Saturday, June 4, 2011

It may be wrong to laugh at solemn things. . .

. . . but Gen. Simon B. Buckner’s complaint of the “ungenerous and unchivalrous” terms accorded his 15,000 rebels by Gen. Grant, is enough to raise a broad grin on a horse block.  Gen. Buckner had opened the correspondence by proposing an armistice till noon, with a view to arranging terms of capitulation, knowing well that noon might see Gen. Bishop Polk’s army from Columbus, or Albert Johnson’s [sic] from Bowling Green on hand.  “You must surrender unconditionally and at once, or I go in again,” says in substance Gen. Grant.  “Well, if I must,” responds the doleful Simon; “but it is very ungenerous and unchivalrous in you to ask such conditions.”  Of course it was; but what could you expect from a Yankee “mudsill” at the head of an army of that sort?  If the rebels insist on chivalry in their opponents, they must fight each other. – N. Y. Tribune.
                                                                                              
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, March 3, 1862, p. 2

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