Details
POLK, Leonidas. Autograph letter signed ("Leonidas Polk") TO JEFFERSON DAVIS, Memphis, 29 August 1861. 4 pp., 8vo. -- STEWART, Alexander P. ALS ("Alex. P. Stewart") to Leonidas Polk, Head Quarters, 4th. Brigade, Columbus, Ky., 7 December 1861. 1 p., 4to., inlaid. -- HARDEE, William J. (1815-1873). ALS to Gen. L. Polk, Hd. Qrs., 3d Army Corps, 13 May 1862.
POLK RECOMMENDS A REORGANIZATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY COMMANDS AND THE APPOINTMENT OF ALBERT S. JOHNSTON. After surveying "the field you have assigned me as well as...the fields which have been assigned to other officers around me as theatres of defensive operations," Polk is "well satisfied from the working of existing arrangements that a change is necessary." He urges Davis to combine several theatre commands under a single General. Polk knows of "no one so well equal to the task as our friend Genl. Albert S. Johnson...It is particularly important in view of the position the Government has just taken in regard to Missouri and the action that may become necessary in regard to Kentucky."
Historians have agreed with Polk that he was not the man to run operations in that theatre. "It was easily Davis's worst and least explicable command decision of the year," writes Jefferson Davis's biographer (Davis, Jefferson Davis, 375-376). Both Johnston and Polk were old cronies of Davis. After graduating from the same West Point class as Davis, Polk resigned his commission after only six months, then spent 34 years as an Episcopal minister. His tie with Davis was the only explanation for his commission as a Major General in May 1861.
Polk's reference here to problems in Kentucky proved a self-fulfilling prophecy when he recklessly ordered Pillow to violate Kentucky's neutrality on 4 September 1861 by occupying Columbus without Davis's consent. A fortnight later, Polk's command came to an end as A. S. Johnston took over. Polk's role in the Western Department steadily diminished thereafter to the satisfaction of subordinates like Stewart, whose December letter to Polk asks to rescind one of Polk's orders shifting three companies. Hardee was one of the new commanders appointed under Johnston. He led a corps at Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta Campaign. Polk continued to play key roles in other aspects of the rebel war effort. He defeated U. S. Grant at Belmont, Mo. in November 1861, and personally led four charges at Shiloh. He was killed by cannon shot at the battle of Pine Mountain in 1864. Together three items. (3)
POLK RECOMMENDS A REORGANIZATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY COMMANDS AND THE APPOINTMENT OF ALBERT S. JOHNSTON. After surveying "the field you have assigned me as well as...the fields which have been assigned to other officers around me as theatres of defensive operations," Polk is "well satisfied from the working of existing arrangements that a change is necessary." He urges Davis to combine several theatre commands under a single General. Polk knows of "no one so well equal to the task as our friend Genl. Albert S. Johnson...It is particularly important in view of the position the Government has just taken in regard to Missouri and the action that may become necessary in regard to Kentucky."
Historians have agreed with Polk that he was not the man to run operations in that theatre. "It was easily Davis's worst and least explicable command decision of the year," writes Jefferson Davis's biographer (Davis, Jefferson Davis, 375-376). Both Johnston and Polk were old cronies of Davis. After graduating from the same West Point class as Davis, Polk resigned his commission after only six months, then spent 34 years as an Episcopal minister. His tie with Davis was the only explanation for his commission as a Major General in May 1861.
Polk's reference here to problems in Kentucky proved a self-fulfilling prophecy when he recklessly ordered Pillow to violate Kentucky's neutrality on 4 September 1861 by occupying Columbus without Davis's consent. A fortnight later, Polk's command came to an end as A. S. Johnston took over. Polk's role in the Western Department steadily diminished thereafter to the satisfaction of subordinates like Stewart, whose December letter to Polk asks to rescind one of Polk's orders shifting three companies. Hardee was one of the new commanders appointed under Johnston. He led a corps at Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Missionary Ridge and in the Atlanta Campaign. Polk continued to play key roles in other aspects of the rebel war effort. He defeated U. S. Grant at Belmont, Mo. in November 1861, and personally led four charges at Shiloh. He was killed by cannon shot at the battle of Pine Mountain in 1864. Together three items. (3)