The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22
THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE
NUMBER SEVEN.
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 ! In the year 1s45 the worlds peace conference assembled at Paris, and Vic- tor Hugo presided. In course of the flow of his surpassing eloquence, the chairman declared, the time approached when a cannon would take its proper place among the curiosities of mu- scum, Hugo still lived when General i Gilmore, of the United States Army, beseiging Charleston, s. C., planted his gun, Swamp Angel" on an island i've miles distant, and threw shells with out notice, for days, into the residence part of the city.
 Beauregard sent between two ana three hundred officers captured by him from the invader. ii,po confinement Tn that outraged part of the town ana dispatched a message to Gilmore. warn ing him of what he had done. Without delay. the government at Washington sent to its military prison on John- son's Island, near Chicago, for about three times as many Confederate om- cers as Beauregard had exposed to GiI- more's fire and placed them in front or a fertilization upon which Fort Sum- ter was daily firing. Arrangements were made to discontinue the barbar- fty of retaliation in the case, but the Confederate officers, between six and seven hundred, Uieutenant James M. Robson. father of Hon. R. F. Hobson. among them). were taken to Fort Pulaski by the enemy and so starved and neglected that more than half per- ishsd in their confinement.
 The association of this dreadful and degraded act of war with a cannon, which was, then. phenomenal in It's ef- fectiveness, throws into strong light the contemporary prophecy of the French orator and humanitarian, and his disappointment.
 General Bragg retreated. as we have seen, from Murfreesboro to Tullahoma, twenty miles, and stopped there because General Rosecrans ceased to follow. sIn July he retreated across the Ten- nessee, at Bridgeport, Ala, and stopped : at Chattanooga because Rosecrans did not follow. On Saturday and Sunday, September 1s and 20. he met the enemy. eighteen to twenty miles east of Chat tanooga. on Chickamauga River, a small stream in the territory Of Geor- Ria, fought out one of the great battles of history. won it and deliberately threw away the fruits. It will be re- membered, that immediately after Mur- freesboro, in reply to General Bragg's direct inquiry. Polk and Hardea. the two corps commanders, and Breckin. ridge, Withers and Cheatham. division commanders, and perhaps others under
 
 that 1t was the unanimous wish of tho army that he should be superseded at once. Polk suggested to President Da- wis the substitution Of General Joseph E. Johnston. Nothing was done. how ever, at Richmond. Immediately after the battle of Chickamau8a, General Bragg ordered Polk under arrest. The President came to the army to investl- rate, and attempt to restore Bragg in its confidence. He brought with him Lieutenant General Pemberton and stan, intending to put him in Folks place. Pemberton was profoundly nor titled to find Folks corps would not submit to the change of officers and soon went away, never again to appear in any responsible service equal to his rank He was a native of Pennsylva- mia. a graduate of West Point. and re- sipned at the formation of the Con- Sadaracy from the old army to offer his auyord to MT. Davis. It was a pathetic ease. He was highly regarded bv General Johnston and all the South- ern officers. He had lost Vicksburg and his splendid garrison. Tn posuiVe disobedience to Johnstons order, to abandon the indefensible post while he oould. but his disobedience to his im-
 mediate commander was not his fault, so much as his overwhelming misfor- tune. He had orders direct from Richmond. over Johnston's head. In the arst months after the war, as Post master Reagan relates, he met General Pemberton. then penniless, on the +rain going to Columbia to borrow money from Secretary Trenholm to farm on in North Carolina, and sup mort his family. Reagan asked if he understood farming. "Nots at all. was the prompt reply. His family connec- tions were independent, living in Phll- adelphia, but they had renounced the unfortunate patriot. He told Reagan he would accept nothing rom them should they proffer him aid. The Ad- 5utant General of the army and rank ing officer, General Cooper, Pember- 4on. e. W. Smith, Ruggles, Leadbetter, corgas Caleb Hughes military agent m Europe were all men of Northern birth who gave their prospects in life 10 the defense of the Confederacy. Hughes filled his place with extraor- dinary efficiency. He had in hands public funds when the Confederacy fell which would have made him rich, but ba kent none. General Cooper resign ad the position of Adjutant General of the United States army, which he might have held indefinitely. to come to the Confederacy. Perhaps General Gorgas did more practical service for the Confederacy in a military sense than any one man.
 President Davis called a meeting of tha ranking officers of the army. Bragg. Longstreet. D. H. Hill and others. He invited each in turn to express an opinion on the commander, whether he should remain or not. (See I.onrstYeet's From Manassas to Appo- mattox.) Longstreet and Hill were specially emphatic in their express sions. unfavorable to General Bragg's continuance at the head of the army. Later, before returning to Richmond, , the President offered the command to Lieutenant General Longstreet but the honor was promptly declined. John ston was practically unemployed, in Mississippi and Alabama. and Long street earnestly desired and hoped he