September 7, 1862: Thomas Jordan to P. G. T. Beauregard

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was a Louisiana-born general of the Confederate States Army. He had graduated second in his class from West Point in 1838 and was an admirer of Napoleon. He achieved fame early in the Civil War for commanding the Fort Sumter bombardment and as the victor of the first battle of Manassas. He later served in the Western Theater (including Shiloh and Corinth), Charleston, and the defense of Richmond, but his career was hampered by friction with Jefferson Davis and other generals.

Transcript:

Chattanooga

Sept 7^th 1862

My Dear General

Of course I shall wish to go with you, wheresoever you may be ordered—Charleston, or elsewhere; and shall anxiously await the time when I may be with you again—Call me by telegraph.

Let me keep the papers about Vicksburg all together until a week when I will present a brief statement which you can sign officially and transmit to the War Department—it can then be called for by Congress and in that way best come before the public in an official shape that will place definitively the credit for the fortification of Vicksburg where it rightfully belongs.

The fact is—the Mississippi party including the President wish to claim credit for fortifying and making the stand at Vicksburg, but the truth is that you, of your volition & without suggestion determined to fortify it—and anticipated in your first instructions—the Yankee attempt to cut a canal—the record is complete—and I am strongly in favor of the official report rather than any other publications.

I have been suffering a good deal lately from Rheumatism but shall be able to do what work you will have at first at Charleston.

The [illeg.] to Charleston is transparent to purpose but it should always be remembered: “Man proposes but God disposes”—and you can go to your assignment post satisfied that in the end all will work out rightly—This inst. Genl Joe Johnston has been ordered to “a new field”—Whither? We shall see. I am impatient to hear the details of the last Manassa battle—I hope we have not exaggerated the results.

Buell appears to have blundered in Tennessee—surely he and& Rozencranz might have effected a sudden junction somewhere in the quarter of Columbia and with these united & largely superior force [illeg.] to overwhelm Genl. Braggs forces—It was certainly in the power of Rozencrantz to have thrown his forces quietly across the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing & to have made the March & junction without our knowledge until too late—but they have not tried it– & I feel now Buell is in retreat to Kentucky.

Kirby [illeg.] successes are important as they must weaken the enemy so as to make it possible to strike him in detail.

I write in haste

Yours sincerely

Thomas Jordan

Citation: Thomas Jordan (1819-1895), autograph letter signed to G. T. Beauregard. Chattanooga, 7 September 1862. AMs 359/16