March 28, 1862 (Friday): Johnston's Army Organizes

Brigadier-General Hawes

GENERAL ORDERS.] HEADQUARTERS OF THE FORCES, Corinth, Miss., March 29, 1862.

I. The undersigned assumes the command and immediate direction of the Armies of Kentucky and of the Mississippi, now united, and which in military operations will be known as the Army of the Mississippi.
II. General G. T. Beauregard will be second in command to the commander of the forces.
III. The Army of the Mississippi will be subdivided into three army corps, and reserves of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, as follows:
1. The First Corps, under command of Major General L. Polk, to consist of the grand division now under his command as originally organized, less the artillery and cavalry hereinafter limited and detached as reserves, and the garrison of Fort Pillow and the works for defense of Madrid Bend, already detached from that command.
2. The Second Corps, under Major General Braxton Bragg, to consist of the second grand division of the Army of the Mississippi, less the artillery and cavalry hereinafter limited and detached as reserves. 
3. The Third Corps, under Major General W. J. Hardee, to consist of the Army of Kentucky, less the cavalry, artillery, and infantry hereinafter limited and detached as reserves.
4. The infantry reserve, under command of Major General G. B. Crittenden, shall be formed of a division of not less than two brigades.
IV. The brigade of each army corps and of the reserves will be so formed as to consist severally of about 2,500 total infantry and one light battery of six pieces, if practicable.
V. Divisions shall consist of not less than two brigades and of one regiment of cavalry.
VI. All cavalry and artillery not hereintofore assigned to divisions and brigades will be held in reserve; the cavalry under Brigadier-General Hawes, the artillery under an officer to be subsequently announced.
VII. All general orders touching matters of organization, discipline, and conduct of the troops published by General G. T. Beauregard to the Army of the Mississippi will continue in force in the whole army until otherwise directed, and copies thereof will be furnished to the Third Army Corps and to the reserves.
VIII. Major General Braxton Bragg, in addition to his duties as commander of the Second Army Corps, is announced as chief of the staff to the commander of the forces.



A. S. JOHNSTON,
General, C. S. Army

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 10, Part 2, Page 370.

Thus was born the army which would face Grant at Shiloh.  Polk had not proven himself capable at Columbus.  Bragg was up from Pensacola where he neither gained nor lost acclaim.  Hardee was an unknown quality and Crittenden had at least seen active field service in Kentucky. Ironically, Beauregard found himself again in a nebulous relationship with a commander named Johnston.