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the Tennessee River in southwestern Tennessee. The army’s commander, General Albert Sidney Johnston, had died of wounds received in action the previous day, and General R G. T. Beauregard had succeeded him to command. General Beauregard was faced not only with Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s force, which had been seriously battered by the Confederates the day before, but also with Major General Don Carlos Buell’s force, which had arrived overnight from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Nashville to reinforce Grant. By the afternoon of April 7, General Beauregard had made the decision to withdraw southward from Shiloh toward Corinth.
Early on Tuesday morning April 8, a courier delivered the first order to Captain Leeds. The Light Horse was to move north from Corinth to meet the artillery of Major General Braxton Bragg and assist them in their move into the post at Corinth. Rainy weather during the withdrawal of forces from the Shiloh battlefield had reduced the surrounding countryside into a mass of mud. The horses of the artillery became bogged down on roads that were barely passable. After the Light Horse completed this mission, the tasks assigned the unit came thick and fast: prisoners taken during the battle had to be moved with the relocating forces and kept under guard; stragglers needed to be rounded up and returned to their units; a reconnaissance of various routes to Corinth had to be made; and, all the while, a watchful eye on the locations of enemy units and pickets needed to be maintained. The Light Horse was in its element: a well-equipped unit, fresh in the field, not assigned to any major command, and available to be of service to all.
The unit’s command was the next item of focus for Captain Leeds. After numerous conversations with the generals of the Army of Mississippi, Leeds secured a permanent assignment for the Light Horse: escort to Major General Leonidas Polk, commander of the First Corps of the Army of Mississippi.
An 1827 graduate of the US Military Academy, Leonidas Polk resigned his military commission shortly after graduation to become a priest in the Episcopal Church. In 1841 he became bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana.... During his years as bishop in New Orleans, Polk would have been well acquainted with Captain Leeds’s family, which was very prominent in the city and in the Episcopal diocese. This entree was of considerable assistance to Captain Leeds in securing the Orleans Light Horse’s assignment as escort to Polk. The arrangement was made official on April 14, 1862, when the Army of Mississippi published a special order directing that “Leeds’s company of Louisiana cavalry will report to Major-General Polk for special service.” ■
CONSTITUTION.
ORLEANS LIGHT HORSE.
ARTICLE 1.
Section 1. In conformity to the Articles of War, or Military Regulations, the Company or Troop shall bo composed of one Captain, one Lieutenant, two Sergeants, two Corporals and at least thirty members.
Sec. 2. In the event of the Company increasing its members to the number of sixty privates, then and in that case, jn conformity with the above mentioned laws for the regulation of the militia of Louisiana, there shall bo elected one J irst Lieutenant, two Sergeants and two Corporals, in addition to the officers and non-commissioned officers elected or appointed for the first thirty members.
The Company may have two trumpeters, but for the present, one will suffice.
A.	Ticket to a ball given by the Orleans Light Horse
1862; invitation
gift of an anonymous donor, 2003.0282.2.3
B.	Louisiana pelican belt buckle
courtesy of the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum Collection
C.	Constitution of the Orleans Light Horse
n.d.; pamphlet
gift of Bonnie Lee Hunnicutt Corban, 2014.0271
Fall 2014 n