WAR DEPARTMENT,
Richmond, February 8,
1862.
General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON,
Bowling Green:
SIR: The condition of your department in consequence of the
largely superior forces of the enemy has filled us with solicitude, and we have
used every possible exertion to organize some means for your relief.
With this view the following orders have been issued to-day
and the following measures adopted:
1st. We have ordered to Knoxville three Tennessee regiments—Vaughn's,
Maney's, and Bate's—the First Georgia Regiment and four regiments from General
Bragg's command to be forwarded by him. This will give you in East Tennessee
the following force, viz: As above, eight regiments. Add Gillespie's Tennessee,
one regiment; Vaughn's North Carolina, one regiment;* one regiment cavalry;
Stovall's battalion and another from North Carolina, together one regiment—total,
twelve regiments, besides Churchwell's command at Cumberland Gap, the other
forces stationed at different passes by General Zollicoffer, and a number of
independent companies.
The whole force in East Tennessee will thus amount, as we
think, to at least fifteen regiments, and the President desires that you assign
the command to General Buckner.
2d. The formation of this new army for Eastern Tennessee
will leave General Crittenden's army (augmented by Chalmers' regiment and two
or three batteries of field pieces already sent to him) free to act with your
center.
Colonel Chalmers will be nominated to-morrow
brigadier-general. You might assign a brigade to him at once.
The President thinks it best to break up the army of General
Crittenden, demoralized by its defeat, and that you should distribute the
forces composing it among other troops. You can form a new command for General
Crittenden, connected with your own corps, in such manner as you may deem best.
General Crittenden has demanded a court of inquiry, and it
has been ordered; but from all the accounts which now reach us we have no
reason to doubt his skill or conduct in his recent movements, and feel convinced
that it is not to any fault of his that the disaster at Somerset is to be
attributed.
3d. To aid General Beauregard at Columbus I send orders to
General Lovell to forward to him at once five or six regiments of his best troops at New Orleans.
4th. I have sent to Memphis arms for Looney's regiment; to
Knoxville 800 percussion muskets; to Colonel Chalmers 800 Enfield rifles for
his regiment, and to you 1,200 Enfield rifles. The Enfield rifles will be
accompanied by a full supply of fixed ammunition. They form part of a small
cargo recently received by us, and of the whole number (6,000) one-third is
thus sent to you, besides which we send 1,600 to Van Dom.
5th. We have called on all the States for a levy of men for
the war, and think that in very few weeks we shall be able to give you heavy
re-enforcements, although we may not be able to arm them with good weapons. But
we have another small cargo of Enfield rifles close by, and hope to have some
10,000 or 12,000 safe in port within the next two or three weeks.
I forgot to say that the rifles already received may not
reach you for eight or ten days, as they were introduced at a port quite far
south.
I am, your obedient
servant,
J. P. BENJAMIN,
Secretary of War.
_______________
*The records show to Vaughn’s North Carolina regiment. Probably R. B. Vance’s Twenty-ninth North
Carolina.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
7 (Serial No. 7), p. 862-3
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