St. John Richardson Liddell
St. John Richardson Liddell was a prominent Louisiana planter who served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was an outspoken proponent of Southern emancipation of slaves. Following the war, Liddell had a prominent feud with a former Confederate officer, Charles Jones, who eventually murdered Liddell near his home in 1870.
Early life
Liddell was born to a wealthy plantation family near Woodville, Mississippi. He was a schoolmate of future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, whom he would interact with several times during the early years of the Civil War on behalf of fellow general Albert Sidney Johnston.He attended the United States Military Academy from 1834 to 1835, but resigned prior to graduating. Liddell then moved to Catahoula Parish and established his own prosperous plantation, "Llanada," near Harrisonburg, Louisiana. His famous feud with Charles Jones, known as the Jones-Liddell feud, which eventually led to his death, began in the 1850s.
Civil War
Western Theater: 1861–63
With the outbreak of the Civil War and Louisiana's secession, Liddell enlisted in the Confederate States Army and received a commission. He initially served as a staff officer to his close friend William J. Hardee and Albert Sidney Johnston during the early part of the conflict. He then commanded the famous Arkansas Brigade in Patrick Cleburne's division of the Army of Tennessee from 1862-63, including the battles of Perryville and Murfreesboro.Liddell commanded a division at Chickamauga in 1863, but repeatedly refused promotion to Major General in order to secure an assignment closer to his plantation, which was in jeopardy from Jayhawkers. Liddell was approached by General Braxton Bragg, a West Point classmate, to become his Chief-of-Staff and replace General W.W. Mackall, but Liddell refused. Although he was publicly critical of Bragg, Liddell seemed to enjoy his favor, which may have earned him the enmity of several of the officers in the Army of Tennessee. He remained very close with his classmate Hardee. Despite his personal clashes with fellow officers, Liddell had provided invaluable service to the Army of Tennessee. His brigade was pivotal at Perryville and Stones' River, and suffered the highest percentage of casualties at Chickamauga.
Trans-Mississippi Theater: 1863–65
General Bragg refused to spare Liddell, but when Bragg was relieved by Jefferson Davis after the Chattanooga disaster, Liddell appealed personally to the President for a transfer and command of Sub-District of North Louisiana, which he received and held during the Red River Campaign in 1864. He was later assigned to overall command of the infantry at Mobile, Alabama until its surrender in 1865. During the last campaign, Liddell and Union Maj. Gen. E.R.S. Canby engaged in the Battle of Fort Blakely, one of the last engagements of the war, where he was captured. Canby would later prove influential in Liddell's life by securing amnesty for him from the Federal Government.During his Trans-Mississippi service, Liddell found himself in conflict with his immediate superior, Richard Taylor, the brother-in-law of President Davis, and regretted leaving the Army of Tennessee. In contrast to many modern historians, Liddell lays the blame for the Confederate failure to recapture the Mississippi or unite some 60,000 troops of their far Western Commands under Generals Magruder, Taylor, and Price with the Army of Tennessee on Taylor himself, rather than Edmund Kirby Smith. Unknown to Liddell, by late 1864 Generals Bragg, Hardee, and E.K. Smith made several petitions for Liddell's promotion to positions including James Mouton's Texas Division, and Hardee's Chief of Staff, but these were not acted on before the war drew to a close.
Liddell on slavery
Liddell held a reputation for being outspoken, and was well connected. In December 1864, he wrote a letter to Edward Sparrow, a Confederate Senator from Louisiana and chairman of the military Committee, expressing his conviction that the war was going against the Confederacy. He expressed the need for full emancipation of the slaves in order to secure foreign assistance. Although he admitted it may have been too late to act, he felt that emancipation may have also been a solution to the South's growing manpower crisis. Senator Sparrow showed the letter to General Robert E. Lee, who agreed with Liddell on all points, stating that "he could make soldiers out of any human being that had arms and legs."Postbellum career
In 1866, Liddell wrote his memoirs, in which he was highly critical of the Confederate leadership and his fellow officers, including Davis and Bragg. The memoirs themselves are actually a collection of several separate manuscripts, letters, and battlefield records, which he was unable to combine before he was murdered.In them, his criticisms arise mainly from the failure of Bragg's subordinates, including Cleburne, Bishop Polk, John C. Breckinridge, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Joseph Wheeler, D.H. Hill, and James Longstreet, to support Bragg, which in the end leaves Liddell as one of the few writers of the period who was generous to Bragg. His writing reveals his minority opinion of praise for officers such as General John Floyd and Gideon Pillow, whom nearly all modern historians consider inept. He expresses disgust for Judah P. Benjamin, whom most historians consider one of the most able Confederate Cabinet officials.
He mentions several times the growing sense of futility he and other officers felt in the unlucky Army of Tennessee. It was plainly clear to them after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson that their cause was doomed unless they could concentrate their forces and wage an offensive campaign; however, political intrigue always seemed to squander any gains made by the army. Liddell comes off as a fair, impartial officer, even proposing that had the south recruited generals like George H. Thomas, whom he considered the best Union Commander, things may have turned out differently.
Liddell refused promotion, and endeavored to help any officer he was assigned to, regardless of whether they were liked or not. He was opinionated and outspoken, yet his opinion was valued and he held the ear of the echelons of Confederate command, including Davis, A.S. Johnston, Bragg, and Hardee. He spent his vast personal fortune on equipping his own brigade, even though it was from a different state. The brigade itself was the only unit in the Army of Tennessee never to court-martial an enlisted soldier.
Liddell was murdered in 1870 by Col. Charles Jones in the culmination of a twenty-year real estate dispute. He was buried on his sprawling plantation in Louisiana.
The St. John Richardson Liddell Chapter #271 of the Military Order of the Stars & Bars in Bay Minette, Alabama, was named for the former general.