Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-06-12

the allegation that the city was wantonly
fired by the Army of General Sherman,
either under his orders or with his consent
and permission. A large amount of testimony
was taken upon this subject, including that Of
General Hampton and other Confederate
officers on the part of the claimants, and of
Generals Sherman Logan, Howard Woods
and other Federal officers on the part of the
United States. The claims were all disal-
lowed, all the commissioners agreeing. l ana
advised that the commissioners were unani-
NOUS in the conclusion that the confagra-
ton which destroyed Columbia was not to
be attributed to either the Federal or Con-
federate officers. No British claimant
would have lost his case if Wade
Hampton's testimony was to have out
weighed that of Gen. o. 0. Howard,
/ Gen, W, T. Sherman, Capt. S. II. n. Byers,f
Col. j. G. Audenreid, Gen. W. B. Hazen,
Mr.. John B. Pierce, Gen. Chas. r. Woods,
Senator I. W. Osborn, Col. Maxwell Wood
hull, Col. John E. Tourtellotte, Col j. G.
Mccoy, Capt. II. W. Howgate, Gen. John
A. Logan and about dozen citizens, all
men of large intelligence, all personally
! present, and who testified under oath of
what they individually saw, and were ques-
toned and cross-questioned by acute law
! y
! cases.
declare that it is simply Infamous for
Mr.. Davis to offer the naked statement of
fact after such Judgment by tribunal of
/ justice to which he now owes an allegiance,
however unwilingly. Were it not for the
fact that he had published such statements
in foreign lands, | would be disposed to
treat his comparison of me with Alva and
/ Wallenstein as the fruit of his pOmpous
| vanity, for the likeness Is about as wide of
probability as his own resemblance to Ju-
Iius Cesar Again, he asserts that at
Greensboro, n. c., General Joseph L.
Johnston disobeyed his (Dayis's) orders to
retreat through the Carolinas, Georgia, &c,
toward Texas by a route along which sup
plies for the purpose had been collected so
as to prolong the war ad infnitum. How
many humane and good men thought that
after Vicksburg and Gettysburg the civil
war should have ended and that all the hor-
rors and devastations which afterward re-
suited are chargeable to the Confederate
authorities Whatever may be the judg-
ment of mankind on that PROPOSE
American citizen of the North
or the South but will feel debt of graft
tude to General Johnston for his good sense
and his humanity in stopping the war when
he did, in defiance of Davis's orders. To
: have resolved the war in April, 1865, from
one by grand organized armies into one OF
partisan guerillas would have been an un-
pardonable crime against humanity know
that at that time many of US dreaded such
an event, and | would not have believed that
man of such weight and experience could
have advised and ordered it, had not Mr.
Davis in his new book revealed the truth
over his own signature.
General Johnston still lives in vigor and
health, and is abundanty able to vindlcate
his soldierly fame against this and the other
filings which Mr.. Davis has east at him. !
may auude to the case in this connection to
show how blind Mr.. Davis seemed to have
become to the humanities of the war; how
little sympathy he felt for the marches, tolls
privations and deaths of his own soldiers, tc
advise and order" that the remnants OF
his armies should flee toward Texas, a thou.
sand miles through a country already dew
astated, pursued by a relentless foe, ant
thereby delaying for few short weeks OF
months his own hopeless fate