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13. Is This Right?
- The University of Tennessee Press
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13 Is This Right? A badly shaken Gideon Pillow arrived at Clifton early on February 18, 1862. He set to work preparing his report of Donelson, although he kept in touch with Johnston and the army in Murfreesboro by telegraph. He also prepared a circular, a call to arms for Tennesseans, which explained the sacrifices at Donelson and laid out the course of action required to restore their fortunes. John C. Burch had the circular published in the Union and American shordy before Nashville fell.l Sidney Johnston reorganized his fragmented Confederate commands on February 23, pooling survivors of the Mill Springs debacle, 13 Is This Right? A badly shaken Gideon Pillow arrived at Clifton early on February 18, 1862. He set to work preparing his report of Donelson, although he kept in touch with Johnston and the army in Murfreesboro by telegraph. He also prepared a circular, a call to arms for Tennesseans, which explained the sacrifices at Donelson and laid out the course of action required to restore their fortunes. John C. Burch had the circular published in the Union and American shortly before Nashville fell.1 Sidney Johnston reorganized his fragmented Confederate commands on February 23, pooling survivors of the Mill Springs debacle, miscellaneous commands he had picked up in Nashville, and his own Bowling Green troops into an army of three divisions and a reserve, commanded by Hardee, George B. Crittenden, Pillow, and Breckinridge . Johnston's confidence in Pillow never wavered, despite Donelson . Hardee wrote Pillow for Johnston, "Your presence here is much needed." Your division "in the meantime will be under command of Genl [Sterling A. M.] Wood."2 Division commander Pillow, however, had another agenda. He left Clifton and was on his way to Memphis, arriving on February 25. He gave his Donelson report to the Memphis Daily Appeal, which published it the following day. General Johnston had agreed unofficially that "the facts should be communicated to the public through some friend.... The mode of doing this in the least objectionable manner is left to your discretion."3 This was highly irregular, of course, infuriating to Samuel Cooper, to Jefferson Davis, to military professionals who took the proprieties of their profession seriously. Who should have known this better than Gideon Pillow, who still carried his "Leonidas" scar. Would the man never learn? Yet Pillow deliberately gave the Appeal his report for publication. He justified his action to the War Department, arguing that he had done so "to correct misapprehension & explain the necessity which compelled capitulation at Donelson." 4 The Atlanta Daily Southern Confederacy pounced immediately: "Gen. Pillow is a wire working politician and has been all his life; and the publication of his report before sending it to the War Department is entirely characteristic of such a man." A friend of Floyd's wrote from Richmond that news of Donelson had evoked "some feeling of despondency here," and "the manner of publication of Genl Pillow's report, excites surprise and remarks."5 Pillow also attracted attention in Memphis. He spoke to a large crowd gathered in the lobby of the Gayoso. He told them about Donelson, not a tale of despair and of hopes betrayed, but a thrilling story of a "terrible and hard-contested battle" which, though sad in outcome, demonstrated once again the "invincibility of the hero of Chapultepec" and "reftect[ed] new luster upon the well-earned fame of Southern valor."6 Pillow appealed to his fellow Tennesseans to dispel the gloom of the present, redouble their efforts, and rush to arms.7 From Memphis he wrote the secretary of war, advising that the "one remedy for the existing condition of things" was to abandon all the coast defenses except New Orleans, "concentrate all the forces in Is This Right? : 241 miscellaneous commands he had picked up in Nashville, and his own Bowling Green troops into an army of three divisions and a reserve, commanded by Hardee, George B. Crittenden, Pillow, and Breckinridge . johnston's confidence in Pillow never wavered, despite Donelson . Hardee wrote Pillow for Johnston, "Your presence here is much needed." Your division "in the meantime will be under command of Genl [Sterling A. M.] Wood."2 Division commander Pillow, however, had another agenda. He left Clifton and was on his way to Memphis, arriving on February 25. He gave his Donelson report to the Memphis Daily Appeal, which published it the following day. General Johnston had agreed unofficially that "the facts should be communicated to the public through...