The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-14
A TALE OF OTHER DAYS
By JOHN wIrHER SPOON DU BOSE

ried the polls and became secessionist
 and this brought about his election to the convention and explains the applause for
 him. He took the field on the first call
 or the Confederacy He was made col- onel of the Seventeenth Alabama infan-
 try. He never was in any battle. The regiment was one of Bragg's, which ren-
 dezvoused at Corinth in February and
 March, 1862, to met Gen. A. s. Johnston and the troops from Kentucky and New
 Orleans. Without notice to him at all, just before the battle of Shiloh, Colonel l Watts received an order to repair to Rich mond. He had been made attorney gener- al in the Davis cabinet MT. Davis had a penchant for old Union men for Con
 federate favor. It was most strange and fatal notion in Mir Davis.
 l In the August state elections, the year 1861, Shorter had defeated Watts for gov
 ernor. The vote was only about 6O000, and i, Shorter's majority about 10000. Shor-
 ters ardent support of the secession movement had given him a deserved pop ularity, but the maqjority he received
 was in no small degree due to the hesi- tancy with which Watts had entered the contest He had held back his consent to run too long to do himself justice in an election. At the next election, August, 1868, Watts defeated Shorter By that time a large proportion of the voters were
 in the field, with arms in their hands. The public mind was not in it's normal state of political equilibrium. Governor Shorter had been most devoted to his task.
 No incumbent of the office could have been more efficient than he. Watts knew that fact and did not want the office.
 He did not raise little finger to get it. ! He regretted to take it.
 A very interesting incident in the Watts administration took place. which I shall relate in a few words. On January l.
 1864, Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne called to- | gether. at night, all the commanders of
 the army of Tennessee, then at Dalton,
 under Gen. Joe Johnston, to meet at General Johnston's headquarters. None knew what Cleburne meant by the call. 1 His staff had seen him in his tent, busily writing. for two days. The meeting was full. All were on tiptoe awaiting a word from a hero so full of freshly earned honors as the young Irish major general. for it had been only little more than a month since he had saved Bragg's army. the same army now present, from utter annihilation. in it's route from Missionary Ridge.
 We'll, Cleburne took from his pocket roll of manuscript and began to read. The paper said at the outset that tho slaughter of battle fields had done noth- ing to secure the life of the Confeder- acy. The armies of the confederacy had slept on all the great fields of combat and had run away from no foe. The showing was, tens of thousands of maimed heroes. thousands upon thousands of graves where slept heroes. None of these could be replaced. Where a man fell or was disabled in battle, none took his place. The enemy had everything west of the Mississippi that he cared to have: he had New Orleans. he had all of Kentucky and all of Tennessee; he had all of West Virginia, all of north Alabama; he had practically all of tho Atlantic coast and he commanded the Mississippi from end to end. The only re- suit in sight from the policies of the past was rapid and certain extinction of all Confederate armies and dire collapse of the movement.
 What was 10 be done? Free and arm the slaves. That was the thing to do and win q riors liberty. He, Cleburne, would resign from his matchless division to take black division with utmost con- fidence.
 This matter caused great alarm at Richmond President Davis directed General Johnston to suppress all discus sion of it.
 About September following the January when Cleburne read his paper at Dalton, all the southern governors that could get to Augusta, Ga. convened there to dis cuss that very paper Watts, governor of Alabama, was there. Before deliberation had been concluded, Watts got a telegram calling him home to sick family. The other governors present unanimously re- 1 solved to support the plan advised by ! Cleburne. free and enlist in the ranks all the slaves who would and officer them with their old masters.
 I The legislature convened. Governor Watts sent a message announcing his en- 1 tire dissent from the resolution of the gov ernors at Augusta. He said the Confed- eracy could and would win it's battle with white soldiers: that all was well; there was no cause for alarm, but the con- l trary. He would never make a negro a
 (Continued on Lust Pagel