Leroy Pope Walker by William C. Harris

Author:William C. Harris [Harris, William C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Modern, 19th Century, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Military
ISBN: 9781839746826
Google: ONRQAQAAMAAJ
Publisher: Barakaldo Books
Published: 2021-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VI—Administering the War Department

DURING THE EARLY PART of the South’s struggle for independence, Confederate Secretaries of War adhered to a simple plan of army organization and administration. To a great extent they conceived warfare to be of a highly personal nature in which such terms as “chains of command,” “channels,” and “staff action” had little or no meaning.{193} On the other hand, the tremendous responsibilities of mobilizing, equipping, and positioning an effective fighting force placed upon the department, particularly during Secretary Walker’s tenure, an enormous burden that necessitated the adaption of better managerial techniques. Staff and clerical personnel were not of sufficient numbers and Congress had not appropriated funds for an adequate staff. At the time when requirements were greatest, the department was short of administrative officers and clerks.{194}

Soon after the formation of the Confederate Government, Walker divided the responsibilities of the War Department into four bureaus—engineer, ordnance, quartermaster, and commissary, each with a supervisory chief. As chief of the Ordnance Bureau and as acting head of the Engineer Bureau President Davis designated Major Josiah Gorgas. Gorgas held both posts until the appointment in the late summer of 1861 of Major Danville Leadbetter as chief engineer. For the position of commissary general, with the responsibility of providing for the subsistence (ration) requirements of the army, the President appointed an old friend, Colonel Lucius B. Northrop. Colonel Abraham C. Myers was placed in charge of the Quartermaster Bureau, with the duties of assisting the Secretary in providing for clothing, shoes, tents, and other related articles for the troops in the field. Of the three appointments that of Gorgas only proved in the end to be wise.{195}

From the beginning President Davis regarded the tactical functions of the War Department as his particular field. As the war progressed he assumed direction of all major military strategy, leaving the administrative details to Walker and his assistants. During the early days of the Confederacy, however, Davis did allow Walker wide latitude in exercising his control over his office; and throughout most of his tenure Walker apparently raised and equipped the armies with a minimum of interference from the President.{196} Mobilizing an army and providing war supplies proved to be of major significance to the Southern cause, and it was in this capacity that Walker was given his greatest opportunity to render an important service for the Confederacy.

An organization as large and complex as the War Department, which had a seemingly endless aggregation of problems and administrative chores, afforded ample room for two executives (Davis and Walker). The impression, which has survived the years, that Davis really ran the department was contrary to his ideas at the time and generally incorrect. DeLeon echoed the erroneous belief that Davis managed the War Department in all its details, “finding time not only to give it a general supervision, but to go into all the minutiae of the working of the bureaux, and the choice of all its officers, or agents, and the very disbursement of its appropriations.”

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