CHAPTER XII.
OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE.
July 1-November 19, 1861.
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CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE.

{p.362}

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 88.*}

ADJ’T. AND INSP. GEN.’S OFFICE, Richmond, July 4, 1861.

...

6. The country embracing that portion of Alabama north of the Tennessee River, beginning at Waterloo and running thence east with the river to Decatur, as well as the portion of the State lying north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad from Decatur to Stevenson, together with that portion of Tennessee west and south of the Tennessee River; the river counties of Arkansas and Mississippi, including Corinth, Mississippi, and the country adjacent thereto, and extending to Eastport on the Tennessee River; the river parishes of Louisiana north of Red River, and that portion of Arkansas, besides the river counties above mentioned, lying north and east of White and Black Rivers, will hereafter constitute Department No. 2, to be commanded by Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk; headquarters at Memphis, Tenn.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, July 5, 1861.

Maj. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK, Commanding Military Department No. 2, Memphis, Tenn.:

GENERAL: In transmitting the inclosed copy of a communication to the governor of Tennessee, I am instructed by the President to desire {p.363} that you will correspond with his excellency, and arrange with him the time for receiving the provisional forces of Tennessee into the service of the Confederate States in the manner indicated to him in the inclosed letter, and that you will detail from your command the officers necessary for that purpose.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

[Inclosure.]

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, July 5, 1861.

His Excellency ISHAM G. HARRIS, Governor of Tennessee, Nashville:

SIR: Your letter of the 24th ultimo,* covering an authentic copy of proclamation declaring the independence of Tennessee, &c., has been received by the President.

In respect to the steps necessary to consummate the transfer of the Provisional Army of Tennessee to the Confederate States, mentioned in your communication, I am instructed to inform you that in order to accomplish this object it will be necessary to transfer to officers of the Confederate States service, who will be designated to receive them, the muster rolls of the several companies, battalions, or regiments, as the case may be. These muster rolls of the troops shall be made at their several camps and stations, the Confederate officers verifying, and this will form the basis for future musters.

Major-General Polk, who has been assigned to the command of the military department embracing part of the State of Tennessee, will be instructed to detail the proper officers for the muster of the provisional forces of Tennessee in the manner above indicated, and for receiving the same into the service of the Confederate States.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

* Not found.

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MEMPHIS, July 5, 1861.

Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES:

SIR: The undersigned have learned with deep regret, in an unofficial manner, that the forces and military command of this portion of the Confederate States has been tendered by the Government to another than Major-General Pillow. We do not desire to reflect upon the discretion exercised by the Government in placing a distinguished citizen of Louisiana in command of the valley of the Mississippi, but we cannot hesitate to express the satisfaction that it would have afforded the citizens and Army of Tennessee that this command should have been given to their own distinguished fellow-citizen Major-General Pillow. His indomitable energy, his sleepless vigilance, his masterly ability, as displayed before our eyes since he took command of our army, has won for him the esteem of all, and we think fairly entitles him to lead the army which he has created. In a few weeks he has brought into the field a force of more than 20,000, armed and equipped, ready to meet the enemy. Taking command without ordnance, commissary, or quartermaster’s {p.364} stores, he is now fully prepared not only to resist but to make invasion. We feel that no eulogium that we could make would do justice to the services that he has rendered the cause, but we simply and respectfully to suggest to the Secretary of War, and through him to the President, that the appointment of Major-General Pillow to the command of the active force on the banks of the Mississippi would be but an act of justice to him, and would give the greatest satisfaction to the force thus placed under his command.

WILLIAM T. BROWN. SMITH P. BANKHEAD. P. SMITH. M. C. GALLAWAY. JNO. D. MARTIN. BENJ. S. DILL.

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MEMPHIS, July 5, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, President, &c.:

SIR: I am presuming upon a slight acquaintance I had the honor of forming with you in this city several years since (and which it can hardly be supposed you can possibly recall in the midst of the constant labors and important events with which you have since been occupied), when I trouble you with but a word in reference to Major-General Pillow, now in command at this point. Since he assumed his command he has been by no means free from criticism. Probably no man ever is under such circumstances. It is every day’s experience that those who “never set squadron in the field,” and are utterly ignorant of all military matters, feel themselves qualified to pass judgment upon the plans of the most experienced commanders. Possessing no military education or experience myself, it would be presumptuous in me to express an opinion, except upon such matters as may fairly come within the scope of the observation and judgment of all. And here I beg leave to say that since he has been in command here he has manifested a degree of energy and activity in organizing our State forces and in collecting the materials of war that has challenged the public approbation and called forth no slight expressions of praise. Hence I believe that the wish is pretty general that, having labored so energetically in the details of organization, he may be called into such more active service of the Confederacy as may be commensurate with his position and rank.

With highest respect, your obedient servant,

DAVID M. CURRIN.

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RICHMOND, July 6, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War, C. S. A.:

SIR: I regard the peril of civil war in East Tennessee as imminent. Things are growing worse daily. An express arrived at Knoxville on the 1st day of July from Cumberland Gap, bringing intelligence that one Dr. Scriven, who left Knoxville some weeks ago, arrived at Barboursville, 33 miles from Cumberland Gap, in charge of a considerable lot of arms for the Union men of East Tennessee. Mr. Brownlow, in his paper, says civil war is inevitable, and that the Union men have 10,000 men under drill and armed with rifles and shot-guns. Mr. Thomas A. R. Nelson made a speech, I am informed by a gentleman {p.365} now here, on Monday last, at the circuit court in Carter County, in which he incited the crowd to resist the action of the State, and promised assistance to the Union men of the Lincoln Government. The New York Times, in a lengthy article, says that East Tennessee is a vital point to the Lincoln government; urges the Union men to seize Knoxville and hold it till Lincoln can give aid. The Louisville Courier states that large quantities of arms are passing through Kentucky for East Tennessee. My opinion is (and I canvassed East Tennessee in favor of separation and union with the Confederate States previously to the election) that there are organized now of Union men, as they call themselves, at least ten regiments, which, if in anywise assured of aid from Lincoln and Johnson, would rise and rush into rebellion. What shall then be done?

I feel, I assure you, great delicacy in suggesting to a Government that has my fullest confidence. I can only give my opinion as one who has been raised and has lived in East Tennessee all my life.

1. A small, inadequate force is as bad or worse than none, because while it irritates, it invites aggression.

2. The question as to whether the presence of a force will irritate and incite to rebellion ceases to be a practical question, because the irritation grows worse without it and independent of it.

3. The presence of six regiments properly distributed will quiet the passions of the rebellious and secure the peace in spite of Thomas A. R. Nelson, William G. Brownlow, Conly F. Trigg, and William B. Carter, who are the leaders of the Union men. Moral power can no longer be relied on to crush the rebellion. No man possesses that power. Bell had more than any other man, but he is as helpless as a child. Maj. Gen. S. R. Anderson, or some gentleman equally calm, brave, and judicious, and six or eight regiments, properly stationed, armed, and equipped, will, I think, secure the peace without any violence.

4. I am looking every moment also to hear that the bridges have been burned and the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad torn up. Nothing can save it but a sufficient guard. The Confederate States have no marshal in East, Middle, or West Tennessee to assist in keeping the peace. Ought they not to be appointed?

Pardon this piece of seeming discourtesy to you, sir, in making the foregoing suggestions; made more for the purpose of directing your attention in the midst of so many labors you find on your hands to what you and the President and Cabinet shall think best.

I would respectfully suggest, as a gentleman every way worthy and fit to be appointed marshal, if but one be appointed, General J. B. Clements, of Nashville, Tenn., for the State. He could then select such deputies in East and West Tennessee as might be necessary.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

LANDON C. HAYNES.

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NASHVILLE, July 9, 1861.

President DAVIS:

No time is to be lost in East Tennessee. I examined the case thoroughly. There are 2,060 men of various arms now there. I think at least 10,000 ought to be there and at once. Governor Brown, of Georgia, has 2,500 well armed and equipped, at Marietta, ready to move. Floyd, I hear, has 2,000. The rest might be sent from Corinth. I would strongly recommend making a department of East Tennessee and parts {p.366} of North Carolina and Georgia, and the appointment of General F. K. Zollicoffer, of the Tennessee Army, to its command, as a brigadier of the Provisional Army. Governor Harris concurs in this earnestly.

L. POLK.

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RICHMOND, July 9, 1861.

Gov. ISHAM G. HARRIS, Nashville, Tenn.:

The President directs me to request that you will order two Tennessee regiments either to Jonesborough or Haynesville, in East Tennessee, as soon as possible.

L. P. WALKER.

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RICHMOND, July 11, 1861.

Gov. ISHAM G. HARRIS, Nashville, Tenn.:

I have not heard from you in reply about sending two regiments in East Tennessee, nor whether you will send any here. If possible, I hope you will do so, as they are needed absolutely.

L. P. WALKER.

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NASHVILLE, July 11, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

Your telegram of the 9th received to-day. I send two regiments East to-morrow.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

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MEESVILLE, BRADLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, July 11, 1861.

President DAVIS:

SIR: When I had the honor of an interview with you at Richmond last week I endeavored, together with other gentlemen from East Tennessee then accompanying me, to impress you with the absolute necessity existing in this division of our State for prompt and effective action to repress a most fearful rebellion against both the authorities of the State and the Confederate States. I returned a day or two since to Knoxville, and came thence to this place in a southern border county of East Tennessee to meet my family.

The startling state of the public mind in this county, lying as it does upon the Georgia boundary, impels me to again importune your early attention in some effective manner to this section of the South. It is fortunate that we are not now left to conjecture the purposes of the Union men in East Tennessee who are in arms, or the probable number of them in this county. On Sunday, July 7, an alarm was given that a troop of secessionists had entered the county to disarm the Union men. By some means unknown to our friends here, in twelve hours near 1,000 Union men were in arms at different rendezvous, and disclosed a most complete organization, secret hitherto in its character and numbers. The alarm proving to proceed from a mere jest, the party immediately dissolved, only to hold themselves in readiness, at like short notice, to rally again with their rifles and shot-guns and with such ammunition as they have.

I must assure you that from the Georgia line to Cumberland Gap a {p.367} like feeling to that here developed exists, and not the slightest obstacle could be interposed by the Southern men, so overwhelmed are they by numbers, to the movement of Lincoln’s troops, should they enter our territory in the direction of Georgia; neither can we unaided strike a single blow with any effect to suppress an outbreak, which may any day occur here.

If it be true, as we understand, that a large majority of the people of Eastern Kentucky are like to our East Tennessee people, then may an army move from the Ohio River to the Georgia line (north) without the slightest impediment from our present defenses.

Can you not take action to avert disaster now so threatening, not only to the true men in East Tennessee, but so demoralizing to the great movement of the South? No moral influence of any kind whatever will do it; physical power, when exhibited in force sufficient, may, and I believe will, prevent it.

Very respectfully,

WILLIAM G. SWAN, Knoxville, Tenn.

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MEMPHIS, July 11, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

I am turning out 60,000 to 70,000 cartridges per day. Can I order from Wytheville (Va.) mines. The agent writes me that they are making four tons per day, but will not supply me without an order from you. None can be had elsewhere. I have a supply for a week on hand, and must stop unless I can procure lead.

WM. RICHARDSON HUNT, Captain of Ordnance for Tennessee.

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RICHMOND, VA., July 12, 1861.

WILLIAM RICHARDSON HUNT, Captain of Ordnance, Memphis, Tenn.:

If the cartridges you manufacture are held subject to the order of this Government, you can have the supply of lead.

L. P. WALKER.

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CAMP BOONE, NEAR CLARKSVILLE, July 12, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

Our movements have thoroughly aroused a military spirit in Kentucky. Numerous applications made daily to receive companies composed of best in the State. Shall I receive and have them mustered? If so, to what extent? I was under obligation to receive about twenty-six companies. I have received, under your instructions, twenty companies, and the other companies are clamorous to be received. Shall I carry out engagement made previous to receipt of your dispatch of the 18th ultimo, and form a third regiment? I would advise by all means to receive all Kentucky troops that offer, as we not only get good men, but ultimately secure Kentucky to the South. Please answer immediately by telegraph.

WM. T. WITHERS, General.

{p.368}

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RICHMOND, VA., July 13, 1861.

WILLIAM T. WITHERS, Clarksville, Tenn.:

No more companies can be received.

L. P. WALKER.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No, I.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Memphis, Tenn., July 13, 1861.

Having been assigned to the charge of the defense of that part of the valley of the Mississippi which is embraced within the boundaries of Department No. 2, I hereby assume command. All officers on duty within the limits of said department will report accordingly. In assuming this very grave responsibility, the general in command is constrained to declare his deep and long-settled conviction that the war in which we are engaged is one not warranted by reason or any necessity, political or social, of our existing condition, but that it is indefensible and of unparalleled atrocity. We have protested, and do protest, that all we desire is to be let alone, to repose in quietness under our own vine and under our own fig tree. We have sought and only seek the undisturbed enjoyment of the inherent and indefeasible right of self-government, a right which freemen can never relinquish, and which none but tyrants could ever seek to wrest from us. Those with whom we have been lately associated in the bonds of a pretended fraternal regard have wished and endeavored to deprive us of this, our great birthright as American freemen. Nor is this all. They have sought to deprive us of this inestimable right by a merciless war, which can attain no other possible end than the ruin of fortunes and the destruction of lives; for the subjugation of Christian freemen is out of the question. A war which has thus no motive except lust or hate, and no object except ruin and devastation, under the shallow pretense of the restoration of the Union, is surely a war against heaven, as well as a war against earth. Of all the absurdities ever enacted, of all the hypocrisies ever practiced, an attempt to restore a union of minds, hearts, and wills like that which once existed in North America, by the ravages of fire and sword, are assuredly among the most prodigious. As sure as there is a righteous Ruler of the universe, such a war must end in disaster to those by whom it was inaugurated, and by whom it is mow prosecuted with the circumstances of barbarity which, it was fondly believed, would never more disgrace the annals of a civilized people.

Numbers may be against us, but the battle is not always to the strong. Justice will triumph; and an earnest of this triumph is already beheld in the mighty uprising of the whole Southern heart. Almost as one man this great section comes to the rescue, resolved to perish rather than yield to the oppressor, who, in the name of freedom, yet under the prime inspiration of an infidel horde, seeks to reduce eight millions of freemen to abject bondage and subjugation. All ages and conditions are united in one grand and holy purpose of rolling back the desolating tide of invasion, and of restoring to the people of the South that peace, independence, and right of self-government to which they are by nature and nature’s God as justly entitled as those who seek thus ruthlessly to enslave them.

The general in command, having the strongest confidence in the intelligence and firmness of purpose of those belonging to his department, enjoins upon them the maintenance of a calm, patient, persistent, and undaunted determination to resist the invasion at all hazards and to the {p.369} last extremity. It comes bringing with it a contempt for constitutional liberty and the withering influence of the infidelity of New England and Germany combined. Its success would deprive us of a future. The best men among our invaders opposed the course they are pursuing at the first, but they have been overborne or swept into the wake of the prevailing current, and now, under the promptings of their fears or the delusion of some idolatrous reverence supposed to be due to a favorite symbol, are as active as any in instigating this unnatural, unchristian, and cruel war. Our protest, which we here solemnly repeat in the face of the civilized world, has been hitherto unheeded, and we are left alone, under God, to the resources of our own minds and our own hearts, to the resources of manhood. Upon them, knowing, as he does, those whom he addresses, as well as those with whom you are co-operating throughout the South, the general in command feels he may rely with unwavering confidence. Let every man, then, throughout the land arm himself in the most effective manner, and hold himself in readiness to support the combined resistance. A cause which has for its object nothing less than the security of civil liberty and the preservation of the purity of religious truth, is the cause of Heaven, and may well challenge the homage and service of the patriot and Christian. In God is our trust.

L. POLK, Major-General, P. A. C. S., Commanding.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, July 18, 1861.

His Excellency ISHAM G. HARRIS, Nashville, Tenn.:

SIR: I would respectfully ask your attention to the accompanying extract from a letter written by Mr. Yerger, of Corinth, Miss., dated July 9, and communicated to the President by Mr. W. P. Harris, of Jackson, Miss., and subsequently referred to this Department. In inviting your attention immediately to the suggestions it contains, I would remark that from the apparent indications in that section, as well as from the concurrent testimony of other writers, additional troops, in my opinion, should be sent forward without delay. If the guns at Chattanooga are not being manufactured for us, they ought to be secured at once, and a reconnaissance of the points described ought to be ordered.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

[Inclosure.]

“Availing myself of the privilege you were kind enough to accord me, I will now venture to make some suggestions for your consideration. Being delayed in my passage through East Tennessee, I found a much more hostile and embittered feeling among that people towards the Confederate Government than I supposed to exist. I found the emissaries of the Lincoln Government active and constantly engaged in exciting hatred and animosity towards our Government. I believe the people only await the occasion to rise in revolt against the Confederate Government. Numerous instances of active organization came to my knowledge. I do not think there is an adequate Confederate force in that region to maintain us securely. At Chattanooga is a foundery engaged in casting cannon, which could easily be seized by the people and converted {p.370} to that use for themselves. I found two 6-pounders and one 12-pounder nearly complete-for where intended I did not learn. I will call your attention to three points on the line of the railroad that, if occupied by a hostile force of 3,000 men with one or two batteries of flying artillery, could easily and successfully cut off all communication between Virginia and the Southern States it seems to me. The first point to which I will call your attention is at the foot of Lookout Mountain, where the railroad passes between the mountain and Tennessee River. At this point an inconsiderable force, with a small battery, could successfully resist the advance of a very large force. So at the second point above Chattanooga, at a tunnel which passes through a spur of the mountain, a small battery could effectually prevent the advance of the cars with any number of troops; and, lastly, at a defile beyond Loudon, near the Tennessee River, a small force could prevent all transports of men and munitions. These points all lie in the most disaffected region, and, in my opinion, if not occupied by Confederate forces in less than a month, will be by hostile men. I think that at least a reconnaissance should be made of the locality. All this may have been called to your attention, or may, in point of fact, be of no value. If so, set down and excuse the error because of my zeal and desire to protect the service from injury. I feel that my thus addressing you might seem presumptuous in one so unused to military affairs; yet I assure you a most earnest desire to be of service prompts me. The conviction that more is necessary to protect us from the outbreak of the disaffected in East Tennessee than is generally supposed induces me to call your attention to these facts. I think at least 2,500 or 3,000 troops should be properly stationed at these points in this district of country to keep our way open. The twelve-months’ men of Mississippi now at this point could be much better employed there than here, and if it should become necessary to disarm those people of the weapons they have, could effectually and successfully accomplish it if under the command of some discreet commander. If this point is kept quiet by the presence of an imposing military force, there will be no other part of East Tennessee that will be able to give any considerable trouble.”

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NASHVILLE, July 18, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

General Anderson left this evening for Haynesville, East Tennessee, where he awaits your orders. He will have with him two regiments of infantry, one ranger company, all well armed. One other regiment is at Knoxville, ordered from Middle Tennessee.

By command:

W. C. WHITTHORNE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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FRANKFORT, KY., July 19, 1861.

General WILLIAM T. WITHERS, near Clarksville, Tenn.:

DEAR SIR: Governor Magoffin has been advised that three boxes of guns, consigned to a Home Guard company at Elkton, Ky., have by some means found their way into your possession. He desires me to request that you will have those guns returned to Elkton as soon as you can {p.371} You can have them returned quietly, so as to avoid any unnecessary excitement about the matter.

Trusting and believing that you will at once comply with this request,

I am, very respectfully, yours,

THO. B. MONROE, JR., Secretary of State.

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MEMPHIS, July 20, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War:

SIR: On receipt of my instructions on the subject of the transfer of the Tennessee troops I opened a correspondence with Governor Harris, asking when he would be ready to make the transfer. He informed me he must have some further correspondence with the President before he was prepared to act. Since then I have heard he will be in the city on Monday next for the purpose of consummating the transfer.

In regard to the positions of the officers of Tennessee Army now commanding, I beg leave to suggest that I think better use could be made of General Pillow as a major-general than as a brigadier, and I think the interests of the service would be greatly promoted by the appointment of General Cheatham to the office of brigadier-general.

In regard to the staff, I beg leave to say that I have examined carefully the organization of the medical department and the manner in which it was constituted. It is agreed on all hands as the best arranged and appointed part of their army. The selections have been made with great care by a medical board, composed of the most eminent surgeons in the State, after examination, and a large number of applicants rejected. Those who have been appointed have been taken from different parts of the State, many of them the family physicians of the men composing the regiments. I respectfully submit whether it would be practicable for the Department to do better than appoint them as they stand. All the regiments are provided with a surgeon and an assistant surgeon. Besides these, the State appointed a surgeon-general and two medical directors, all of whom are eminent surgeons, and might be appointed as medical directors to accompany and provide for the different parts of the Tennessee Army. I desire particularly that Dr. Joe C. Newnan, one of these three, be appointed medical director and purveyor of my department. He is a gentleman of large experience, of maturity of years and character, and well fitted for the duties of such an office. A young man has reported himself as a surgeon of the army to me-a Dr. Potts-who is quite too young to be intrusted with such a grave responsibility.

As to the other staff appointments of that army, the quartermasters and commissaries, I have reason to believe they might be in many cases much improved. If it should be desired by the Department, I could aid it in ascertaining who might be retained with advantage and who dropped.

We need at once an officer to act as post quartermaster at this place. As it will be the place from which supplies must be distributed not only to my own command, but that of General Hardee also, it is of the first importance that the person in that office should be a business man of the highest personal and commercial character. Such a man I have taken pains to find, and now recommend to you. It is Mr. D. A. Shepherd. He is well situated in business, and seeks no office. I have {p.372} sought him. He will take the office only for the sake of the cause. If agreeable to the Department, I should be glad to have that gentleman and Dr. Newnan appointed as early as may be.

In a department so large it is impossible for the duties of the quartermaster and commissary to be performed by the same individual. In the Tennessee Army these duties are separated, and the service of both departments is very efficiently done.

I remain, respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. POLK, Major-General, Commanding Second Department.

P. S.-The Tennessee Army when turned over will leave behind them a large amount of quartermaster, commissary, and medical stores. Would it not be well to have them all received by one Confederate official?

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[For Polk to Walker July 23, 1861, in reference to affairs in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee Vol. III, of this series, p. 612.]

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RICHMOND, July 23, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War:

SIR: I am requested by his excellency Isham G. Harris, governor, to ask at your hands full and specific instructions for the transfer of the Provisional Army of Tennessee to the Confederate States. The Tennessee troops and those of the Confederate States are not organized alike in all respects, and, consequently, in the transfer the organization of the former may be in some respects interfered with. The governor made such appointments in the general staff for the Tennessee Army (about 22,000 strong) as were deemed necessary for a force of that magnitude. These appointments embrace an adjutant-general, quartermaster-general, surgeon-general, inspector-general, and commissary-general, with suitable and proper number of assistants of each. In the transfer by regiments and battalions will those appointed be displaced or not? If displaced, the governor expresses the hope that, as an act of justice to the State and to the appointees, in supplying the force with necessary officers in this branch of the service, they be taken from Tennessee and from his appointees, if it can be done without prejudice to the service. If such shall be decided to be the general line of policy of the appointing power, it will give great satisfaction to the State.

In order to prevent confusion, and to relieve the governor from embarrassment and the officers of the general staff from uncertainty, please state the effect of the transfer and the general rule to be observed as to this branch of the service. A large quantity of stores were collected for the subsistence of the Provisional Army of Tennessee, and the same is now on hand. They have been paid for, and constitute part of the war expenditures of the State. The transfer of the army makes it necessary to determine what shall be done with these stores. If they are to be turned over with the army, it is respectfully suggested that arrangements should be made for that purpose. Be kind enough to furnish instructions on this point.

The governor desires that steps be taken to have the debt incurred by the State for war purposes settled and provided for by the Confederate States, in accordance with the league between the two powers. {p.373} I submit an aggregate of this debt, with the hope that measures will be instituted for its adjustment.

The extent of the force will make it necessary to appoint several generals in addition to those already appointed. It would be gratifying to the governor if in making the same the appointing power would select Generals Caswell, Sneed, and Foster, appointed by him as generals in the Tennessee forces. He would not make the request if he thought the service would suffer by it.

I am requested to invite your attention to the policy of establishing camps of instruction in East Tennessee. The healthfulness of the climate, cheapness of forage, and proximity to the field of operations all indicate this section of Tennessee as eminently appropriate for camps of instruction; in addition to which, the presence of an armed force will furnish a sense of security to our friends, and tend to suppress unlawful combinations and conspiracies against the Government.

Rifle regiments for twelve months, each man to provide his rifle, to be taken by the Government at value, and converted into Minie rifles, are being raised in Tennessee, and it is believed that several thousand troops of this description could be raised if desired by the Confederate Government. The State is able to convert these rifles at the rate of 300 per week into Minie rifles. The State is engaged in the manufacture of guns, sabers, powder, and caps, and if encouraged by some expression of approbation from the Confederate Government would, it is believed, press forward with greater energy.

Trusting that you will furnish an early reply to the matters and suggestions contained herein, I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,

G. GANTT.

[Inclosure.]

MILITARY AND FINANCIAL BOARD, Nashville, Tenn., July 18, 1861.

His Excellency Gov. ISHAM G. HARRIS:

SIR: The expenditures of this board to date are as follows:

Quartermaster-general’s department	$918,775 94
Commissary-general’s department	522,456 03
Paymaster-generals department	399,600 00
Medical department	8,500 00
Ordnance department	362 045 91
Contingencies-special services, expenses of board, &c	12,513 03
	2,223,890 91

Very respectfully,

F. G. ROCHE, Secretary.

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HEADQUARTERS KENTUCKY BRIGADE, Camp Boone, July 24, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War:

SIR: Inclosed please find a letter from Brigadier-General Cheatham, of the Army of Tennessee, relative to small-arms and a field battery of six pieces that have been brought to his camp by a body of Kentuckians. I have declined to receive the arms, informing General Cheatham that I would refer the matter to you. He will doubtless hold them until I can hear from you.

Some ten days since forty-four altered rifles were brought from Kentucky to the vicinity of our camp by parties unknown to me and who were {p.374} not connected with this brigade. These guns are in a building in the vicinity of our encampment, and the governor of Kentucky has written requesting me to send them to Kentucky. As I had nothing to do with bringing them to Tennessee, and the parties who brought them stated to Colonel Hawes that they were part of the guns sent by Lincoln to the Union men of Kentucky, I will await your instructions before taking any action on the matter. If any of the men composing this brigade were to bring arms from Kentucky belonging to that State I should return them promptly. This, however, presents a different case, and I will await your instructions.

Very respectfully, yours,

WM. T. WITHERS.

[Inclosure.]

MEMPHIS, TENN, July 21, 1861.

General WITHERS, Camp Boone:

SIR: I have this moment learned front a messenger who has just arrived from my camp at Union City that a party of Kentuckians yesterday brought to my camp from Mayfield a large lot of muskets and a field battery of artillery. I presume they are a portion of the State arms that were at Mayfield, Ky. I write this to let you know that they are subject to your order as Kentuckians. I expect that in retaining then you of course get the consent of Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky.

B. F. CHEATHAM, Brigadier-General, Commanding.

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HEADQUARTERS KENTUCKY BRIGADE, Camp Boone, July 25, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War:

SIR: If you should determine to call for more troops, I trust that you will bear in mind the fact that some fifty companies from Kentucky have applied to me to be received into the service of the Confederate States, and at least 10,000 can be enlisted in forty to sixty days, to serve during the war.

Many companies of cavalry have tendered their services, who propose to arm themselves with shot-guns and revolvers. If you desire to receive either infantry or cavalry companies, advise me by telegraph, and your instructions will be promptly carried out.

We can always command the services of men who reside in the Confederate States, and it seems to me that it would be good policy to take the Kentuckians while we can get them.

I can buy, if authorized, with Confederate bonds, an ample supply of breadstuffs for an army of 10,000 men in the counties of Southern Kentucky that are contiguous to our encampment.

Yours, very respectfully,

WM. T. WITHERS.

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RICHMOND, July 26, 1861.

Brig. Gen. F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Nashville, Tenn.:

The President directs that you repair to East Tennessee, and assume command of that district. Preserve peace, protect the railroad, and repel invasion.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

{p.375}

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NASHVILLE, July 26, 1861, (via CHATTANOOGA, 27th.)

General S. COOPER:

Your order received. Will go to Knoxville to-morrow.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, July 26, 1861.

G. GANTT, Esq., Richmond, VA.:

SIR: Your letter of July 23, written on behalf of the governor of Tennessee, has been received.

With regard to the question of the transfer of the Provisional Army of Tennessee to the Confederate States, that transfer must take place in the manner prescribed by law, and the army so transferred becomes at once in every respect subject to the organization and regulations of the Confederate Army. The simple act of transfer of the army may be effected by the mere inspection of the muster rolls, and by the transfer of the same under the proper officers. So far as possible, it would be the policy of this Department to retain such officers in commission as had been appointed under the State organization, but such officers as are not recognized under the army organization of the Confederate States must, of course, cease to exist. Such are those to which you refer-adjutant-general, quartermaster-general, surgeon-general, inspector-general, and commissary-general, with their assistants. These appointees must, therefore, necessarily be displaced by the-transfer; but in making such corresponding appointments as may under the new organization be necessary, this Department will be happy to consider in each case the claims of the gentlemen previously appointed, it being the policy of the Department to consult in every case, so far as possible, the interests and the wishes of the State in question. Governor Harris has already been requested, in a letter from the President, to present his recommendations for these appointments.

In the transfer by regiments the field officers of the regiments must be already elected. In the transfer by companies or by battalions, to be afterward organized into regiments, the appointment of field officers is reserved to the President.

The army stores referred to in your letter, which have been collected and paid for by the State of Tennessee, will be included in the transfer. They will be receipted for by the proper departments, and this Government will become responsible for their purchase and for all the expenses properly incidental.

The debt incurred by the State of Tennessee for war purposes will be assumed by the Government of the Confederate States according to the terms agreed upon, but it is not in the power of this Department at present to enter fully into arrangements for that object. The account inclosed in your letter will be referred to the proper authority, and will receive due attention.

With reference to the future appointment of brigadier-generals, Governor Harris has been already assured, in the letter from the President previously referred to, that his recommendations and the public sentiment of the people of Tennessee shall be consulted in this particular so far as the interests of the public service may permit.

The suggestion of the governor with regard to the establishment of {p.376} camps of instruction in Tennessee is approved. The location of such camps has been referred to the governor already, as will be seen by reference to the communication of June 30.

The Department is gratified to hear of the success of the efforts in Tennessee for the raising of rifle regiments. Too much energy cannot be devoted to the enlistment of troops and the procuring of arms. The Government would also gladly co-operate with any proper measures for the improvement of the arms, subject, of course, always to the direction and approval of the proper officers of this Government. The manufacture of the munitions of war, such as you refer to, within the State of Tennessee, is highly improved, and the Government would gladly encourage and promote such manufactures by every means within its power.

Very respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

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HEADQUARTERS KENTUCKY BRIGADE, Camp Boone, July 28, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War:

SIR: Yours of the 19th instant, in which you express a willingness to accept the additional Kentucky companies but for the inability of the Government to arm them, has been received. Since our glorious victories of the 18th and 21st I hope it will be in your power to arm them. The companies are still organized, and will be greatly disappointed if they cannot be received. If you find that you can arm them, please telegraph me at Clarksville, and I will, if instructed to do so, order them to our camp. I can provide everything for them except the arms. My word is out to receive the companies, or I would not again bring the matter to your attention.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

WM. T. WITHERS.

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COLUMBUS, KY., July 30, 1861.

Major-General POLK:

The guns at Cairo being removed to Bird’s Point; 7,000 men at Bird’s Point; 2,000 expected Sunday night last. Frémont at Cape Girardeau Sunday with 2,000 men. No communication with Cairo since Sunday night.

D. O’DIXON. [?]

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MEMPHIS, July 30, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

My column has made the landing at New Madrid safely. They will fortify it. Frémont is at Cairo. I have immediate need of an ordnance officer. The man I want is here-Lieut. Moses H. Wright, late of the U. S. Army. Will you give him a first lieutenant’s commission, and order him to report to me? I have detailed Major De Russy as my chief of engineers. Captain Galt, having been relieved from my quartermaster’s staff makes another appointment immediately necessary. I submitted to you in a letter the name of Mr. D. A. Shepherd. Will you make him a major or captain? We transfer Tennessee proceeds to-day.

L. POLK.

{p.377}

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BRISTOL, July 31, 1861.

S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:

I am here to comprehend facts. Under great confusion of orders from Nashville. The regiments of Fulton, Maney, Forbes, Battle, Newman, and a West Tennessee regiment were ordered to Virginia service; Savage’s, Fulton’s, and Rains’ to East Tennessee. General Anderson went to Lynchburg, and ordered on Fulton and Savage from Richmond. They were ordered back here, but now I learn they are ordered to Virginia again. Newman and Battle were temporarily detained here for want of transportation, but propose going to Lynchburg to-morrow morning. Which regiments shall I assume command of for East Tennessee service?

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, July 31, 1861.

Brig. Gen. F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Commanding, &c., Bristol, Tenn.:

SIR: I am instructed by the President to make you the following communication:

The great importance of the East Tennessee and Western Virginia road requires that it should be closely guarded wherever there is reason to apprehend its destruction. The movements of the enemy or the sending of arms into East Tennessee should be so closely watched by an adequate force as to render success impracticable. You will know so well the state of things in East Tennessee that nothing more can be said in that regard than to point to you the importance of preventing organization for resistance to the Government and of attracting by every possible means the people to support the Government, both State and Confederate. It may occur that civil process in case of treason may be resisted, in which event you will endeavor to be in position to give all needful support to the civil authorities. The President relies on you to give more accurate and exact information in relation to public affairs in East Tennessee than it has heretofore been possible to obtain, and you are invited to the fullest correspondence in all matters relating to your command.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, July 31, 1861.

General WILLIAM T. WITHERS, Clarksville, Tenn.:

SIR: In reply to your letter of 25th instant, I am directed by the Secretary of War to request that the questions of cavalry be referred to Major-General Polk. One additional regiment of infantry or ten companies may be received for the war.

Very respectfully,

A. T. BLEDSOE, Chief of Bureau of War.

{p.378}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, July 31, 1861.

General WILLIAM T. WITHERS, Camp Boone, near Clarksville, Tenn.:

SIR: In reply to yours of the 24th instant, relative to the arms brought into the Confederate camp, the Secretary of War directs me to say that the only question is, do they belong to the State of Kentucky? If they do, they should be returned; if not, they should be retained and used, preserving an inventory and valuation.

Respectfully,

A. T. BLEDSOE, Chief of Bureau of War.

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COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Frankfort, August -, 1861.

Hon. JEFFERSON DAVIS, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: Since the commencement of the present unhappy difficulties yet pending in the country, the people of Kentucky have indicated a steadfast desire and purpose to maintain a position of strict neutrality between the belligerent parties. They have already striven by their policy to avert from themselves the calamity of war and protect their own soil from the presence of contending armies. Up to this period they have enjoyed comparative tranquillity and entire domestic peace.

Recently a military force has been enlisted and quartered by the United States authorities within this State. I have on this day addressed a communication and dispatched commissioners to the President of the United States, urging the removal of these troops from the soil of Kentucky, and thus exerting myself to carry out the will of the people in the maintenance of a neutral position. The people of this State desire to be free from the presence of the soldiers of either belligerent, and to that end my efforts are now directed.

Although I have no reason to presume that the Government of the Confederate States contemplate or have ever purposed any violation of the neutral attitude thus assumed by Kentucky, there seems to be some uneasiness felt among the people of some portions of the State, occasioned by the collection of bodies of troops along their southern frontier. In order to quiet this apprehension, and to secure to the people their cherished object of peace, this communication is to represent these facts, and elicit an authoritative assurance that the Government of the Confederate States will continue to respect and observe the position indicated as assumed by Kentucky.*

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

B. MAGOFFIN.

* Answered August 28, p. 396.

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RICHMOND, August 1, 1861.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier General, &c.:

Retain at Bristol under your orders such of the Tennessee regiments now there or that may arrive there until further advised. You are assigned to the command of the District of East Tennessee.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

{p.379}

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COLUMBUS, KY., August 3, 1861.

Major-General POLK:

Eight steamboats with troops landed at Cairo yesterday. Their pickets were down opposite here last night.

J. P. GRAY.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nashville, August 3, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

SIR: It is a matter of importance, if not of absolute necessity, that the Kentucky regiments, under command of General Withers, at Camp Boone, on the Kentucky line, should be armed at the earliest moment practicable. That there will be an effort on the part of the Federal Government to arm the Union men of Tennessee I have no doubt. For this purpose companies and regiments of Union men are being organized in Kentucky, and every day our relations with the people of Kentucky are becoming more complicated and threatening, especially that part of Kentucky adjoining East Tennessee. I am relying upon the regiments at Camp Boone to guard a part of the line between the two States, but without arms of course they are useless. The transfer of the State army will be completed within a few days; in view of which fact, you must allow me to say that a strong force should be kept at the gaps on the State line in East Tennessee. I fear we will have to adopt a decided and energetic policy with the people of that section. I hope, however, to visit Richmond in a few days, and confer with you upon this and other questions of interest to the State and General Government.

Very respectfully,

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

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Memoranda for Lieut. Col. Thomas H. Taylor.

If possible, get rifles for both regiments. If you can’t get rifles, try for rifled muskets.

Urge Secretary of War and President to receive at least one more regiment of infantry from Kentucky. They ought, if possible, to take every man that offers, for we not only get good soldiers, but we get the sympathies of their relatives and friends. If the President will receive them, we can get a company from almost every county in the State. About fifty companies have already offered their services.

Try to get a regiment of cavalry accepted. Some ten companies of cavalry have offered, and will arm themselves and furnish horses, equipments, &c.

An army of 10,000 men can be provisioned with breadstuffs in this section. Much of it will be donated, and the balance can all be paid for in bonds. I have been assured that 50,000 to 70,000 bushels of wheat will be donated. Some 10,000 bushels have, I am advised, already been donated. Tell the President that we have camping here for 6,000 men, and tell him what kind of ground it is.

Advise them-that efforts are being made to raise and arm a brigade in Kentucky for Lincoln’s army, to operate in East Tennessee. One regiment is being organized close by our camp, and I am told have arms. I am having them closely watched, and recent advices lead me to think that they are making but little progress. I think the whole {p.380} project will prove a failure. If we had lost the day at Bull Run it would have been different.

Governor Harris has urged me to insist on the brigade being armed immediately. See him, and he will give you a letter to the Secretary of War.

WM. T. WITHERS.

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MEMPHIS, August 3, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

I am informed that three of the gunboats built at Cincinnati came over the falls at New Albany, where they were to complete their armament and drop down at once to Cairo. Seven steamboats loaded with troops left Saint Louis yesterday for Bird’s Point and Cairo. Frémont is concentrating a force at Cairo and Cape Girardeau. My force greatly needs strengthening. Will you not order Russell’s and the other Mississippi regiments and any other forces at your command in the States of Alabama or Mississippi or Louisiana that are disposable to report to me without delay? Russell’s have not yet moved. Will you please reply to my application for a quartermaster? I have none, and Captain Stockton has been detailed as my inspector-general, and I have detailed Major De Russy to act in his place as chief of engineers. The latter is not available, therefore, as quartermaster. I have nominated Mr. D. A. Shepherd as quartermaster, with the rank of major. Mr. S. is the best man I can procure for that office. I propose, also, to have transferred to the Confederate service the Ordnance Corps of Tennessee. As it stands it is very efficiently organized, and we want it all for supplying any order and the neighboring commands. I wish Capt. Moses H. Wright, late of the U. S. Ordnance Corps, to be my chief, if possible. I should like their appointments immediately. I have again to urge on the Department to send me more troops.

L. POLK.

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UNION CITY, August 5, 1861.

General POLK:

Mississippi force have about 1,500 effective men. More than half the Tennessee troops said to be absent and many sick. I will send definite report when obtained. The South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana troops were to start for Union City to-day. I have ordered them to Memphis from Corinth.

CHAS. CLARK, Brigadier-General.

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HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Memphis, Tenn., August 5, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

I am mustering in the Tennessee troops. What shall we do for staff officers? We want surgeons, quartermasters, and commissaries. We also want engineers. Shall we take that corps as it stands, or will you allow me to name such of them as have the reputation of special efficiency?

I send you a communication from the colonel of the corps, which will put you in possession of the number and employment of the officers.

{p.381}

I telegraphed you in regard to the Ordnance Corps, and asked that as I had detailed Lieut. M. I. White, the only officer of that corps I had, to accompany General Pillow’s column, I also asked that I might have the Ordnance Corps of Tennessee, which was very efficient, turned over to the Confederate Army. Those I wanted were Capt. Moses H. Wright, Capt. W. Richardson Hunt, Lieut. George Graden, and I need them all. Captain Wright is an officer of the old Army, and very efficient.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

L. POLK, Major-General, Commanding Second Department.

P. S.-I beg leave to add that I am greatly in need of the requisition made [by] the ordnance officer, White.

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MEMPHIS, August 6, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

I have reason to believe the enemy is concentrating troops at Bird’s Point and Cairo, with the aim of making a movement down the river. I have been disappointed in getting the troops promised from Arkansas. I have telegraphed for Russell’s regiment of Mississippi and any other regiments within my reach, and have had no reply. From whence am I to obtain additional force as it shall be needed to co-operate with McCulloch and Hardee in Missouri, which is indispensable to their success, and at the same time defend the river? I must have more force. Please reply.

L. POLK.

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BLANDVILLE, August 6, 1861.

[General POLK:]

DEAR SIR: We are threatened with invasion by General Prentiss, as he said to two of our citizens Saturday afternoon that after the August election “Kentucky neutrality would go up,” and that he intended to send a military escort with Mr. Thomas Owens to Milburn to-day. He also said “that he should send reconnoitering parties into Kentucky to watch the enemy in Tennessee.” Further, he said he was “expecting orders to occupy Kentucky”; also that when his troops came into Kentucky the people should “change to Union men or keep their mouths shut.”

We shall try to defend ourselves against aggression upon our political and personal rights.

Communicate the above facts to such persons as ought to know them.

Yours, truly,

C. WICKLIFFE.

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BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Knoxville, August 6, 1861.

Adjt. Gen. S. COOPER, Richmond, Va.:

SIR: Thomas A. R. Nelson, with an escort of three men, supposed to be on his way to take his seat in the Federal Congress at Washington, was arrested about midnight night before last in Lee County, Virginia, by a company of Home Guards of that county. He was {p.382} brought to a camp under my command at Cumberland Gap, and was from there sent, under a guard of 60 men, to Abingdon, Va. These facts are to-day communicated to me by Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, of Cumberland Gap. The knowledge of the event has apparently produced much excitement among Nelson’s adherents here, giving rise to menacing language.

I have information from various sources, apparently reliable, that different bodies of men in the counties of Northeastern Kentucky, estimated to amount in the aggregate to several thousand, are under military organization, and are threatening to force a passage through the mountains into East Tennessee. The Federalists here, I am now well advised, are awaiting such a movement. My impression is that a large number of Union men are opposed to it, but there are very many Lincoln men here who will be restrained from co-operating only by considerations of policy or apprehensions of the consequences. A very large amount of arms and ammunition has been placed by the Lincoln Government in Kentucky. Anderson (of Sumter memory) is by the Federalists here believed to be the leading military man. A Kentuckian named Nelson, late a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, by some said to be Anderson’s aide, by others said to be a newly-appointed general, having his headquarters at Cincinnati, is the most prominent man in getting up the threatened invasion of East Tennessee. My information goes to show that they contemplate a movement very soon, but I am not sufficiently advised of their state of preparation. It is becoming difficult to command reliable information, on account of the apprehension felt by spies in that region.

I send you a copy of the best map I am able to have made of the topography of country about the Kentucky line. It has been gathered from the best information I could get from scouts but think it may be imperfect. The centers of their military organizations seem to be Crab Orchard, London, Somerset, Barboursville, Albany, Columbia, and Boston. The principal gaps in the mountain are Cumberland, Big Creek, Elk, and the passes by Chitwood’s and Camp McGinnis, but the top of the mountain is comparatively flat and 30 or 40 miles broad, and there are innumerable bridle-path passes intervening between Cumberland Gap and Camp McGinnis. My purpose is to form a chain of infantry posts at Cumberland Gap, Big Creek Gap, Elk Gap, Camp McGinnis, and Livingston, for which I have 33 infantry companies, all but one regiment very raw troops. There are six cavalry companies, which I propose to use as scouts, advanced posts, and to pass intelligence rapidly along the line of infantry posts. I will have a constant patrol at Archer’s Gap, Chitwood’s, and at other advanced posts near the Kentucky lute, patrolling scouts of cavalry traversing the various paths leading across the mountains, the objects being to cut off communication between Kentucky and Tennessee Federalists, seize arms, or prevent them from being brought over, &c. Should there be an approach of Kentuckians in much force, I could soon concentrate upon the line of approach. I have a regiment here, one I am disposing at different bridges on the railroad, and sixteen other companies of infantry, the latter entirely undisciplined and some of them without arms. I hope in a few days to have a battalion of cavalry for service in connection with the road. There are three field pieces of artillery at Cumberland Gap, used as a fixed battery, with no experienced artillerists. Here there is a field artillery company with six 6-pounders, which might be taken to the Kentucky border when required.

I have great reason to fear that our friends in Kentucky are powerless {p.383} to resist the complete dominancy of the Lincoln forces. I have thus far obtained no knowledge of the state of things in Southwestern Virginia or on the Kanawha.

Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.

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RICHMOND, August 7, 1861.

General POLK, Memphis, Tenn.:

If Russell’s regiment is armed or you can arm it, you will command its services, of course. There are said to be two regiments in Louisiana ready for service. I have telegraphed Governor Moore to order them to you. If there be other available regiments known to you within the States embraced in your department, they are subject to your orders.

L. P. WALKER.

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RICHMOND, August 7, 1861.

General POLK, Memphis, Tenn.:

The ordnance stores of Tennessee you will, of course, receive and receipt for. As to the ordnance corps of Tennessee, I cannot answer without being first informed about the organization. Meantime, however, you can employ it in the service of the Government.

L. P. WALKER.

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HUMBOLDT, August 7, 1861.

Major-General POLK:

Operator at Columbus informs me no Federal troops there. He learns there are about 14,000 Federals at Cairo and Bird’s Point; 2,000 at Norfolk, 5 miles below Bird’s Point. No gunboats arrived there yet.

CHAS. E. TAYLOR.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, August 8, 1861.

Maj. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK, Hdqrs. Dep’t No. 2, Memphis:

SIR: Your letter of July 28,* by the hands of Colonel Little, has been received.

This Department is not insensible to the necessity of increasing, so far as practicable, the force under your command, in order to enter upon vigorous operations with as little embarrassment as possible, and every encouragement consistent with the general interest of the service will be given for the enlistment of troops for that purpose.

You are therefore authorized to accept for the war all infantry troops that are armed or that can be armed by you, and as much cavalry as in your opinion the service may require, regarding of course the number of cavalry already at your disposal, and accepting such as can be enlisted with the least unnecessary expense to the Government. By engaging the services of proper men also in the collection of arms you would be rendering certainly good service to the cause.

Lieutenant Hodge and Lieutenant Williamson, of Dreux’s battalion, {p.384} could not be detailed for the service you designate except under special necessity. The need of such services is admitted, and if you could indicate other selections not requiring such transfer the Department would gladly confer the appointments. Dr. Newnan, having been already assigned to General Anderson’s command, could not be properly transferred without General Anderson’s consent. Could you not designate some other appointments which would meet your wishes? The Department is inclined to be guided by your recommendations in all cases, but it is requested that you will designate all the appointments, medical and other, which you desire in one letter, devoting that letter entirely to this one subject. Otherwise, in consequence of the constant pressure on this Department and confusion of so many details, it is impossible that your recommendations can receive proper attention.

Very respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

* Referring principally to operations in Missouri. See Series I, Vol. III, p. 617.

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MEMPHIS, August 10, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER:

It is absolutely necessary to the success of our operations in the valley of the Mississippi that we have an ordnance corps organized immediately and in this department. I would respectfully ask for the appointment in that corps of the following officers, late of the same corps in Tennessee: Capt. Moses H. Wright, Capt. W. R. Hunt, Lieut. George Graden; these gentlemen to have the rank in the Provisional Army here attached to their names.

L. POLK.

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PARIS, August 11, 1861.

Major-General POLK:

DEAR SIR: I learn from Dr. Lackey that there were some conflicts between the orders issued by you and myself with regard to shipments on the Tennessee River.

I had some time since given orders to the commander at Fort Henry not to allow the shipment of cotton, cotton yarn, tobacco, wheat, sugar, coffee, rice, or any article contraband of war, north of the Tennessee line.

I have not ordered the seizure of property; have allowed owners to dispose of their property, do what they pleased with it, except to ship it north of our line; have not prohibited the running of boats; have only prohibited the character of shipments specified.

I am, however, not only willing, but wish to give up the entire military jurisdiction and command of the State to the military commanders of the Confederate States. Have urged the Government to appoint a commander for Middle Tennessee, and am perfectly willing to yield to you the command and control of the Tennessee River. Shall cheerfully co-operate with you in carrying out your policy if you see proper to take command of it, and notify me as to the policy adopted. You will allow me to suggest, however, that in no event should cotton, sugar, coffee, tobacco, or wheat be permitted to go north of the line. When it once passes beyond our jurisdiction, we cannot know where it goes or what use is made of it.

{p.385}

I return to Nashville to-night; shall be pleased to hear from you as to your policy on Tennessee River, and shall avoid any conflict of orders.

We have in Middle Tennessee some unattached cavalry and rifle companies. Captain Stockton refuses to muster them as unattached companies or to attach them to regiments and battalions which already have their fall number of companies. They are a part of the Provisional Army of Tennessee, and must be mustered the one war or the other. You will please order him by telegraph to muster them, and I would prefer being left to determine myself as to whether they be mustered as companies or attached to other organizations. Send dispatch to my care.

I shall proceed rapidly with organization of reserve corps. No power to order militia to drill oftener than specified by law unless I order them out for actual service. This would involve an expense quite unnecessary, as we could not make them useful for want of arms. I hope, however, to be able very soon to give you efficient aid with the reserve corps, which I shall arm as rapidly as it is possible to do so.

Very respectfully,

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

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ORDNANCE OFFICE AT MEMPHIS, August 12, 1861.

Major-General POLK:

SIR: If this war should unfortunately be prolonged, the valley of the Mississippi must ultimately become its great theater, for the enemy now working to subjugate the south knows the value of our great artery of commerce and of the prominent cities upon it too well for us to doubt that he will bend all his energies to control them. To prepare for such a defense as may be commensurate with the interests involved, we may have to invoke all the resources of this valley, and I feel satisfied that they are amply adequate to the emergency.

You now have in the section under your command, already finished and to be finished in the next 30 days, 75 field guns of various caliber, and I beg you will allow me to suggest and recommend that 50 batteries, of 6 guns each, be put into the field as early as possible.

To effect this, it will be best to send agents to Vicksburg, Jackson, New Orleans, Mobile, Montgomery, Huntsville, and Nashville, to make contracts for, say, 165 field pieces and howitzers. Sixty field pieces can be contracted for at this place, one battery to be finished per week. I would recommend that the batteries be composed of the following guns:

Two 6 pounder field pieces; two 12-pounder rifled Parrott guns; one 12-pounder howitzer; one 24-pounder howitzer; making a total of 74 6-pounder field pieces; 74 12-pounder Parrott guns, rifled; 37 12-pounder howitzers; 37 24-pounder howitzers.

For the moving of this artillery we shall require 2,500 sets of artillery harness; 225 gun carriages, and 225 caissons; 38 battery wagons, and 38 battery forges.

The cost will be, for-

225	field pieces, at $300 each	$135,060
225	gun carriages, at $400 each	90,000
225	caissons, at $375 each	84,375
2,500	sets of harness, at $50 per horse	125,000
37	battery wagons, at $400 each	14,800
37	battery forges, at $450 each	10,650
Tools, &c., for same		50,000
		515,825

[/TABLE] {p.386}

This estimate is based upon the number of pieces allowed per thousand men by the United States Government. Three hundred pieces would be the supply allowed for 100,000 men, two pieces per thousand men for battery purposes, and the third piece to be held in reserve, in case the pieces in battery should be disabled by any casualty. Should you fail to get the number of pieces contracted for, yet you could not fail to get a large supply of them, and the entire manufacturing enterprise of the country would be enlisted in the manufacture of cannon or of any and all kinds of ordnance, as they would have abundant machinery in readiness for turning its powers into any required channel.

The history of all wars of independence teaches us that the fires of patriotism burn more brightly at the outbreak than towards their close. Men in the outset of such a contest are more oblivious of personal discomfort, less selfish, than they become as the struggle progresses, and more willing to contribute in all ways the means of winning independence. Our Revolution of ’76 is an instance to illustrate this truth. The paper of the Government passed current at first, though rejected as worthless towards the close, yet that Government was surely better able to make good its contracts at the end of that struggle than at the beginning. May not such be the result in this contest, and does not wisdom point out the necessity of securing such war material as we can while our Government is in good credit?

For the 300 field pieces will be required the following kind and quantity of ammunition:

For 6-pounder guns.
6-pounder shot	14,800
Spherical-case shot	11,840
Canister stand	2,960
For Parrott rifled cannon.
Shot	14,800
Shell	14,800
For 12-pounder howitzer.
Shell	5,698
Spherical-case shot	7,585
Canister	1,517
For 24-pounder howitzer.
Shell	1,690
Spherical case	5,143
Canister	1,951

Costing, say, $100,000; making a total cost for the 225 field pieces and ammunition for one campaign, say, $640,000.

I would also respectfully recommend that contracts be made for 25,000 sword bayonets for Mississippi rifles and 10,000 for double-barreled shotguns. These bayonets complete will cost about $9 each, making a total cost of $315,000 for the 35,000. Bayonet and gun barrels for rifles ready forged out for rifling can be procured in any quantity at $3 each from Hillman Bro., on Tennessee River. The dies for locks and nipples are being made here and can be turned out in large quantities. A foundery and shop in this city can turn out gun stocks at the rate of 100 to 200 per day, and we can thus have a weapon equal in all respects to the Mississippi rifle, while it will not be so heavy.

Two machines for rifling cannon will be in operation here this week, and, if successful, they can turn out 6 pieces daily. Contracts may be {p.387} made at other points for casting and boring guns, while the-rifling could be done here whenever required.

The spirit animating the United States Congress and people, and the great preparations made for a war upon a grand theater, induce me to urge upon you the importance of a timely and efficient preparation on our part, and the plan for equipping ourselves I have now the honor to submit to your superior judgment.

Respectfully,

WM. RICHARDSON HUNT, Captain of Ordnance.

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RICHMOND, August 13, 1861.

General F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Knoxville, Tenn.:

General Polk has been ordered to send to Russellville, Tenn., the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Regiments of Mississippi Volunteers and to advise you of their departure, Col. W. B. Wood’s regiment Alabama volunteers, at Tuscumbia, has been ordered to the same place, with orders to telegraph you. Change at your discretion the point of rendezvous if Russellville is considered unadvisable.

S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General.

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MEMPHIS, August 13, 1861.

General SPARROW, Confederate Congress:

Will you have a bill passed authorizing generals in command, at their discretion, to appoint drill-masters, with the rank and pay of first lieutenants? The service is absolutely suffering for the want of such a law. We have a number of young men with military education we can employ in that way if we had the law. Your early attention is requested to this matter.

L. POLK.

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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF MISSISSIPPI, Jackson, August 13, 1861.

Maj. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK, C. S. A., Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: In answer to your dispatch of 12th instant, the State has three artillery companies, armed and equipped, which can be placed in service at short notice, also six cavalry companies, fully armed and equipped. Eight regiments of infantry are being formed (but few arms), and will [be sent] into camps for instruction shortly. The chief of ordnance, Lieutenant-Colonel French, in forms me that he can arm from 2,000 to 3,000 men with good arms. In addition to the above-named troops, there are nineteen companies now tendered for the war under, the requisition of President Davis and proclamation of Governor Pettus (proclamation herewith inclosed). These last-mentioned companies are not armed. Efforts have been made to collect arms in the different counties, but with what success I am unable to say, as no reports have been made to the ordnance department.

I have delayed this letter for several hours expecting Governor Pettus’ return. He will doubtless communicate all information in his possession immediately on his return.

I have the honor to be, with respect, your obedient servant,

W. H. BROWN, Adjutant and Inspector General Army Mississippi.

{p.388}

[Inclosure.]

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the President of the Confederate States of America has made a requisition on the State of Mississippi for two regiments of volunteers, to serve for and during the continuance of the war, to be sent to Corinth, Miss., for the protection of the Mississippi Valley; and 3,000 volunteers to serve for and during the continuance of the war, to be received by independent companies; each company to be composed of 1 captain, 1 first lieutenant, 2 second lieutenants, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, 2 musicians, and from 64 to 100 privates, to go immediately into camp of instruction, under the control of the War Department of the Confederate States. The President will assign competent officers to take charge of them, drill and discipline the men, and organize them into battalions or regiments, as he may prefer, and appoint field and staff officers: (Any company heretofore mustered into the State service for twelve months may volunteer under this call for and during the continuance of the war. It will not be a prerequisite in accepting these companies that they should be armed.)

Therefore I, John J. Pettus, governor of the State of Mississippi, by virtue of authority vested in me by law, do hereby proclaim that volunteers for the service are desired and will be accepted as above specified.

Given under my hand and the great seal of the State affixed at the city of Jackson this 9th day of July, A. D. 1861.

JOHN J. PETTUS.

C. A. BROUGHER, Secretary of State.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 2.}

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Knoxville, Tenn., August 14, 1861.

I am authorized to receive into the service of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States volunteer infantry companies, to be formed in Lee and Scott Counties, Virginia, for the term of twelve months or during the war, the companies to furnish their own rifles, and to be employed in guarding the mountain passes in and on the borders of said counties and the county of Wise, in Virginia, and in other duty within said counties. Captains of companies making tenders will address me at Knoxville, and will receive further instructions.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General, Commanding C. S. Army.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, August 15, 1861.

Capt. KENSEY JOHNS, Assistant Quartermaster, C. S. Army:

SIR: It is proposed by his excellency Isham G. Harris, the governor of Tennessee, to transfer to this Government the ordinance stores and quartermaster and commissary supplies provided by the State of Tennessee and in possession of her authorities, and you are hereby commissioned on behalf of this Government to receive the same and perfect the transfer.

You will proceed to Nashville and see Governor Harris upon the subject, and co-operate in the premises with the authorities of Tennessee. You will be careful to take all proper inventories of the articles received {p.389} by you, both in kind and quantity, and see to it that the deeds of transfer are rightly drawn and executed; all of which you will report to this Department.

Respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

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EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Nashville, August 16, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, War Department, Richmond:

SIR: I am satisfied from the movements of the Union men of East Tennessee that more troops should be stationed in that division of the State. If you would establish camps of instruction at different points in East Tennessee, and order to them such troops as you may have in camps in States south of us to the extent of 5,000 or 7,000 men, the presence of such a force would give perfect security to our railroads and prevent the organization of a rebel army, while the presence of the force we have there at present has the effect of irritating without being sufficient to awe or subdue.

Twelve or fourteen thousand men in East Tennessee would crush out rebellion there without firing a gun, while a smaller force may involve us in scenes of blood that will take long years to heal. We can temporize with the rebellious spirit of that people no longer. If you can order a sufficient number of troops from States south of us to that point, the adoption of a decided and energetic policy (which I am resolved upon so soon as I have a sufficient force to sustain it), the arrest and indictment for treason of the ringleaders, will give perfect peace and quiet to that division of our State in the course of two months. If I had the arms I could raise troops enough within one or two weeks to answer all purposes there, but having armed the provisional force and transferred it to the Confederate States, I have no arms to put into the hands of the regiments here seeking service and anxious to get into the field. Having sent from Middle Tennessee three regiments to East Tennessee and five to Western Virginia, and General Polk and General Pillow having moved some 6,000 men from West Tennessee to Missouri, it leaves us very much exposed upon the Kentucky border-too much so if our Kentucky friends should attempt any hostile movement; but if you can arm the brigade at Camp Boone, under General Withers, I can take care of Middle Tennessee with the troops now here; but until matters assume a more peaceful attitude in Kentucky, I do not think it prudent or safe to send troops from here. If the suggestion with regard to East Tennessee is to be acted upon at all, it should be done at once, as every moment’s delay but increases the danger of an outbreak there.

Very respectfully,

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, August 20, 1861.

His Excellency ISHAM G. HARRIS, Governor of Tennessee:

SIR: Your letter of August 16 has just been received by the hands of Major Bradford. The importance of the present attitude of East Tennessee is not unknown to this Department, and the necessity of {p.390} providing promptly the means of supporting our friends in that section is by no means disregarded. Three regiments have been accordingly already ordered into East Tennessee, two from Mississippi, and one from Alabama, and it is hoped that these troops, with those already within your State, may suffice for the accomplishment of the objects at present necessary.

The Department fully concurs in your view of the necessity of adopting a decided policy to insure the public safety, and only regrets that it is not in the power of the Government to the extent that may be necessary. No precautions, however, within the power of this Department shall be spared. Full confidence is entertained in the zeal and vigilance of your excellency and of the military authorities in command.

The letter of your excellency of August 7, with regard to the proposal of Col. Acker Turner, of Kentucky, was referred to the President for consideration, and hence the delay in replying. I have this day telegraphed to you to the effect that a regiment, armed and equipped, and organized by the election of its own field officers, would be at once accepted and mustered into service. The election of its own officers is necessary to the organization of the regiment before it can be received, and this is the rule always observed by this Department when troops are offered by regiments.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

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CAMP REDAN, Tuesday, August 20, 1861.

Col. LEWIS G. DE RUSSY, Chief Engineer Department No. 2:

COLONEL: I am now able to say that we are ready for the enemy; at least we can prevent his occupying the peninsula of Island No. 10 bend.

Last night, after a hard day’s labor, I had prepared my parapet sufficiently to place the two 24-pounder siege guns in position, and early this morning the Falls City arrived and we had them up. By this evening I shall have two 32-pounders in position and two more to-morrow.

We have the three companies of artillery under Major Stewart, and four companies of infantry under Major Hamilton, the latter lately a part of Colonel Carroll’s regiment.

The reasons for the change in Colonel Neely’s position I will be able to satisfactorily explain. Colonel McGowan’s brigade did not move up, but Colonel McGowan accompanied me to the points I had selected for the defenses of this part of the river. He agreed fully with me, and said that he would not alter the sites one foot I had selected or my plans for the defenses of the river.

If I am permitted to continue the works according to my plans, which will be submitted for approval in a few days, I feel satisfied we can defend the valley of the Mississippi against any number of invaders above us.

We have now command of the only landing for vessels for 10 miles above this, and of the channel of the river passing by us as far as our present armament can control. We shall be ready for as many more guns as you can send up.

If you can order the Falls City to bring up the two 8-inch howitzers now at Randolph, with shell and ammunition, as well as some guns upon {p.391} barbette carriages, I think we can be strong enough at the present post against any number of gunboats until we can put up the batteries on end of Island No. 10 and opposite main-land.

By the bye, colonel, I had named this post the Redan, as the form of the fort is a redan. I had also given to the main battery site, I mile below this, on the main-land, the name of Fort Leonidas, in compliment to our major-general commanding. And to the battery upon the end of the island (to be about the same size as the redan), Port No. 10.

These three names suggested themselves to me as peculiarly appropriate and strong, and I beg to suggest them to you for approval by the commanding general.

Colonel, I have a great deal to report to you, but every moment of my time has been occupied in arranging, moving, meeting impediments (that ought not to have been in the way), and in preparing to defend this superb section of country, agreeably to your wishes and those of General Polk. Both of you will, I think, not be disappointed. Tonight I shall sleep, but I have not done so one night since we parted.

Do send me the Mohawk and my theodolite, which I want for a short while. I will return it to you, colonel.

In a day or two I will have time to give you a detailed account of my movements since I saw you.

At New Madrid a young gentleman came to me to know if he should go down the river to you-Mr. W. D. Storke. I was in want of immediate assistance from just such an officer, and the great necessity of the case caused me to request him to aid me for a few days. He has been of service to me, and I will send him down in a few days, unless you can let me have him until I finish the works of Island No. 10 bend.

Colonel, can you have barbette carriages sent up to us? The guns at Memphis are of no use there, and before you will be ready for then at the Fort Pillow works others can be made.

We can at least keep the enemy at bay, and I believe can destroy him at this point, the threshold of General Polk’s department, should he attempt a passage by us. I shall have the country thoroughly examined between this and Union City as to feasibility of a short, good road, as well as defensible purposes.

Colonel, please advise no other orders be issued to any other commanding officer for this point for the present. Major Stewart and I will get along well together. If you can send up the light battery from New Orleans I will have a good camp ground for them and fine position if we are attacked. Also send me a mounted company.

I beg you will pardon this hasty communication, but I have no place to write, and my time every moment employed on the works. Major Stewart has made requisition for ammunition.

Colonel, please push our guns and powder and shot along, and let me have the Mohawk for my service here for a little while. The Gramupus is on sentinel duty.

I am, very respectfully, yours,

A. B. GRAY, Captain, C. S. Army.

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NASHVILLE, August 21, 1861.

Hon. L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War, Confederate States:

SIR: I have the honor to inform you I have conferred with Governor Harris and the military board of this State in relation to the transfer of military stores from the State of Tennessee to the Confederate States. {p.392} These authorities desire a full and complete transfer of all the military stores of the State and everything relating thereto, including powder mills and percussion-cap manufactory, now in operation, and all the contracts in the ordnance, quartermaster, and commissary departments in existence, but not filled at the date the transfer is perfected. A wish was expressed by the board that they should receive some assurance from the Department that the State of Tennessee would be refunded within a reasonable time for the stores and supplies now in their possession.

The ordnance stores are at Nashville and Memphis, and probably a few at Knoxville. The quartermaster and commissary supplies are stored at various points through the State, but much the larger portion is concentrated at the same depots-Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville. The State authorities are now engaged in having inventories made of these stores and supplies, also schedules of the contracts now existing for stores and supplies, with a statement of other property, an early completion of which I have urged upon the board. These inventories shall be promptly submitted to the Department as soon as they are prepared. Should the Secretary of War decide to shoulder these contracts, the acting quartermaster and commissary at this point could attend to the contracts in his department, and see them properly filled. The contracts for ordnance stores, however, are numerous and varied, and they would require an ordnance officer to receive and inspect the same.

When the inventories of the State military stores are prepared, I will proceed to examine and receipt for them at cost, unless otherwise advised by the Department. I desire to be instructed whether I shall receipt for stores and supplies already issued by the State of Tennessee to the troops of the Confederate States now in the field. The question of transfer is in the present instance a complicated one, owing to the scattered condition of the supplies and the various contracts for both stores and supplies not yet filled.

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

KENSEY JOHNS, Assistant Quartermaster.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A, Richmond, August 24, 1861.

Maj. Gen. LEONIDAS POLK, Commanding Second Military Department:

GENERAL: The law gives to this Department no latitude as to the subject-matter of your letter of the 5th of August. The President is only authorized to ask for and accept the services of volunteers who may offer their services either as cavalry, mounted riflemen, artillery, or infantry. Neither a volunteer corps of engineers nor an ordnance corps of volunteers can be accepted. I have already suggested to you the idea of employing such officers of these corps as you may select in the character of special agents. Your staff appointments should be recommended to this Department, which under the law is alone intrusted with the power of making such appointments. It is hoped these embarrassments to your movements may be happily surmounted, and I only regret the inability of this Department under the restrictions of the law to meet your wishes in full.

Very respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

{p.393}

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RICHMOND, August 24, 1861.

General POLK, Memphis, Tenn.:

The ten companies of cavalry ordered to report to you from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana were intended for General Hardee. Will you not order them forward with one of the Louisiana infantry regiments ordered to report to you?

L. P. WALKER.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 11.}

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Knoxville, Tenn., August 26, 1861.

SIR: I have ordered you to move with your command, and encamp at Fish Springs, near the Johnson County line, because of the great disaffection, as reported to me, among the inhabitants of that county, and of Carter, adjoining, and in order that any efforts at rebellion against the authorities of the State or Confederacy may be quelled at once. I have information from various sources that a number of loyal citizens from those counties, apprehending danger at the hands of the Federalists among them, who seem to be largely in the ascendency, have fled for safety to Virginia and North Carolina. I also learned today that two men were killed and others wounded recently by these Lincolnites. You will try and ascertain the facts in the case and report to me. You will report to headquarters as often as convenient, or as circumstances may require, the condition of affairs in those counties.

I desire you as much as possible to be conciliatory towards these people, adhering strictly to the policy indicated in my proclamation and in General Orders, No. 3. You will enjoin upon your men a scrupulous observance of the rights of persons and of property, and all peaceable and law-abiding citizens. You will disarm and disperse all bodies of men in open hostility to the authorities of the State and of time Confederate States; capture and hold their leaders, and if resistance is offered, and it becomes necessary, destroy them. The following are the names of some of the Lincoln leaders in Johnson County, viz: Lewis Venable, of Laurel Creek; Northington, hotel-keeper at Taylorsville; R. H. Butler, Taylorsville, representative of the county; John G. Johnson and J. W. Merick, captains of Lincoln companies. Joseph P. Edoms, of Elizabethton, Carter County, and A. Evans, of Washington County, are also among the ringleaders of them. If you obtain satisfactory evidence that these or other leaders are in open hostility to the authorities of the State or the Confederacy, or stirring up rebellion against the same, you will arrest and detain them in custody. I will forward to your aid, for scouting purposes, a cavalry company so soon as I can arm them, if you think their services are required.

By order of Brig. Gen. F. K. Zollicoffer:

P. B. LEE, Assistant Adjutant-General.

Col. W. E. BALDWIN, Russellville, Tenn.

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KNOXVILLE, TENN., August 26, 1861.

Hon. A. T. BLEDSOE, Bureau of War, Richmond, Va.:

DEAR SIR: Please to excuse the bluntness of my telegram of this date and also of my letter. As I was going to the depot to forward a letter to the Commissary-General I learned that parties here who seem to cherish the existing feud between Feds. and Confeds. were about to apply to the Department to authorize the formation of a battalion of {p.394} horse, to be composed of Southern men to the exclusion of late Unionists, thus keeping alive the distinction which all sensible and good men are trying to obliterate. I wrote hastily to you whilst the cars were standing, hoping that you would pardon a scrawl which I would not like to send to the Secretary direct, and as the party designed to telegraph to the Department 1 used the same vehicle also.

When the President changed my destination from Manassas to Knoxville he expressed himself as anxious to have some regiments drawn from East Tennessee, especially from the ranks of the Unionists, whose threatened outbreak I was specially charged to aid in preventing by use of supposed personal influence. I asked you whether cavalry (or rather mounted rifle) regiments would be accepted. You answered yes, but added that your answer was unofficial, and that such authority must come from the Secretary direct. I had already been delayed in Richmond till I was asked why I tarried, and thus left without any written instructions, which I expected to receive here. Having spent four days in the camps near Manassas for instruction, I hastened to this point as ordered, and arrived on Saturday last, but found no orders or instructions. In Richmond I was given to understand that if I could raise one or more regiments here in East Tennessee I would be placed in command according to the number raised, and as I have been placed on that duty unsolicited, I shall expect to be sustained by the Department in the effort, if deemed worthy. In this view I claim that it is my due, the State having closed its recruiting, to have this district of East Tennessee considered as the field assigned to me. But as some will offer as horsemen and some as foot, and I cannot well command both, I willingly relinquish all claim to any consideration on account of the infantry that may be raised and confine myself to mounted men, whom Generals Johnston and Beauregard informed me they much need. I beg you to bring this matter before the Secretary, and let me be specifically authorized to raise as many mounted men as may be wanted. I have with others labored hard and with sonic success to allay the spirit of disaffection in this region and to produce a calm, which some deprecate, that will probably be succeeded by an active enlistment on our side. I stopped at Jonesborough one day to confer with Col. T. A. R. Nelson, and through him to learn what the Unionists design, and the result of a long interview has strongly impressed me with the belief that he will not only abstain from doing anything hostile to the Confederacy, but that in due time (i. e., as soon as his standing with his party will permit) he will come out openly for the Southern cause, and he has given me aid already in getting up volunteers. At my instance Union leaders now here from different counties are tonight engaged in preparing an address, adopting Nelson’s card (a copy of which I sent to the Adjutant-General yesterday), and advising their friends in Kentucky and elsewhere to return to their homes and submit to “the powers that be.” I purpose publishing a handbill, containing a short appeal to my friends and relatives, with Nelson’s card; this indorsement of it by his friends and General Zollicoffer’s general order holding out the olive branch. This may lead to such mutual confidence that both sides may deem their rifles useless here, and agree to carry them together under my lead against a common foe.

Please to ask the Secretary to telegraph me how many mounted men I may raise.

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

A. M. LEA, Brigade Commissary.

{p.395}

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HALL OF CONGRESS, August 27.

The accompanying letters are submitted for the consideration of the War Department and the President. Mr. Tate, I am aware, is well known to his excellency, as well as to the Department. Mr. Topp may also be well known to them. If not, I may say that he is one of the most prominent citizens of Memphis, and a gentleman of deservedly high social and political position.

I may be allowed to add that the letters herewith inclosed are but specimens of others of similar purport which I receive almost daily from Memphis, and hence are most respectfully submitted.

DAVID M. CURRIN.

[Inclosures.]

MEMPHIS, August 20, 1861.

Hon. D. M. CURRIN:

DEAR SIR: I trust you will not consider it out of place if I make you a few suggestions.

The brigades and divisions under McCulloch and Price, Hardee, Pillow, Jeff. Thompson, and others seem to be concentrating towards Saint Louis. In the mean time Frémont is using extraordinary exertions and concentrating all the forces at his disposal upon the defense of Saint Louis. As proof of this, Bird’s Point, opposite Cairo, has been evacuated, and but 2,000 troops are at Cairo. To an outsider Saint Louis is the stake that is to be played for.

Whether Missouri is to fall into the hands of the Abolitionists or with the South is the question. That being the case, it has occurred to me, as the preachers would say, that now is the accepted time. If Missouri is to be helped, now is the time. A day or an hour may turn the scale. The troops that are there are badly armed and equipped, and sadly in want of the conveniences necessary to an army. The most of them are green and have had little or no training. This applies particularly to the Missourians and Arkansians that are hourly flocking to our standard.

I pretend not to know anything of the contemplated movements of the President eastward. As I came from Richmond a few days since I met on the entire road from Richmond to Memphis a vast number of soldiers. I learn that companies from Mississippi, Louisiana, and elsewhere arriving here are sent on eastward. It occurs to me that the true policy would be, in view of the great stake we are playing for in Missouri, to turn all the forces now organized in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and elsewhere upon Missouri, so that we could throw an overpowering force upon Missouri and crush out abolitionism in Missouri, and thereby break up their contemplated movement on the South in the fall. Would it not be well to see President Davis and mention these matters to him. Whatever is done should be done instantly.

Since writing this Colonel Carroll has come in, just from East Tennessee; says he can raise any amount of troops in East Tennessee if they could be provisioned whilst being organized. Would it not be well for the President to give him the command of a brigade if he can raise them, as he says he can, in thirty days?

I throw out these suggestions for your reflection. I learn that the volunteers in Arkansas are looking with intense interest to the arrival of A. Sidney Johnston, with the hope that he will have command of all the troops in Missouri. They say they want a man of experience. {p.396} They are willing to fight, but that they would be better satisfied to have over them a superior military man, such as Johnston is said to be.

Very truly, yours, &c.,

ROBERTSON TOPP.

If I presume too much, charge it to the deep solicitude I feel in our cause.

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MEMPHIS, August 23, 1861.

Hon. D. M. CURRIN, Richmond, Va.:

DEAR SIR: Our army matters here are in a terrible condition. Go to President Davis and Secretary Walker, and insist upon their sending a practical military leader here to take charge of our army in the field or put Hardee on this line of defenses. Polk and Pillow are at loggerheads-Polk giving a command and Pillow countermanding it by the same messenger. Something must be done, and that quickly. Pillow, I learn, is acting on his own hook; will not give up his position as a senior general; denies Polk’s authority to give him orders. Pillow has ordered his forces (only 6,000 to 7,000 men) into the interior of Missouri, against the advice of Cheatham, Stephens, and other prudent and qualified men, and will most assuredly be cut off. He says he intends to fight his own fight first before he joins commands with Hardee or any one else. This state of things will produce mutiny and revolt, and our people, whose sons, brothers, and husbands are in the army, will rise up in revolution at such conduct.

Your friend,

SAM. TATE.

We hope to hear that A. S. Johnston has been assigned to this command. General Polk is a sensible gentleman, and will do well if he had proper co-operation.

S. TATE.

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RICHMOND, August 28, 1861.

Hon. B. MAGOFFIN, Governor of Kentucky, &c.:

SIR: I have received your letter,* informing me that “since the commencement of the unhappy difficulties yet pending in the country the people of Kentucky have indicated a steadfast desire and purpose to maintain a position of strict neutrality between the belligerent parties.” In the same communication you express your desire to elicit “an authoritative assurance that the Government of the Confederate States will continue to respect and observe the neutral position of Kentucky.”

In reply to this request, I lose no time in assuring you that the Government of the Confederate States of America neither intends nor desires to disturb the neutrality of Kentucky. The assemblage of troops in Tennessee to which you refer had no other object than to repel the lawless invasion of that State by the forces of the United States, should their Government attempt to approach it through Kentucky without respect for its position of neutrality. That such apprehensions were not groundless has been proved by the course of that Government in Maryland and Missouri, and more recently in Kentucky itself, in which, as you inform me, “a military force has been enlisted and quartered by the United States authorities.”

{p.397}

The Government of the Confederate States has-not only respected most scrupulously the neutrality of Kentucky, but has continued to maintain the friendly relations of trade and intercourse which it has suspended with the people of the United States generally.

In view of the history of the past, it can scarcely be necessary to assure your excellency that the Government of the Confederate States will continue to respect the neutrality of Kentucky so long as her people will maintain it themselves.

But neutrality, to be entitled to respect, must be strictly maintained between both parties; or, if the door be opened on the one side for aggression of one of the belligerent parties upon the other, it ought not to be shut to the assailed when they seek to enter it for purposes of self-defense.

I do not, however, for a moment believe that your gallant State will suffer its soil to be used for the purpose of giving an advantage to those who violate its neutrality and disregard its rights over those who respect them both.

In conclusion, I tender to your excellency the assurance of my high consideration and regard, and am, sir, very respectfully, yours, &c.,

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

* Dated August -, 1861. See p. 378.

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KNOXVILLE, August 29, 1861.

General COOPER:

Reliable news just in from Nelson’s camp at Hoskins’ Cross-Roads. Four thousand well-armed men there, and coining in 400 or 500 a day. Plenty of arms. One thousand men at Barboursville. Seven hundred at Williamsburg without arms. East Tennesseeans going on to Hoskins’ for arms.

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 14.}

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT No. 2, Memphis, Ten ., August 29, 1861.

From and after September 2, 1861, passports from and to places in the Confederate States to citizens thereof, or persons friendly thereto, shall not be required of persons leaving this department or traveling therein; but, to guard effectually against information being conveyed to the enemy, it is ordered that the commanding officers at Union City, in Obion County, and Clarksville, in the county of Montgomery, Tenn., will place a guard of not less than one non-commissioned officer and two privates at each point, whose business it shall be to prevent, by any means, persons passing from the State of Tennessee to any of the United States without a lawful passport. The commanding officers at these posts shall grant passports only to persons duly vouched for as entitled thereto. To avoid inconvenience to the loyal citizens of the South who may wish to pass through these points into the United States on any account, it is further provided, that all such persons who may not have the means of being identified at Union City or Clarksville may get passports from the military authorities where they live, from the governors of their respective States, from the governor of Tennessee, or from the headquarters of this department.

By command of Major-General Polk:

E. D. BLAKE, Captain, C. S. Army, Act. Asst. Adjt. Gen.

{p.398}

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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A., Richmond, August 30, 1861.

Capt. KENSEY JOHNS, A. Q. M., Nashville, Tenn.:

SIR: Your letter of August 21 is received. It is the desire of this Department to effect with as little delay as possible a full and complete transfer of all stores, munitions, &c., embraced in the provision for transfer or contemplated at that time. For all supplies already issued, therefore, since the date of the act of transfer, the State of Tennessee will charge the Government, and the account will be paid. For all supplies on hand and to be transferred, whether munitions, ordnance, &c., or quartermaster’s or commissary stores, you will execute a receipt in full on the part of this Government. All contracts, however, which were outstanding but not yet executed at the time of the transfer must, of course, be submitted to the approval of this Department before they can be assumed by this Government. Schedules of such contracts, with all necessary inventories, &c., you will please forward to the Department as soon as received, and you will fully advise the Department of all stores, munitions, &c., actually received, their locations, condition, &c., as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

L. P. WALKER, Secretary of War.

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ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, Va., August 31, 1861.

General F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Commanding Forces, Knoxville, Tenn.:

SIR: Your letter of August 15, 1861,* with inclosures, has been submitted to chiefs of the different bureaus, in order that proper dispositions may be made by their respective departments. The Secretary of War decides, in reference to Brigadier Generals Foster and Caswell, that their functions cease with the transfer, as do also the connection between the Confederate troops and the medical board, ordnance board, &c., of the State. All expenses incidental to operations of the troops will be at the charge of the Confederate States from date of transfer. Blanks, &c., will be sent to you. There are no arms which can be furnished; and as regards wagons, mules, and other material, the Quartermaster-General will furnish or advise you upon all such matters relating to his department.**

...

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. H. CHILTON, Assistant Adjutant-General.

* Not found.

** Details of regimental organization omitted.

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GENERAL ORDERS, No. 12.}

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Knoxville, Tenn., September 1, 1861.

SIR: I expect to start to-morrow morning Captain McClellan’s cavalry company by land to overtake and co-operate with your regiment. He knows the people and the roads well in Johnson and Carter Counties, and you will employ his company in scouting, getting information, {p.399} or otherwise, as you may deem proper. The news I am receiving indicates a mischievous purpose on the part of the Federals and their leaders in Johnson County. You will seize the leaders who commit overt acts of a hostile character, as much as possible endeavoring to pursue a conciliatory course towards their misguided followers. The indications are that a crisis is upon Kentucky; that in a few days the armed Lincoln companies will be in great force there. Be strict in keeping your men in camp, so as to prevent the soldiers from committing trespasses or otherwise alienating the feelings of well-disposed citizens. You may pursue any route you choose to Fish Springs, or, if your information should seem to make it proper, you may, instead of going to that point, go to any point in Johnson County, and move from point to point, or remain stationary, at your discretion. It may be important to keep me daily advised of your movements, that I may know at any moment where a communication will reach you.

By order of:

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER, Brigadier-General, C. S. Army.

Colonel BALDWIN.

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NASHVILLE, September 2, 1861.

General POLK:

If Pillow’s command has returned to Madrid, don’t allow them to go into Missouri until matters assume a different shape in Kentucky.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

[Indorsement.]

Your wishes shall be complied with.

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SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 14.}

ADJ’T. AND INSP. GENERAL’S OFFICE, Richmond, September 2, 1861.

...

VIII. The department under the command of Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, Provisional Army, is extended to embrace the State of Arkansas and all military operations in the State of Missouri.

By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS, Assistant Adjutant-General.

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RICHMOND, September 3, 1861.

General BUCKNER, &c., Richmond, Va.:

In answer to your letter to the President of this date.* I am instructed to inform you that General Polk will be instructed to communicate with you, and will not fail to appreciate the importance of such co-operation as circumstances will permit. Action by the State of Kentucky would relieve this question of all embarrassment. Aid by a portion of her citizens to resist invasion through the territory of Kentucky would simplify the question and facilitate our defensive operations. Your inquiries beyond this are not susceptible of reply. {p.400} Should the movements contemplated by you as likely to occur in Kentucky actually take place, the most important results may be anticipated therefrom, and in that connection the force of General Zollicoffer can probably render you more effectual aid than that of General Polk. In that contingency the cause of Kentucky will be in every aspect that of the Confederate States, and the officer to whom you refer will be as readily ordered to operations there as elsewhere within the limits where the Confederate forces fight battles in the cause of constitutional liberty, in anticipation of such events, and because of the confidence reposed in you, the President directs me to give you letters to General Zollicoffer, Governor Harris, and General Polk, which will secure to you their confidence in any conference you may have with them.

Copies of the various laws affecting the condition, of Kentuckians who may co-operate with us in the existing war will be sent to the disbursing and supplying staff officers in Tennessee, which will best answer your wish in that regard. No one can regret more than the President his inability to furnish anus to the Kentucky volunteers. He thought he had provided against it, but his arrangements have been disturbed, and he has not since been able to supply the deficiency created. You refer to the arms now in the hands of Major Gorgas; they are 700 in number, and there are two regiments encamped here without arms and waiting for service. Under such circumstances you cannot expect that arms will be sent from their presence and in proximity to the great military force of our enemy, to be issued to troops elsewhere.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER,