A large, well-proportioned gentleman with florid complexion
and intellectual face, who has been whispering with Col. Bledsoe several times
during the last week, attracted my attention to-day. And when he retired
Colonel B. informed me it was Bishop Polk, a classmate of his and the
President's at West Point. He had just been appointed a major-general, and
assigned to duty in the West, where he would rank Gen. Pillow, who was
exceedingly unpopular in Adjutant-Gen. Cooper's office. I presume this arose
solely from mistrust of his military abilities; for he had certainly manifested
much enthusiasm in the cause, and was constantly urging the propriety of aggressive
movements with his command. All his purposed advances were countermanded. The
policy of the government is to be economical of the men. We have but a limited,
the enemy an inexhaustible number.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 53-4
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