85. JD to Smith, July 14 (quotations), November 19, 1863, JDC, V, 552–54, VI, 85–87.
86. Smith to JD, June 16 (first quotation), September 5 (second quotation), 11, 28, 1863, PJD, IX, 220–23, 371–72, 382, 412–13. Robert Lee Kerby, Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863–1865 (New York, 1972), has the most detail; for the Marshall Conference, see 139–42.
87. Lee to JD, August 8, 1863, JD to Lee, August 11, 1863, PJD, IX, 326–27, 337–38. On Lee’s health, consult Thomas, Lee, 277–79.
88. JD to Bragg, August 22, 1863, to Lee, September 16, 1863, to James Chesnut, August 11, to Chesnut and Alexander Stephens, August 31, 1863, PJD, IX, 350, 390–92, 336, 362. On events within the Army of Tennessee, I follow Connelly, Autumn, chaps. 6–10, and Woodworth, Davis, chap. 13.
89. PJD, IX, xliii; JD to Lee, August 24, September 8, 1863, ibid., 353, 375; Lee to James Longstreet, August 31, 1863, to Mary Lee, September 4, 1863, to JD, September 6, 1863, WPL, 594, 595, 596 (to JD calendered PJD, IX, 373); Thomas, Lee, 309–10.
90. Cf. Woodworth, Davis and Lee, 255–56, and Davis, 228.
91. Bragg to JD, September 25, 1863, Leonidas Polk to JD, [September 27], 1863, PJD, IX, 404–06, 410; JD to Bragg, September 30, October 3, 1863, to Lee, October 5, 1863, JDC, VI, 53–56, 56–57; James Chesnut to JD, October 5, 1863, with AES endorsement, O.R., LII, pt. 2, 538.
92. PJD, X, xlvii–xlix; JDC, VI, 57–58; W. P. Johnston to Rosa, October n.d., 1863 (quotation), Johnston Family Papers, FC; Atlanta Confederacy, n.d., in Richmond Enquirer, October 13, 1863.
93. Annals of the Army of Tennessee, I (August 1878), 237.
94. Marietta Confederate, n.d., in Savannah Daily Morning News, October 29, 1863 (first, second, sixth quotations); Memphis Appeal, n.d., in Richmond Examiner, October 24, 1863; PJD, X, 21–22 (fourth, fifth quotations); John Bratton to Dear Wife, October 10, 1863, John Bratton Papers, UNC; John E. Magee Diary, October 10, 1863, John E. Magee Papers, DU; W. P. Johnston to Rosa, October n.d., 1863 (third quotation), Johnston Family Papers, FC.
95. William W. Mackall to Joseph E. Johnston, October 13, 1863 (JO238), Johnston Papers, HL; Liddell’s Record, 152–53; R. Lockwood Tower, ed., A Carolinian Goes to War: The Civil War Narrative of Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brigadier General, C.S.A. (Columbia, S.C., 1983), 152–53; JD to Bragg, June 29, 1872, JDC, VII, 321.
96. JD to Bragg, October 29, 1863 (last quotation), June 29, 1872 (first quotation), to Hardee, October 30, 1863, JDC, VI, 71, 72, VII, 321.
97. Ibid., VI, 61–62.
98. W. P. Johnston to Rosa, October 18, 1863, Johnston Papers, TU; PJD, X, 29.
99. W. P. Johnston to Rosa, October 23, 1863, TU.
100. Richmond Enquirer, November 3, 1863; PJD, X, 33; Stephens to Herschel Johnson, November 14, 1863, Herschel Johnson Papers, DU.
101. Macon Daily Telegraph, November 11, 1863; PJD, X, 43, 44–45; W. P. Johnston to Rosa, October 31, 1863 (first and second quotations), Johnston Papers, TU; Eugene Verdery to Dear Sister, November 7, 1863 (third quotation), Eugene Verdery, Jr., Papers, UNC.
102. JDC, VI, 73–78; William Ravenel to Dear Rose, November 3, 1863 (final quotation), Frederick W. Chesson Collection, CWTI, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania (I am indebted to William C. Davis for this reference).
103. D.C. to “Miss Millie,” November 17, 1863, Mary Margaret McNeill Papers, DU; PJD, X, 49–51.
104. Lynchburg Republican, n.d., in Richmond Enquirer, November 13, 1863; Richmond Examiner, November 6, 1863.
105. My treatment of Confederate politics is informed by two pathbreaking books: Rable, Confederate Republic, and Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of the Congresses of the Confederate States of America: 1861–1865 (New York, 1994). For my discussion of Confederate state activity, add Bensel, Yankee Leviathan, chap. 3, and Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate Nation, 1861–1865 (New York, 1979), esp. chap. 9.
106. Rable employs these terms.
107. Henry S. Foote, Casket of Reminiscences ([1874]; New York, 1968), 292 (first quotation); Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (3 vols.; New York, 1958–74), II, 950 (second quotation).
108. S. R. Mallory to Master S. R. Mallory, September 27, 1865, Mallory Papers; Mary B. Estill, ed., “Diary of a Confederate Congressman, 1862–1863,” SHQ, XXXVIII, XXXIX (April, July 1935), 286, 37–38 (quotation); A. H. Garland to JD, January 30, 1863, PJD, IX, 46; JD to A. H. Garland, March 28, 1863, JDC, V, 457–60; W. L. Yancey to C. C. Clay, May 13, 1863, C. C. Clay Papers, DU; Thomas S. Bocock to JD, January 1, 1864 (copy), Harrison Papers, LC; Edwin G. Reade to William A. Graham, February 4, 1864, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton and Max R. Williams, eds., The Papers of William Alexander Graham (7 vols.; Raleigh, N.C., 1957—), VI, 24; Warren Aiken to My Dear Darling, January 1, 1865, Bell Irvin Wiley, ed., Letters of Warren Akin: Confederate Congressman (Athens, Ga., 1959), 66.
109. PJD, X, xlix; G. W. C. Lee to JD, November 18, 1863, ibid., 78; Walter Taylor to [Bettie], November 23, 1863, R. Lockwood Tower, ed., Lee’s Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862–1865 (Columbia, S.C., 1995), 90–91; B. W. Justice to My Sweet Darling Wife, November 22, 1863 (copy), St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Orange, Va.; Your Fond Husband [Andrew B. Wardlaw] to My Dearest, November 24, 1863 (typescript), Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Park (I am indebted to Robert C. Krick for the previous two references); C. E. Denoon to Brother, November 22, 1863, Denoon Family Papers, Folder No. 2, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.
110. Connelly, Autumn of Glory, chap. 10, details military events in October and November; M&P, I, 347.
111. Bragg to JD, November 30, December 1 (quotation), 2, 1863, PJD, X, 92,
112. JD to Bragg, October 29, 1863, JDC, VI, 69–71.
113. Bragg to JD, December 2, 1863, PJD, X, 97; Cobb to My Dear Wife, December 10, 1863, Howell Cobb Papers, UGA.
114. Cobb to My Dear Wife, December 10, 1863, Cobb Papers, UGA; JD to Lee, December 6, 1863, JDC, VI, 93; Lee to JD, December 3, 7, 1863, WPL, 641–42; Lee to J. E. B. Stuart, December 9, 1863, ibid., 642–43; Walter Taylor to [Bettie], December 20, 1863, Tower, ed., Lee’s Adjutant, 101.
115. Lee to JD, December 3, 1863, WPL, 641.
116. Chesnut, 482, 507; Polk to JD, December 8, 1863, PJD, X, 105–06; Wigfall to Johnston, December 18, 1863 (JO298), Johnston Papers, HL; Symonds, Johnston, 248.
117. JD to Johnston, December 16, 1863, JDC, VI, 132; Cobb to My Dear Wife, December 17, 1863, Cobb Papers, UGA; Gary W. Gallagher, ed., Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1989), 468; Benjamin Hill to [W. T. Walthall], October 12, 1878 (copy), William Walthall Papers, MDAH; Seddon to W. T. Walthall, February 10, 1879, JDC, VIII, 349–51 (quotation 351).
118. M&P, I, 345–82 (quotations in order 367, 365, 347, 369, 381, 348).
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “We Are Fighting for Existence”
1. Chesnut, 525–26 (quotations); Richmond Examiner, December 31, 1863, January 2, 18, 1864; Richmond Enquirer, January 1, 19, 1864; J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary (2 vols.; Philadelphia, 1866), II, 136, 152; Littleton Washington Diary, January 1, 1864 (transcript in possession of Douglas Gibboney, Carlisle, Pa; I am grateful to William C. Davis for this reference).
2. M&P, I, 414–16; Richmond Enquirer, February 12, 16, 1864.
3. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York, 1988), chap. 24.
4. Johnston to Louis Wigfall, November 12, 26, December 3, 14, 1863, February 19, April 1, 5, 30, 1864, Wigfall Family Papers, LC; Richard I. Manning (aide to Johnston) to Mother, December, 22, 1863, Williams-Chesnut-Manning Papers, SCL; St. John Richardson Liddell, Liddell’s Record, ed. Nathaniel C. Hughes (Dayton, Ohio, 1985), 169 (first quotation); Chesnut, 483.
5. Wigfall to Johnston, December 18, 1863, March 17, 18, 19 (quotation), 1864 (JO 298, 299, 300, 301), Joseph E. Johnston Papers, HL.
6. Benjamin Ewell Diary (Richmond 1864
, quotation), Joseph E. Johnston Papers, WM; Ewell to Johnston, April 29, 1864 (JO 96), Johnston Papers, HL; Johnston to Wigfall, January 9, 1864, Wigfall Family Papers, LC; JD to Johnston, December 23, 1863, Johnston to JD, January 2, 1864, PJD, X, 119–21, 144–46; Seddon to Johnston, December 18, 1863, Bragg to Johnston, March 4, 7, 1864, O.R., XXXI, pt. 3, 842–43, 873–74, XXXII, pt. 2, 510–11, ibid., pt. 3, 584–85, 592; Memorandum by Pendleton, April 16, 1864, William N. Pendleton Papers, DU; Thomas Lawrence Connelly, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862–1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 1971), chap. 11; Craig L. Symonds, Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (New York, 1992), chap. 17; and Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Lawrence, Kans., 1992), chaps. 1–4, present the military background.
7. JD AES on Johnston to Bragg, March [20], 1864, JD Papers, DU.
8. For an absorbing account of Lee’s fight against Grant, consult Clifford Dowdey, Lee’s Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men Against Grant—1864 (Boston, 1960). For the constant contact between the two men, see WPL, 718–68 passim, JDC, VI, 246–69 passim, O.R., XXXVI, pts. 2 and 3 passim. Some messages from Lee went to Seddon, but JD saw them. Also note JD to VD, May 9, 1864, PJD, X, 401.
9. The best study of the Atlanta Campaign is Castel, Decision; also see Symonds, Johnston, chaps. 18–21. O.R., XXXII, pts. 1–3, and XXXVIII, pts. 1–5, document communications among Johnston, JD, and Seddon; cf. the citations to primary sources in note 8 above to contrast Lee. For Hood in Richmond, consult Chesnut, 551, 559, 565, and with Johnston, Diary of Major Campbell Brown, January 14, 1866, George W. Campbell Papers, LC.
10. JD to Smith, April 28, 1864, JDC, VI, 236–37. This phase of the Trans-Mississippi is covered thoroughly in Ludwell Johnson, Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War (Baltimore, 1958), and in Robert L. Kerby, Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863–1865 (New York, 1972), chaps. 6–8.
11. Reuben Davis to JD, August 2, 1863 (first quotation), Civil War Collection, American Antiquarian Society (calendared PJD, IX, 319), March 21, 1864 (fifth quotation), X, 284–85; James Phelan to JD, July 29, 1863 (second and third quotations), JD Papers, James S. Schoff Civil War Collection, MI (calendared PJD, IX, 315); Alex Fitzpatrick to JD, January 1, 1864, Pritchard von David Collection, UT; A. G. Magrath to JD, December 25, 1864 (fourth quotation), Andrew G. Magrath Papers, SCL; F. F. Freeman to JD, March 28, 1864, PJD, X, 303; M&P, I, 448 (sixth quotation).
12. Best on Confederate politics in 1864 is again George C. Rable, The Confederate Republic: A Revolution Against Politics (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1994), chaps. 12–13, which informs my discussion. For more coverage of Georgia and North Carolina respectively, see Thomas E. Schott, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography (Baton Rouge, La., 1988), chaps. 19–20, and Marc W. Kruman, Parties and Politics in North Carolina, 1836–1865 (Baton Rouge, La., 1983), chaps. 9–10. I will cite specifically only pertinent correspondence and speeches.
13. Stephens to JD, January 22, 1864, PJD, X, 197; Myrta Lockett Avary, Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens… (New York, 1910), 168–69 (quotation); Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private, with Letters and Speeches, Before, During, and Since the War (Philadelphia, 1866), 761–86.
14. JD to Brown, September 12, 1863 (two letters), May 24, 1864, JDC, VI, 32–34, 260–61; Brown to JD, December 23, 1863, O.R., ser. 4, II, 1062; Brown to James A. Seddon, January 29, 1864, to Cobb, May 20, 1864, to Colonel Wm. Browne, May 21, 1864, and Seddon to Brown, February 23, 1864, Allen D. Candler, ed., The Confederate Records of the State of Georgia (4 vols.; Atlanta, 1909–11), III, 458–63, 541–58, 559–62, 484–88; L. Q. C. Lamar to JD, April 27, 1864 (quotation), PJD, X, 369. Joseph H. Parks, Joseph E. Brown of Georgia (Baton Rouge, La., 1977), chaps. 13–14, has a detailed account of Brown’s activities.
15. Vance to JD, February 4 (quotation), April 18, 1864, with JD AED, PJD, X, 220, 355; Vance to JD, December 30, 1863, JD to Vance, January 8, 1864, JDC, VI, 141–42, 143–46.
16. JD to Vance, February 29, 1864, JDC, VI, 193–97, Vance to JD, March 9, 1864, PJD, X, 277.
17. VD to George Shea, July 14, 1865, JD Papers, MC; Chesnut, 630. For an insightful study of southern honor, see Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South (New York, 1982).
18. JD to Garnett, November 9 (two letters), 10, 1863, Garnett to JD, November 9, 10, 11, 1863, JD to Wise, November 9, 1863, Wise to JD, November 14 (first and second quotations), 26, 1863, PJD, X, 58–60, 65, 68–69, 89–90; Wise to Garnett November 7, 26 (third quotation), 1863, Garnett-Wise Papers, UNC.
19. Chesnut, 551; Mrs. Burton Harrison, Recollections Grave and Gay (New York, 1911), 126; “The Diary of Lt. Edward Owen, 1863–1864,” Civil War Regiments: A Journal of the American Civil War, V (no. 1, 1996), 136; Washington Diary, February 4, 1864.
20. Chesnut, 587, 594.
21. Memphis [Atlanta] Daily Appeal, May 21, 1864 (first three quotations); Memoir, II, 496–97 (fourth and fifth quotations); Harrison, Recollections, 182 (sixth quotation); Josiah Gorgas Journal, May 1, 1864 (seventh quotation), William Gorgas Papers, LC; Chesnut, 601–02.
22. Chesnut, 602; Harrison, Recollections, 182 (first quotation); VD to Mrs. Richard Griffith, May 8, 1864 (second quotation), Old Courthouse Museum, Vicksburg; Angela Mallory to Virginia Clay, May 6, 1864, C. C. Clay Papers, DU.
23. VD to Burton Harrison, July 13, 1864, Burton Harrison Papers, LC, to Mrs. Clopton [July, 1864], JD Papers, MC.
24. In addition to the Dowdey work cited in note 8 above, both McPherson, Battle Cry, chap. 24, and Emory M. Thomas, Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York, 1995), chaps. 26–27, have value.
25. A glance at WPL, 646–879 passim, and Douglas Southall Freeman, ed., Lee’s Dispatches: Unpublished Letters of General Robert E. Lee, C.S.A. to Jefferson Davis and the War Department of the Confederate States of America, 1862–65 ([1915]; New York, 1957), 131–311, and JDC, VI, 142–433 passim, demonstrates their frequent contact.
26. Burton Harrison to William P. Johnston, September 14, 1864, Johnston Papers, TU; Burton Harrison to mother, September 17, October n.d., 1864, Fairfax Harrison, ed., Avis Sonis Facisque: Being a Memoir of an American Family: The Harrisons of Skimino (Privately printed, 1910), 152–55; John H. Reagan, Memoirs with Special Reference to Secession and Civil War (Washington, D.C., and New York, 1906), 195; Walter Taylor to Bettie, October 17, 1864, R. Lockwood Tower, ed., Lee’s Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862–1865 (Columbia, S.C., 1995), 197; H. T. Stanton to VD, March 24, 1890, JD Papers, DU; Memoir, II, 493.
27. JD to Herschel Johnson, September 18, 1864, JDC, VI, 338; W. D. Gale to Kate [Gale], July 30, 1864 (second quotation), Leonidas Polk Papers, UNC; Edward Younger, ed., Inside the Confederate Government: The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean (New York, 1957), 165 (final quotation). For the context, see the Castel and Symonds works cited in note 9.
28. Johnston to His Wife, May 31, 1864 (first two quotations), McLane-Fisher Papers, MHS (I am grateful to Charles Royster for this and other references from this collection); Johnston to Braxton Bragg, July 11, 1864, O.R., XXXVIII, pt. 5, 876 (final quotation); Benjamin Hill to [William Walthall], October 12, 1878 (copy, third quotation), William Walthall Papers, MDAH. Note 9 refers to the nature of the correspondence.
29. JD to Bragg, July 9, 1864, Bragg to JD, July 13, 15 (quotation), 1864, PJD, X, 509, 519, 523–25; Seddon to Hill, July 13, 1864, Hill to Seddon, July 14, 1864, O.R., LII, pt. 2, 693–95, 704–07; on Brown’s requesting reinforcements: Brown to JD, June 28, 1864, Candler, Confederate, III, 582, JD to Brown, June 29, 1864, JDC, VI, 278–79.
30. Johnston to His Wife, all in McLane-Fisher Papers, MHS: May 12 (first quotation), May 20, May 21 (second quotation), May 23 (third quotation), May 28, May 31, June 18 (fourth quotation), June 25, June 26, June 29, June 30 (final quotation), 1864. These letters, plus those he sent to the War Department, totally undermine Johnston’s postwar claim in his Narrati
ve of Military Operations (New York, 1874), chap. 11, that he had a definite plan to defeat Sherman.
31. JD to Lee, July 12, 13, 1864, JDC, VI, 291–92; Lee to JD, July 12, 1864 (two messages), WPL, 821–22; JD to James Lyons, August 13, [1878], James Lyons Papers, UNC; Benjamin Hill to [William Walthall], October 12, 1878 (copy), Walthall Papers, MDAH.
32. Benjamin to JD, February 15, 1879, JDC, VIII, 355–57; Seddon to W. T. Walthall, February 10, 1879, ibid., 349–54; Younger, ed., Kean Diary, 151; Benjamin Hill to [William Walthall], October 12, 1878 (copy), Walthall Papers, MDAH.
33. JD to Johnston, July 16, 17, 1864, Johnston to JD, July 16, 1864, O.R., XXXVIII, pt. 5, 882–83, 885.
34. On Grant, consult McPherson, Battle Cry, 756.
35. W. D. Gale to Kate [Gale], July 30, 1864, Polk Papers, UNC.
36. JD to Lee, July 12, 1864, JDC, VI, 291–92; Lee to JD, July 12, 1864, WPL, 822; Younger, ed., Kean Diary, 167.
37. Connelly, Autumn, chap. 15, is highly critical; Alfred H. Burne, Lee, Grant and Sherman: A Study in Leadership in the 1864–65 Campaign (New York, 1939), is quite positive; Castel, Decision, is measured, especially at 561–65.
38. John Perkins, Jr., to Joseph Davis, June 6, 1864, Mary E. Mitchell Papers, UNC; W. N. Pendleton to JD, April 23, 1864, PJD, X, 365.
39. Chesnut, 591; Jones, Clerk, II, 174–75; Memoir, II, 500 (quotation).
40. Joseph Davis to JD, April 8 (quotation), April 23, May 10, 1864, PJD, X, 319–20, 360–61, 407.
41. Jones, Clerk, II, 175 (quotations); Gorgas Journal, May 20, July 26, 1864, Gorgas Papers, LC; [James R. Gilmore], Down in Tennessee and Back by Way of Richmond (New York, 1864), 269, 281; W. D. Gale to Kate [Gale], July 30, 1864, Polk Papers, UNC.
42. [Gilmore], Down in Tennessee, 269.
43. Ibid., 266–82 (quotations 271–72, 276, 280).
44. Jones, Clerk, II, 277; Chesnut, 642.
45. Six Decades in Texas or Memoirs of Francis Richard Lubbock Governor of Texas in War-Time, 1861–63[.] A Personal Experience in Business, War, and Politics, ed. C. W. Raines (Austin, Tex., 1900), 553; Gorgas Journal, September 9, 1864, Gorgas Papers, LC; Jones, Clerk, II, 289, 293; Richmond Examiner, September 5, 1864; Richmond Enquirer, September 27, 1864; Margaret Burwell to Edmund Burwell, September 21, 1864 (quotation), Edmund S. Burwell Papers, UNC; JDC, VI, 341.
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