone to sleep
without food. Reaching General Kirby Smith, he
informed me that he had given orders for the troops to
be put in motion before daybreak. I begged him not to,
told him the condition of his own troops, also that of the
Federals; that they were fresh and prepared to receive
him. I advised that the command be permitted to sleep
as long as they wished to, that they be permitted to
cook and enjoy their breakfast, for there was a hard
day's work before them. When he consented to do so,
instead of wakening some of the young men about
headquarters, he sent me to the various commands
with his change of orders. Thanks to
General Cleburn, who opened the fight, sent word that the Federals were moving heavy masses to his right. General Kirby Smith directed me to investigate. With Freret and a young engineer I rode too far to the right and came out in the rear of the Federals. They were in full retreat and seeing, as they thought, cavalry in their rear, surrendered.
Between the first and second fights a cloud of dust indicated a large body of troops on our left. General Kirby Smith sent me to see who they were. I found Scott's cavalry who, having lost the road, had moved towards the firing. I explained the situation and directed him to move on rapidly and get between the Federals and Lexington. This he accomplished so successfully that he captured General M. D. Manson and his staff and nearly all the Federal Army.
During the afternoon General William Nelson,
known as “Bull Nelson,” formerly of the Navy and
afterwards killed by Jefferson C. Davis at Louisville,
took command, and forming a third line of battle just
south of Richmond, offered us battle. This was so
unexpected that General Smith and myself, riding
leisurely up the road in advance of the army, came
within short range before we were aware of it. Seeing
an officer gallop down the road, and hearing him
command to “bring on the cavalry,” I rode close up to
and along side of the fence, expecting them to come by
with a rush, and saw already our victory turned into a
rout. Had they come Sheridan's charge at Winchester
would have been a duplicate. They did
We went on until we came in sight of them in line of
battle. A thousand fresh cavalry, in new uniforms and
freshly mounted, in line of battle is a beautiful sight.
Not knowing how far I was ahead of the army I did
not see any more safety in going back than in
remaining. I sent a message to General Kirby Smith
and requested that he would send me a couple of
pieces of smooth-bore cannon. Whenever the
retreating troops would have retired sufficiently, the
cavalry would wheel about by companies and gallop
back to a new position. After a long time General
Kirby Smith
As I approached headquarters I heard one soldier ask another, “where those wagons were going?” He replied, “that the train wagons were being emptied and sent back to bring up Heth's division;” the first then remarked, “that means retreat, for the Yanks could reinforce faster than we could.”
At headquarters I found a rather peculiar state of
affairs. A sudden halt had been ordered, the advance
drawn back to where I found it, all the wagons were
being unloaded and sent back to bring Heth's division.
A herald was being gotten ready to summon the
Federal commander, at the sound of a midnight bugle,
to evacuate Lexington or come outside of it, to fight. It
looked very much like a panic. There was no answer
to the bugle, and the herald rode into town without
being questioned. The Federal commander, C. C.
Gilbert, had also been seized with an uncertainty, and
while we were preparing the herald he was making hot
haste in another direction. I afterwards heard that
Gilbert received a brevet for skill in withdrawing
Early in the morning of September the first, I rode into Lexington with the advance guard, just one day earlier than was fixed for General Morgan to report there. Morgan came in on the next day. The town seemed deserted; but at the front door of one house there were a lot of ladies who appeared excited, and were concealing something. Presuming it to be a Confederate flag, I called them to let it wave; and they did.
The Federals being very much demoralized I had presumed that we would push rapidly towards Cincinnati. I was very much surprised when headquarters were established at Lexington. I do not know, but afterwards inferred, that it was done by the advice of Dr. Sol Smith. I shall always regard this as another of those grand opportunities lost.7
The Federals at Cumberland Gap under General G. W. Morgan finally abandoned it. When General Smith heard of this, he went over to General Humphrey Marshall's brigade, at Mount Sterling, for the purpose of intercepting them: but we were too late. Marshall had been sent from West Virginia across the mountains to report to General Smith.
General Smith's army, under the immediate command
Official Records show that the Kentucky campaign was
planned by Kirby Smith. Bragg, however, was superior in command
and he directed Kirby Smith to await his arrival in order to make a
joint attack on Louisville. Official Records, Series I,
Vol. 16, Pt. 11, pp. 8, 15, 6. There is some evidence that Kirby
Smith wished to attack Cincinnati - Memoir of Kirby Smith, p. 221. -
(ED.)
We soon learned that General Bragg had turned Nashville and was upon General Buell's line of communication, compelling Buell to follow him. Now occurred one of General Bragg's peculiar movements. He deliberately stepped to one side and let Buell pass him with his, Buell's, whole flank open to his attack and never molested him.
General Kirby Smith received orders from General
Bragg to concentrate at Frankfort, as it was his,
General Bragg's, intention to inaugurate the
Confederate Governor there. The day before the
expected arrival of General Bragg and the future
Governor, General Kirby Smith formed his line of battle
on the west bank of the Kentucky river. After
inspecting his line he sent me to inspect the pickets. I
found our cavalry about a mile in front of our line but
no pickets, not even a sentinel. Colonel Scott promised
to send out pickets at once. Every one had had supper
when I got back. General Bragg and staff, the future
Governor, a number of prominent men, and many
ladies were at the hotel. The Governor was to be
inaugurated the next day at noon. General Bragg, with
great confidence, informed the ladies that they might
witness a
Our right rested on a ravine; General Kirby Smith
was uneasy about this flank and had directed me to go
up this ravine early next morning, to move slowly, keep
a good look out, and if necessary send him messengers.
I started very early and was still moving away from our
line, when I heard the inauguration salute fired. From
the remarks of the escort it appeared that they were
recruits; upon enquiry, I found, to my anxiety, that
there was not an old soldier among them. As the
afternoon advanced, hearing nothing more and having
seen nothing, I returned to Frankfort. It was dark when
I crossed the bridge. As I crossed the Railroad, I saw a
train of passenger and box cars filled with people.
Seeing some ladies that I knew in one of the box cars, I
rode up and asked if it was the fear of the coming
battle that drove them away from the inauguration ball
that General Bragg had promised them. One of them
with much indignation asked me if this was any time for
trifling. I then noticed that some of them were in tears.
One pointing up the hill asked me what that meant; it
was the rear guard of a retreating army. Looking in the
other direction I saw the bridge that I had just crossed
was burning. I apologized, stating what I had been
doing all day. My negro man, Shadrick, coming up with
my extra horse, I told the ladies that so soon as I had
fed my horses and myself I would return and keep
them company until the train started. When Mrs.
Humphreys asked me where I proposed to get supper, I
could not say,
After waiting at Versailles a day General Kirby Smith, taking me with him, rode down to General Bragg's headquarters at Harrodsburg. The two armies were now touching each other, forming together the largest and best western army we had ever had, or were likely again to have.
We reached General Bragg's headquarters about noon. He was surrounded by a large retinue of hangers on, and it was hard to get a quiet interview. His conversation and actions were unaccountable, they were like those of a wild man. He gave General Kirby Smith to understand that he did not need his army, that with his own troops he could whip anything the Federals could bring against him. General Smith returned to Versailles completely at a loss what to do. During the next morning he gave General Marshall permission to return to Lexington and await events. We tried to persuade him to do so also: but during the afternoon the sound of battle in Bragg's direction decided him to go at once to his assistance.
While waiting on the train at Frankfort, I telegraphed
to Shropshire that, if he proposed to leave Kentucky
with our army he had better start, that I would share
my bed and board with him. He joined me the
afternoon that General Bragg was fighting
Without orders and unsolicited, General Kirby Smith
moved his army to the assistance of General Bragg.
When we reached Harrodsburg, General J. M.
Withers' command was all that we found of General
Bragg's army; the remainder were in retreat to camp
Dick Robinson. General Smith bivouaced his army in
line of battle, and then asked me to find a place for
headquarters. I found a comfortable house, a short
distance in front of his line, which had been abandoned
in hot haste. Overcoming his objection to being in front
of his line we were not only most comfortable for the
night but were a protection to the property. Our escort
and couriers now consisting of a company of
Georgians commanded by Captain Nelson, posted a
few sentinels between us and the Federals. About dusk
I was sent with orders to General Withers: while tying
my horse on the lawn in front of his quarters, I was
ordered, most peremptorily and brusquely, to untie my
horse and take him off the lawn. Instead of so doing I
walked up to General J. M. Withers, whom I had
recognized, and remarking, “there are orders from
General Smith which I could not deliver without
When General Smith rode to Harrodsburg the day before the battle of Perryville, we met Major General Frank Gardner's division in the road. The two armies were then touching each other. The day following, during the afternoon of which the battle was fought, the two armies were getting further apart and Humphry Marshall with his brigade had started for Lexington. The next day General Smith was hurrying to General Bragg's assistance, and General Bragg was running away to Camp Dick Robinson.
The following day I was given half a dozen mounted
men and orders to burn certain bridges after all the
troops had passed, and then to ride with the rear guard.
General Duncan, who commanded the rear brigade,
was an old acquaintance, and we rode along together
very sociably. We first noticed some cavalry to the
south, moving parallel with us. As we made out some
blue overcoats among them, it was determined to
ascertain who they were. It turned out to be Allston's
brigade, having among them some captured overcoats.
Presently one of General Smith's aides spoke to
General Duncan. Duncan referred him to me as
representing General Smith. It was concerning this
same cavalry that he was enquiring. I told Captain
Cunningham to inform General Smith who commanded
the rear guard, and that nothing could be more
satisfactory. Again and again would General Smith
send back, and finally came back himself, Duncan
remarking to me, “The commanding General having
taken command of the rear guard he, Duncan,
That afternoon the two armies were, for the first time, together at camp Dick Robinson.9
Late in the afternoon General Smith ordered me to
go back to the river (Dicks River) and if possible to
gather some men and tools, and obstruct the crossing.
Both banks were high bluffs and the road on both sides
was a long ramp cut from the banks. When I reached
the river I found Robinson's battery unlimbered, with
the men at their posts ready for action. Robinson was a
West Pointer, being a native of Texas and having
straight dark hair he was nicknamed “Comanche,” and
had served with me at Pensacola. He called to know
where I was going. He then told me that the Federal
skirmishers were already on the other bank of the
river, firing from behind trees at anyone they could get
a shot at, and that he was only waiting for them to
appear in force to open with his battery. While I
agreed with Robinson, that it was too late to obstruct
the road, I did not like to go back without making a
personal investigation. Leaving my horse with him I
walked to the bank, and avoiding the road, on down to
the river. There were some ten or more of our men at
the river filling canteens. Returning just behind a soldier
loaded with canteens, he fell at the same instant that I
heard a musket shot. I thought that he was shot, and
for a moment so did he; finding himself unhurt, he
picked himself up and looking around remarked “It was
that durned old root and I
On the following day there was a grand council of war; it lasted several hours and resulted in a most disgraceful retreat. General Bragg started immediately, by the way of Crab Orchard, and never stopped until he reached Richmond.
General Smith returned by the way of Big Hill. When we reached the foot of the hill, we found that all of the captured and many other wagons had been turned upon our road. Forty-five miles of wagons on our road in order that the retreat of Bragg's army should not be impeded! When General Smith became aware of it, General Bragg was out of reach, and his army rapidly becoming so, leaving our entire flank exposed to attack. He at once sent a messenger to General Polk explaining the situation. General Wheeler was ordered to keep upon our flank.
Polignac and myself were ordered to the foot of the hill with instructions to pack all wagons that were not loaded with supplies. Here we found a most disgraceful state of affairs, many wagons being loaded with dry goods, shoes, trimmings and trumpery of all kinds. The headquarter wagons of one Major General, accompanied by his quartermaster, were already going up the hill. Two days afterwards this Major General came into our bivouac while we were eating a hearty breakfast; in his hand and pockets he carried parched corn. He remarked how well we fared, but that he had had nothing but parched corn for two days. I did not ask him where his headquarter wagons were.
INSPECTION OF CUMBERLAND GAP - PROMOTION - WITH KIRBY SMITH IN THE TRANS MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT - RICHARD TAYLOR, T. H. HOLMES, AND SMITH - SPIES - CONTRABAND TRADE IN COTTON - OFFICERS UNDER GENERAL SMITH - PROBLEM OF COMMUNICATIONS.
Arrived at Knoxville, General Smith received instructions to come to Richmond. Before leaving he directed me to go to Cumberland Gap for the purpose of ascertaining if it could be fortified. East Tennessee was intensely Union and it was very unsafe to go a few miles without an escort. With Freret for a companion, and an escort of ten men detailed from an East Tennessee cavalry regiment, and a full company to meet me at Clinton, we set out by the way of Clinton and Powell's river. During the first morning we met General Churchill and staff. He advised me take some other route as there was nothing left on that road.
All of my escort being natives of that region, knew where
to find food and forage. Nearly every night found us near
the homes of some of my escort; they would get permission
to spend a night at home and being supplied with money for
the purpose would always bring in supplies when they
returned. One morning a liberal supply of eggs, milk and
apple brandy were brought in; the weather was cold, and
that night, borrowing a large bowl from a neighboring
house, I got Freret to concoct what is called in Louisiana hot
egg-nog. Taking out our share I sent the sergeant
We arrived at the Gap in a snow storm: leaving the men to pitch camp in as sheltered a place as we could find, I went to pay my respects to General W. G. M. Davis of Florida, the commanding officer.
While with him his servant announced dinner: with an apology for his meager fare, the General invited us down. I told the General that we had ordered a dinner of mutton chops and mushrooms and unless he could improve on that he had better dine with us.
“Mutton chops and mushrooms! Are you joking?”
“No, put on your overcoat and come along.”
We dined out of doors in a snow storm; but the dinner was served “hot and hot.”
To fortify Cumberland Gap would be a difficult, expensive and useless labor. It is isolated, can be easily flanked, as we had already proven, and easily carried by assault. To prevent the last, I recommended Cohorn mortars or hand grenades.
On my return to Knoxville, General Smith informed me that the object of his call to Richmond was Mr. Davis' desire for a personal interview; that he had consented, upon Mr. Davis' urgent solicitation, to continue to serve under General Bragg for the present.
In the recent campaign General Bragg had proved
himself unfit for a high command. When General
Smith found himself deserted by him, he told me that
on no conditions would he consider to serve under him
again. But General Bragg was retained in command
General Smith brought me my commission as Brigadier General.1 He told me Mr. Davis objected on the grounds that my services were needed on the staff and that the administration of the army was being destroyed by personal ambition. General Smith called his attention to the fact that my being a general officer need not prevent my being on staff duty; but on the contrary that, if I was to remain with him, he preferred that I should be his chief-of-staff with the additional rank, and would promise for me that I should not ask for a command. This fixed my rank and place for the war.
There being no immediate urgent demand for my services I went, on leave of absence, to pass the Christmas holidays with my family. While being feasted and made much of, I received orders to meet General Smith at Chattanooga on his way to take part in General Bragg's new campaign. When I reached there I found orders to return to Knoxville and make preparations to move headquarters across the Mississippi River. I do not know by what lucky chance the transportation of our headquarters was placed in charge of Major Ezell, quartermaster. I had known the Major at Pensacola, he was then a private in the first Georgia, and on account of his many splendid qualities was of inestimable value to me.
Everything having been provided for the move, I
At Montgomery the party separated, General Smith
with a few officers and his family going to Mobile by
rail, some of the young officers with Walworth by the
way of his home on the Mississippi River, the
remainder with me by boat to Mobile. My brother
Robert, my aide-de-camp, joined me at Mobile. Our
route was then by the way of Meridien to Jackson.
The quartermaster at Jackson was profuse in his
attentions, and having assured me that the necessary
transportation had been provided, I went on to Osyka.
When I reached there it looked as if the
aforementioned quartermaster had been anxious to get
us away. There
Sherman denies the destruction of Columbia by his army and it
may be so: but in the winter of '66 and '67 I had occasion to
visit that lower part of South Carolina bordering the Savannah
river and the line of railway between Charleston and Savannah.
The imagination can not take in the extent of the wanton
and malicious destruction of property of all kinds; which it can
not be denied was done by his army; and which could not have
been done, had he any desire to prevent it.Webb on
her way to attack the Indianola. The Webb was an
ocean steamer, she was unarmored but very fast. We
also passed the Federal gun boat Queen of the West;
which having ventured up Red River, had been
abandoned by her crew, after being disabled by a
battery of small guns. She accompanied the Webb.3
Arrived at Alexandria I reported to General Dick Taylor. General Taylor sent his own headquarter boat to Port Hudson for General Smith. The river being now open, General Smith was soon at Alexandria.
When General Smith went to interview General Taylor he took me with him. He told General Taylor of Mr. Davis' anxiety about Vicksburg and his desires that something should be done on our side of the river. General Taylor asked General Smith to give him, at once, another brigade for that duty, and to order me to report to him to command it - stating that General A. G. Blanchard, who was in that district, made his headquarters at Monroe, and was too old for active service near the river. General Smith stated that he could not possibly spare me, but that he was going at once to Little Rock, and under positive instructions from Mr. Davis, would send General George Walker's division of Texas troops to Milliken Bend.
About that time there arrived at headquarters two
men who claimed to be sympathizers, and who had
brought through the lines two bladders of quinine, as a
pledge of good faith. Coming at that particular crisis, I
was suspicious and expressed my doubts to General
en
route for Little Rock, and still more so when General
Smith gave them permission to get off at Monroe and
visit our lines opposite Vicksburg. One of them
afterwards came to Little Rock, took down many
orders from various persons for gew-gaws and
jimcracks, and with a pass from General Smith,
returned north through our lines. With his
memorandum book open he came to know what he
could bring me on his next trip. I not only declined to
take advantage of his kindness, but did all I could to
have him arrested. The other never returned from
opposite Vicksburg, and I have no doubt made his way
to the nearest Federal outpost with information worth
many bladders of quinine.
On the road from Camden to Little Rock we passed many nominal deserters; these, I thought, ought to be detained for several months at least; their desertion was entirely too systematic; but they were permitted to go on through the lines.
While riding with General Smith between Camden
and Little Rock, he informed me that Mr. Davis was
very much annoyed with the manner in which General
T. H. Holmes had been conducting the department;
that he had centered his thoughts and ideas on
Arkansas alone, keeping the largest and best body of
his troops centered about Little Rock, and leaving the
rest of the department to take care of itself; that he,
General Smith, would send Walker's division to
northern Louisiana, with orders to report to General
Taylor, and might send others troops there also. I was
not
After inspecting the troops at Pine Bluff, (two
divisions that at that instant were needed, and Mr.
Davis had expected to be opposite Vicksburg), and
spending some time at Little Rock we started on our
return to Alexandria. During the first afternoon we
were overtaken by a terrific storm and no shelter in
sight. When night came on, we could not see the road
and no doubt passed some unseen houses: fortunately
some one opened a door to look out at the weather. We
rode up and asked for shelter. It was a small house with
limited accommodations and no men at home. An old
lady, the grandmother, said she could not turn any one
away such a night as that and would do the best she
could. The head of the family was absent on business,
the son and son-in-law in the army. The family
consisted of the old lady, her daughter and daughter-in-law,
three grand children, and an adopted child. The
house was a one room, storey and a half log cabin, a
one storey shed for the loom and a similar shed for
kitchen and eating room. Everything was deliciously
clean and such a contrast to the house we stopped at, in
that neighborhood, on our way to Little Rock. That one
was an unfinished two frame, belonging to a doctor,
who had his Philadelphia diploma. We had found him
sitting on his porch, heels on rails and smoking his pipe,
while his daughters and grand-daughters
There was no system of communication between the different district headquarters; so that it was not until we reached Monroe that we learned that Grant was passing down on our side, and investing Vicksburg on the lower side; and that Banks was threatening Alexandria to cover his investment of Port Hudson. We were advised not to take our boat down to and up Red River, but as the waters were high, to take an old river bed, called False River, which would land us eight miles north of Alexandria. A messenger was now sent back to order Walker's division to Milliken Bend. When he did get there the Federals were so well fortified that he could not dislodge them.
At our first interview with General Taylor he had
suggested that Shreveport, being the geographical
center of the department, would be the most suitable
place for department headquarters, but General Smith
did not seem to consider the proposal favorably,
maybe through Dr. Smith's influence.5 I was now sent
up there to look into the matter. Within forty-eight
hours after my return we were afflicted with a genuine
stampede. Banks commenced to threaten Alexandria
in force, and everything movable was put on
steamboats and hurried off to Shreveport. General
Smith had now no choice but to make his headquarters
at Shreveport.6 We had the greatest difficulty in
obtaining accommodations
I had found a cousin of my mother's, George Calhoun, living there; on our arrival he crowded us into his own small house. A few days after I moved my family across the river to a Mrs. Cane's. Mrs. Cane had a large plantation, large house and a large number of slaves. I had taken the precaution to call on her and ascertain if she was willing to take us as boarders. She seemed willing and fixed her own terms. She treated my wife most rudely from the moment we arrived; had it not been dark I should have moved back at once, and did next day. I never imagined that a woman could be so contemptible.
A desperate character by the name of Hope,
confined in jail, sent for me and offered me his house
and
When we had become acquainted with the citizens proper, we found them hospitable, social and kind. Our life there was, in all respects, most agreeable.
At Little Rock there was a department staff, among
whom were Colonel Sam Anderson, Adjutant General;
Colonel Blair, Chief Commissary; Major Thomas G.
Rhett, Chief of Ordnance; and Dr. Hayden, Medical
Director. These officers had been ordered to those
duties by special order of the War Department and
objected to being placed in subordinate positions except
by the same authority. The position assumed by them,
interfering with General Smith's intentions with
reference to Dr. Sol Smith, his surgeon, and Major
Thomas, his commissary, he created the Bureaus of
Commissariat and Medicine, with Blair and Hayden as
their respective heads. Anderson and Rhett were
ordered to Shreveport, one as Adjutant General, and
the other as Chief of Ordnance. Colonel Ben. Allston
whom we had been compelled to leave in Kentucky on
account of wounds he had received at the head of his
brigade, upon being exchanged, finding his brigade had
been given to another, asked for and received orders to
join us, bringing with him Major Wright Schaumburg,
formerly of General Little's staff. Captain P. H.
Thompson of the First Louisiana Regulars,
The working staff of the department was constituted as follows:
Captains Cunningham and Walworth, aides-de-camp. Capt. Meem, signal officer, also the most trusted aide. Three most accomplished and unexceptional gentlemen in every respect.
Colonel Belton, assistant adjutant general, thoroughly competent. His desk was in General Smith's private office and his duties for the most part confidential.
Dr. Sol Smith, surgeon and confidential adviser. He was a man of immense frame and immense intellect: but indolent and selfish. He was undoubtedly very fond of General Smith and endeavored to serve him to his, General Smith's, advancement and glory. But the Doctor having gotten back among his own people (he belonged to Alexandria) was influenced by his local relations to such an extent that his advice was not always beneficial.
Dr. Yandel, another fine specimen of physical and
mental ability, was also a part of General Smith's
household. He had no special duties but accompanied
him in the field. It was concerning him that Mr. Davis
wrote to General Smith that he had not sent him to
the department for promotion, but because he,
The following were at the head of the bureaus:
Of Ordnance, General Huger. General Huger had been a distinguished officer in the Mexican war, where he had served on the staff of General Scott. He was the inspector of Ordnance at foundries when the difficulties began and it was as his assistant that I was serving at Pittsburg. Both he and General Magruder made some great blunders during the seven days fight around Richmond and were relieved from their commands. General Huger never again had a command, and I think General Smith made a great mistake when he gave Magruder one.
At the head of Quartermasters, Colonel O'Bannon.
O'Bannon went to the Mexican war as a sergeant in
the Edgefield Company, Palmetto Regiment. He was
promoted into the regular army of the United States for
distinguished personal courage in assaulting the breach
at Molino del Rey. A man of ability and energy, he had
no superior for the special duty to which he was
assigned. The same O'Bannon whom Mr. Mallory
wished to supply with a clerk. He was scarcely warm
in his seat when an exempt on account of a civil office
called upon him and invited him to dinner. After a short
time the same person informed him that he had just
received a barrel of whiskey and would be pleased to
fill the Colonel's jug if he would send it round.
O'Bannon sent his jug, at the same time informing his
clerk that “that man wants something.” On the morning
of the grand review he drove to O'Bannon's office
behind a fine double team
Just before Banks' raid up Red River the captain of
one of the steamboats called at O'Bannon's office and
informed him that he had been ordered down the river
after a load of corn but that his steamboat was disabled
and he could not make good time, etc. O'Bannon
thanked him for the information, saying, “Captain, you
gentlemen seem to think that whenever we select your
boat that it is a personal spite or favor to some other
person. Your statement that your boat is disabled
relieves me from a very disagreeable duty, for I have
just received an order from General Smith to select the
least serviceable boat and
During the fall of '64 and winter of '64 and '65 our
department became very much demoralized by an
order issued at Richmond, authorizing a limited
contraband trade in cotton, with the Federals. This
infamous authority was not intended for our
department; but much to the discredit of some high in
rank, advantage was taken of it. It was upon one of the
papers connected with this traffic, that I saw an
endorsement in President Lincoln's own hand, over his
own signature. So manly and so decided was this
endorsement, that it rendered the paper itself and the
action of our authorities contemptible. A merchant of
Shreveport, I think his name was Jacobs, called on
Colonel O'Bannon and expressed a wish to take out a
load of cotton and bring back goods. He showed
O'Bannon what enormous profits there would be, and
which he would divide with O'Bannon if he would get
him a permit. After permitting Mr. Jacobs to commit
himself as to the amount of money to be made on the
cotton, O'Bannon suggested that Mr. Jacobs might not
return. Jacobs offered to give security and finally
proposed to deposit with O'Bannon quite a large sum
Colonel Blair, at the head of the Commissary Bureau, was a gentlemen of the old school; had acquired name and fame in the United States Army; and was considered to be the very best fitted, of all others, to be Commissary General of the Confederate States Army.
Dr. Hayden, sans peur et sans reproche, at the
head of the Medical Bureau, was a man of magnificent
physique and incomparable intellect. In connection with
this bureau was a pharmaceutical laboratory in charge
of Dr. Smith of New Orleans. This Dr. Smith was a
son of General Percifer F. Smith of Mexican war fame
and was a most accomplished gentleman.
At department headquarters there was myself, as
chief of staff. In the Adjutant General's Department,
Colonel Sam Anderson, recently of the United States
Artillery. He served through the Mexican war
Major Minter had been especially ordered from Texas, by General Smith, to be his chief quartermaster, and proved to be one of the most competent officers. When General Smith sent him to Europe, Major Gary was ordered to take his place. He was an excellent officer but was unable to take in the extent of his duties.
Major Thomas was still his chief commissary, and
was considered by General Smith a most excellent
one. I never doubted the sincerity of his opinion for he
could not have had any other reason for placing him in
so responsible a position. As an individual there could
be no objection; but as chief commissary he was
entirely out of place; he had neither the education or
ability to take in the work of the department. For
example, I received a letter from General Taylor
complaining, that in a department capable of supplying
Europe with beef, his district had received scarcely
enough to supply his hospitals. I referred this letter to
Major Thomas. He returned it covered with an
endorsement, giving the number and weight of the cattle
When we first came to the department Captain Freret was our only engineer officer; afterwards Colonel Douglas, a splendid specimen of youthful manhood, was ordered to us.
Colonel Brown, chief of artillery, came with us from Tennessee. He had seen service in the United States Army.
Major Rhett, also of the United States Army, was chief of ordnance. He was a man of grand physique, spirit and capacity. He could see no wrong in one he liked and no good in one he disliked. He afterwards served in the army of the Khedive and died shortly after his return to America. For an assistant he had Captain Green, of St. Louis, a most elegant and accomplished gentleman.
Major Carr, chief paymaster, was a native of
Louisiana; but had not been there since the beginning
of the Mexican war, until ordered there from
Richmond. He was a whole-soured, cultivated
gentleman. When in New Orleans, shortly after the
surrender, a nephew of his was finding fault with the
conduct of the war: the Major asked him if he had
been in the Federal army; he replied with some
surprise that he had not; he then asked him if he had
been in the Confederate army and upon his saying that
he had not, advised him never to talk about the war.
On another occasion, after listening
Major Ezell, quartermaster, had charge of
everything relating to that department connected with
headquarters. He was unexceptionable. Doctor Catlett
of St. Joseph,
Colonel Clemsen, who represented the Nitre and Mining Bureau, was an elderly man, full of scientific attainments; but most impracticable. His duties were light.
Captain P. H. Thompson, of the First Louisiana Regulars, acting assistant adjutant general, and my brother Robert, I considered as belonging to my own personal staff.
These were the gentlemen with whom I was in intimate official and social relations for a little more than two years and I often wonder how it happened that there should have gotten together so many men of such distinguished physical, mental, moral and social characteristics. Some of them had become obnoxious to Mr. Davis on account of their independence of character, others were in the way, on account of their well known abilities and reputations, and the Trans-Mississippi was a little out of the way.
Finding the communication with the district headquarters
In the meantime General Holmes was arranging for
an attack on Helena, as a diversion in favor of
Vicksburg. I presume that it was on this account that
General Smith had delayed ordering the Texas troops
to Louisiana. It was not until July the fourth that
General Holmes was ready and made this attack and
on that day General Pemberton surrendered
Vicksburg. This diversion diverted the principal
purpose for which General Smith had been sent to the
department. After this attack General Holmes crossed
the river and Major General Price succeeded to the
commend.
General Dick Taylor was eternally vigilant; he never missed an opportunity of annoying Banks, attacking and capturing outposts and threatening his communications.
Early in June my friend and kinsman, George Calhoun, came to inform me that he had sold all his property in Shreveport and bought a plantation on Red River and was about to take his family to South Carolina, from whence he proposed to bring back negroes to work his plantation. Finding that he was in earnest I took him into a private office, where I told him that if he intended to take his family across the river he had no time to lose, for it was my private judgment, never before expressed to anyone and not to be repeated by him, that Vicksburg would soon be in the hands of the Federals. He turned ashy. I went further and asked him if he supposed he would ever work a slave after the close of the war. He replied that if he could not in this country he would go to one in which he could. I advised, that if such were his feelings, not to go to Carolina at all; but to dispose of what he had and set out at once to seek his new country. I learned afterwards that he went home and told his wife that I was a Yankee. He took my advice, however, and set out as soon as he could and had so little time to spare that as he went out of Jackson on the east, General Grant's army was coming in on the west. He returned to his plantation that fall but left his negroes in Carolina.
In September, a fleet of transports, escorted by gun
Shortly after this event General Smith sent me down
below Alexandria to see if it were possible to fortify or
obstruct Red River. I invited Major Carr to accompany
me. He was a native of Natchitoches and had not
visited it for many years. Judge Boyce, of Bayou
Rapides, was on a business trip to Shreveport at the
time. I invited him to take a seat with us, letting his
own wagons go on without him. The Judge was one of
those who think that you cannot make a good day's
journey without waking men and animals long enough
before day to have everything ready to start just as
soon as there is light enough to see. I being of a
contrary opinion, his wagon would start on his time and
mine two hours later. Every day we would pass his
team and get to our stopping place an hour before it.
The Judge insisted that it was the team and not the
principle that caused it. At Alexandria I took a
steamboat for the lower river and to
The captain of the boat informed me that he had not
heard that ditty for many years and then it was sung by
a friend of his in California. Upon comparing notes his
friend turned out to be my uncle, William Alexander
Robertson. Uncle Aleck went to California in 1849,
sailing round Cape Horn. He came back in the winter of
'56 for his family: but met with so much opposition, that
he finally settled in Augusta, Gal, where he died the
same year with yellow fever. The Captain told me when
he left, he was judge of
LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY - INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL SMITH - THE BANKS - TAYLOR CAMPAIGN - RESIGNATION AS CHIEF OF STAFF - THE SURRENDER
During the winter of '63 and '64 it seemed almost a certainty that the Federals intended to make a determined effort to drive us out of Arkansas and Louisiana. I was so satisfied of this that I had the roads leading from Arkansas and Texas towards Shreveport, Mansfield, and Natchitoches put in order. I also directed Major Thomas to establish supply deposits at certain points on these roads and keep them well supplied. With the exception of some of those ordered my Texas my orders were carried out.
General Smith went to Texas for the purpose of a personal interview with Magruder with reference to the approaching campaign. In that interview Magruder induced him to suspend my orders in his district. When I heard of it I did my best to repair the mischief.
One morning finding General Smith and several members
of the staff in high glee I inquired the cause. I was informed
that it was occasioned by the fact General Joseph E.
Johnston had been ordered to the command of the army in
upper Georgia. I told them that I hoped that their
expectations might be realized; but if I were to judge by his
campaign on the peninsula or in Mississippi, we would soon
hear of him at Atlanta and if not relieved, in the everglades of
Florida.
My preparations were none too soon, for early in the spring General Banks advanced from New Orleans with an army estimated between forty and fifty thousand men, flanked by a fleet of gun boats under the command of Admiral Porter, while General Steele came down from the north with an army of over twelve thousand. After some correspondence, General Taylor came to Shreveport and, in a personal interview, the plan of campaign was decided upon. It was agreed that in consideration of General Banks' want of reputation as a commander, to concentrate and fight him first, although his army was supposed to be nearly four times as large as General William Steele's.
With this understanding General Taylor hurried back to his command and devoted his attention to compelling Banks to advance slowly.
General Price, commanding the district of Arkansas, was ordered to send all his infantry and artillery to Shreveport; but retaining his cavalry to harass Steele and keep him in check. All available troops from Texas were ordered to move by the shortest routes towards Natchitoches and Mansfield.
As the troops began to arrive from Arkansas Doctor Sol
Smith also arrived from Alexandria, and now began a change
of movement, which I have always held him responsible for.
The Arkansas troops were halted at Shreveport and
detained there, ostensibly to
On the morning of the battle of Mansfield, April 8th,
1864, a dispatch came from General Taylor, which to
me was unmistakable. He informed General Smith that
he had been skirmishing with the enemy all day, he
complained bitterly at the detention of the troops that
had been promised him, and had he anticipated it he
would have first fought at least one battle for Louisiana
without them. This last I construed to mean that he
intended to fight that day. I took the dispatch in to
General Smith and told him what I thought. He said no,
that Taylor did not have troops enough to fight. Orders
were issued at once for all troops to move towards
Mansfield, but to halt and await further orders at
Keachi. Headquarter transportation was gotten ready
and those officers who were to accompany General
Smith in the field, myself among the number, were to
be ready for an early start next day. So sure was I that
the battle would be fought that day, and so uneasy
about the result, that I made arrangements to move my
wife and the children into Texas, upon the first
intimation of disaster. General Smith had sent his
family off some time before. A little after midnight I
was called by a courier with dispatches from General
Taylor, stating that he had
The morning after the battle, General Taylor returned to Mansfield for an interview with General Smith; he wished to retain the additional troops and push Banks, whom he believed to be thoroughly demoralized and could be destroyed. General Steele being within ninety miles of Shreveport, General Smith was fearful that if the entire army continued to follow Banks, Steele might easily reach Shreveport and then come down in our rear, so he ordered all the Arkansas and Texas troops to return to Arkansas, leaving General Taylor his original command only.
I was sent on to Magnolia, Arkansas, for the purpose
of establishing rapid communication with General Price.
I remained there until the army was concentrated in the
neighborhood of Camden. The day after rejoining the
army, I rode with General Smith to General Price's
headquarters, in front General Price was still
commanding all the cavalry that had been left in
Arkansas. From this interview, General Fagan was
given a division of cavalry and directed to proceed to
Little Rock and to destroy all supplies he might find
there, then to Pine Bluff and do the same thing. He was
to move rapidly and stop for nothing. He was
informed of the importance attached to his movements
and promised promotion if successful. Unfortunately on
the second day out he ran across a return train with a
number of convalescents and some plunder which he
decided to secure. The time required for this prevented
the surprise of Little Rock and destroyed the only
object for which he had been sent.
The return of Fagan's command rendered further delay in bringing Steele to battle useless and arrangements for so doing were being made, when a deserter from our army having informed Steele of Banks' disaster, he stole away quietly one night and retreated toward Little Rock.
General Smith had a long conversation with me
about following Steele. He knew that he ought not to
fight except under the most favorable circumstances,
and if he followed at all he must follow rapidly, thus
giving Steele the advantage of selecting his own
ground to receive him and to force a fight that he
wished to avoid. He also ought to have known that
I was left at Camden to facilitate the movement of the troops.
After crossing the Saline River at Jenkin's ferry, General Steele formed line of battle and waited for General Smith. The battle was simply sharpshooting from different sides of the river. Our troops were severely punished! In the Texas command Generals Scurry and Randle, two of our best officers, were killed and General Wall wounded. From the Federal accounts, they also suffered severely. If Steele's object was to prevent Smith from following him, or returning to the aid of Taylor in the destruction of Banks, he was successful. General Steele continued his march to Little Rock unmolested and General Smith and staff returned to Shreveport.
General Taylor continued an active campaign against
General Banks until he was relieved from duty in our
department and ordered across to command the
department of Mississippi. He captured many prisoners
and stands of colors: among the latter a most beautiful
flag manufactured by Ball, Black& Co., for one of the
favorite New York regiments. There was a
quartermaster in our service, who was almost too
successful in crossing the river back and forth between
us and Richmond. On the last trip he made he brought
back an order from the war department for us to send
all captured flags to Richmond. To me it was a singular
order, and as it did not specify by whom, I tried to
persuade General Smith not to send them or if he did to
select some one connected with his staff, and
Towards the fall of the year Governor Reynolds, the
Confederate Governor of Missouri, and General Price
requested and were permitted to make a demonstration
into Missouri. They seemed to think that the people had
suffered so severely at the hands of the Federals, that
upon their appearance with an army a sufficient
number of able bodied men would join them to enable
them to regain possession of the State. They got within
sight of the Indian Territory. There came out with this
command a splendid company of mounted men
commanded by a Captain Lee. General Price asked
that they be dismounted and sent to fill up his infantry
regiments. Lee objected. Finally General Smith ordered
Lee to report with his command to General Price. He
started with his command in the direction of Arkansas,
but soon turned to the right and went into swamps
opposite Vicksburg where he was a terror to
contraband traders until the close of the war. When
General Price went into Missouri Magruder was
ordered to the command of Arkansas and George
Walker to Texas. The style of living in Arkansas was
not in accord with Magruder's taste and in a very short
time he was at department headquarters and
General Buckner was ordered from Richmond to the command of the district of Louisiana.
In the spring of '65 General Mason Graham of Bayou Rapides came to my office, and after waiting some time to catch me at leisure, wrote on a scrap of paper, “Do you know that General Smith is seeking to have you removed as chief of staff?” I at once invited General Graham into a private place, where I informed him that I had not the slightest intimation of it by word, act or deed. He informed me that there was not the slightest doubt about it, that his information came from Richmond and that my removal had been opposed by representatives from Louisiana and Texas.
I returned to my office, gathered up all the papers and took them to Colonel Anderson; informing Captain Thompson that I would not return until I had an interview with General Smith.
For the next three days General Smith did not come to his office. On the fourth day I went to his residence and asked a private interview.
General Smith made the interview a very painful
one; he exhibited and expressed a great deal of
feeling. He stated that he had, at some time past,
applied to
Not very long after that interview the Colonel of an
Arkansas regiment came to my office and asked me if
I would object to letting him have a copy of a letter,
written by General Smith, recommending his promotion.
I had heard nothing of such a letter and knew of no
reason for it; nevertheless I instituted enquiries among
the officers and clerks, but could not find that such a
letter had been sent. He seemed so positive about it,
that I suggested he interview General Smith. He
hesitated and asked me to do so. At first General Smith
could not or would not recall it; finally he took a small
book, with a bright red cover, from his desk, remarking
it must be among some memoranda he had given in
person to Senator Johnson of Arkansas, and
commenced to examine the book. As the book was
new and contained but little, he soon found it and
handed it to me to read. It was more of a memorandum
than a letter and was for the guidance of Senator
Johnson, with reference to General Smith's wishes,
I have never been able to understand General
Smith's actions in this matter. I was appointed the chief
of staff at his own request, and at a time most
favorable for him to have Doctor Smith appointed. I
am not aware that he was required to take me with
him when he crossed the Mississippi River: but
supposing he had been, when General Taylor asked to
have me ordered to him for the express purpose of
placing me in command opposite Vicksburg, he had an
opportunity of relieving me from the staff in a most
complimentary manner, and under circumstances to
which no possible exception could have been taken in
Richmond. Again if General Smith was so anxious for
the Doctor's advice and counsel, why did he take me
into the field with him, leaving the Doctor at home?
Why was it that he always delegated to me every
delicate or
I went to Natchitoches and assumed command of the district; but my command was short lived, for, upon the surrender of General Lee, General Harry Hayes, who had been sent to our department to gather up the absentees from his command in General Lee's army, went to Shreveport and asked to be assigned to duty. Being a Louisiana officer, he was assigned to the command of the district, and I returned to Shreveport.
I found General Smith still there, he had not yet taken his intended absence nor had he resumed the command: but he had sent his family through the lines. I found an expedition being organized to go to Mexico and enrolled my name; but when I found it was to go to Maximillian, and not Juarez, I withdrew and determined to await the end at Shreveport.
One day Major Ezell informed me, confidentially,
that General Smith was having relays put on the road
towards Mexico and that he, Major Ezell, believed that
the General was going to run away. General Smith had
but started upon his supposed recreation trip, before it
was believed that he had gone for good.2 General
Buckner proceeded at once to New Orleans, and
having agreed with General Canby upon the terms of
surrender, a swift steamer was sent to
General Kirby
Smith, pp. 250-262. - (ED.)
Until the arrival of the Federals there was no law of any kind. All things considered our soldiers behaved remarkably well: but it was a time of intense anxiety. Night after night the headquarter clerks sat up at my residence with loaded arms of various kinds close at hand. Colonel Allston had been turned out of his house with a dying child, because he had neither gold nor greenbacks. I took them into my already crowded house and it was there his child died. The funeral procession was moving when the first Federal transport arrived.
Upon the arrival of Brigadier General George L. Andrews, Provost-Marshall General of the United States Army, I was, once more, ordered on duty as commissioner on the part of the Confederate States to act with him in paroling the officers of the Confederate army. This was probably the last authoritative order issued in connection with the Confederate States Army.
From the following, which is a copy of my own parole, it appears that we paroled five hundred and eighty officers:
I, the undersigned, Prisoner of war, belonging to the Army of
the Trans-Mississippi Department, having been surrendered by
General E. Kirby Smith, C. S. A., commanding said Department, to
Major General E. R. S. Canby, U. S. A., Commanding Army and
Division of West Mississippi, do
The Federal Commander very kindly placed the
steamboat Ida May at the disposal of General
Buckner for the transportation of himself and officers
to New Orleans.
In 1872, seven years after, my disabilities were removed by a special act of Congress of the United States.
These commentaries are written at the request of my son, who, having asked me “Why I preferred serving on Bragg's staff to Beauregard's?” and being informed by me that I had not, called my attention to the official documents of the war published by the government and asked me to look over the same and make such explanation or comments upon so much of them as related to my own personal knowledge.
With good assistants (chiefs of Engineers and Ordnance) this could probably be done in about eight or ten days; but Major Whiting and Captain Boggs (two most reliable and efficient officer) have been recalled to Savannah by the Governor of Georgia, and I am again left to my own resources.
I find a great deal of zeal and energy around me, but little professional knowledge and experience.
Probably Captain G. W. Smith, of New York, and Captain Gorgas might be induced to come, if a positive rank could be offered them.
Captain Boggs left here this morning to join you. Forty thousand dollars are at your disposal, to be used in the way he suggested to me as coming from you. Although he has no instructions on that point, as it escaped me in the hurry of his departure, you will, however, understand.
Mr. Worden had communicated with fleet before your dispatch received. Alarm guns have just fired at Fort Pickens. I fear the news is received and it will be reinforced before morning. It cannot be prevented. Mr. Worden got off in the cars before I knew of his landing. Major Chambers is in the cars. He will watch Mr. Worden's movements. If you deem it advisable, Mr. Worden can be stopped in Montgomery.
All of the above are more or less associated with happening to have served with Bragg and not Beauregard. My preference would have been Beauregard, although my remaining with Bragg was my own choice, and solely on account of my surroundings.
Going to Savannah at the time mentioned in Beauregard's
letter, I was soon after telegramed to come at once to
Montgomery. Bartow, the Chairman of the Committee on
Military Affairs, was in Savannah at that time. He urging and
Governor Brown consenting, I went to Montgomery. I was
at once appointed a
Ibid, p. 280.
I went to Bragg on April 9th; for the details of my going I refer you to my Reminiscences: as well as for the part played by Mr. Davis with reference to Lieutenant Worden, of the U. S. Navy, he having been permitted to carry his dispatches to the fleet off Pensacola by Mr. Davis' express written order. 3
Having no desire to return to Montgomery, to wait and
loaf upon Gorgas' movements, when General Bragg
expressed a wish that I might remain with him, I suggested
that my orders were so indefinite that I
Between twenty and thirty 10-inch Columbiads have been brought by railroad to Pensacola. The person describing them (while looking at our pieces of the same calibre) said that they were straight at the muzzle and were heavier and shorter behind the bunions, and that they were made at Richmond.
Immediately upon my arrival in Georgia, after the
State had seceded I was sent for by Governor Brown.
I found him fully alive to the situation. After an
interview, I was sent to Richmond and elsewhere, with
ample authority to provide war materials. At the
Tredeger Works, the only ones in the South then
capable of making heavy guns, I found that there were
no drawings of modern guns. I had been on special
detail with reference to that branch of service, and was
the only officer in the South at that time, or at any time,
with the exception of General Huger, who was at all
familiar with that subject. My friend and class mate
McPherson had been on a special detail to ascertain
the effects of modern ordnance on
Official Records, War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. 6, p. 443.
The Rodman gun, for the manufacture of which I
had been serving on special detail, was the accepted
pattern. I had found that its outside dimensions,
consisting of scientific curved surfaces, could be made
as parts of spheres (the breech), a cylinder, and two
cones and still be within the limits allowed to the
Inspector, so finding no drawing or models at the
Tredeger Works, I sketched out a good serviceable
gun of easy construction and great strength, and
ordered Mr. Anderson to manufacture them as fast as
possible, only limiting him to making at the same time a
full compliment of shot and shell and the necessary
irons for the guncarriages, and to ship as fast as made,
by the Georgia and Tennessee Railroad. These guns
were diverted, by Leroy Pope Walker, Secretary of
War, to Mobile, Alabama, and it was these that were
seen en route, not for Pensacola, but Mobile, and the loss
of which to Georgia caused the easy fall of Fort
Pulaski.
The following is the practical results of the firing: With the Rifle Gun distance 2,060 yards, elevation 5 1-2, the firing was effective, beyond that range uncertain.
At the same time of my opening Flag-officer McKean, in the Niagara, and Captain Ellison in the Richmond, took position as near to Fort McRee as the depth of water would permit, but which, unfortunately, was not sufficiently deep to give full effect to their powerful batteries.
Should their ships again attempt to take position against McRee, they will be received by a masked battery of five heavy shell and three rifled guns, which will teach them a lesson. This battery was projected last spring, but abandoned after an examination of the coast survey charts. It seems that the depth of water has increased or the chart was wrong.
I was still Chief Engineer and Artillery when this last was
written. I never heard of that battery. The subject of rifle
guns had been one for frequent discussion. I opposed them
as being in the experimental stage and that we were not then
in a condition for experiments. That I was right, see Duryea's
report
Ibid, p. 471. Ibid, p. 782.
I ordered Captain Duryea, First Artillery, Commanding
Battery Scott, ably assisted as he was by Lieutenant Closson
of the same regiment, to direct fire of his powerful battery,
consisting of two 10-inch Columbiads, one 42-pounder rifled
gun, and two lo-inch seacoast mortars, to fire on Fort McRee
and the sand battery south of it. I at the same time ordered
the four 10-inch seacoast mortars in the ditch, commanded by
Lieutenant Langdon, and one 13-inch and one 12-inch seacoast
mortars, Battery Totten, commanded by Captain Blount,
and one 8-inch Columbiad and two 42-pounders in casement,
of Lieutenant Jackson's battery to fire on Fort McRee and
sand battery south of it, for the purpose of co-operating
with the Navy in endeavouring to take and destroy that important
Fort and its outworks, which guard the enemy's right flank
and the entrance to the harbor of Pensacola. The direct fire
of these guns was excellent, and, together with the
heavy firing from the United States Steamships Niagara and
Richmond, produced a marked impression on this stronghold of
the enemy, by silencing the guns of the fort and driving the
When the difficulties began there were but two ports in the South in which the forts had their armaments, viz., Charleston and Pensacola. In the case of Charleston, the South Carolina congressmen had seen to it that when money was appropriated for armament of its forts, that the forts got the armaments. At Pensacola, in 1858 or '57, Lieutenant Balch, of the Ordnance Corps, being a man of infinite detail, he went to work and completely fitted out all the forts.
When the principal object of my going to Pensacola
had been defeated by Mr. Davis' permit to Lieutenant
Worden of the U. S. Navy, and I determined to remain,
the first care was to examine all the surroundings, and
then discuss the subjects in detail with General Bragg.
With his consent I moved, one by one, all the Barbette
guns, but two, from the Forts, and distributed them
along the line of bluff and beach, in one and two gun
batteries, for several miles. I had recommended the
same to be done at Forts Jackson and St. Phillipi on the
river below New Orleans, and some of the guns,
diverted by the Secretary of War, were intended for
the same purpose on Tybee Island.
Ibid, 472.
On the 7th of October, 1861, General Bragg's
command was extended to cover Mobile, and shortly
afterwards I was sent to inspect the defences. On the
morning after my return, when I went to report, a dead
silence followed my entrance, implying that I was the
subject of conversation. Shortly after I went to
O'Bannon's camp: he hinted that there had been some
“Piney Woods Engineering” during my absence. I made
no reply, but that afternoon rode over south of McRee,
to find that two casement gun carriages and their guns
had been hauled out in the open and fitted up as a
battery. The men were by this time perfectly familiar
with the construction of sand batteries, but not with the
use of guns and gun carriages. With a Barbette
carriage you can get a wide field and long range, with
a casemate, a very limited field and less than half
range, reliance being upon richochet. The whole affair
was such an exhibition of stupidity as to prevent any
remarks by me. The Georgians who did this work with
Bragg's approval, were very proud of it and during the
bombardment fought it with great gallantry, for from its
nature they were very much exposed. But every shot
they fired was wasted, and did
When the bombardment commenced, I was in a small boat, half across the bay, on my way to Deer Point, where General Bragg had decided to put the Florida Regiment as an outpost, as he already had a Mississippi Regiment on the west towards Perdido Bay. How he was persuaded to establish these outposts I never knew; but from what I did know, they appear to have been to get away from the regular discipline of the army, and to have a high old time all around. However, I turned at once. Shortly after joining General Bragg, I ventured to suggest that Brown would hardly waste so much ammunition simply for practice, and I thought it probable it was to cover a landing at Perdido Bay which would effectually cut us off on all sides; further that we did not seem to be making much impression and that ammunition was very scarce. He decided to order our batteries only to fire occasionally, not oftener than once an hour, which made Brown no doubt think he was silencing our guns.
After a while he asked me why the above mentioned
battery was not firing at the fleet. I informed him that it had
instructions not to fire without special orders. He turned
sharply, and ordered me to go there at once. I knew the fleet
to be entirely out of effective range. So when I reached the
gun, the men were all there waiting, I dismounted and sat
down. After an hour or so an aide came to know why I was
not firing. I asked him to please give my compliments to
General
It was some time in the afternoon, when I observed them
swing round head on, and saw them move slowly up to a
new position. Having no other means, after they had taken
up their new position and commenced firing, I got the
distance by sight and sound. My first shot, afterwards so
reported, passed between masts, and the second one hulled
the ship so effectually as to disable her. When some of her
timbers floated ashore next day, my Georgians claimed them,
and Bragg endorsed their claim. The above official report of
Major Arnold is the first
On the receipt of your letter of the 6th. instant a short reply was made to the first point and a further one promised on the main subject.
Though very grateful to my wounded feelings, yours was not entirely satisfactory to me, nor to those on whose behalf I had presumed to complain. I now propose to controvert your positions knowing the danger I encounter.
Nothing, it seems, can be done for my neglected officers
under the legislation as it now exists. How does it happen
that so much has been done for others, their juniors, under
this same legislation? You acknowledge this in your letter.
Let me now appeal to you for an old brother soldier, who is
more aggrieved and with more cause than any of us. Brigadier-General
The result of all of your deliberations has not been to preserve the morale of this army. Soldiers who have confidence in and respect for their commanders are never demoralized by seeing them advanced in their rank or command or by seeing their sphere of usefulness increased nor will you encourage the zeal of those commanders by making known to them that success in their ardous labors of organization and instruction is to consign them to inferior positions, as mere drill masters.
Feeling so deeply it-was due to myself, to you, and the President, that I should give free expression to my sentiments it is done in no spirit of insubordination. All that I have all that I am, shall remain in this cause whenever and wherever it may please the Government to employ me.
The intense bitterness of this letter does not come from any consideration of his staff: if you will follow his career to the end, you will find that those members of his staff who remained with him never received rank commensurate to the services rendered. Again, General Cooper, Adjutant General, informed me personally, that Bragg never made an application calling for the promotion of any member of his staff, that it was not accompanied by a private note saying, that the application was a public acknowledgement of the merits of its officers, but that he could not spare them. They in fact organized and disciplined his army, and each and all of them did all that an earnest zeal in their profession and the cause could urge them to do.
Again, he complains of the promotion of civilians and untried men to positions to which tried soldiers should be appointed, yet, very soon after this letter, you will find J. K. Jackson, of Georgia, Patton Anderson, of Florida and J. R. Chalmers, of Mississippi, appointed Brigadiers at his solicitation, and that too without much urging. He had begun to feel, that, maybe, a few political appointments might help his own advancement.
The bitterness of this letter is excusable and more than just. He had, from the beginning, been engaged in organizing an army of over seven thousand men, had been for months engaged upon this arduous duty when all at once Mansfield Lovell, formerly his subordinate in the U. S. Army, comes South, with the rank of Major General and is assigned to the command, of all others, which Bragg coveted and which, of right, should be his. Benjamin's letter of the 6th conveying the intelligence of his own promotion and extension of command, conveyed also in a general order the appointment of Mansfield Lovell to be a Major-General, and his assignment to the command at New Orleans.
Now, after seven months of delay, Mr. Davis has in command of his principal armies men whom he conscientiously believed to be the greatest soldiers of the age: Joseph E. Johnston, in Virginia, with G. W. Smith for his second in command, Albert Sidney Johnston in Kentucky, Mansfield Lovell at New Orleans and J. C. Pemberton at Charleston. Now, the heads of all his army bureaus, except that of quartermaster, which is still waiting for Emory - Bold Emory - in hopes that he may once more change his mind - he did resign in May, but suddenly withdrew his resignation - are all filled to his satisfaction. Bragg is still drillmaster at Pensacola, and Beauregard, who had blown Anderson out of Sumpter and rolled big McDowell back upon Washington, has been shelved in the center of Mississippi. But he, Beauregard, seeing the inevitable, is quietly organizing a small army and selecting his line of battle, ready to turn back the Federals at Shiloh.
During these seven months, the best material, as fine as the world ever saw, for soldiers have been moving eagerly to the front ready to engage the enemy, but are kept rotting in camps, without arms, equipments, supplies, and with the exception of a small number, without organization. Waiting these special heads!
In the meantime the Federals have not been idle. Scott's “Anaconda” has been getting into position: with its head at Cairo, its glistening eyes looking down the Mississippi River, its body stretching up the Ohio Valley, across West Virginia and Maryland, down the Atlantic Coast and around into the Gulf with its tail at Ship Island.
It was the last Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for the Confederacy. In a few months, McClellan is within seven miles of Richmond, with scarcely the loss of a man. Albert Sidney Johnston has abandoned Kentucky and Tennessee, and is endeavoring to assemble his scattered army about Beauregard's in Mississippi; and is soon to lose his life fighting on Beauregard's battlefield, with Beauregard's army, reinforced by his own and such other troops as could be hurriedly assembled. Roanoke Island, Port Royal and Fort Pulaski have fallen; New Orleans taken and Pensacola abandoned.
On my way to this point from Mobile on the first instant I was
privately advised by telegraph that firing was going on between our
batteries and Fort Pickens. I hastened as rapidly as possible, and
reached here at 4 a. m. the 2nd. It appears that a small private
steamer had been imprudently allowed to run to the Navy Yard,
and was fired on by the enemy at Fort Pickens. This fire was
returned by order of Brigadier-General Anderson, in temporary
command, and a brisk cannonade was kept up on both sides until
dark, when the enemy ceased. Ours was continued irregularly and
apparently without effect or an object until stopped by my order.
No
I regret exceedingly to add that concurrent testimony of many
officers of rank represent Brigadier-General Anderson as so much
intoxicated as to be entirely unfit for duty, and that his conduct
was very reprehensible. It is being investigated, and I fear that an
arrest and a prosecution will be necessary. Holding juniors to a
rigid accountability, I shall not overlook a similar offense in a
commanding General under such
Not the least cause of regret was the large and criminal waste of means so necessary for our defense and which we cannot replace.
I must again urge on the Department my request for a second in
command here who could be entrusted with this army during my
necessary absence. Mobile demands much of my time; indeed, the
state of affairs there is alarming, but I
The foregoing is a vile libel on a gallant officer and honorable gentleman, and it is an exceeding shame that it should be handed down to posterity without opportunity for correction in the records in which it is printed. General Bragg not only does not confine himself to the facts, but states what is absolutely false. First, that “This fire was returned by order of General Anderson.” It was New Years' day, and I was at General Anderson's private quarters, where he and his estimable wife were receiving New Year calls. There were several other officers present - all seated and chatting familiarly. First we heard a gun, evidently from Fort Pickens, and almost at once a roar of guns from all along the line. We all mounted as quickly as possible and made our way to the Navy Yard. General Anderson's gallant conduct in dismounting, getting upon the parapet and calling upon the officers of the battery to come up there with him and watch the effects of their shot, in order to regulate their firing with more accuracy, may have appeared to a new soldier an act of intoxication, rather than that of a commander who wished to instill confidence in his command.
Again, General Bragg says: “It appears that a small
private steamer had been imprudently allowed to run
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 6, p. 497.
After leaving Pensacola, I learned that General Bragg had preferred charges against General Anderson, and I at once wrote to Bragg, telling him what I knew of the case, and expressing my regret at his action. He replied, giving me to understand, that I had put a different phase on the case. At the same time I wrote to General Anderson, telling him, that I should be happy to appear as his witness whenever and wherever he might desire it.
Concerning that part of Bragg's report which says, “I must again urge on the Department my request for a second in command here who could be entrusted with his army in my necessary absence.”
Before reading this, I was not aware of any prejudice on the part of Bragg against Anderson, nor can I now understand it, and will show why I cannot.
* * * * * * * * *
IV. Brigadier-General Samuel Jones, Provisional Army, having reported for duty, is assigned to the command of the Army of Pensacola. The regret of the Major-General at yielding the immediate command of this army, which he has exercised with so much pleasure and pride, is lessened by a knowledge that he devolves it on a tried veteran, every way worthy of confidence.
* * * * * * * * *
From General Jones' high character as an officer and his experience as an artillerist there is every reason to hope for entire success in his new command.
* * * * * * * * *
Sam Jones graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in
1841. In 1846 he was detailed as an instructor at West
Point; and from that day until the breaking out of the war, I
never heard of him doing one hour's duty with his company.
In January, 1860, I met him
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 6, p. 816.Ibid, p. 820.
Now Richard H. Anderson's record reads as follows: Graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1842. Breveted for services in the Mexican war: and I cannot find that he was ever absent from his troops.
The cotton speculation on the Mississippi River has been carried
on for the last ten or twelve months on a very extensive scale, under
the pretense of obtaining clothing for the army, which has had, and is
still having, a very demoralizing
I am directed by the commanding general to inform you that he places under your control all operations in cotton through the enemy's lines. All proposals or contracts for the introduction of supplies and the purchase of cotton will be submitted to you. Major Buckner has been directed to report to you for duty in connection with this matter. Captain Polk will be instructed to report to Major Buckner, who can control his operations in the District of Arkansas.
Comments do not appear necessary.