The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1875-05-28
SAERMAN'S MEMOIRS.

not u little unfaVorable comment. We
make the following extract concerning
events in Louisiaua:
Having severed his connection with
the Military Academy and gone to
New Orleans to settle finally the tinan-
cial matters connected with his admin
istration, and, as he says, s'stood free
and discharged of any and every oOli-
cation, honorary or business, that was
due by me to the State of Louisiana or
to any corporation or individual in
that State" he describes affairs III that
city.
This business occupied two or three
days, during which 1 stayed ut tho st.
Louis Hotel / usually sat ut the table
with Colonel and Mrs. Bragg, and an
officer who wore the uniform of the
State of Louisiana, and was addressed
rs Captain. Bragg Wore Coloncl's
uniform, and explained to me that he
was Il Colonel in the State service, Il
Colonel Of Artillery, and that some
companies Of his regiment garrisoned
Forts Jackson and st. Phillip, and the
arsenal ut Baton Rouge. Beauregard
at the time had two sons at the Semin
AIRY of Learning. I had given them
some Of my personal care at the fathers
their condition and progress, went to
his usual Office, in the Customhouse
building, and found him in the act of
starting for Montgomery, Alabama.
Bragg said afterward that Beauregard
had been sent for by Jefferson Davis,
and that it was rumored that he had
been made a Brigadier General, of
which fact he seemed jealous, because
in the old army Bragg was the senior.
Davis and Stephens had been inaugu-
rated as President and Vice President
of the Confederate States of America,
February, l6, 1851, at Montgomery,
and these States only embraced the
seven cotton States. 1 recall Il CONVEX
sation at the tea-table one evening, at
the st. Louis Hotel. When Bragg was
speaking Of Beauregard's promotion,
Mrs. Bragg, turning to me, said "You
know my husband is not f,,vorite
with the new President" My mind
was resting on MIR. Lincoln as the new
President, and I said ] did not know
that Bragg had ever met Mr.. Lincoln,
when Mrs. Bragg said, quite pOintcdly,
tI don't mean your President, but our
President" ! knew that Bragg hated
Davis bitterly, and that he had resigned
from the army in 1865 or 1856 because
Davis as Secretary of War, had ordered
him, with his battery, from Jefferson
Barracks, Missouri, to Fort Smith or
Fort Washita, in the Indian country,
as Bragg expressed it, to chase Indians
with siX-pOunders.
] visited the 4uartermastcr, Colonel
A. c. Myers, who had resigned from
the army, January IS, 1861, and had
accepted service under the new regime.
His Office was in the same old room in
the Lafayette Square building, which
he had in 1858, when i was there Il
commissary, with tho same pictures on
the wall, and the letters GU. s." on
everything, including his desk, papers,
etc. l asked him if he did not feel
funny. "No, not ut all, the thing was
inevitable, secession was i complete
success there would be no war, but
the two Governments would settle all
matters in a friendly spirit, and each
would go on in its allotted slihcre, with
out further confusion" About this
date, February lG, General Twiggs,
Myers father in-ilw, had surrendered
his entire command, in the Department
of Texas, to some State troops, with all
the Government property, thus con-
summating the first serious step in tho
drama OF the conspiracy, which was to
form a confcdcracy of the cotton States,
border States and before the fourth of
March, tho day for the Inauguration OF
President Lincoln. ! walked the streets
of New Orleans, and found business
going along as usual. Ships were
strung for miles along the lower lcvcc,
and steamboats, above, all discharSing
or receiving cargo. The Pelican flag Of
Louisiana was flying over the Custom
house, Mint, City Hall and everywhere.
At the Icvcc ships carried every flag on
earth except that of tho United States,
and was told that during Il procession
on the twenty-sccond of February,
celebrating their emancipation from the
despotisln of the United States Govern
mcnt, only one national flag was shown
from house, and that the house of
Cuthbert Bullitt, on Lafayette square.
He was commanded to take il down,
but he refused, and defended it with
his pistol. The only officer of the army
that ] can recall, rs being there at the
time who was faithful, was Colonel G..
l.. Kiiiburn, of the conmisSary depart
ment, and he was preparing to escape
North. Everybody regarded the change
of government as final; that Louisiana,
by a mere declaration, was Il free and