Sentence:  The least dreadful among the essays stacked and waiting to be corrected would be that of young Master Jefferson Davis, who when imprisoned by Andrew Johnson in 1866 will ask his physician at Fortress Monroe to procure a few volumes of "<WSD>conchology</WSD>, geology, or botany," he desiring to commune with the interests of more innocent days. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the study of molluscs and their shells