Jefferson Davis to A. McWillie and others, August 19, 1847

(From Vicksburg Sentinel, September 29, 1847.)

Brierfield, Warren co., Miss.,        

August 19th, 1847.

Gentlemen:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your most gratifying letter of the 16th ult., conveying to me the information that my esteemed friends of the 2nd Mississippi Riflemen unanimously offer to elect me their regimental leader.

The honorable post you offer has every thing to commend it to me; it is the free gift of Mississippians; it invites me to field service in a region where the energy and health of the troops will not be impaired by the climate, and it assures me of being in the column of the general in whom I have unmeasured confidence.

Your proposition under all the circumstances which attend it, is an honor of which the highest reputation might well be proud, and for which I feel more grateful than I have power to express. In declining a station so honorable, so acceptable to my tastes, feelings and associations, and offered in a manner so highly complimentarily, I have three reasons to submit to you in justification of my decision:

1st. I have not so far recovered from my wound as to be able to travel immediately; the probable date of your advance admits of no delay in one who would join you in your present position, and the anticipated character of your movement, in the event of an advance, renders it doubtful whether an individual could join you on the march.

II. Before the receipt of your letter I had accepted a commission to fill a vacancy in our Representation in the U. S. Senate.

III. I have held that vacancies occurring in the field afford opportunities to reward merit among yourselves, and that policy dictates, and esprit du corps demands, that promotions should thus be made. I feel that your kindness has made me an exception to a rule, and that I best show myself worthy of your generosity by declining to take advantage of it.

Though I shall not be with you to share the glory, it is permitted me to hope that at no distant day the fortune of war will give you an opportunity to fulfill the expectations of you, so early and confidently announced by myself, in common with your many friends and admirers.

To you alone now is Mississippi's standard confided. Rent and blood-stained it may be; but in your hands, can never be dishonored. It may droop with the cypress, but will be crowned with the laurel.

For yourselves, gentlemen, please receive my sincere thanks, for the grateful terms in which you have conveyed the flattering wishes of my friends and fellow citizens of the 2nd Mississippi Rifles, to whom I pray you make my acknowledgements acceptable.

With assurances of the deep interest I will always feel in your prosperity and fame, and with the hope that under the blessing of peace we may be early reunited at home. I am very cordially,

Your friend and ob't serv't.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

Messrs. Capt. A. McWillie, Lieut. E. Dowsing, Lieut. F. Amyx, Lieut. A. J. Trussell, committee 2nd       Mississippi Rifles.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, pp. 99-100