[507]
answers to the questions, seriatim, written entirely from memory, and without note or memorandum of my own:
1st.
On your arrival in west Tennessee (in February, 1862), the forces under command of General Polk were not properly brigaded and organized, and I know that you felt seriously the want of suitable experienced brigade and division commanders.
I cannot recall individual instances of excellent officers and well-drilled troops, such as Bowen's Missouri regiment, but the want of organization was perceptible, and the contrast with the army we had left in Virginia marked; and you often wished for some of the officers of the latter, whose merits and abilities were known to you, to aid in the task of organizing the material at hand.
2d.
The evacuation of Fort Columbus was ordered by you.
3d.
As was also the concentration of the forces in west Tennessee at Corinth.
4th.
You called for the available forces (including sixty and ninety days men) of the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
5th.
You recommended the concentration of the forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston with your own at Corinth.
I was, as your aide-de-camp, the bearer of despatches from you to Governor Harris of Tennessee, at Murfreesboro (where he was with General Johnston), making a call upon him for all the State troops he could spare to be sent to Corinth.
At the same time I took a written despatch, or verbal message (I don't now recollect which, for on that occasion I committed all my despatches to memory), requesting General Johnston to change his proposed line of retreat on Stevenson and Chattanooga, to Huntsville and Decatur, so as to be better able to concentrate with you when occasion might require.
* * * * * *
9th.
From the time that we left Virginia to come to Tennessee, until I left your staff, after the affair at Farmington, it was the belief among all your staff that the War Department was very unfriendly to you, and their action on several occasions was such as to induce that belief in those who knew, as we did, the circumstances of the case.
It was a source, not only of annoyance to you, but of deep regret, as in many instances your efforts were, you thought, paralyzed, and the success of well-digested measures imperilled, by the action of the War Department, based upon the evident hostility felt towards yourself.
* * * * * * *
Yours very truly,
Headquarters army of the Mississippi, Jackson, Tenn., Feb. 21st, 1862.
General Samuel Cooper, Adj. and Insp. Genl.:
General,—I regret profoundly to have to acquaint the War Department that my ill-health has made it improper for me as yet to assume the command assigned me.
In accordance with instructions, I repaired, with as little delay as practicable, to Bowling Green, Ky., and reported to General A. S. Johnston, commanding the General Samuel Cooper, Adj. and Insp. Genl.:
