The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-05-26

standing like adamant against the pro-
Southern feeling in the regiment.
have under my hand as | write the
"omcial Army Register for 1861" Issued
by the Adjutant General OF the United
States Army, 1 January, 1851 and |
September. 1861. There were in Jan
uary. 1861. eleven officers in tao 2nd
VINO had been appointed from States
absolutely Southern, twelve appointed
from Northern and Western States
and fourteen appointed from Border
Statss-ih all thirty-seven officers.
When the momentous crisis came. nine
teen of these officers took the North
ern side (though Lieutenant Withereil.
of Michigan, was drowned before the
regiment left Texas. and thus saw no
service). and eighteen entered the Con-
federate Army. Poor Major. how thes,
really official records" knock into a
cooked hat" his tawdry rhetoric about
Thomas's ''unswerving loyalty, Gle
stood alone" says Pia,tH
g. Then comes real bonnie bouche
OF lovely myth, which he quotes
from 'ex-President James A Garneld's
which GARFIELD records p. IL that
when a comrade asked Thomas what
he would do If Virginia should
vote to secede-he made the warm
retort, Will help to whip her
back" 1 shall say nothing about
record (p. 12) that when comrade
asked Thomas what he would do n
Virginia should vote to secedc-he made
the warm retort. I Will help to whip
her back" l shall say nothing about
the ex- President-the man is dead ana
forgotten--but 1 must again refer the
Major (Piatt. p. $40 SD to the Wit
riolic contempt with which his oracle"
speaks of Garheld's Infamous" ,reach-
cry in plotting against t;osccrans while
If
eral. Now. the Major. with his real
talent for suppressing inconvenient
passag land even whole documents.
as We shall see later on). deliberately
omits the words in Garhelds frothy
and mendacious Grafton that give us
the time of the myth. What Garfield
really said was, with hut two excep-
tions all the officers from the seeded
States, who belonged TO the End Cav
airy. Joined the rebellion. Thomas was
one of the two. While his brother
officers We're leaving and at ono. tax
ing high command in the rebel army.
a comrade asked Thomas" etc. Quoted
above) (Garfield's Works. t. 5000. Now
just a Wee drop of the acid of truth
on this putrid mass of ignorant false
hood. and IT vanishes in foul exhala-
lions. Thomas left the regiment in
Texas on l November. 1860, and went
North on leave. At that time not a
single Southern State had seeded. no
Officers we're leaving" and no rebel
army was in existence in which they
could at once take high command"
The Second" remained in Texas until
the following April, so we find Thomas
in New York valiantly procla!mlng his
"unswerving loyalty to his comrades
more than a thousand miles away.
Isn't 1t funny. isn't 1t sad. that men
with boards on their faces can utter
dri
The Major. no doubt, saw the DIFF
ftculty. but having resolved to retail
the myth for the benefit of English
readers. adopted the simple and ingen-
ious device of suppresaing the passage
that give the whole story the lie.
/ now come to the most fragrant in
stance of what Is practically shame
less suppression on the Majors part.
SO far as English readers are con-
cerned. OF the actual documents" that
would enable Englishmen TO d,clde for
themselves.
Let me preface briefly that there are
two documents" of the first impor-
tance bearing on this question OF Cen
eral Thomas's attitude towards resign
only second to them. owing to tho
fact that they come from officers who
enjoyed a very close friendship with
him: % two letters In Thomas's own
handwriting, now in the MSS. Division
of the Virginia State Library; (2)
letter from Major General Fitzhugh
Lee printed in the Richmond Dis
patch" OF % April. 1870; ca FIFTY
Years Observation" etc, of Maj.-Gen-
eral L. d. Keyes. u. S. a. Why did
not this meticulously accurate Major
print in his communication single
word OF any of them? Above all or
he pleads lack of space" for ali four).
why did ne not publish Thomas's let
ter to Governor L>tcher of Virginia,
dated IL March. 1861. Conclusive
document" which 1 first printed ("with
a few appropriate remarks'D in the
New York "Sun" OF 90 December, 1893?
He did not do so because he was afraid
to let English readers see what Thomas
had said himself. He knew that, what
ever else Englishmen may be, they
are not fools, and that had he pub
iishcd that one letter his wretched So
phisms would have been received by
English soldiers with scornful Homcric
laughter. So this choleric Major. who
plumes himself upon referring to of
fetal records TO be known to (sic) all
men" (yet never cites single one
in all his plethora of citations). prints
none of the important documents"
named above, but sneakingly refers to
Plat PIP. So ct seq" (sic) and "Piatt,
p. ST." knowing full we'll that not one
OF the readers of the Saturday Review
could have access to Piatt's envenomed
book "a perfect storehouse OF malig
nant perversion,) unless perchance.
sufficiently interested to make n pilgri-
mage TO the British Museum. IL. indeed,
a copy of the book may be found even
there.
Thus, practically suppressing the
whole of the apparatus criticus. he
proceeds to give his own gloss of the
contents of these letters. I need not
say that this gloss is deliberately falst
from top TO bottom.
In the first letter. Thomas, who had
received a twist of his spine in alight-
ing from a railway car" writes under
date OF is January, 1861. to Colonel
Francis II. Smith Gan old West Point
err who had resigned as far back az
1861 superintendent of the Virginia
Military Institute" State institution.
To-