CAMP NEAR FAIRFAX
COURT-HOUSE, Oct. 1st.
Yesterday I rode down to the station, and while there
President Davis, very unexpectedly to me, arrived in a single car; the
remaining part of the train, I suppose, stopped at the Junction to unload. He
looked quite thin. His reception was a hearty cheer from the troops. He took
his seat in an ambulance-like carriage, and as he passed on his way to the
Court-House the air rang with the soldiers' welcoming cheers. He was soon met
by a troop of horse, and a horse for himself. Leaving his carriage and mounting
his horse, he proceeded on his way, escorted by the cavalry, about four
thousand of the First Corps (General Beauregard). The troops belonged to
Generals Longstreet, D. R. Jones, and Philip St. George Cocke. It was quite an
imposing pageant. . . .
Yesterday I saw President Davis review. He took up his
quarters with General Beauregard, where, in company with Colonels Preston,
Harmon, and Echols, I called upon him this morning at about half-past ten
o'clock. He looks thin, but does not seem to be as feeble as yesterday. His
voice and manners are very mild. I saw no exhibition of that fire which I had supposed
him to possess. The President introduced the subject of the condition of my
section of the State, but did not even so much as intimate that he designed
sending me there. I told him, when he spoke of my native region, that I felt a
very deep interest in it. He spoke hopefully of that section, and highly of
General Lee.
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of
General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 194-5
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