Lt.-Gcn'l Polk's Order on Assuming Command. 229
whether if all the guns had remained in position, as you stale there was not enough inf.mtry supports for those retained, more might not have been captured.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE, General.
P. S. I return Major Page's letter and the copy of your report.
R. E. L.
Lieutenant-Gsneral Folk's Order on Assuming Command in Mississippi.
HEADQUARTERS MERIDIAN, Miss., December 23, 1863.
The distinguished General, who has been in charge of the Depart- ment of the Southwest, having been relieved, the undersigned, by order of His Excellency, the President, assumes command.
While it is a cause of regret that we are to lose the services of so experienced an officer, whose high military qualities have so long given a feeling of security to the Department, and commanded the confidence of the troops, yet as these services are to be transferred to a more important field, we shall all without doubt submit to the sacrifice with cheerful acquiescence.
In taking charge of the Department, the Lieutenant- General com- manding is not insensible to the importance of the duties devolved upon him, or the difficulties by which he is surrounded.
The extent of the territory embraced in the command ; its geo- graphical position, iis seaports, its river coast, its resource in men and material still untouched and available constitute it a fieid of the highest importance to the Confederacy in its military aspect.
Its difficulties and embarrassments, whatever they may be, are not inherent nor insurmountable. Chargeable mainly to the fortunes of war, they aie to be regarded as trials of our fidelity to the cause we have espoused, and tests of the sincerity and depth and earnestness of our devotion to its final triumph. Reverses as well as successes are the allotments of war. Let us hope that the future may be more generous than the past. And when we consider the high sol- dierly qualities of the army belonging to this command, and call to mind the lofty traits of character which have ever distinguished the population comprised wuhin iis limits, we cannot but feel that the
