Thursday, May 3, 2012

John C. Breckinridge’s Habits


We have just had an interview with a gentleman of high character, who lives in Hopkinsville.  He says that he heard a lieutenant in the rebel army speak of John C. Breckinridge as a common drunkard.  His intoxication was so frequent that he was hardly ever able to perform his official duties.  On one occasion a party of soldiers were sent to destroy some liquors in a doggery, but Breckinridge ordered the liquors to be brot’ to his quarters, when he indulged in a drunken revel.  When his command was ordered to march on Rochester, on Green river, he pretended to have rheumatism so badly that he had to stay behind at Russellville, dead drunk.  The rebel Lieutenant added that the Confederates had lost all confidence in him, and regarded him with mingled distrust and contempt.  Alas for human ambition and folly!  A few brief months ago, he seemed the petted child of fortune, and to-day he is a detested and despised traitor, groveling in the very gutter of disgrace. – {Louisville  Journal.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 8, 1862, p. 2

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