Dear Sir:—In your
paper of the 1st inst., I observed a notice of a long article in the
"Mississippi Advertiser," being an attack upon my "friends"
in general, and myself in connection with the fact, that the 2d Mississippi
Regiment, had offered to elect me their Colonel, and that I declined to accept.
Much stress is laid upon a paragraph in a number of your paper issued whilst I
was in Mexico, referring to a rumor that I would probably become the commander
of the 2d Mississippi Regiment. I saw the paragraph, and at the same time
a notice of it in a New Orleans paper, which treated the rumor as ridiculous.
Either or both views seemed to me very unimportant, as no vacancy existed, and
there was no prospect that one would happen. Col. R. Davis left his Regiment on
leave of absence, not to resign, but to make such arrangements as would enable
him to return to his command, and remain during the war. This information
communicated to me, by himself, I frequently gave to others, to correct an
impression that he would not return.
He rejoined his
Regiment very soon after I left Monterey. Ill health has subsequently compelled
him to resign, and a vacancy thus unexpectedly occurred. In the mean time your
paragraph, which the Advertiser considers as so effective, had become old, if
you can bear the supposition, perhaps Sir, it was forgotten in the 2d Regiment;
the more supposible, as the report you noticed came from them, and could
acquire no additional importance by travelling back. The "Advertiser"
says: "The announcement of the rumor of some circumstances, had time to
reach the camp of the 2d Regiment in Mexico, and also the refusal of the tender
of the Brigadier Generalship." Now, Sir, I have just said I thought the
announcement had too much time, and I have some reason to believe the refusal
had not enough. A Physician formerly a member of the 1st Mississippi Regiment,
now on duty in the medical staff of the division which includes the 2d
Mississippi Regiment, wrote to me from camp Buena Vista, on the 10th July; five
days before the letter of the committee, from whose letter I make the following
extract: "The 2d Mississippi, leave for Augua Nueva, in a few days, and
more troops are expected up. We were all delighted to hear that you have been
promoted to Brigadier, and would take command of this Division."
The idea of electing
me Colonel of the 2d Mississippi Regiment, I have been informed by some of the
officers, was as old as its organization; and repeatedly when we were at
Monterey, members of the 2d Mississippi Regiment, expressed a wish, in the
event of their Colonelcy becoming vacant to have my services in that capacity.
These will remember, whilst I acknowledged the compliment, the extent to which
I always discouraged the proposition, and will recognize in the third reason of
my letter to their committee a principle they have heard me more fully present.
By them my reply might have been anticipated, yet if they supposed I could not
resist an invitation so generously and unexpectedly given, they were not far
wrong. Had
I been physically
able, and free to accept, they would probably have been right.
Now, Sir, to return
to the article of the "Advertiser," having gratuitously made the
supposition, that the invitation of the 2d Regiment, was procured to subserve
some purpose, and be refused, the editor with all the solemnity of an
indictment proceeds: "If Col. Jefferson Davis has, at any time, or in any
form," &c &c, to instruct me what it is requisite for me to do in
the case. To the low suspicion, I have nothing to reply. It must find its
rebuke in every ingenuous mind, and its refutation must come from my friends of
the 2d Mississippi Regiment, who best know the degree of its falsehood. How an
unprejudicated mind could originate such things, it is difficult to conceive. Nor
is it more easy for me to imagine whose vanity has been wounded, whose envy
excited, whose jealousy has prompted him to this misrepresentation of a free
offering, an honorable distinction, which my fellow citizens of the 2d
Regiment, have been pleased to confer upon me.
At the close of the
Advertiser's article, is a call for information as to the ground on which I
declined the proffered command. Those who volunteer advice, ought to have a
great deal of information, and I am happy to have it in my power to contribute
any. I therefore send you for publication the correspondence in relation to
this transaction. It is comprised entire, in two letters herewith enclosed. No.
1 the
letter of the committee, No. 2, a
copy of my reply.
SOURCE: Dunbar
Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters,
Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, pp. 96-8
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