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.... Personal Recollections....
of Some of the Generals in Our Army
During the Civil War -----------------------------
A Paper
Read Before
The Ohio Commandery
of the
Loyal Legion
December 3, 1913
By
Brevet-Major Frank J. Jones
{Notation in pencil at bottom: Original property of J. Samuel Hammond Dep. of Rare Books Duke University Durham, NC
24 May 1989}
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Colonel Smith was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General after the battle; and, having graduated at West Point among the leading men in his class in the Corps of Engineers, and on account of his recognized professional ability, he was, after the fall of Corinth, detailed to reconstruct for military purposes, the Charleston and Memphis Railroad. I continued to serve on his Staff until we reached Huntsville, Alabama, and then, by order of General Buell, reported for duty to Brigadier General Lovell H. Rousseau, commanding the Third Division, as Acting Assistant Adjudant General, in which I served until after the battle of Perryville.
I reported for duty to General Lovell H. Rousseau at Huntsville, Alabama, after the fall of Corinth in 1862, and remained as one of his Staff, serving as Acting Assistant Adjudant General of his Division until after the battle of Perryville in October, 1862, in which I was unfortunately taken prisoner after nightfalll in carrying orders to the Brigade Commanders preparatory to resuming the fight the next day. The Confederates retreated and the battle was over and active hostilities for the time ceased until the great battle of Stone River in December, 1862, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in which our army under General Rosecrans, was confronted by the united Confederate Army under General Bragg, a distinguished commander in the Southern Army.
In the battle of Perryville our command was opposed by the forces under General Leonidas Polk, a distinguished Confederate General, who before the war was a Bishop of an Episcopal Diocese in one of our Southern States.
General Rousseau was a native of Kentucky, a man of fine presence, gallant and brave, and I believe served in the Mexican War. He was recognized as one of the most efficient and successful generals in our army. He survived the war, became a member of Congress and died in New Orleans. My relationship with him as one of his personal Staff was intimate and pleasant.
It might not be out of place in this part of my paper to relate my experience with General Polk, to whose headquarters I was taken as a prisoner the night after the battle. In response to an inquiry from him, I told him I was serving on the Staff of General Rousseau, and
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resided in Cincinnati. That night I formed the acquaintance of Dr. Quintard, who was Chaplain on his Staff; who subsequently became the Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee; and I slept on the ground with Major Williamson, on of his Staff, who after the war was appointed by President Grant, United States Minister to Brazil and who knew my brother at West Point in which he had been a cadet.
The next morning, while confined in the jail at Harrodsburg, an orderly called out that General Polk wished him to bring to this headquarters the officer living in Cincinnati with whom he had a conversation the night before, and upon informing him that I was the officer, I was escorted to see the General. He immediately asked me if I knew Bishop McIlvaine, and upon replying in the affirmative he wished to know where the Bishop was. I told him in reply, I was under the impression he was in England. He immediately corrected me by saying he took the Louisville Journal, and from it he learned Bishop McIlvaine was in this Country, having returned from abroad.
Before my enterview was ended, he wished to ascertain from me, what in my opinion, would be the result of the war. I told him with some hesitancy, the North would succeed because it had more men and greater resources. He endeavored to convince me to the contrary.
General Polk was a cadet at West Point when Bishop McIlvaine was Chaplain there, and when consecrated Bishop, Bishop McIlvaine preached the Consecration Sermon in Christ Church, Cincinnati. Bishop Polk was a magnificent looking man, tall and very military in appearance, and I was much impresssed by his brilliant and showy grey uniform and soldierly bearing. He was one of the distinguished leaders of the Confederate Army, and lost his life the next year in the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in Georgia, being decapitated by a cannon ball from one of our batteries. Upon parting from him he wished me to tell his friend, Bishop McIlvaine, he was not the brutal soldier he was represented in the Northern Papers.
I was well acquainted with several of General Buell's Staff, and in my frequent visits to his headquarters, I became sufficiently well acquainted with him, to learn something of his personal characteristics. He was a thorough soldier of the old school, having been well
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