The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-02-12

A TRIBUTE TO HER HUSBAND.
Mrs. jeff erson DavIs's Memoir OF tho Con.
fcderate President.

A TRIBUTE TO HER HUSBAND.
Mrs. JEFF erson DavIs's Memoir OF tho Con.
fcderate President.
The memoir of ex-President Jefferson
Davis, written by Mrs. Davis and just
Issued, is dedicated "to the soldiers of the
Confederacy, who chcered and sustained
Jefferson Davis in the darkest hour by
their splendid gallantry, aud never with
drew their confidence from him when
defeat settled on our cause" Mrs. Davis
gives the full text of the correspondence
Of her husband with Generals Johnston
and Beauregard in regard to their alleg-
ed failure to follow up their successes
and describes graphically his distress al
| the reyerses which came upon the South
toward the close of the war.
When the Northern lines began to
compass the Southern capital the memoir
says:
1.-THE President WAS d prey to the
acutest anxiety during this period, and
again and again said: III could take
| one wing and Lee the other think We
! could between us wrest q victory from
| those people, At another time he ex.
| claimed: With Jackson, Lee would be
| on his feet"
After Gettysburg General R. E. Lee
said the defeat was all his fault and
| offered to lesign, in the belief that
younger and abler man than himseli
| could readily be obtained. II know
| that he will have as gallant and brave an
army as ever existed to second his efforts
and it would be the happiest day of my
life to see at its head q worthy leader,
| one that would accomplish more than
could perform and all that have wish
| ed" says the memoir.
The President replied: II have i'm
pressed upon you the propriety of avoid
ing all unnecessary exposure to danger,
because I felt your country could not
bear to lose you. To ask me to substitute
you by some one in my judgment more
fit to command, or who would possess
more of the confidence of the army, or oi
reaecting men in the country, is to de-
mand an impossibility."
Tighter and tighter grew the bonds
Wherewith Grant, with 10000 men, was
preparing TO bind Lee, with $4,000, at
Appomattox. AT last, exhausted by con-
slant fighting, with Gordon's rear guard
worn to "a frazzle," all means of escape
cut Of, Lees ragged, starving, sleeplesE
band was forced to surrender. Of this
surrender President Davis, who had re-
moved from Richmond, entirely approved
! as matter of necessity, but the subse.
quent surrender of Gen. J. E.. Johnston
took him entirely By surprise. Figures
are given to show that Johnston had
large numbers of soldiers, and was in
position to keep up the war and at least
force the enemy to accord more favorable
terms of peace. Virtually the distinction
of having ruined the South is bestowed
on Generals Besuregard and Johnston
Mr.. Davis has robust and we'll de-
yeloped opinion concerning Gen. Miles,
who is now filling such q conspicuous
position in the Indian troubles. He
was young man of twenty-five years.
though Major. General in command Of
Fortress Monroe at the time Mr.. Davis
was confined there. Mrs. Dayis accuses
him of annoying his prisoner. She
says:
"We excused much to General Miles,
whose opportunities to learn the habits
of refined people we're said to be few,
and his sectional feeling was very bitter,
but that he should not have been moved
at the age of twenty-six by the evident
physical and mental anguish of his pris-
oner, and should have devised ingenious
tortures for him, we could not understand.
~ Enough of this sickening retro
spect; my memory does not furnish a
record of the thousand little stabs he
gave his emaciated, gray-haired prisoner
Suffice it to say that he used his power
to insult and annoy to the utmost, and
in ways previously unknown and not tc
be anticipated by gentlefolk."
Many pages are devoted to a descrip.
ton of "Tortures of Fortress Monroe
in which General Miles appears in ar
urfavorable light. he is charged with
shackling the prisoner by brutal force
keeping him in q ver1in-infested cell.
withholding his clothes and linen and
making souvenirs out of all his posses
sions-eren his hair when he had it cut
At first President Johnson curtly re-
fused to SEQ Mrs. Davis, but aftel
ReYerdy Johnson, Mr.. VOORHEES, and Mr
Salisbury had demonstrated rather
sharply" he granted her en- interview
of which she says:
"The President was civil, even friend
ly, and said we must wait; our hope
is to mollify the public toward him.
told him that the public would not have
required to be nlolli6ed but for his pro
clamation that Mr.. Davis was accessory
to assassination, and added 4 am SURE
that whatoyor others believed, you die
not credit it, He said he did not, bu
Tas in tho hands Of wildly excited reo
pie, and must take such measures al
would show he was willing to sift th'
facts. then responded that there wa
never ths least intercourse between Mr.
Davis and Booth, or an effort to estab-
lish it, and remarked that IF Booth bat