Headquarters Second Brig., Second Div.,
Fifteenth A. C,
Young's Point, La., April 23, 1863.
My Dear Mother:
By the enclosed order, you will see that I am virtually
mustered out of the service. My regiment, by the accident and casuality of camp
and bivouac, march and battle, having been reduced to less than one half of the
maximum number prescribed by law. I only wait to be relieved from my command by
order of the commanding general. The army is on the eve of what I consider a
desperate enterprise. I believe the movement is forced by the folly and madness
of politicians at home, (and by home I mean the pleasant places of safety far
away from the bayou and the swamp, the slippery deck, the lonely picket,) to
destroy the army or break down its leaders, which will be the same thing. I
cannot fix the blame upon individuals, I do not speak from a sense of
individual outrage. For a year past I have seen a splendid army crippled and
its efforts rendered abortive by the insane policy of imbecile rulers. I
foresee the loss of another year. The order alluded to will go farther to
destroy the army than a campaign of five years with such soldiers as we have
now trained.
What the course of the generals will be in my case, I do not
know. I must go on, till an order comes relieving me from my command; of course
in the field and anticipating an early engagement I cannot as a man of honor
ask my discharge, which I have the right to claim forthwith. The order will be
embarrassing. I do not propose to say what has passed between General Sherman,
General Blair, and myself, regarding the matter. I had occasion the other day to test the temper of the soldiers. The whole division,
three brigades and four batteries, were drawn up in hollow square to hear
General Thomas announce the policy of the President. After he had concluded,
General Sherman and General Blair, who were on the platform with him, followed
with speeches, and as they had concluded, General Thomas invited the soldiers
to call for whom they pleased. I think it would have done your heart good to
hear some seven thousand voices ring out clear for Kilby Smith. There was no
mistaking that sort of demonstration or the yell that greeted me as I mounted
the platform. Still soldiers are fickle as the rest of mankind. To-morrow it
may be somebody else, the pet of popular favor, to yield in his turn to his
successor.
If I had the regiment alone, I would not hesitate a moment
as to my course; with the brigade it is different and I must bide patiently. I
had hoped to be brevetted, that chance is cut off. I have ceased to hope the
appointment of brigadier-general. I have a '”heart for any fate.”
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of
Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 289-90
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