OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.
They are willing to fight, but that they would be better satisfied to have over them a superior military man, such as Johnston is said to be.
Very truly, yours, &c.,
ROBERTSON TOPP.
If I presume too much, charge it to the deep solicitude I feel in our cause.
MEMPHIS, August 23,1861.
HonorableD.M. CURRIN, Richmond, Va.:
DEAR SIR: Our army matter here are in a terrible condition. Go to President Davis and Secretary Walker, and insist upon their sending a practical military leader here to take charge of our army in the field or put Hardee on this line of defenses. Polk and Pillow are at logger-heads-Polk giving a command and Pillow countermanding it by the same messenger. Something must be done, and that quickly. Pillow, I learn, is acting on his own hook; will not give up his position as a senior general; denies Polk's authority to give him orders. Pillow has ordered his forces (only 6,000 to 7,000 men) into the interior of Missouri, against the advice of Cheatham, Stephens, and other prudent and qualified men, and will most assuredly be cut off. He says he intends to fight his own fight first before he joins commands with Hardee or any one else. This state of things will produce mutiny and revolt, and our people, whose sons, brothers, and husbands are in the army, will rise up in revolution at such conduct.
Your friend,
SAM. TATE.
We hope to hear that A.S. Johnston has been assigned to this command. General Polk is a sensible gentleman, and will do well if he had proper co-operation.
S. TATE.
RICHMOND, August 28,1861.
HonorableB. MAGOFFIN, Governor of Kentucky, &c.:
SIR: I have received your letter,* informing me that "since the commencement of the unhappy difficulties yet pending in the country the people of Kentucky have indicated a steadfast desire and purpose to maintain a position of strict neutrality between the belligerent parties." In the same communication you express your desire to elicit "an authoritative assurance that the Government of the Confederate States will continue to respect and observe the neutral position of Kentucky."
In reply to this request, I lose no time in assuring you that the Government of the Confederate States of America neither intends of troops sires to disturb the neutrality of Kentucky. The assemblage of troops in Tennessee to which you refer had no other object than to repel the lawless invasion of that State by the forces of the United States, should their Government attempt to approach it through Kentucky without respect for its position of neutrality. That such apprehensions were not groundless has been proved by the course of that Government in Maryland and Missouri, and more recently in Kentucky itself, in which, as you inform me, "a military force has been enlisted and quartered by the United States authorities."
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*Dated August -,1861. See p.378.
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