Confederate Defenses in Memphis

    Even before Tennessee left the Union, there was a call to build defensive works along the Mississippi River to protect the city of Memphis. Gideon J. Pillow wrote to Confederate Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker on April 20, 1861, asking that an engineer be sent to the city to direct “military defensive works.” Walker replied three days later that an engineer was on his way.[1] On April 26, Pillow reported that “Captain Stockton,” Philip Stockton, was working on batteries, but that the city was in a “most defenseless condition for want of arms.”[2] Walker responded that next day writing that Pillow could keep 3,000 muskets, and that in “addition to the large guns heretofore sent you, I have this day ordered four 32-pounders to go forward. I feel a deep interest in the defense of Memphis, and will do everything to render it secure.” Pillow then mentioned a point at Randolph as the “most eligible situation for a battery to protect Memphis,” seeking permission to fortify this location as well.[3] Walker consented on April 30. Randolph is about 30 miles north of Memphis. 

Fort Pickering, from a Federal sketch. (LOC)

   Directly in command of Memphis was John L. T. Sneed. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sneed moved to Memphis in 1843 where he practiced law and served in the higher ranks of state government, including the General Assembly and state attorney general, and even unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1869. Tennessee governor Isham Harrison appointed Sneed one of three state generals in 1861. When Tennessee joined the Confederacy, Sneed was not transferred with the troops to Confederate service.[4] Likewise, Stockton was replaced as Engineer in August by Maj Lewis G. De Russy.[5]

   Leonidas Polk was in command of the First Geographical Division or, Department Number Two, at various times from June 25, 1861 to March 5, 1862.  Local command in Memphis passed to Col. Lucius M. Walker, 40^th Tennessee Infantry. Walker was a nephew of US President James K. Polk and a brother-in-law of Frank Armstrong. Walker was also a West Point graduate but had resigned a year or so after being commissioned. On March 11, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general. There is very little in Walker’s Compiled Service Record regarding his work in Memphis.[6]

   According to one early historian, it did not take long for Memphis to become “a great military center.” He also contends that the first steps to organize what became the Army of Tennessee took place in April 1861 in Memphis. More than fifty companies were organized in Memphis in the first year of the war.[7]

   By the end of April 1861, two batteries were under construction at Memphis, with additional works being constructed at Forts Harris and Wright (Randolph). Fort Harris was about six miles above Memphis, and under the command of Capt. William D. Pickett, supervising construction. Later, officials deemed the site “of little strategic importance and ordered the removal of the cannon.”. The main Confederate entrenchments at Memphis were constructed at the old Fort Pickering site. The site had seen numerous forts over the centuries. The original Fort Pickering was a frontier trading post in operation from 1798 to 1814. Confederates constructed a line two miles long, placing 55 cannons along the line to defend Memphis from attack.[8]

   The Confederate works in Memphis proper were never tested. They were ordered to be evacuated once the forts on the upper Mississippi River were evacuated and the Federal navy began its sojourn down the river. There is probably more to learn about the Confederate works, maybe an inventory conducted after their capture by the Federals in June 1862, or descriptions from Confederate soldiers stationed in Memphis proper and charged with building the works.

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[1] OR Vol. 52, 2, 57-8.

[2] OR, Vol. 52, 2, 72.

[3] OR, Vol. 52, 2, 73.

[4] Allardice, More Generals in Gray, 212-13.

[5] Phillip Stockton, CMSR, RG109, NA.

[6] Prouty and Barker, Civil War High Commands, 550, 870, 884; Lucius M. Walker, CMSR, RG109, NA.

[7] Lindsley, A Survey of Civil War Period Military Sites in West Tennessee, 5; Young, Standard History of Memphis, 337.

[8] Prouty and Barker, A Survey of Civil War Period Military Sites in West Tennessee, 5.