The leader., 1902-05-28
A ROAST FOR MILES.
Mrs. Jefferson Davis Estimate
of the General of the
Army.

Army
She Declares Him to be a Vul-
garian, a BOor and a
Plebe.
New York, May 21.-Mrs. Jefferson
Davis, the widow of the President of
the Southern Confederacy, pronounces
the autograph letter offered for sale in
the collection of Gen. Adam Badeau,
in which a bitter attack is made on
Gen. Nelson A. Miles, a forgery, and
not the work of her pen. Through
some mysterious agency the letter was
withdrawn from the sale, and it is said
that Gen. Miles was the purchaser,
and that he paid $500 for the faded
record of one part of his war career
that he wished to be forgotten.
Although Mrs. Davis denounced the
letter forgery, the mention of Gen.
Miles name aroused her in moment,
and she spoke of him in the utmost
bitterness of spirit, characterizing him
as ga vulgarian, boor and plebe."
In the collection was one letter an
nounced in the catalogue as follows:
"80-Davis (Varina) Mrs. Jefferson
Davis to Gen. Grant, 1865.
"Letter to Grant on behalf of her
husband, then in prison. He is tor
mented by series of petty tyrannies
exercised over him by the man now in
command. Gen. Miles makes spec
tacle of him for his (MilesO lady
friends, and, not liking to be made a
spectacle of, he retires to his quarters,
when the females pursue him. Please,
General Grant, go down to Fortress
Monroe and change Gen. Miles for an
older and kinder man. If he is not
spared to me I have no hope of keep
ing the wolf from my children's door.
Little hope has lighted me through
the valley of the shadow Of death into
which I seem to have walked A pa
thetic letter, written on 8 PIP, vo.
Slightly damaged.
The attention of several persons
interested in the literature of the civil
war was attracted, and one of them
made request four or five days be-
fore the sale for permission to examine
the letter and copy it. The applicant
was referred to the heirs of Gen. Ba-
deau, and when the night of the sale
came the letter was withdrawn.
Mrs. Davis, who lives in the Gerard,
was asked to relate the circumstances
which led to the writing of the letter.
II remember the incident perfectly, y
said Mrs. Davis, after she had read the
catalogue, "but l think that letter is a
forgery. How can | ever forget that
jailer or that Imprisonment? But the
language as given here is not mine.
"'Lady friend;' how could woman
of my class use such an expression?
And then l am supposed to write
please to Gen. Grant. In those days
l said please to my servants only, for
[ knew not what snub was. And, oh!
those closing lines are not my thought.
Never, never, did I employ high trag-
edy. 1t is unworthy of me. 1 don't
care if Gen. Badeau was Gen. Grants
private secretary, that letter was never
written or dictated by me.
"That it expresses contempt for that
person Miles is but natural, for he is
the one abomination of my life. |
we'll remember his hideous, uncouth
conduct when he was my husbands
jailer, and the insults which he leveled
at me and my daughters, not for pre-
arranged malice, but from ignorant
brutality and absence of decency.
81 did appeal to Gen. Grant at the
end of the war, but in person, and my
request was not granted. I also inter
coded with another Federal boor, Pres
ident johnson, and he treated me with
similar discourtesy. | wrote to John
son few days before his impeachment.
He replied by proxy that my husbands
fate rested with Congress.
81 answered that | must see him per-
sonally, and that his callousness
offended me. At last, softened by his
own misfortune, he ordered more hui
name treatment for my husband.
"Ah, how we'll | remember when Gen.
Miles was in command of those dismal,
gray barracks. He delighted in bring
ing school teachers and boarding
housekeepers there to see him in his
glory, for they were the only women
there who could abide his under
breeding.
HE would point out my husbands
cellfor their impudent stares, and his
remarks were so vile, so unfeeling,
that even now my cold blood boils
when | think of those days, with their
adverses and affronts. [ said to him
one day:
Gen. Miles, some day your conduct
will be your Nessus shirt. You will
writhe, tortured and disgraced.
'"Whose shirt was that?' asked the
untutored fellow.
II told him it was the shirt stepped
with the Centaur's blood, that stung
and burned the man who caused his
death. His ignorance in those days
was extraordinary The veriest negro
was more cultured He did not know
how to write before he came of age.
"But one thing transferred his des-
private soldier into the foremost
officer in the Republic. 1t was not
intelligence or moderation or genius.
ton. He cried for glory and honor,
and he struggled for them, and he has
conquered. His present position is
explained in the negro phrase, He rlz
by albergrease' lelbow grease), When
l published my memoirs in 1890, |
mildly exposed the brutality and alb
sence of character. of Miles. He re-
piled:
GO Who would believe. what that
woman says of United States off1cer?'
but greater man than Miles, Fed
eral officer and gentleman, publicly
announced in Washington that his