Leroy Pope Walker: Confederate Secretary of War

By William C. Harris

LEROY POPE WALKER, the first Secretary of War of the Confederate States, is probably the least known of the five men who occupied that office. His brief administration of the War Department has long been considered undistinguished. Nevertheless, his accomplishments of organizing the department and placing an army of 200,000 men in the field by September, 1861 reveal that he played a vital role in shaping the military effort of the Confederacy during its formative months. Nor was Walker altogether a man of straw in Jefferson Davis’ Cabinet, as has been sometimes depicted. Few Confederate leaders were as dedicated and energetic in the performance of their public duties as he was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: May 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839746826

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CONFEDERATE CENTENNIAL STUDIES

NUMBER TWENTY

LEROY POPE WALKER

CONFEDERATE SECRETARY OF WAR

BY

WILLIAM C. HARRIS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

DEDICATION 5

Foreword 6

Prologue: Early Career 8

CHAPTER I—Appointment Secretary of War 16

CHAPTER II—The Fort Sumter Crisis 23

CHAPTER III—Coastal Defense 30

CHAPTER IV—Mobilizing the Army 40

CHAPTER V—Equipping the Army 51

CHAPTER VI—Administering the War Department 63

CHAPTER VII—Criticism and Resignation 71

EPILOGUE — Later Career 81

Bibliography 85

Manuscripts 85

Books and Articles 86

Magazines and Newspapers 92

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 93

DEDICATION

To

My Mother

and to the

Memory of My Father

Foreword

LEROY POPE WALKER, the first Secretary of War of the Confederate States, is probably the least known of the five men who occupied that office. His brief administration of the War Department has long been considered undistinguished. Nevertheless, his accomplishments of organizing the department and placing an army of 200,000 men in the field by September, 1861 reveal that he played a vital role in shaping the military effort of the Confederacy during its formative months. Nor was Walker altogether a man of straw in Jefferson Davis’ Cabinet, as has been sometimes depicted. Few Confederate leaders were as dedicated and energetic in the performance of their public duties as he was. And I hope that this monograph, although at times unfavorably critical, will bring long-due credit to him as an outstanding figure of the period.

Among the many persons who helped me write this book, I am especially grateful to Dr. Thomas B. Alexander, who read the manuscript with considerable thoroughness and made countless corrections and suggestions. I am also indebted to Mr. David Young, Mr. Henry Marks, and Mr. Wilkins Winn, for their helpful criticisms.

Finally, I tender my thanks to my wife, Betty, for typing the manuscript and for her patience with an abstracted husband.

W.C.H.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

December, 1961

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Prologue: Early Career

WHEN THE Democratic National Convention, meeting in Charleston, April 30, 1860, adopted a platform on slavery in the territories contrary to that supported by William Lowndes Yancey’s militant Alabama Platform, Leroy Pope Walker, chairman of the Alabama delegation, dramatically led his twenty-five colleagues off the convention floor. They were followed by the delegations from Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas. As one eyewitness declared, ...it was evident that an unprecedented crisis had arrived. The late tumultuous convention was hushed to silence and the stillness of death, while solemnity was depicted upon every countenance.

Although Yancey had long dominated the Southern-rights’ wing of the Democratic party in Alabama, Leroy Pope Walker was none the less ardent in his support of the Alabama Platform. Indeed, he was described as Yancey’s best aide at the Charleston convention, a peerless advocate of state rights, an eloquent spokesman, and a man of strong convictions. In his own words, in Charleston he had been willing to accord anything for the sake of harmony except the surrender of a principle (i.e., the Alabama Platform).

Setting themselves up in a nearby hall, the protesting delegates, who were soon joined by those from Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, and Delaware, organized themselves into a Constitutional Democratic convention and, with but little delay, adjourned to reassemble in Richmond on June 11. The original convention, unable to nominate a candidate, adjourned to meet in Baltimore on June 18.

At Richmond the Southern Democrats, including Alabama, again led by Walker, endorsed John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice President. At Baltimore the Northern Democrats chose Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia as their candidates. The Democratic party was now hopelessly divided.

Leroy Pope Walker and his fellow delegates returned home amid great praise—they had firmly walked out of the Charleston convention in the path of duty and honor...bearing with them the respect and admiration of a nation.{1}

Prior to the crisis of 1860 Leroy Pope Walker had gained considerable renown in his native state of Alabama as an outstanding legislator, a brilliant lawyer, and a staunch advocate of Southern rights. Son of the influential Senator John Williams Walker, of Huntsville, Leroy was reared in a society where the virtues of noblesse oblige were paramount in all aspects of life. He received his formal education at the universities of Alabama and Virginia in preparation for a career in law, and in 1837 was admitted to the bar, before he was twenty-one years old. His initial venture in public office occurred in 1843, when he won a seat from Lawrence County in the Alabama House of Representatives. He first attracted state-wide attention in 1847 at a meeting held to protest the Wilmot Proviso. The resolutions emanating from this conference, which Walker had a major role in formulating, became the basis for the extreme pro-slavery Alabama Platform.{2}

When the state legislature met in December, 1847, the rising young Alabamian was chosen as speaker of the House, a distinction accorded to him again in the 1849-1850 session. In this capacity Walker quickly gained a reputation as one of the ablest legislators to preside over that body. The Democratic newspapers of North Alabama proclaimed his virtues, declaring that he was one of the most promising of the younger men of the Democratic Party. In 1849, and again in 1853, he was a leading candidate for a seat in the United States Senate; however, on both occasions the popular Clement C. Clay, Jr., his home town political rival, was selected by the state Democratic caucus.{3}

While serving in the legislature, Walker tended to represent the interests of his class, the slaveholders, on matters pertaining to the peculiar institution. He labored for the tightening of the state code that would protect the planter whose slaves were subject to sale under the execution of property procedure. He also opposed efforts of the small property owners to increase slave and other property taxes. When the property interests of his class were not clearly involved, however, his policy deviated somewhat from his aristocratic political orientation. He aligned himself decidedly with those in the legislature who supported a greater degree of democracy in the selection of circuit and county (probate) judges. He advocated a reorganization of the judicial department of the state that would create a system of courts whose judges would be elected by the voters. His plan was submitted to the electorate in the form of proposed constitutional amendments, and the provisions passed with little opposition. Walker, furthermore, proposed that the electorate should elect all public officers, and then the responsibility will be where it ought to be.{4}

Meanwhile, the sectional controversy had increased in intensity. The possibility of the passage of the Wilmot Proviso aroused the radicals of the Lower South to a more vigorous defense of their position. Walker was the leader of the Southern-rights’ forces in the legislature. He demanded that Alabama send official state delegates to the Nashville convention. Although the legislature rejected the proposal, the Southern-rights’ group met and selected delegates from their members to represent the state, one of whom was Walker. At the convention Walker was influential in the adoption of the resolutions that emphasized the position of the Southern radicals regarding slavery in the territories.{5}

After returning from Nashville, Walker was elected judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. He served for three years in this capacity, resigning in order to devote more attention to his law practice and to resume his seat in the state legislature.

When he re-entered the House of Representatives in 1853, he received appointment to the Committee on Internal Improvements and immediately became the dominant member of that important body. He led the fight to obtain state aid for public improvements. He strongly urged the granting of liberal charters and loans to railroad companies for the construction of roads that would link landlocked North Alabama with Mobile. His efforts were crowned with partial success, when the legislature, over Governor John A. Winston’s veto, passed a measure to extend a loan of $200,000 to the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers Railroad Corporation, a company chartered to construct a road between the two rivers.{6}

Walker retired from the legislature in 1855 and entered a law partnership with Robert C. Brickell and Septimus D. Cabaniss. This arrangement proved quite lucrative and of great value in enhancing his political prestige in North Alabama. He rapidly gained a wide reputation as the foremost attorney in Huntsville and, by 1860, the outstanding lawyer in North Alabama. Although not a candidate for public office during the late 1850’s, Walker campaigned diligently and effectively for the Democratic party’s candidates for national and local offices. Otherwise, he devoted most of his time to his profitable law practice.

When John Brown’s raid in 1859 deepened the sectional crisis, Walker joined with other Southern-rights’ extremists in supporting unequivocally the Alabama Platform as necessary to the South and the state’s continuance in the Union. In anticipation of the Democratic convention to be held at Charleston in 1860, Walker declared that the South should insist upon adopting a platform before making the nomination....If protection to slavery in the territories—is not adopted, the South should withdraw from the Convention. In the struggle at the state Democratic convention in January, 1860 between the militant supporters of the Alabama Platform, led by Yancey, and the moderates, Walker was influential in the maneuvering by which the extremists seized control of the state party organization. The Yancey forces rewarded Walker for his efforts by selecting him as chairman of the Alabama delegation at Charleston.{7} His performance at the fateful conventions at Charleston and Richmond established his reputation as the leading spokesman of North Alabama for the radical Southern position.

When he returned home from Richmond to campaign for the Southern-rights’ cause, Walker found the people of North Alabama divided between the supporters of his presidential candidate, Breckinridge, and those of Douglas. It appeared that the whole region might remain loyal to the national Democratic party as represented by Douglas. Such a position was motivated largely by fear that the area’s commercial relationship with Tennessee would be endangered, if the extremists in Alabama gained control of the state. Walker, however, appeared not to have been dismayed by the preponderance of moderate strength. During the summer and fall of 1860 he toured the small towns and crossroads of North Alabama, campaigning for Breckinridge and proclaiming the virtue of the Southern-rights’ doctrine. Devoting his full energies to an attack upon Douglas, instead of upon Lincoln or John Bell, who offered little competition for Breckinridge in the area, Walker vigorously denounced Douglas for his abandonment of the Democratic party on the issue of slavery in the territories.{8} After his outstanding oration at the small town of Cowpens Spring in Madison County, the partisan Huntsville Democrat enthusiastically proclaimed that Walker’s speech deserved the attentive consideration of every man in America. It was worthy of the greatest debater, to which the world has ever listened. The Democrat, edited by the influential J. Withers Clay, a brother of Clement C. Clay, Jr., urged the people to listen to Walker, "for his words are those of a true patriot, not an office-seeker; but one of our private citizens, who