The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-27

put heitnef neat, nor trost, nor thun- der
 Shall wholly do away, I ween,
 The marks of that which once hath been."
 | It is impossible that the energies of
 a million of enlightened men. directed | through the years of endeavor and 1 sacrifice by the genius of such lead | CTS as Albert Sidney Johnston. Joseph
 D. Johnston. Beauregard. Bragg, Rich ard Taylor, Forrest, Van Dorn, John
 H. Morgan. Joseph Wheeler. Leonidas Polk, Hardee. could fail to be of prime | importance in the annals of the affairs | of the nation.
 Thus far no serious narratives of i the campaigns of the Army of Tennes-
 see has been written. When fairly ex-
 amined. the facts compel the conclu- | sion that the record of this army. the second in number of the armies of the. Confederacy, may safely challenge com | parison with that of the Army of Northern Virginia more fortunate in | its chroniclers.
 The Confederate armies were com | posed of one-tenth or less mounted men. It seems at this distance from | events as remarkable as 1t is inexpli- I cable. that the phenomenal prowess of l Southern soldiers In the mounted arm of the service was never appreciated 1 by the government. The neglect in- | creases in importance when we reflect
 that in that arm of the service the opposing forces of the United States ] were weakest Tn June, 1862, General l Lee started Brigadier General J. E.. B. | Stuart with about 1000 cavalry to
 make observations on the right flank | of the army threatening Richmond,
 under Mcclellan. After Stuart had | ridden a few hours he consulted his | ranking officers. proposing to ride all around the CT emys rear, back into l Lees lines at the end opposite where | he set out. The ride threw McClellan's | camp into confusion. If Stuart had | gone with 10000 men instead of the
 mere handful. he might have dispersed l easily the whole army of the enemy and tGe battles of the Chickahominy, | ana possibly all subsequent battles of the conflict would have been avoided. In the Dalton Atlanta campaign of June 1864. Forrest with 10000 cavalry oper- | ating on the rear of General Sherman, | between the Etowah river and Dalton, l could have starved his army into sur l render. The confidence of the Confed- crate cavalry in itself never Jagged. | General Wheeler alone. without any 1 infantry support and without any wag- l on trains, started to hover around l shermans march to the sea with A. | l North Carolina. five months later, | Wheeler's corps numbered 5000, re- | cruits having come in along the march | and were on furlough returned. This l interesting fact occurred when all l knew the Confederacy had failed. | When General Hampton saw prepara- | tions for surrendering the Army of l Tennessee. where he commanded the | cavalry, he wrote two long and pas l fa President Davis. l then nearby saying: Do not; be- | seech you, permit the surrender of l this army. Our cause is under cloud l but it Is not lost. Give me 10000 | mounted men and will drive Sherman
 out of North Carolina" General W. W. | Allen, of Alabama, heard rumors Of l surrender and at once wrote to his
 superior officer of the cavalry protest i ing. He said his men had no thought 1 of surrender. I have at the moment l recent personal letter from General
 0ater Senator) M. c. Butler of the
 cavalry. He refers to his meeting with
 General J. E. Johnston immediately af-
 ter the conference of Johnston and
 Sherman at Greensboro. Butler ex7 pressed the hope to the General of the | army that no surrender had been
 made. Fitzhugh Lee refused to
 surrender at Appomattox and | neither Hampton nor Wheeler sur
 rendered at Greensboro. The Army of 1 Tennessee was specially dependent on | the cavalry. Wheeler saved Bragg
 from rout and annihilation in his Ken
 lucky campaign. He saved Bragg at | Murfreesboro and he was so useful in the Dalton-Atlanta campaign that Gen.
 eral Johnston declared, after the war.
 q could not have commanded the arr
 my without General Wheeler" To digress a moment. In this place l
 driven pen. inexcusable of course,
 which gave the command of the United States forces at Perryville, Ky, to | General Rosecrans." General D. c.
 Buell. commanded them. Because Buell.
 allowed Bragg to escape, back into
 Tennessee. he was tried by military
 court. When his army reached wash | vile again, he was relieved and Rose-
 crans put in his place.
 The Army of Tennessee received it's
 name at Murfreesboro after returning from Kentucky. General J. E. John
 ston named 1t. This army was in fact
 organized by General Abort Sidney
 Johnston at Corinth. in March. 1882 It was about 10000 strong at first. in-
 cluding some 4.000 mounted troops that
 were without any higher organizations | than regimental. Clanton commanded
 the 1st Alabama Cavalry there. For
 rest commanded a regiment. There
 were many detached companies. The
 army then and there organized was
 composed of the troops General John
 ston brought from Bowling Green, Ky,
 the troops General Polk brought from Columbus. Ky. the troops General Ruggles brought from New Orleans. Cheatham's troops from Jackson,
 Tenn. and Braggs troops from Mobile
 and Pensacola. Organized two or three days before the battle of Shiloh, the
 army was called "the Army of the aais-
 sissippi." and under that name marched
 to Kentucky in the next fall under
 Bragg.
 General J. E, Johnston fell desper-
 ately wounded in command of the army
 at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862. As he
 became. subsequently, the most dis tinguished commander of the Army of Tennessee an incident of the battle in
 Virginia may not be mai apropos As
 the firing from the field was heard in Richmond, President Davis and others,
 including Postmaster General Reagan,
 rode thither. Reagan and a company
 of citizens with him wdw General John
 ston dismount and enter a private res- idence. Presently the yard about the
 house was torn by the enemy's shot
 Reagan and his companions ventured to
 send a messenger to the General
 warning him of his great peril and
 suggesting that he should come out,
 as hfs safetv involved A great nIhlic