Hd. Qrts., Jan. 20th, 1865.
My dear Wigfall:
Your message to me by Mr. Davis reached me a day or two ago.
As I am about to start to S. C., I anticipate your letter by writing at once to
you. It gave me great pleasure to see your return mentioned.
. . . We are passing through a fiery ordeal but if we “quit
ourselves like men” we must be successful. I do not allow myself to contemplate
any other than a successful issue to our struggle.
I have given far more than all my property to this cause,
and I am ready to give all. Genl. Lee thinks that I may be of some service
in South Carolina and I go to see what I can do there. . . I am going to fight
for my State and I am willing to fight anywhere. The record of the cavalry
which has fought under my command, is that this campaign has been an honorable
one, and I take great pride in it. They have been successful in every fight —
not a few — have captured large supplies of arms and taken not less than 10,000
prisoners. So I leave the record good. . . . What will be done with the Army of
Tennessee? You know how highly I regard Hood, how much I esteem him, but it was
a mistake to remove Johnston. The army had perfect confidence in him and I am
convinced that they will not fight as well under anyone else as under him;
therefore do I regard his removal as a national calamity. And if the President
would reinstate him it would not only restore public confidence, but would
strengthen the President greatly. I wish, my dear Wigfall, that you would
forget the differences of the past and try to re-establish the intimate
relations that once existed between Mr. Davis and yourself. You can aid him
greatly and you can serve the country by giving him counsel. . . . I wish that
I could have seen you before leaving this State, as there is much I want to
talk to you about. But I hope to meet you in brighter times when my heart is
not so oppressed by public and private anxieties. . . . But I bate not one jot
or tittle of our claims and I shall fight as long as I can wield my sabre. I
hope your family are well. Give my kindest regards to them and believe me to
be,
Very sincerely, your
friend,
Hon. L. T. Wigfall,
Wade Hampton.
Write to Columbia.
SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in
’61, p. 222-4
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