CHAP.XII.] CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.
State. Yet the most effective body of the troops of Arkansas have been called away to Virginia and Kentucky. That this should continue so I submit most respectfully, but seriously, does not seem to me to be either wise or just for Missouri, Arkansas, or the Indian Territories.
If disaster befalls in your division, it must lie at your door, onerous as your duties are, unless it shall appear that you have fully comprehended the whole field of operations and made every effort, not for means, but for adequate means, to sustain such high and imposing interests. You have not even a major-general west of the Mississippi River; a country as broad as all Austria, Prussia, and Germany.
It is not so with the enemy and ought not to be so with us. They know the value of Missouri. All Missouri is now in their hands. It was not so when you took command, and would not have been so could we have had your presence there. And Arkansas is threatened at two points, and in my judgment will be invaded as subsidiary to their operations on Memphis and down the Mississippi River. And I cannot regard it, with all respect for Colonel Borland, that he is the proper person to hold the chief command at such a point as Pocahontas, whether by military education or experience in the field. His statement that a column is moving against him I believe, and if not yet true, I am satisfied it must become so with the very first successes of the enemy in Missouri or open the Mississippi River or in Kentucky.
We have done nothing to assail them in Missouri or to defend in comparison with their preparations. What is it all for? If Price's army disbands, we shall soon know. I doubt not you have thought of these matters. One defeat disbands the disorderly and illy-united army of General Price. Success along can keep it together. The consequences in the State and this valley are too palpable to mention.
The responsibilities, my dear sir, of a command so wide-spread and of two wars at once so distant thrown wholly upon your hands I know to be stupendous and do most anxiously appreciate, and if you have not demanded an officer of the highest rank and experience and all other adequate was material for his operations subject to your orders only I hope you will do so promptly, and I shall be more than happy to receive any expression from you, as it will at once command every effort on my part to sustain you.
One other subject I beg to call to your attention: I understood that the Arkansas regiment formerly Colonel Hindman's is greatly discontented. It is because of the action of General Hardee placing a stranger from another State over them, and the regiment protests. I learn the facts from Lieutenant-Colonel Bocage, who has resigned. I will not go into the many particulars he relates, embracing the protest of all the officers of the regiment, but will merely say that it is a course pursued towards the troops of no other State, and would be submitted to by no other State quietly. The State of Arkansas has no fame to bank upon that she can see her opportunities sacrificed to the personal preferences of General Hardee, and we all know that honor won by the Missourian, the commanding officer, would inure to Missouri, if not also reflect upon Arkansas, that she had no man fit, in the opinion of the commanding officer, to lead them. I have protested to the Government against this course, and had wished to lay the matter personally before you, but find I cannot. I feel earnestly upon it, and you will pardon me if I have said too much in this or other respects.
And believe me, sir, with the warmest wishes for your glory and triumph to the end, yours, very truly,
R. W. JOHNSON.
