In The Review Queue: Stonewall's Lieutenant

Stonewall's Lieutenant: The Life of General Elisha Franklin Paxton, Commander of the Stonewall Brigade

By Gerald L. Maatman Jr.

This is not only the first biography of Brigadier General Elisha Paxton; it is a fresh insight into the nature of Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate army, and the secessionist movement.

Like Stonewall Jackson, Elisha Franklin Paxton enjoyed status among the economic, social, and intellectual elite of Lexington, Virginia before the Civil War. Political debates at Lexington's Franklin Society put Elisha Paxton and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on icy terms before the war. Just a few years later, in November 1862, Paxton was promoted directly from the rank of major to that of brigadier general and placed in command of the Stonewall Brigade, one of the most respected and feared formations on either side of the conflict. The appointment was made by Lee at the personal request of Paxton's prewar adversary, Stonewall Jackson. Paxton, with no prewar military experience before the war, had become Stonewall's trusted acolyte.

Elisha Paxton's brief life was full of both achievement and contradictions. How did a volunteer soldier rise to command a brigade in less than two years? Why did Stonewall place such faith in a man he would not even speak with before the war? How could a devout Christian, who described slavery as "violation of god's law," become a fervent secessionist? The experiences of Elisha Paxton provide fascinating insight into the workings of the Confederate army and the mind of Stonewall Jackson. A dispassionate study of Paxton's writings leads to uncomfortable discussions about Paxton's personal morality and the greater political and social context of the Civil War. Author Gerald L. Maatman Jr. dives into all of the above in objective, scholarly, and comprehensive fashion in this sweeping biography of Brigadier General Elisha F. Paxton.

ISBN 978-0764372018, Schiffer Military History, © 2026, Hardcover, 7 x 10 x 2.2 inches, 576 Pages, Photographs, Illustrations, Appendicies, Guide to Manuscript Sources, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $45.00.  To Purchase the book click HERE.

Lewis E. Harvie to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 4, 1857

[AMELIA, VA.], September 4th, 1857.

MY DEAR HUNTER: I find your letters at home after an absence of six weeks from the State. Just having returned of course I am not well posted in regard to current events. I am sufficiently so however to feel very confident that your reelection is safe. I came thro' the North West over the Baltimore and Ohio R[ail] R[oa]d and saw Judge Camden and Oldham who told me that you would get the whole vote of that section of the State. I heard from Alfred Barbour at the same time, the same thing. From Jack Willis and Jack Barbour at the same time I heard that from Alexandria thro' the red land country under the mountain all was right. Lee alone preferring Wise and he not daring to misrepresent what he knows to be the will of his constituents. The Southside is all our own, I am sure. Powell's and Richardson's districts [are] all right. Your own county I suppose is sound. Still our friends should be alert and active, for we have fierce, unscrupulous and wiley foes. Write again and tell me all you know, what and where are the weak points and I will help to strengthen them. Your views and policy are all right and I and Wm. Old, Jr and Lewis [?] have been impressing them on Pryor warmly and earnestly before I went away. Pryor has been away from his post for a month leaving his paper in the hands of his assistant and his paper has lost ground and is losing it I fear daily. He had the Enquirer down and has now lost the advantage. I had urged Mayo to write to him to return at once and I think he will when he gets my message. In the mean time Wm. Old has sent a communication down to-day, which I presume will appear as an Editorial placing the paper on the true ground which is the same as that suggested in your letter. This he will follow up with others. I have written to Mayo to place the paper on it and not to drug it. To keep V[irgini]a in the Democratic party at the head of the South and not at the tail of the north and to appeal to State pride and urge upon him not to abandon her principles and natural allies for the purpose of getting broken victuals to feed her hungry politicians. I am and have been all along out and out against making war on Buchanan. It will be time enough when he does something not covertly but openly that will justify it. Any attack on him now only weakens his assailants and strengthens him. If we are to strike let us be clearly right and put him clearly in the wrong and then we can strike hard. Granting that we are able to pull down the pillars of the temple now cui bono. It crushes us as well as him. No I am for giving him full and fair play, supporting him until he drives us off, and to the end of the chapter. At the same time I have little hope that he will permit us to do it. I for one however will assail each in its turn every violation of principle and pledge, until forbearance ceases to be a virtue and then I will war on their authority, but not our Democracy, I am done with that. I wish to live and die in the Democratic fold and faith and shall fight enemies from without or false friends within under the broad shield and panoply of Democracy. Let us all take this position and be brave ourselves and we will keep these hungry curs in their proper places. I do not see any thing that you can do until the meeting of Congress. Then you should and I suppose will take the first opportunity to define your own position and not allow these gentry to make one for you. They can't put you against the administration if you don't choose to be against it, nor can they prescribe the mode and manner of your support or the extent of your opposition. In the meantime his excellency in his zeal for old Buck [Buchanan] or himself is as likely to run afowl of something or other in or out of his way as one that I know and his ex-excellency may be expected to protect the interest of Uncle Sam in other transactions as effectually as he is said to have done in the sale of Fort Snellings and be as implicity trusted by the people of Virginia as he is now. We have beaten these men before and can and will do it again. Keep me advised and trust [William M.] Ambler and Wm. Old implicitly. I name these because they are in the Legislature and should understand every move at once.

I sat up late last night on two strong cups of coffee to keep my eyes open in order to reply to your letters, as soon as I got them. That admirable narcotic having the effect of exciting my brain, may have prevented me from giving such a reply to your letter as it required and would have gotten when it ought to have reached me. Since then no doubt great changes have taken place in the tactics and perhaps in the views of the coalition. That they will crush us if they can is certain. If they can't they will say that they wouldn't if they could and perhaps one of them that he would "crawl to Washington to make you President." "Nous verrons” We will be more than a match for them. There is no doubt, that Wise is or has been at work. Write and tell me all you know.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 220-2

Edward Everett to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 5, 1857

(Private and confidential.)

MEDFORD, MASS., September 5, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR: I was lately invited by the municipal authorities of Knoxville, to come there and repeat my Discourse on the character of Washington, during the recent session of the Southern Convention. A previous engagement in the State of Maine made it impossible for me to accept the invitation.

About the same time, I was invited and warmly urged by the ladies of the Virginia Association for the purchase of Mount Vernon to go to Richmond early in November, with a view to repeat my "Washington" during your State Agricultural fair. I have received similar invitations to go to Petersburg from the Executive Committee of the United Virginia and North Carolina Agricultural Society and from several other places in the Southern States.

The state of my family is such, as to make it very difficult for me to leave home, long enough for a Southern tour. I have accordingly not been able definitely to accept any of these invitations, and it is altogether possible that I may not.

Should I be able to overcome the domestic obstacle to the journey, there would still remain a ground of hesitation. The invitation to Knoxville above alluded to was made the subject, (so I am informed, for I never saw the article) of a severe attack upon me in the columns of "the South," in reference to the assault on Mr. Sumner. A visit to Richmond and an extensive Southern tour would probably produce new manifestations of Mr. Pryor's unfriendly feelings towards me. Coming as I should by the invitation of an Association of Ladies and upon an errand whose success depends entirely on the kind feelings of the community, such a course, on the part of an influential press, followed up as it would probably be by other presses which sympathize with "the South," would go far to defeat the object of my journey.

Nor need I scruple to add, that it must necessarily be a source of annoyance to me, to my personal friends and the ladies from whom my invitation to Richmond proceeds. I own I do not perceive any valuable political object which Mr. Pryor expects to accomplish, by these attacks upon me, for this is not the first. If I were in public life or intended to return to it, I might imagine a motive; at any rate I should have too much self-respect to deprecate any man's hostility, however formidable. But as things are, their only possible effect will be to deprive the Mount Vernon fund of a few thousand dollars, which I should otherwise earn for it at the South and so play into the hands of Horace Greeley and Wendell Phillips, who lose no opportunity of flying at my throat and barking at my heels; and who enjoy their greatest triumph when a Northern Conservative is abused at the South.

Supposing you to be in possession of Mr. Pryor's confidence I have concluded, after some hesitation, to request you to consider the expediency of advising him, to allow me to visit the South for the purpose of repeating my address for the benefit of the Mount Vernon fund, unmolested.

I need not say that, if any duty called me to the South, no man's hostility would prevent my going. But this is a voluntary and private errand, proposed by ladies, appealing to the kind feelings of the Community, of a patriotic but not a political character. I do not therefore feel obliged to subject my friends or myself to the annoyance of personal attack, perhaps of a bitter controversy, from a press conducted with so much vigor as "the South."

I make these representations to you confidentially, relying upon our friendly personal relations, my great personal respect for you and an opinion-perhaps the prompting of vanity-that a statesman of your comprehensive views would, even on general grounds, be inclined to discountenace such a warfare as Mr. Pryor seems disposed to wage on a person now in retirement, whose public life has perhaps been marked by nothing so much, as the unrelenting hostility of the enemies of the Constitution and the Union, in the Northern States. I may add that Mr. Pryor's recent attack upon me was made in entire ignorance of the material facts of the case.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 222-4

Charles W. C. Dunnington to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 7, 1857

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 7, 1857.

DEAR SIR: An article appeared in the Virginia Sentinel on last Friday, which astonished me very much. I went to Alexandria next day and called on R[ichard]. M. Smith, but he had gone to Fauquier. The article looked very much as if the editor desired to put Gov. Smith forward at your expense. Since then I have seen Col. Wm. F. Phillips, who was told by Mr. Finks that Smith intended to take ground for you against Wise. As soon as I can see him I will find out what he is after.

Dr. Tait says he never thought of applying for an office, until Rush Floyd wrote to him that he could get the appointment of 6th auditor if he would apply for it. It is a movement of Gov. Floyd to get his brother into the State Senate, that he may aid the Secretary of War in his schemes. Gov. Floyd told Harris of the Union, that you would be defeated. On the other hand, Gov. Smith told Col. Phillips last week that you would be reelected. Gov. Smith was here about ten days ago and says that in a conversation with the President, Mr. B[uchanan] said he supposed you would be in opposition to his administration.

Robt. E. Scott, of Fauquier, who defended the rioters here last July, told a friend, that he had been stopping with Wise, and that Wise was very anxious to succeed you as Senator.

I have no doubt demagogues and intrigues are endeavoring to poison the mind of the President against all who stand in their way. I repeat these items of gossip, picked up from authentic sources, in the hope they may be useful. Of course, I do not want to be known as giving them, as I do not know at what moment, or upon what pretext I may have the rotation doctrine applied to me, which, with a family of fourteen, would be rather inconvenient.

I met Mr. Montague yesterday. He is to come up to-day to talk over the position of parties in Virginia with me. He is a true friend of yours. It is said the Cabinet are all afraid of Mr. B[uchanan] and that he overhauled the Secretary of War the other day relative to the selling of certain lands owned by the United States. I do not believe the Cabinet will hold together until the adjournment of Congress.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 224

John W. Fink to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 14, 1857

WARRENTON, [VA.], September 14, 1857.

DEAR SIR: I have just returned from a trip through nearly all of the Western Countries and made it my business, as I passed through, in a quiet way, to ascertain who the Delegates would vote for, provided Wise was a candidate for a seat in the United] S[tates] S[enate]. They may do their best between this and the election and you will get three Dem[ocratic] votes to his one, and all the Whig vote. To some extent I found opposition to your reelection among some of the people in most every county, but it will not amount to much. He is rather stronger in the State, than some of your friends put it at twenty.

In the North West you will get nearly all the vote. In the Valley you will lose but one, unless Gatewood of the Tenth Legion goes over. He says he is for you, but at the same time, thinks you will have to come out and show your hand on Kansas. He is risky. South West is for Wise. In this section, from here to Lynchburg, I do not know but one vote you will lose (Kemper of Madison).

Col. Phillips, I understand, will be removed the last of this month to make room for Dr. Tait from the South West, which will make a vacancy in the Senate, to be filled by ——— I had a conversation with Smith, my partner, a few days since, and find I will have no difficulty in getting him to agree to come out, at the proper time, for you against Wise.

I have to be very prudent and must ask the favor of you not to mention to a human being, that you received a letter from me on this subject. If you do I am a goner.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 225

Erastus T. Montague to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 14, 1857

WASHINGTON, [.D. C.], September 14, 1857.

DEAR HUNTER: I have been here for the last week with but little to do except to pick up what political news I could find and I proceed to give you the result of my observations.

A few days since I learn that the President in a conversation with Gov. Smith remarked that he supposed he should have to regard you as identified with the opposition to his administration. Smith replied that you were cautious prudent and sagacious and not likely to take any step without due consideration.

The efforts of the Enquirer to force from you an exposition of your views on Walker's Kansas policy occasion much talk here. Mr. Forney is the only high official with whom I have had any conversation on the subject. He says you should not notice the matter at all. That should a proper occasion arise during the approaching session "he doubts not you will define your position and that it will be found right as it has always been." Forney and Thompson are your only reliable friends in this concern.

Your friend Col. Phillips is to be removed from the 6th Aud[ito]r['s] office and Dr. Tate of our state senate to be appointed in his place. The object is to remove Tate (who is your friend) from the Senate, and put Floyd's brother in his place. From all I can learn there is a regularly organized combination between Wise, Floyd, and Faulkner the object of which is to put Wise in your place make Faulkner Governor and bring in Floyd to succeed Mason. What a beautiful scheme!!! and to cap the climax old Buck [Buchanan] is made to play second fiddle to this immaculate trio. Hence the efforts of Wise through the Enquirer to identify you with the opposition to the Adm[inistratio]n. At every corner I am accosted with the enquiry what is to be the result of the conflict between Wise and Hunter in Virginia? My reply is there can be no conflict. The people of Virginia never change their public servants without cause. Mr. Hunter has served them faithfully, they are satisfied with his course, and desire no change. Wise's particular friends approach me with hypocritical cant professing to deplore the schism between Wise and Hunter. I ask them for the evidence of such schism they point to the opposition of some of Hunters friends to Wises oyster fundum and other crude and ridiculous absurdities. I reply that Mr. Hunter's friends are free and independent citizens who think for themselves, and that neither he nor any one else can properly be held responsible for their opinions and actions. That he should be judged alone by his own sayings and doings.

I give you these sketches that you may see how the Wise workers here and in Virginia would manage things if they could. But they are powerless. From reliable information from all sections of the state I am happy to learn that you were never so strong in the confidence of the people as now. I have seen Powell who tells me they can't get up a demonstration against you. That all these efforts of your enemies but kill their authors while they add to your strength. Bocock was here a few days since and declared publicly that they could not muster an omnibus load of Democrats in the Legislature who would go against your selection. Both of these gentlemen spoke from personal knowledge of the views and intentions of the members elect. I met with Daniel on Friday last and had a long conversation with him, he confirms the statements of Bocock and Powell and from all I can learn you have but to speak the word and Buchanan and all his friends are as dead as Chelsea in Virginia. I have been unusually cautious and prudent, said nothing but endeavored to learn all I could.

Cobb is laying his plans for the succession. Forney has commenced the movement by a complimentary republication of one of Cobbs speeches during the late canvass. This is to be followed up from time to time by similar compliments from others of the Northern Press, and thus clothe him with the habiliments of National democracy par excellence. Thus placed before the country as a Southern man with the greatest Northern popularity he hopes to secure the nomination. The removal from and appointments to office in his department it is thought will be made with exclusive reference to this object. Will the South be duped and gulp the bait? How will Wise relish this scheme which so effectively dash all his bright visions to the ground. Douglas too will be apt to rebel, rely upon it we shall have rare times here next winter and I sincerely trust that the old adage "When rogues fall out honest men get their dues" will be verified. But I will not bore you with speculations. I have hastily sketched what I have learned and leave you to make your own reflections.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 225-7

William Wood Crump to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 15, 1857

RICHMOND, [VA.], September 15, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR: It is not my nature to witness unmoved, an unscrupulous and ingeneous effort, to crush or to injure a faithful, valuable and eminent public servant. Let this be my apology for addressing you upon a subject, which while it concerns you especially yet interests me as well, as one who feeling a sincere gratitude for past service, earnestly desires to retain you in the post you have so nobly filled. I am urged too by the recollection that an expression of mine last fall, was construed by the mischief making into a covert attack upon yourself, and I have had no opportunity to explain the matter to you in person, as I had hoped, if indeed it had attracted your notice at all. I have seen alike with pain and indignation the sedulous effort upon the part of Mr. Wise to bring about a controversy with you. I say Mr. Wise because Mr. Wise has no friends who are not guided, governed and absolutely swayed by him. Under the preposterous pretext that your friends are making war on him, he sets the Enquirer upon you, and assuming that your position towards the Executive is equivocal, it (or rather he) demands that you should speak obviously with the double purpose of either obtaining from you an answer which would place you in a position of hostility to the administration and so authorizing upon his part an open and undisguised war, or of displaying his power, in constraining an answer "though it might and no doubt would disappoint his hopes." That you will pursue the even and dignified tenor of your way I cannot doubt. That the same calm and manly firmness which has endeared you to the people of Virginia, will mark your course in this emergency I feel assured. And yet I could not forbear telling you, that one who is connected with you by no other bonds than those of esteem, watches with the deepest solicitude, in the present emergency, the course you may pursue and burns with indignation at the envious attempt to supplant you. I do not know that you feel as I do, our temperments differ so much that perhaps you may smile at my favour. It may be too that my own impulses are tinged by a cerbity which comes from the remembrance, that the only difference I ever had with your friends all of whom were mine was occasioned by my refusal to unite with them in elevating Mr. Wise to a position which would enlarge his (capacity I was about to write, but that is impossible) sphere for mischief. I was greatly displeased with them and except that they agree with me now in my estimate of him I should still express my displeasure towards them for their unhappy mistake.

I feel assured from what I have seen and heard that if the reins of the party are given to him, we shall have another Phaeton drive to lament. He must either rule or ruin. He cannot, no man thank God, can rule in Virginia and I greatly fear that he will, sow the seeds of discord which will bring disaster sooner or later upon our party. I write thus of him because he is now supposed to be the highest power in the State because he is said to be omnipotent in his influence with Mr. Buchanan and only because he is so do I thus speak of him. Power alone has no charms for me. And if he was in an eclipse I would not thus speak of him. I do not know or want to know, that you agree with me. I write in the fullest and most unstricting confidence to you and for your eye alone. It delights me to say, as I intended long since to have said that, all machinations against you will fail. I have learned that the Northwest, will be for you to a man that the tenth legion is sure, that little Tennessee, will stand by you and indeed I do not know any man of prominence in the Legislature who will lift his voice against you. Wise has not strengthened himself with the Legislature. I could see that he lost ground greatly with the last. No man can approach him and believe him fit to fill a statesman's place. He will lose ground yet more, before the next Legislature adjourns.

I cannot close without expressing the belief that the truce between Floyd and himself will be but short lived. In saying this, let me say at the same time, lest my intimate acquaintance with Gov. Floyd might lead to the supposition that I speak from information derived from him, that I have seen him but once, since he was Sec[retar]y of War and have never spoken of Wise to him or he to me. I reason in the abstract entirely. And from my knowledge of the men I feel assured that there can be no continued cordial co-operation between them. I have always deplored the estrangement between Floyd and your friends. Be assured he is your natural ally not in its modern sense, but he is a thorough States-rights man, he is a gentleman by education and by instinct and whatever deflections he has exhibited from the path of strict virtue he is still a gentleman, manly, generous, and brave. I know he did entertain a most exalted estimate of you and though he has never spoken to me unkindly of you, yet I believe there is some estrangement, which I should rejoice to see removed. Let me repeat that I am writing to you of "my own heart." I do not request a reply or want to open a correspondence and that no one knows or shall know that I have written.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 227-9

Andrew Dewees Banks to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 19, 1857

PETERSBURG, [VA.], September 19, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR: I reached home yesterday having been absent at the Springs and at Washington several weeks. From what I can gather I have now no doubt we are to have a contest for the Senate. Nothing will satisfy Wise but a good trouncing and he will get it for rely on it he means to run. The course of the Enquirer excites general disgust among the democrats every where and will greatly strengthen you. Some of your friends now desire you to come out."

By the way cannot Ritchie be beaten for Printer. Say with the editor of the Wheeling Argus or of the Rockingham Register or Faulkners man Robinson? It would be a withering rebuke and I think we will have the strength to administer it. I merely throw out the idea for you to think upon it. Pryor could not beat him. He has been too ultra the other way. Better take a Western man and make a merit of it. Talk this over with Garnett and if he thinks proper let him correspond with Letcher on the subject. Cobb and Thompson assure me the administration will take no part in the contest. But I hear otherwise albeit they say Floyd is getting jealous of Wise. I met Powell in Washington. He says all is right in his country, also Albert Pendleton. Pendleton is enthusiastic says everything [is] right in the Central West, thinks it doubtful whether Rush Floyd can get to the Senate in place of Tait app[ointe]d 6th Auditor. Dunn of Washington has been gotten out by Hopkins' friends and they say will beat him. All right still on the South Side. You may lose Honerton Thompson and a man from Franklin but that will be all. All the information I get is cheering. What they base their hopes on I can not tell.

I met Judge Perkins in Washington. I was surprised to find him so warmly your friend. He promises to cut off the correspondence of Wise's man Keon and proposes to be one of two to bring out an edition of your speeches. By the way has it ever occurred to you that this ought to be done. It would do more to strengthen you over the country than anything I know of.

Albert Pendleton requests me to ask you by all means to come down to the Richmond fair in October. If possible you ought to try and do so. I wish very much you would try and come to ours also.

My prospects for next winter are as good as I could wish them. They will have hard work I think to beat me.

By the way speaking of Judge Perkins reminds me that Mrs. Bayly and himself are certainly engaged to be married. It will come off I believe in December.

P. S. I met Schell in Washington. He sends regards and the warmest wishes for your success next winter. He is your friend. Even Geo. Sanders is for you.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 229-30

Charles W. C. Dunnington to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 20, 1857

(Private.)

WASHINGTON, D. C., September 20, 1857.

DEAR SIR: I received yours of the 12th inst. since which I have seen Smith of the Sentinel. I told him I was surprised at the tone of the article which referred to you. He said your friends secured the nomination of Wise, and were to blame for his present prominent position in the party; that he (Smith) had had his say, and at the proper time should take ground for you, in preference to Wise. His feelings towards you arise from you beating Gov. Smith for the Senate, not to anything else. To Wise he is opposed on both personal and political grounds. Smith is sound with the administration, and particularly with Gov. Floyd with whom he was particularly gracious last spring. I am told Gov. Smith has not much influence with the administration which accounts for it.

R[ichard]. M. Smith is of the opinion that the weight of the national administration will be thrown against you, and that your friends are marked. Time, however, will show. Col. Phillips, 6th auditor, Brodhead 3d do., Streeter, Solicitor, and Anderson, Com[missioner] of Customs go out this month. Cobb sent for Phillips yesterday to notify him.

I understand a nephew, or cousin of Gov. Wise, is an applicant for the place made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Merrick. Mr. Montague's name has also been mentioned. The latter gentleman is reliable and a warm friend of yours. There is great dissatisfaction felt by the party at the course of the administration relative to appointments. The rule seems to be to proscribe the friends of the late administration; and reward knownothings if they preferred Mr. Buchanan to Mr. Pierce. The Postmaster General and Secretary of the Treasury are both known aspirants to the presidency, and I believe the present incumbent has hope of a reelection. With such a state of things existing, there will be trouble among them before the adjournment of the next Congress.

The coalition between Wise, Floyd and Faulkner for the purpose of placing Wise in your place, Faulkner in the gubernatorial chair, and Floyd in Senator Mason's place at the close of this administration, would be capable of much mischief. If they had confidence in each other; but I am told there is a jealous feeling growing up among them, each one being afraid of the other's cheating him.

I am told that Messrs. Bocock and Powell when here expressed the utmost confidence in your triumphant reelection. Mr. Montague says the people are all for you in his section; and R. M. Smith says the neighboring district will be represented by men a large majority of whom are for you. How is it in the West? It is said Rush Floyd cannot be elected without Whig votes, so that you may get an opponent of the triumviate in place of Tate. As Hopkins can have no reason to like the Floyds, I hope he will aid you.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 230-1

Lewis E. Harvie to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, September 22, 1857

RICHMOND, [VA.], September 22, 1857.

DEAR HUNTER: The skies are bright and brightening. I think I am informed of the sentiment of the whole state. You will be reelected triumphantly and there will be no opposition to your election. Wise is [a] dead beat and the tone of his friends (he has very few) and of his paper shows that he knows it. Pryor says there is not a shadow of doubt about it. He has triumphed over the Enquirer, which is doomed and the South hereafter is to be the Democratic organ in Virginia. Intra nos, Hughes has told Pryor that there can be no difficulty between them and that your election is certain. Watch Floyd and meet any advances or indications. He has a good deal of sense and no great love for his excellency. Pryor will publish on tomorrow, all the Editorials favorable to your election throughout the State. He fears that you may think that he has been lukewarm in defending you from assaults &c and wishes you to know that it has been from a conviction that it was the best policy for you. This was my opinion and Seddon's and all of your friends hereabouts and he acted as we thought best. We did not wish you involved in the quarrel of the South with the Enquirer and told him to keep you out of it. I know that he is as true to you as steel and that he has the materials if it was prudent to put you in the contest to sustain you triumphantly. You stand now in the ascendent and if no mistake is made you are invincible. Those that have not heretofore been for you are now claiming to be for you against all comers. No man ever yet made war upon the State Rights party in V[irgini]a without being cast down, and several people who did not know it are now discovering it. I am writing in a great hurry and write of course without detail. You may rely however upon what I say. By the way I heard today that Beale is involved in some personal difficulty with one of the Brockenbroughs and that possibly a challenge may grow out of it. See Newton and stop it, if it be so. First because I think Beale a very valuable and worthy gentleman and secondly because he is your friend and ought to be in the next Legislature.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 231-2

Alexander T. Stewart to Mary Todd Lincoln, October 31, 1862

Broadway & Chambers

Oct 31.

Mr Stewart's compliments to Mrs Lincoln, and takes the liberty to enclose a letter for the President which is left open for her perusal and which he will thank her to send to the President.

SOURCE: Lincoln, Abraham. Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 2. General Correspondence. -1864: Alexander T. Stewart to Mary Todd Lincoln, October 31 1862 Sends letter for President Lincoln. October 31, 1862. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mal4237900/>.

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SEE: Alexander T. Stewart to Lincoln, October 31, 1862

Alexander T. Stewart to Lincoln, October 31, 1862

Broadway & Chambers

October 31. 1862

My dear Sir

I wrote you on the 25th Sept. with respect to the promotion of Capt Thaddeus P. Mott — son of the most eminent of our Surgeons Dr. Valentine Mott — requesting a favorable consideration of the application for Captn Mott's promotion, and fear my letter may not have reached you

Captn Mott was highly distinguished in the battles of the Peninsula and particularly on the last of the “seven days battles” on which occasion the battery temporarily under his command, rendered the most important service at the moment of the well known desperate charge of the enemy under Magruder, in which he was decisively repulsed

It may be recollected that at Harrison's Landing Captn Mott was presented by Majr Genl McClellan and so highly commended that he was asked by your Excellency, — such is the representation to me — “what he desired, and he omitted to express his wishes which earnestly pointed to promotion.

All that I can ask as a personal favor, is, that the application may be examined, and if it shall appear to be compatible with the public interests, that he may be given the command of a battery, for which on a sudden emergency he displayed such fitness.

I have the honor to be

Yours most sincerely

and truly

Alexr T Stewart

SOURCE: Lincoln, Abraham. Abraham Lincoln papers: Series 2. General Correspondence. 1858 to 1864: Alexander T. Stewart to Abraham Lincoln, Friday, October 31, Recommendation. October 31, 1862. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mal4238000/>.