Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1881-10-28

pose of getting your saplent counsels, you |
we're very much mistaken as to the impor- !
lance of the position which you occupied |
in the estimation of those then earnestly |
intent upon dong something to avoid a
threatened disaster"
The letter concludes: 81 have now ex-
amined all the statements made in the
memoir on your alleged authority, and in
your letter which affects me, and the utter
groundlessness of your imputations, insin-
uations and criticisms has beet shown. l
think no candid man can read that men,
Dir and your letter without coming to the
conclusion that Gen. De Peyster is what
he processes to be-but the interpreter of
your views and sentiments. and that you
are palpably guilty of most unsnldieriy
and unworthy attempt to establish for
yourself fictitious reputation upon the
minds,of thousands of your brother officers.
/ have before heard suspicious expressed
that while operating about Petersburg you
were the trumpeter of your own fame
through the journals of that city, directly
and Indirectly. No man can now doubt
your propensity for blowing your own
horn, with the accompaniment Of some
very small whistles.
ut is very apparent, and you have not
interview with an officer of the opposing
army and bitter enemy of the cause and
country to which you professed devotion,
you have in a capering, illiberal spirit dis
cusSed the character Of those who were
engaged with you in the defense of a just
and holy cause. The result of that inter-
view is biography of yourself so nause-
ously fulSome, as far as you are concerned
and so utterly unjust and illlberal as re-
CARDS your former comrades, that the
Northern publisher of it cannot withhold
the expression of his disgust while he is
made to swallow the pill forced on him IN
the fulfilment of bargain. In all my
| reading of biography, from Plutarch down.
[ have never read the memoir OF any man
in my age in which he has been made to
utter the 1.-THE of so many illiteral things
about his contemporaries. In the whole
| mentor have failed to discover solitary
expression of kind or liberal word or
sentiment in regard to any of your old
| comrades from the commanding general
uown, save and except Gen jackson. I'M
| der whom you never served; and along
with the praise of him is the lmpudent
pretence that his mantle had fallen on you;
Great God Stonewall Jackson and Billy
Malone. Hyperion to Satyr. cannot
pursue the subject further, and leave you
Your obedient servant,
". A. EARLY"
|
June 8, all the parties being still in Lynch
burg, was handed Gen. Early by Capt. j.
| H. Chamberlain. 1t is in these words:
General, your communication of the 3Oth
ult, was duly received by me on the 31st.
/ Had it been written with full knowledge
of all the facts in the case there could of
course be but one answer. Waving all
mere technicalities. as cannot allow my
self to be forced into quarrel, the result
| In rrrfov lorf
| think it due to myself to inform you that
on the 18th April last [ directed the re-
publication of the memoir, with such cor
rections as | supposed would remove any
Just ground of complaint on the part of
yourself and others. This statement
should have been made IN my letter to you
Of the Oath ult., but was omitted under
the pressure of the many engagements de.
handing my attention. | shall forward
you a copy OF this publication as soon as
received by me, and meanwhile withhold
any reply to your last. l am, General, &C.,
MALONE"
Efforts were Immediately instituted by
Gen. Mahone's friends to secure negOtia-
ton, and Gen. Early consented to await
Gen. Mahone's return from New York.
Gen. Malone sent to Gen. Early the proofs
of the revised memoirs, from which had
been struck out every mention of Gen.
Early's name. 1t Afterwards transpired
that this was most unwillingly published
by the editor, and then only as an advel.
tisement. Gen. Bradley T. johnson and
Col. R. r. Withers being solicited by the
friends of Malone who began the efforts
to make peace, meanwhile visited Lynch
burg and prevailed on General Early to
withdraw the correspondence and let the
matter rest. After another pacific letter
from Malone, General Early accepted his
reparation, all ground OF offense as TO him
self being withdrawn by the action taken
no personal relations, and ret iined the
right to use the correspondence at his own
discretion.
General Early concludes thus:
The whole of the correspondence is now
given to the public in order that it may be
seen how far have been guilty of ''un
provoked malice and indirectioa' towards
William Malone.
will say that the object of my cores
pondence with him was neither with q
view of challenging him nor provoking d
challenge from him; bnt was for very
different purpose, which an intelligent
reader cannot fail to perceive. | may add
that. so far was | from sending him a
challenge to fight a duel, had no occasion
for doing SO.
1t will be perceived that, in his letter to
me of the 9Th of July, 1871, he says that he
"bad not read the article in the "Maga-
zine'' - until he saw it in the copy loan
ed him; and though he admits that be
previously saw it in the ''Mal," yet he
says that he then read only parts of it
the unavoidable inference from which is
that he then obtained his first knowledge
of the memoir of himself by Gen. De
| Pevster.
The fact is, as have since learned, that
the Memoir was exhibited to him in man
uscript, by General De Peyster, and was
corrected by Col. S. Basset French, &C
cording to Mahone's directions, before a
word of it was published in either the New
York Evening Mall' or the Historical
Magazine" Whether my information is
correct in shat respect, Gen. De Peyster
| and Colonel French can say.
Is it necessary for me to submit the
question to an intelligent public. whether
/ was correct in my Characterization of
William Malone in my remarks in Rich
mOnd?
| The idea that it was my purpose in ma
king those remarks to provoke him into a
duel with me is wholly unfounded-I knew
| there Was No danonr Of that