Today in History:

119 Series I Volume LII-II Serial 110 - Supplements Part II

Page 119 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.

Valley. The quartermaster will furnish the necessary transportation for the command. The commissary will furnish the command with rations for three days. No unnecessary baggage will be allowed.

JOHN B. FLOYD,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[2.]

JULY 11, 1861.

J. GOGRAS,

Chief of Ordnance, Richmond, Va.:

I must have lead from works at Wytheville. Write and telegraph to Kohler, agent, to send me twenty-five tons immediately. He says his product is taken by you. I send you caps to-day.

ISHAM G. HARRIS.

[4.]

MEMPHIS, TENN., July 13, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President Confederate States of America:

DEAR SIR: A service of six years in the House of Representatives of the United States, while you were serving the country with great honor and distinction as Secretary of War and as a Senator from the State of Mississippi, agreeing with you mainly in the line of action which marked your course, and at this time in command of a regiment of Tennessee Volunteers, justify me in addressing you a few words on a subject, as I conceive, of great importance to the Army of Tennessee and to the South. We have in the field in Tennessee an army of 25,000 men, with arms, ammunition, &c., sufficient to do service for many months, the efficiency and strength of which is mainly owing to the energy, skill, and military talents of Major General Gideon J. Pillow, who has not only given his personal services constantly and unremittingly to the cause, but has contributed to the amount of many thou sands from his private means to place our army in its present proud and honorable position. These services are neither unknown nor unappreciated by the people for whose protection they have been most freely rendered. The gallant men who have rallied to the standard of the South under his command in the army, and the people who have felt his protection, have heard with pain that he has recently been deprived of the high position he has heretofore occupied in command, and his arm rendered powerless for further service by placing him in so inferior a position that he will be outranked by those who have formerly been under his command. Without desiring in any manner to depreciate the merits of others, I believe there is no voice in Tennessee which does not speak for justice in behalf of the merits of General Pillow. I know that you have not desired to do him any injustice, and it is only because you have been occupied constantly by exciting and vital questions more immediately demanding your attente failed to assign to General Pillow a position equal to his merits, his services, and his military capacity. I am sure that the gallant men in the Army of Tennessee everywhere would hail with delight the news that they were to be continued with their commander. In view of the above suggestions, and being apprehensive of disastrous effects on the troops of Tennessee in consequence of what they conceive to be injustice to their general, I suggest to Your Excellency the propriety of appointing General Pillow a general officer in the regular Army


Page 119 Chapter LXIV. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.