Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-06-28

J.. could bar. up to the throne of Divine mercy, j
Twas his comfort that no such crimes laid t.
his charge reproached him in the whispers of hi
/ conscience. .. ..s . ...-4.
/. "-They charge me with crime, Doctor, but Goo
knows my innocence I endorsed no measure
that was not justified by the laws of war Failure
my position. Should die, repeat this for the
sake of my people, my dear wife and poor darling
children. Tell the world only loved America
and that in following my State was only carrying
out doctrines received from reverenced lips in my
early youth, and adopted by my judgment at the
convictions of ripper years" 49,. r: -'.
Mr.. Davis spoke with intense earnestness-the
solemnity of dying man, though not then, in my
Judgment, in any immediate danger. His words,
as quoted were taken down my return to quar-
ters, and here given for what each reader may
think them worth. They certainly impressed me
as sincere, and as if-whether true or not Judged
by the standard of law-the speaker uttered them
| In the good faith of religious man, who thought
death might very possibly be near, if not immi-
nent and certain. ..-
September WAS called at daylight by Captain
tIitlow, officer of the day, to see State-prisoner
Davis, who appeared rapidly sinking, and was be-
his thigh much inhamed, his pulse indicating
extreme prostration of the vital forces. The cry
sipelas which had subsidized now reappeared, and
/ the febrlle excitement ran very high Prescribed
such remedies, constitutional and topical as VIC re
indicated but always had much trouble to per-
suade him to use the stimulants so urgently need
ed by his condition. Let me here say, however,
that in docilty and strict adherence to whatever
regimen was prescribed, Mr.. Davis was the model
patiet of my practice. He seemed to regard the
doctor as captain of the patients health and obey
ed every direction however irksome, disagreeable
or painful, with military exactness. .-.s.. -
Mr.. Davis renewed his complaints of the Vita
ted atmosphere of the casemate declaring it to be
noxious and pestiential from the before no.
ticed Mould gathered upon his shoes, skoqcimq the
dampness Of the place, and no animal life could
prosper in an atmosphere that generated these hy-
phomycetous fungi. From the rising and faling
of the tides in the loose foundations of the case
mate mephitic fungi eminated, the spores of
which, floating in the air, thrown off in such
quantities. and with such incessant repetitions of
| reproduction, as to thoroughly pervade the at
mosphere, entering the lungs and blood with every
breath, and redeveloping their poisonous quaili-
ties in the citadel of life Peculiar classes of these
fungi were characteristics of the atmosphere in
which cholera and other forms of plague were
most ranky generated, as had been established by
the Rev. Mr.. Osborne, in a long and interesting
series of experimental researches with the achro-
matte microscope during the cholera visitation of
1854 in England. Men in robust health might de-
fy these miasmatic influences but to him, so ply
sically reduced, the atmosphere that generated
mould found vital force sufficient to resist it's
poisonous inhalation. ....
Assured Mr.. Darts that his opinion on The matter.
had for time been aay Oacn and that ON sece1-
al occasions I had called The attention of Ngj Gen.
e7dl Miles to the subject Satisfied that the danger
was now serious if he were longer continued in
such an atmosphere, would make an official re-
port on the subject to the General commanding,
recommending change of quarters. ,
Mr.. Davis spoke of the wretchedness of being
constantly watched-of feeling that human eye,
inquisitive and pitiless, was fixed upon all his
movements night and day. This was one of the
torments imposed on Marquis de Lafayette in the
dungeon of Magdeburgh and Olmutz Indeed,
the parallel between their prison lives, if not in
some other respects, was remarkable. Lafayette
denied the of knife or fork, lest he should
commit self-destruction. He was confined in a
casemate, or dungeon, of the two most powerful
fOrtresses of Prussia first, and then Austria
While in Magdeburgh he found a friend in the
humane physician, who repeatedly reported that
theprlsoner could notve unless allowed to breathe
purer air than that of his cell and this recon-
mendaton-theG Governor at first answering that he
'was not enough YETI the illustrious prisoner
at length allowed to take the air--some times
foot, at other times in carriage, but always ac-
compained by an officer with drawn sword, and
two armed guards.
Mr.. Davis then narrated with great spirit and
minuteness, the efforts made by Count Lally To
lendal assisted by DIR. Eric Bollman, of Hanover,
and Mr.. Huger of South Carolina, to effect La
fayettes liberation. MI. Huger was a young gen.
tleman of Huguenot extraction /; and Layfaytte,
upon landing near Georgetown, South Carolina,
accompanied by Baron De Kalb, had first been a
guest of Major Huger, the father of his rescuer.
DIR. Bollmans visit to Vienna, where he remained
six months, lulling suspicion by pretending to
study practice medicine his there meeting with
young Huger, and the manner in which the two
cautious, but daring men, mutually discovered to
each other their similarity of object; the code OF
signals which they gradually established with the
prisoner and his final rescue for brief hours
from captivity by their exertions, together with his
re-arrest, and the capture and terrible punishment
inflicted on his rescuers-all of these points Mr..
Davis recited with a vividness which made eachfea-
ture in the successive scenes pass before the men
ia eve a G in no. Of
Huger and Bollman were heavily ironed round the
neck and chained to the floors of separate dun
geons, in utter darkness. Once every half hour
the Austrian officer of the day entered, flashed
dark lantern into their faces to identify them and
see that they still lived, and then carefully exam
ined every link of the chains binding their necks
to the floor and shackling their feet and wrists
This treatment lasted night and day for six months,
the prisoners being almost skeletons when finally
obtaining their release, which secured by the:
representations of General Washington, the power
fuladvoeacy of Mr. Fox and the Liberals in the Birth
Parliament and the humane sympathy of the Count
Metrouskie, who welded powerful influence in the
Austrian court Layfayette however, even in his
second imprisonment never shackeled; and,
though treated with the utmost cruelty, no indig
mites offered to his person, save that he
robbed of his watch and some other trinkets
being recommitted, reduced to single suit of
clothes, dstrpped of every little comforttha had
been previously allowed him. save such betterments
of his regulation diet being bread and water
AS were certified by his medical attendant to be
necessary for the support of life.
. After quitting prison, proceeded, by invitation
of General Miles, and in company with that Off
Ger, to make inspection of the fort, for the pur7
pose of selecting more healthful quarters for the
State prisoner Decided that rooms in second
story of the south end of Carroll Hall would best
suit-a building long used officers quarters,
near the main sally port, and in which nearly eve
ry officer of the old army was for some months
quartered after quitting West Point, and before
l,k~~ o1S t. =.