The Mississippi in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Curious Vicksburg Correspondence

The O.R. is NOT in exact order or complete by no means. It is a small sample of communications. I doubt Johnston had not been communicating only with the Sec. of War, he had to communicate with the head of the Confederate Army as well. Cooper's position was to dissimenate Johnston's messages to the president and the war department as Johnston needed. I see nothing out of place here. The "I am too late" statement was in reference to his orders by Seddon which were "Proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief command of the forces, giving to those in the held, as far as practicable, the encouragement and benefit of your personal direction", in other words he was too late to effect a link up with Pemberton and take command of the army, but another message he states his plan was still to join with Pemberton if he could. On May 23rd Seddon wrote Johnston, "I regretted deeply, when I received the telegram announcing your arrival at Jackson, that you had not been ordered to that vital field of operations at an earlier period, but I could not think or feel that you were too late." Also Davis did return the message with the endorsement that he read the message, normal practice. Also there should be many messages forwarded via the Sec. of War to Johnston from other Generals in the field.

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David Upton

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Curious Vicksburg Correspondence
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