The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-29
TnWorfhy of the Honor

are ablaZe WITH patriotism II does seem
to Us that congress could be engaged
in better work that furuhering the
selfish ends OF Major General Miles.
Since his advent in the service, he has
by pulling every political sring been
putting himself forward n se9flsnly
disregarding the feelings q brother o.
ficers. He Is now making every effort
TO push a bill through congress reaLng
the position of lieutenant general, $
that he nay attain that rank The
south has nothing but respect for the
great soldiers of the north. but IL is
dificust to see how m right thinking
American can desire the promotion of
a man 50 brutal ard destitute OF the in
srincts of a gentleman as this man
Miles is shown to De by the extracts.
which we today publish from the book
by Mrs. Jefferson Davis, entitled:
Jefferson Davis. a Memoir BY His
Wife" as follows:
In a little while General Miles came
in and assured me OF Davis good
health. He showed the same economy
Of titles in speaking of my husband
from the time I went there ungR our
departure. Sometimes he varied the
nomenclature by calling him JEFF Davis
or Jef."-Page 75S.
THE bed was 50 infected in insects
as TO make a ~perceptible odor to the
rooTn.'-Page 759.
He (Mr: Davis was bitter at no
earthly creature, bu expressed su-
prene contempt for the petty insults
inflicted hourly upon him by Genera
Miles, who, he said, had exhausted his
ingenuity to find something more af-
ficting to visit pon him."-Page $50.
General Burton, as l accidentally
learned, a i Mr.. Davis, which stare
ment was afterwards verified by him
when deciding upon a easement for me,
was advised by General Miles to put
me on the side of the fort occupied by
the camp wcnren he said there was
an improperly in associating me with
the families of the officers, but Genera
| Burton declined ito offer me the indig-
nifty, and assigned me a casemate in
the row with the officers wives Page
763.
I'VE excused much TO General Miles,
| whose opportunities to learn tine habits
of refined people Were said to have
been few, and his sectional feeling was
very bitter, but that he Should not have
been moved at the 6 of 26 by the
! evident physical and mental anguish OF
his prisoner, and should rave devised
ingenious fortunes for him, we could
not understand."-Page 764.
"EnOguh of this Sickening retrospect
my memory does not furnish a record
of the Thousand little stabs he gave
his emaciated, g~ray-haired prisoner
Suffice it Ito say he used his power TIC
insult and annoy to the utmost, and in
ways previously unknown and not tc
be anticipated by gentlefolk Page
766.
when he OTfles) was to be promoted
to a higher grade, one of his friends
wrote Ito Mr.. DaviS for an expression
of his opinion about General Miles
conduct to him., saying that, from Mr
Davis not having chacterized it in his
book, it was hoped he Would say there
had been no ~unsoldierly persecution %
a helpless prisoner. To this Mr.. Davi:
sent a most emphatic assertion If Gen.
eral Miles humanity and cruel conduct
and also wrote a letter to a senator
from Mississippi, which did not reach
him, owing ITO his being out of tow
when the confirmation occurred, els,
it would have been read in the senate
Page 766.
'Sir Hudson Lowe has received dur
ing the years that have elapsed since
NapOleUn'S death, the e~XecratiOn of al
brave men for seventies practiced OF
him at ST. Helena; out these were fau
less stringent, and the insults much
less overt and degrading ITO England
and himself, than those inflicted b,
Gene AL Miles upon Mr.. Davis. Mr.
Da is silence in his book was, beca,ls.
he did not choose to appeal to a publit
tribunal to characterize the wrongs h
could not, in his Old age and broker
health avenge."-Page 76S.
General Miles is not worthy to mol
the rank of lieutenant general Of ths
United States army.-Richmond IVA
Times.