The Concentration Before Shiloh—Reply to Captain Polk.
By General Daniel Ruggles.
[We need scarcely repeat, what ought to be well understood, that we are not responsible for controversial papers, except to see that they are printed as sent by the authors.]
Fredericksburg, Va., December 31st, 1880.
I have received, a moment since, Nos. 10, 11 and 12, vol. VIII, of the Southern Historical Society Papers, for "October, November and December, 1880," containing Captain W. M. Polk's "Facts connected with the concentration" of Confederate forces before Shiloh, "April, 1862."
I am pleased to find that the Captain proposed to deal in facts, and on that basis ask him if he claims to comprise under this designation the leading portion of the paragraph he quotes from the report of Major-General Polk, bearing on a controverted point? As an interested party, who has been remorsely assailed while unconscious of such intention during a period of some twelve years, I have not only the right, but it becomes my duty, to defend myself and the gallant division I then had the honor to command against the implied defamation.
