President Confederate States of America:
SIR: The Army of the
Cumberland is utterly routed and demoralized. The result is regarded with the
profoundest solicitude. Confidence is gone in the ranks and among the people.
It must be restored. I am confident it cannot be done under Generals Crittenden
and Carroll. There is now no impediment whatever but bad roads and natural
obstacles to prevent the enemy from entering East Tennessee and destroying the
railroads and putting East Tennessee in a flame of revolution.
Nothing but the
appointment to the command of a brave, skillful, and able general, who has the
popular confidence, will restore tone and discipline to the army, and
confidence to the people. I do not propose to inquire whether the loss of
public confidence in Generals Crittenden and Carroll is ill or well founded. It
is sufficient that all is lost.
General Humphrey
Marshall, General Floyd, General Pillow, General Smith, or General Loring would
restore tone to the army and rein-spire the public confidence. I must think, as
everybody else does, that there has been a great mistake made. Every movement
is important. Can not you, Mr. President, right the wrong by the immediate
presence of a new and able man?
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. 849
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