text: Young Boggs' summers were spent at the Sand Hills, now Summerville, South Carolina, then as now a resort. There an interest in military life was aroused by visits to the army post located near by. Born with traditions of fighting and engineering, with a latent interest in science and military affairs awakened, it was natural for him to find his way to the leading scientific as well as the best military school of the time, the United States Military Academy at West Point. He entered as a cadet from Georgia in July, 1849 at the age of twenty and graduated four years later among the first five of his class.
  Among the students at the Academy at that time were many who later gained distinction in both the Union and Confederate armies. Among Boggs' classmates were John B. McPherson, Philip H. Sheridan and John M. Schofield, later Union generals, and John B. Hood of the Confederate service. Cadet Boggs ranked high in his class and in the entire student body. At the end of his first year he was tenth in scholarship in a class of seventy-four, second in conduct among the entire 221 cadets enrolled. At the close of the second year he was second among his classmates in point of scholarship, being surpassed only by McPherson, and in conduct tenth in the entire academy. The third year found his scholarly standing unchanged, but his rank in conduct ninth. At graduation in 1853 his rank in scholarship had dropped to fourth, that in conduct had risen to third.
  Traditions of his student life at West Point centre around artistic rather than military tastes. In 1851
  while Boggs was on adjutant duty a new cadet entered. His name was James McNeill Whistler. Boggs was at once interested in the new matriculate because the lad's father had attained distinction as an engineer. Whistler soon formed the habit of visiting the adjutant's office; frequently he spent the time in sketching scenes described in books or suggested by life at the academy. Boggs preserved three drawings illustrative of West Point, two suggested by characters in Dickens, and one representing Russian soldiers. In 1852 through Boggs' influence a drawing of Whistler's - the wood cut also being carved by Whistler - was used to decorate the dance cards for the academy ball. These are probably the earliest existing products of Whistler's art. 1
  Boggs' talents were evidently for the scientific problems of military service. On graduation he was made Brevet-Second Lieutenant, was assigned to the Topographical Bureau, and spent some time in the office of the Pacific Railroad Surveys. In 1854 he was transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was made assistant at the Watervliet Arsenal, Troy, New York. In December of the same year he became Second Lieutenant and in 1856 he was promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. While at Watervliet Arsenal he married Mary Sophia, daughter of Col. John Symington, the commandant, the date of their marriage being December 19, 1855. In 1857 he was transferred to the Louisiana Arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana; in 1859 he became inspector of Ordnance at Point Isobel, Texas,
  and on December 14 took part in an engagement with Cortino's Mexican Marauders near Fort Brown, for which he was given honorable mention by General Scott. Soon after, he was transferred to the Alleghany Arsenal at Pittsburg, to which Col. Symington had also been assigned. Evidently the service that opened before Lieutenant Boggs in the Army of the United States was that of scientific expert rather than the command of troops.
  In 1861 the choice of fighting with or against his native state was forced upon him. He did not believe in the wisdom of secession, but like many of his countrymen he cast his destiny with the South, resigning from the United States Army the very day that the Georgia Convention adopted an ordinance of secession. Altogether twenty-two relatives by blood or marriage entered the Confederate armies. His father-in-law, however, having been born in Delaware, having been appointed to the Academy from Maryland, and having spent thirty-five years in the Army, remained in the United States service. Yet friendship and interest in his son-in-law were not interrupted. On Jan. 31, 1861, he wrote, - "So my dear Boggs, the deed is done so far as your resignation is concerned, and we must look into the future with hope that this change may eventuate to your full satisfaction and prosperity. You are of the right stuff and I have every confidence that, from your energy, perseverance and upright honesty you will succeed in any object you may give your attention to."
  was similar to that in the Army of the United States, that of an engineer and ordnance officer. He was always on staff duty and was never given the command of troops. His criticisms of military operations therefore suggest the observer rather than the leader of men. This characteristic, together with his scientific training and utter frankness, give a distinct value to his account of the three operations in which he was active, perfecting fortifications and supplies in 1861, Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky in 1862, and Kirby Smith's administration west of the Mississippi from 1863 to 1865.
  When Lieutenant Boggs resigned from the Army of the United States, he tendered his services to the State of Georgia and was immediately appointed to the staff of Governor Brown. He was soon entrusted with the duty of purchasing supplies for his native State.
  At his suggestion it was determined to send an agent to Europe to procure an outfit for the manufacture of small arms, while Boggs himself was to place orders for heavy ordnance in Richmond. T. Butler King was ordered to Europe but he postponed his departure in order to carry orders for the Confederate government just being organized. The delay was fatal and Georgia never secured from Europe its much needed machinery. Boggs, however, went to Richmond, carrying with him the latest designs for guns that had been worked out in Union arsenals, and placed large orders for the State of Georgia. He also superintended the conversion of the State Penitentiary into a foundry.
  Soon he was transferred to the Confederate service, going first to Charleston where he assisted Beauregard in preparing its defenses for war. In April he was sent to Pensacola to assist General Bragg in erecting defenses. He found the first urgent need to be supplies for the troops. To meet it he spent $40,000 which had been entrusted to his use. A second problem was the rearrangement of the defenses. To this end Boggs removed the barbette guns from the forts and placed them along the bluffs overlooking the harbor and along the beach, and erected a concealed battery south of Fort McRee. With these arrangements completed, it was the intention to attact Fort Pickens, which was held by the Federals. The plan was frustrated by the credulity of Bragg, who allowed Lieutenant Worden, of the United States Army, to cross from Pensacola to the Federal fleet. Immediately Fort Pickens was strongly reinforced. The effectiveness of the Confederate defenses was also impaired by the arbitrary action of Bragg. While Boggs was temporarily absent he placed a battery of casement guns in the open, south of Fort McRee. These, having about one-half the range of the barbette guns, were ineffective during the Federal bombardment and Fort McRee was silenced. But the Federal men-of-war, the Niagara and the Richmond, as they reached the shore were forced to retire by Boggs' concealed battery. "It was sometime in the afternoon," says Boggs, "when I observed them swing around head on, and saw them move slowly up to a new position. Having no other means after they had taken up their new
  position and commenced firing, I got their distance by sight and sound. My first shot, afterwards so reported, passed between the masts of the Richmond and the second one hulled the ship so effectively as to disable her. When some of her timbers floated ashore next day my Georgians claimed them, and Bragg endorsed their claim."2
  Inefficiency and lack of judgment were not the only weak points in the military policy of the Confederacy. While at Pensacola Boggs saw places of high rank in the Army given to civilians while young officers like himself failed to get promotion. Bragg, on behalf of the officers under him, complained of the discrimination but the most he could secure for Boggs was a nominal appointment in 1862 as Superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary, a military school. However, the relations between Boggs and Bragg became cool; an estrangement gradually developed, with the result that Boggs resigned from the service of the Confederate States and re-entered that of the State of Georgia.
  Again, Boggs' assignment was to engineering work, being made Chief Engineer with the rank of Colonel by Gov. Brown. He was sent to Savannah in March, 1862, to aid in erecting fortifications. Again the impression he received was one of inefficiency and lack of foresight on the part of those in authority. He urged the necessity of fortifying the islands on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. The Confederate commander did not think it possible to stand on these,
  much less to occupy them, and that a gun would sink out of sight, and seemed to rely upon some torpedoes that Captain Ives had placed there to keep the gunboats from coming into Wall's Cut and getting between us and Fort Pulaski. "There were some of us who had very little confidence in Ives' loyalty and the fact that Ives had been seen at work down the river caused us still more anxiety... One morning we found the Federal gunboats in Wall's Cut on the Carolina side, in which Ives' torpedoes were supposed to be. They, with the boats already in the St. Augustine's Creek, on our side, cut off all communication by water with Fort Pulaski . . . General W. H. T. Walker was very indignant; he proposed a plan for the capture of the gunboats, offered to take all the responsibility, and make the necessary preparations, and attack with his own Brigade. Had his plan been promptly accepted, it would, in my opinion, have been successful. But it was taken into consideration. Before the consideration was concluded those islands on which a man could not stand were covered with tents and troops; and those estuaries which had been filled with torpedoes, were full of gunboats." 3
  In recognition of Boggs' work at Savannah one of the forts was named for him. Today its site is occupied by a fertilizer factory. From Savannah he was sent to the interior of Georgia to erect fortifications along the upper Appalachicola to protect cotton plantations from raids by federal gun boats. His mission was not effective because the civil authorities failed
  to co-operate. In August 1862, he was again in the service of the Confederate States because Kirby Smith had asked aid of Governor Brown in his impending invasion of Kentucky, and Brown's reply was to send Boggs and some artillery harness to Knoxville.
  The campaign that followed forms a new chapter in the experience of Colonel Boggs. Hitherto he had been engaged in fortification; now as a member of Kirby Smith's staff he was in close touch with an aggressive military movement. Indeed the invasion of Kentucky was one of the most brilliant, as well as one of the most disastrous, of the early Confederate campaigns. Kirby Smith crossed the Cumberland mountains from Knoxville, while Bragg advanced from Chattanooga northward across Tennessee, crossing into Kentucky by way of Gainesville. With their armies united they hoped to win Kentucky for the Confederacy and to force Buell beyond the Ohio. Kirby Smith was first on the scene of operations. By August 30 he reached Richmond, Kentucky, and drove back the enemy. How narrow was the margin between victory and defeat is well described by Boggs. During the afternoon General William Nelson, commander-in-chief of the Union forces in Kentucky, personally took the leadership and formed a new line of battle south of Richmond. "This was so unexpected," said Boggs, "that General Kirby Smith and myself, riding leisurely up the road in advance of the army, came within short range before we were aware of it. Seeing an officer gallop down the road and hearing him command to 'bring on the cavalry,' I rode close up to and alongside
  the fence, expecting them to come up with a rush, and saw our victory turned into rout. Had they come Sheridan's charge at Winchester would have been a duplicate. They did not come and we had time to get out of the road and form line; then a single charge of the infantry, before the artillery could be brought into action, drove them through Richmond."4
  From Richmond the victorious Confederates pressed on toward Lexington. Boggs, with a band of infantry and cavalrymen, marched before the regular army. When the outskirts of Lexington were reached, he rode back to camp and found everything in confusion. "A sudden halt had been ordered, the advance drawn back to where I found it, all the wagons were being unloaded and sent back to bring Heth's division. A herald was being gotten ready to summon the Federal commander at the sound of a midnight bugle to evacuate Lexington or come outside of it and fight. It looked very much like a panic. There was no answer to the bugle and the herald rode into town without being questioned. The Federal commander, Gilbert, had also been seized with an uncertainty, and while we were preparing the herald he was making hot haste in another direction. We now found out that, if we had followed the Federals up closely we could have gone into Lexington the night before and have captured valuable supplies."5
  The tide of success now changed. Instead of advancing on Cincinnati Kirby Smith awaited orders from General Bragg, his superior. Bragg's advance
  had been delayed for various reasons so that Buell outreached him in the race for Louisville. He now ordered Kirby Smith to fall back to Frankfort and participate in the inauguration of Richard Hawes as Confederate Governor. Bragg, leaving his army at Bardstown, arrived at Frankfort in due time. The ceremony took place on October 4, 1862, but in the afternoon news came that Buell was advancing from Louisville. Believing that the movement was directed against Frankfort, Kirby Smith retired to Versailles and Bragg rejoined his army which advanced to Harrodsburg. Boggs' narrative of the events of the day well illustrate the confusion and the uncertainty of the Confederate commanders. 6
  During the Kentucky campaign Col. Boggs won the confidence of his superiors and on General Kirby Smith's recommendation he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and became Chief of Staff under him in the Trans-Mississippi Department in the spring of 1863. The task in the Southwest was complicated and difficult. Grant was besieging Vicksburg, and Banks threatened an invasion from New Orleans. There was need of co-operative organization of army posts in Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, while the heavy production of cotton raised the question of its disposal beyond the lines of the army. Unfortunately there was a distinct lack of unity in the councils of the Confederate leaders. Broadly speaking the cleavage was between Kirby Smith and his subordinates, especially Richard Taylor; later Governor Allen and Kirby
  Smith were at cross purposes. 7 Charges of inefficiency, favoritism and secret influences were prevalent. The whole story of the situation has never been revealed.
  General Boggs soon found himself out of sympathy with the two active military plans of Kirby Smith. First of these was the demonstration against the Federal lines around Vicksburg, which was then besieged by Grant. This was entrusted to General Holmes of the District of Arkansas but his attack on Helena, made early in July, was too late to change the fate of the city. The other military purpose, to prevent the conquest of western Louisiana and Texas, was accomplished, not, however, without a conflict of wills among Confederate generals. The Federals took the aggressive and inaugurated two movements in the spring of 1864, an invasion by Banks from New Orleans and one from Little Rock by Steele. Believing that Banks was the weaker of the two generals Kirby Smith decided to engage him first and gave that part of the defense to General Richard Taylor, whose headquarters were in southern Louisiana. General Price, who succeeded Holmes in Arkansas, was ordered to forward to Taylor all his infantry and artillery, keeping only his cavalry to harass the advance of Steele. However, these reinforcements were halted at Kirby Smith's headquarters at Shreveport and it was planned for Taylor to harass, not engage, Banks. The cause of this change of plans, according to Boggs, was the influence of Dr. Sol Smith, Surgeon to Kirby Smith. "The animus of change was that Doctor Smith
  disliked General Taylor as much as he liked General Smith; Taylor was to harass Banks up to the last moment, and then General Smith was to move down with additional troops, take command, and carry off the glory of the pitched battle." 8 Kirby Smith's orders reached Taylor too late to prevent him from turning and defeating Banks first at Mansfield, then at Pleasant Hill. These victories presented another problem; should Banks be pursued and New Orleans possibly be attacked, or should attention be given to Steele? Taylor of course advised the former course, but Kirby Smith chose the latter. However, Steele, when he heard of the defeat of Banks, gave up his invasion and fell back to Little Rock.