The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-23

at Five Forks, March 81, 1866. He was
taken prisoner of war near Williamsport,
Va, on September IA, 1862, and released
on parole in October, 1862. He surren-
dered at the close of the war, and was
paroled in May, 1865. A more gallant
exhibit it would be hard to make up,
Such men live in history.
In order to show what estimate was
placed upon Captain Dawson by the Con-
federate Generals it may not be out OF
place to refer to certain letters of recon-
mendation given to him when he made
application for admission into the
Charleston Survivors Association in
1869. These letters are signed by Com
modore Pegram, Generals Longstreet, R.
H. Anderson and Fitzhugh Lee, and all
agree in saying that che was brave
soldier and an efficient officer"
At the time of the surrender Captain
Dawson found himself without country
and without home,
DRIFTING WITH THE TIDE,
with three cent postage stamp in his
pocket to pay expenses. There was no
premium on merit in the dark days of
1S65-bread and meat was the height OF
mans ambition, and to reach this was
constant struggle. A paroled prisoner
with pocketfuI of inflated Confederate
currency starting out in life with de-
termination to do the square thing was a
living spectacle of wonder to the world.
This was one of the fruits of that long
and severe struggle in which the South
was the vanquished, and it has been fol-
lowed by multitude of evils.
Captain Dawson's first work after the
surrender was book-keeper in dry
goods store in Petersburg, Virginia,
where he sang "the song of the shirt" for
fourteen hours day, at q salary of thirty
dollars month. This is what we would
call retrenchment in these days of reck-
less extravagance-getting down to a
specie basis. In the fall of 1865 Captain
Dawson was offered a trial as local re-
porter for the Richmond Examiner by
Henry Rives Pollard, which he was then
about to revive. This position was readi-
ly accepted and faithfully filled, and
with this experience began Dawson's
career as a public journalist. But the
smell of battle was on his garments, and
the peaceful tripod did not save him
from the "honor" of acting as Pollard's
best friend when he cowhided Brooks, of
the New York Times, and when he had
his triangular duel in the capitol at Rich
mond, in which the turret of Washing
toms cane (Houdon's) was shot of. One
fair night a squad of United States
soldiers shut up the Examiner Office.
On the next day after this Dawson was
offered better place as reporter on the
Richmond Dispatch, which he at once
embraced and filled with great credit
until the summer of 1866, when he gave
up his position and became route agent
for the National Express Company,
which venture very soon failed.
HIS JOURNALISTIC CAREER.
Mr.. Riordan, Captain Dawson's present
partner in the Charleston Me,cs and C6u-
7ier, was news editor of the Richmond
Examiner at the same time that he was
local, and in the Examiner Office they
Joined hands and determined that they
would at some future time start o paper
of their own in Charleston, S. G. How
well they have carried out this determi-
nation is now known to every newspaper
reader in this State. In the fall of 1865
Colonel R. B. Rhett, jr., who had heard
of Captain Dawson through Mr.. Riordan,
then connected with the Charleston 1u-
rier, offered him the position of assistant
editor of the Charleston Mercury. This
offer, was accepted, and the laborious
duties of the position most acceptably
performed. 1t is worthy of note that in
the spring of 1867 Mr.. Dawson waited in
person on the two Rhetts, father and son,
and made the formal proposition to them
that they should advise the South to
swallow the Fourteenth Amendment, to
avoid worse trouble; that the Mercury
could do this because no one would sus-
pect it of cowardice or disloyalty to the
South; that it would ensure the prosperi-
ty of the Mercury, make it the paper of
the South and save the people from
frightful misery. In the fall of 1867,
October 26, Captain Dawson and Mr.. b.
R. Riordan bought an interest in the
Charleston Neps, which they have pub.
lished ever since as the Ne,Cs, until April
8, 1873, when they purchased the old
Charleston Courier, and consolidated the
two. papers under the name of the
News and Courier. In the business man
agement of their paper this firm has been
eminently successful, and have efectually
wiped out all competition and opposition.
They have all along struck that golden
political mean which the people SO much
admire and the country in her poverty
and desolation so sadly needs.
In the early part of 1868 MIR. Dawson
attempted to form combination with
the colored people, and put some colored
men on the Aldermanic ticket in the
Charleston municipal elections. The
movement failed at that time, of course.
The hot blood of the So s.@, /.
BoMB-pRooF POLITICIANS "'i-a
had not sufficiently cooled to allow them
to think of such a thing. The country
was slowly learning to recognize the
changed conditions of things, and the
masters were unwilling to make any con-
cessions or solicit any favors from their
quondam slaves. There was no unanim.
ity of sentiment, no great platform of
principles, and fate had to take its course.
The first political meeting ever held in
Charleston in which respectable demo-
Gratis and colored men worked together,
was arranged and organized and the ex-
penses paid by Mr.. Dawson, who has al
ways manifested great concern in the vel
fare and prosperity of the freedmen
these hostages to fortune"-and who
makes their rise and progress a kind of
chronological study. ..l. .s....s. :.
1t was by Captain Dawson's own indi-
vidual efforts that the Press Conference
of 1870 was called together: its object,
the calm and dispassionate consideration
of the condition of the country, and the
adoption of such line Of policy as
would lead to the thorough conservation
of all our interests. 1t was especially
designed to give unity and strength to