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BEAUREGARD, P. G. T. (1818-1893), General, C.S.A.. Autograph letter signed ("G. T. Beauregard") to General Mansfield Lovell, Jackson, Tenn., 13 March 1862. 3 pp., 4to., docketing on integral address leaf, neat tape at edge of creases. -- HILL, D. H. ALS to Beauregard, Leesburg, Va., 6 December 1861. 1 p., 4to., ruled paper.
BEAUREGARD GRIPES ABOUT THE HIGH COMMAND, THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
"All is quiet here," General Hill tells Beauregard," but "there is a general complaint of want of Cavalry at this point and of the want of knowledge of the country by the troopers actually here." Here Beauregard writes Lovell--two commanders on the verge of diasasters in the spring of 1862--about their mutual difficulties, and betrays his animosity toward the Confederate leadership in Richmond. "I fully appreciate your difficulties and wish I could relieve them," he writes. "The chain & anchors you refer to have been lost thro' want of foresight....I have ordered back the Manassa [Manassas], as you may possibly have more need of her than I." He offers Lovell some thoughts on turning the Confederate naval craft into more potent weapons. "Cannot a boat be fixed with an immense shell at the end of a long spear to run at night by a small iron tug into the side of an enemy's vessel?"
He thanks Lovell for "all the troops you have sent us" from the city Lovell was about to lose to the enemy, New Orleans. Beauregard hopes he has enough ammunition. "The enemy is reported landing a large force at or near Savannah on Tenn. River. We will soon be engaged with him." All of the troops Beauregard requested had not yet arrived, and he was even short on general officers. "We applied for 10, but they have only appointed 5, of whom only two or three are here! Did you ever hear of such apathy?"
Beauregard's strained relationship with the Confederate high command would prove his undoing. Two weeks after this letter, Beauregard would be an undistinguished participant in the great battle at Shiloh, finally driven all the way back to Corinth. When illness forced him to relinquish his command to Braxton Bragg in June 1862, President Jeff Davis availed himself of the opportunity to sack Beauregard. He charged the commander with leaving his post without authorization and replaced him with Bragg. By 1864, however, Beauregard was back, fighting at Drewry's Bluff and then joining Lee in the Petersburg campaign. Together two items.
BEAUREGARD GRIPES ABOUT THE HIGH COMMAND, THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
"All is quiet here," General Hill tells Beauregard," but "there is a general complaint of want of Cavalry at this point and of the want of knowledge of the country by the troopers actually here." Here Beauregard writes Lovell--two commanders on the verge of diasasters in the spring of 1862--about their mutual difficulties, and betrays his animosity toward the Confederate leadership in Richmond. "I fully appreciate your difficulties and wish I could relieve them," he writes. "The chain & anchors you refer to have been lost thro' want of foresight....I have ordered back the Manassa [Manassas], as you may possibly have more need of her than I." He offers Lovell some thoughts on turning the Confederate naval craft into more potent weapons. "Cannot a boat be fixed with an immense shell at the end of a long spear to run at night by a small iron tug into the side of an enemy's vessel?"
He thanks Lovell for "all the troops you have sent us" from the city Lovell was about to lose to the enemy, New Orleans. Beauregard hopes he has enough ammunition. "The enemy is reported landing a large force at or near Savannah on Tenn. River. We will soon be engaged with him." All of the troops Beauregard requested had not yet arrived, and he was even short on general officers. "We applied for 10, but they have only appointed 5, of whom only two or three are here! Did you ever hear of such apathy?"
Beauregard's strained relationship with the Confederate high command would prove his undoing. Two weeks after this letter, Beauregard would be an undistinguished participant in the great battle at Shiloh, finally driven all the way back to Corinth. When illness forced him to relinquish his command to Braxton Bragg in June 1862, President Jeff Davis availed himself of the opportunity to sack Beauregard. He charged the commander with leaving his post without authorization and replaced him with Bragg. By 1864, however, Beauregard was back, fighting at Drewry's Bluff and then joining Lee in the Petersburg campaign. Together two items.