The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-08-26
RETRlBUTI0N.
4 3. Williams in Richmond News

3. Williams in Richmond News
S Leader.
Thirty-eight years ago tomorrow two
mea we're walking side by side on
the ramparss Of Fortress Monroe. One
Of them was jefferson Davis, 81 years
Old. the defeated, crushed and captive
leader of a government oyerthrown, q
country desolate and beaten, the rep
resantative of a peoples bright dreams
vanished and hopes biotted out IN
their best blood. He was feeble. vast
ed. STOPPING and helpless. barely able
TO walk, compelled to pause now and
then for rest, gasping at the free air
which he was permitted to breathe as
. special favor and after long denial.
The other Of the two men was Nelson
Appleton Miles. stalWart and sturdy,
26 years old, in the very flush and
prime Of vigorous young manhood,
having risen from the ranks to breFet
maior-general, commander of an army
corps, one OF the fayorite heroes Of a
triumphant country and conquering
army
As the order of General Miles, about
three msnths before, on May g, 1865,
Alr Davis has been shackled. The
former president of the Confederate
States OF America was physically a
weak, worn and sick man. He was
confined in fort with great thickness
IS Of stone wall, with many locked
iron doors. trebled lines of armed SEN
finels and q deep moat with high walls
betWeen him and the possibilities Of
escape or rescne. Yet he was thrown
to the stone door Of his cell by four
strong yount, soldiers while guards
sscod by with cooked and loaded mus
kets, and shackIes we're fastened on
his emaciated ankles. Thus degraded
and tortured, he was kept day after
day in hot, shiny and feotid cell,
denied moment of solitude or peace,
with light blazing in his eyes ali
night and an armed soldier standing
guard over him every moment of every
hour. He wsls denied the commonest
comforts and necessities allowed to the
Yilest conyicts in our penitentiary.
Private soldiers were given. the right
10 insult him and it was part of their
dUtF to offend his natural human in.
stincts and tastes in small and large
details of life. All this was done by
the order Of General Nelson A. Miles.
Now. after these thirty eight years
Mr.. Davis sleeps peacefully in Holly
wood, With the rushing waters of the
James river, singing endless requiem
nearby, with the love and reverence OF
his own people for bis memory ex-
pressd daily in a thousand ways, with
The growing respect of the world for
his character and principles demon
strated daily. General Miles, after a
career Of apparently brilliant success,
after years in which, to do him right,
he did good and valiant service for the
country. is dismissed from the COM
mand Of the army of the Union, with
scant courtesy, with curt words from
ms commanding officer. which must
sting and raakle in his soul and which
win stand to belittle his record all
through history. He is wounded deep.
il in his vanity. a sensitive part for
syery man, but in him abnormally de-
yeloped and peculiarly sensitive. There
is for the noment. some outburst Of
synpahy for him-or rather of simu-
lated sympathy from those anxious to
ind cause for quarrel with the presi-
dent but he is doomed to obscurisy.
10 modification. to humiliation. We
wonder if rhe memory of those days
at Fortress Monroe comes to him in
these times of his owns disaster and
suffering in his old age, and if he
thinks now and then that perhaps it
may be retribution. Be it remember
ed, as he knows well, that the torture
Of the prisoner was Miles own act
and will He aud his friends attempt
cd to throw the shame on the secretary
of war, but the documents stand to
shov that the commander at Fortress
Monroe was left free to follow his own
judgment and feeling in the treatment
Of his prisoner.
In the fush days of the reconstruc-
sion period in South Carolina there
was a burly, broad-shouldered, we'll
dressed carpet-bagger, who held some
profitable local Office. Men and NO.
men used to look at him with shudder-
ing repulsion and hate, for it was
whispered that he was the man who