Remarks of Jefferson Davis on the Bill to Raise Two Regiments of Riflemen delivered in the House of Representatives, March 27, 1846.

Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS said he did not intend to enter into a wide discussion with reference to the tariff, to Oregon, to Texas, or to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country. The House had under consideration a proposition to raise two regiments of riflemen. The only questions to be determined were: first, the necessity of the increase; and, second, the mode in which it should be made. There were two great propositions imbodying different modes: one to increase the army by increasing the number of regiments; the other, to add to the rank and file of the existing regiments. Our organization under a peace establishment is designed only to be the skeleton of an army; we organize our regiments not so much with a view to their present efficiency as on the arising of an emergency which shall require them to enable us to fill them up and render us the greatest service. We who were literally the rifle people of the world, who were emphatically skilled in the use of the rifle, were now falling behind France, England, and other nations, who were paying attention to it, and now actually had no rifle regiment. For this reason, if there were no other, he would vote to raise a rifle regiment to perfect our organization, and add the wanting bone to the skeleton of our army.

Another reason in behalf of this bill was, that it was recommended by the President of the United States. [Mr. D. read that part of the Message recommending the establishment of stockade forts on the route to Oregon, &c.] It did not depend upon the notice, upon future emigration, but was necessary to protect the emigration now passing to Oregon. He pointed out the dangers from the attacks of nomadic hostile Indians, to which the traveller across the prairies is exposed, the necessity of mounted riflemen for their protection, and the superiority in very many respects of mounted to unmounted riflemen for this service. He agreed with the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. BOYD,] who, in his amendment, proposed to make it discretionary with the President whenever, in his opinion, the public interests shall require, to mount such portions of these regiments as he may deem necessary. He (Mr. D.) hoped that at least half of them would be mounted; for it was perfectly idle to send infantry to guard emigrants against Indians who live on horseback, who rob all companies not sufficiently strong to resist them, and fly with their booty as on the wings of the wind.

He denied the correctness of the position of Mr. RATHBUN, that this bill was intended for raising troops to transport our men, women, and children to a territory over which we dared not assert our rights; and said that the President had recommended mounted riflemen to protect the emigration which is now going on; we needed it before emigration commenced, and emigration has only increased its necessity. He urged the importance of this measure, and the advantages and facilities which would be extended to emigrants to Oregon, by the erection of a line of stockade forts on their route. In further reply to Mr. R., he vindicated the qualifications of western men for this particular kind of service, acknowledging that they would be loth to submit to military punishment, but assigning their habitual subordination to the laws of the country, and their patriotic and gallant devotion to its interests, as the means by which they would avoid subjecting themselves to it. In the course of his remarks, he adverted to the necessity of the Military Academy in reference to the attacks from time to time made upon it, maintaining the unquestionable necessity of a military education to prepare a man for command in the army; which education, he said, was only to be obtained at a military academy, or piece by piece to be picked up, at the hazard of loss of property and life, by the officer, after he was commissioned and under heavy pay. Mr. D. also touched briefly upon one or two other points.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 39-40

John Tyler to Governor John Letcher, January 31, 1861

To the Governor of the State of Virginia:

DEAR SIR,

SHERWOOD FOREST,

January 31, 1861.

I received your communication notifying me of my appointment by the concurrent vote of the two houses of the General Assembly, as a commissioner to the President of the United States, with instructions respectfully to request the President to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of the General Assembly, from any and all acts calculated to produce a collision of arms between the States which have seceded or shall secede, and the government of the United States, on the afternoon of Monday, the 21st instant, by the mail of that day, and in disregard of a severe state of indisposition under which I had labored for some time previous, I resolved at all hazards to myself personally to carry out, so far as I could, the patriotic wishes of the Legislature. By the earliest conveyance, I reached Richmond on the evening of the succeeding day (Tuesday, 22d), and having had an interview with your excellency and my co-commissioner, proceeded by the morning train of cars the next day (Wednesday, 23d) for the city of Washington, which I reached on the afternoon of the same day. I am thus particular in giving precise dates, so that the Legislature may perceive that with all possible promptitude and dispatch I obeyed their wishes; and also to show that I was duly sensible of the importance of time in the whole proceeding. Immediately after reaching Washington, I addressed a note (marked No. 1) to the President of the United States, informing him of my arrival and asking an early hour to be designated by him, to enable me to place him in possession of the wishes and feelings of the Legislature of Virginia, and the instructions which, in the form of her legislative resolves, all having direct reference to the disturbed and painful condition of public affairs, I was desirous of laying before him. He responded promptly by note, and left it optional with myself to select 8 o'clock of that evening, or an early hour the next morning, for the time of the proposed conference. My note (No. 2), for reasons therein set forth, informed him that I would wait upon him in the morning of the ensuing day. My note announcing my arrival, if the objects which had brought me to Washington had any consideration in the mind of the President would, I did not doubt, suspend any hostile movement against any seceding State in the interval of time between its date and the hour at which I should wait upon him the next morning, and supersede the necessity of a night visit.

On the next morning, at the hour of ten, I repaired to the President's mansion, and met from him a warm and cordial reception. I lost no time in handing to him your letter of appointment, attested by the seal of the State, and legislative resolutions. He said that they were the first full copies of the resolutions which he had seen, and after reading them he remarked, that he considered them very important, and was good enough to add, that being borne by myself, he should feel it his duty to make them the subject of a special message to Congress. Either I suggested or he voluntarily remarked, most probably the latter, that he should accompany them with a strong recommendation to Congress, with whom, he said, rested the entire power over the subject of war or peace, to abstain from all action of a hostile character, until Virginia should have had a fair opportunity to exert all her efforts to preserve the public peace and restore harmony to the Union. I said to him, that my mission was to him; that he was commander-in-chief of the army and navy—could regulate the movement of soldiers and ships in peace and war, and that everything that Virginia desired was that the statu quo should be observed. I represented to him that the people of Virginia were almost universally inclined to peace and reconciliation. That I need not inform him of the sacrifices the State had made for the Union in its initiation, or of her instrumentality in the creation of the Constitution. That her efforts to reconstruct or preserve depended for their success on her being permitted to conduct them undisturbed by outside collision. He replied, that he had in no measure changed his views as presented in his annual message; that he could give no pledges; that it was his duty to enforce the laws, and the whole power rested with Congress. He complained that the South had not treated him properly; that they had made unnecessary demonstration by seizing unprotected arsenals and forts, and thus perpetrating acts of useless bravado, which had quite as well been let alone. I suggested to him, that while these things were, I admitted, calculated to fret and irritate the northern mind, that he would see in them only the necessary results of popular excitement, which, after all, worked no mischief in the end, if harmony between the States was once more restored; that the States wherein the seizures had been made, would account for all the public property; and that in the mean time the agency for its preservation was only changed. He repeated his sense of the obligations which rested upon him; could give no pledges but those contained in his public acts, and recurred again to the proceedings of the Legislature and his intention to send them to Congress in a special message, accompanied with a strong recommendation to avoid the passage of any hostile legislation. I asked if I might be permitted to see the sketch of the message, to which he unhesitatingly replied that he would take pleasure in showing it to me next morning. Much more occurred in the course of our interview, which lasted for an hour and a half; all, however, relating exclusively to the above topics, and I left him entirely satisfied with the results of my interview. The President was frank and entirely confiding in his language and whole manner. A moment's reflection satisfied me that if the message contained the recommendation to Congress to abstain from hostile legislation, I was at liberty to infer a similar determination on his part of a state of quietude.

Friday, 25.—I waited on him again the following morning, and he lost no time in reading me so much of the sketch of the proposed message as related to the recommendation to Congress. I suggested no change or alteration, believing it to be amply sufficient, and I became only anxious for its presentation to Congress. He said he should have it all prepared to be submitted to his Cabinet on that day, and would send it in the next day. On the afternoon of the same day—Friday, 25—I was waited upon by the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, who stated that they had called upon me at the request of the President, to express his regret that in consequence of the adjournment over to Monday, he would not be able to send in his message until Monday. While in conversation with those gentlemen, which chiefly turned on the condition of public affairs, I was startled by the receipt of a telegraphic despatch from Judge Robertson, my co-commissioner, dated at Charleston, South Carolina, enquiring into the foundation of a rumor which had reached that place, that the steamship Brooklyn, with troops, had sailed for the South from Norfolk. I immediately handed over the despatch to the gentlemen, with the suitable enquiries. The Attorney General said, in substance: "You know, sir, that I am attached to the law department, and not in the way of knowing anything about it." The Secretary of State said that he had heard and believed that the Brooklyn had sailed with some troops, but he did not know either when she sailed or to what point she was destined. I then said, "I hope that she has not received her orders since my arrival in Washington." On this point the gentlemen could give me no information, but expressed no doubt but that the President would give me the information if requested. I excused myself to them, and immediately withdrawing to the adjoining room, I addressed to the President note No. 3, which Mr. Staunton, the Attorney General, kindly volunteered to bear in person, and without loss of time, to the President. In a short time afterwards, Mr. Staunton returned, to inform me that he had carried the note to the President's house, but for a reason not necessary here to state, he could not see the President, but had placed it in the hands of his servant, to be delivered at the earliest opportunity. The reply of the President, No. 2, reached me at half after eleven o'clock that night. In the interim, I had despatched by telegraph, to Judge Robertson, the information I had collected, and upon the opening of the telegraph office the next morning (Saturday), the material parts of the President's reply relating to the sailing of the Brooklyn, viz: that she had gone on an errand "of mercy and relief," and that she was not destined to South Carolina. The orders for the sailing of the ship, as will be seen, were issued before I reached Washington. After receiving the letter, and willingly adopting the most favorable construction of its expressions, I resolved to remain in Washington until after Monday, when the message would go to the two houses. I listened to its reading in the Senate with pleasure, and can only refer to the newspapers for its contents, as no copies were printed and obtainable by me, before I left Washington, on Tuesday morning, the 29th instant. On Monday afternoon I bade my adieu to the President in the accompanying letters, marked No. 4, to which I received his reply, marked No. 3.

The morning newspapers contained the rumor that the proceeding had been adopted of mounting guns on the land side of Fortress Monroe, and in my letter I deemed it no way inappropriate to call the attention of the President to those rumors.

Thus has terminated my mission to the President under the legislative resolutions. I trust that the result of the Brooklyn's cruise may terminate peacably. No intimation was given me of her having sailed in either of my interviews with the President, and all connected with her destination remains to me a State secret. I had no right to require to be admitted into the inner vestibule of the Cabinet, however much I might complain should the results prove the errand of the ship from the first to have been belligerent and warlike.

I am, dear sir,

Respectfully and truly yours,

JOHN TYLER.

Governor LETCHER.

SOURCES: Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Virginia Begun and Held at the Capitol in the City 0f Richmond, on Monday, the Seventh Day of January, in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-One—Being The Eighty-Fifth Year Of The Commonwealth. Extra Session, Doc. No. 13, p. 5-7; Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 587-90

William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 18, 1861

ALEXANDRIA, Jan. 18, 1861.

DEAR BROTHER: Before receiving yours of the 7th, I had addressed a letter to Governor Moore at Baton Rouge, of which this is a copy: (see the preceding letters to Governor Moore).

I regard the seizure by Governor Moore of the United States Arsenal as the worst act yet committed in the present revolution. I do think every allowance should be made to southern politicians for their nervous anxiety about their political power and the safety of slaves. I think that the constitution should be liberally construed in their behalf, but I do regard this Civil War as precipitated with undue rapidity. It is inevitable. All the legislation now would fall powerless on the South. You should not alienate such states as Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. My notion is that this war will ruin all politicians, and that military leaders will direct the events.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 343-4

William T. Sherman to George Mason Graham, January 20, 1861

SEMINARY, January 20, 1861.

MY DEAR FRIEND: Yours of yesterday was read with painful interest last night along with Mr. Sanford's two, which I herewith return. Of course now that reason is powerless and the truth cannot be reached through the clouds of mistrust, suspicion, and mutual accusations which envelop us, we are all drifting together no one knows whither.

I was waiting as patiently as a red-headed person could, for the official acts of the convention charged with the destiny of Louisiana, when tidings reached me that Governor Moore had caused the seizure of the forts and arsenals, and had driven away with ignominy the small garrison posted among friends for the protection of the dangerous instruments of war. For this I see no justification and feel compelled to announce my determination by letter in the terms I have previously done to Dr. Smith in the presence of Mr. Elgee. Dr. Smith gave me his personal assurance that in no event should I be called on to do any act compromising my national character and preferences.

But fearing some unforeseen cause might render him powerless I resolved to move officially and therefore addressed to Governor Moore a letter of which the subjoined is a copy — and at the same time wrote him and Dr. Smith each, other private letters with the view to convey to them the personal reasons for my choice. [See pages 341-346.]

Of course they will now make short metre of me and within a week I expect to be homeward bound. I have made all reports, returns, and letters to parents, and all the books are written up to date. I have asked Smith to meet me in New Orleans to balance the bank account, for I want to leave with clean hands, and they will be clean enough, for I have saved but little and can now hardly expect the legislature will appropriate for the rebel.

I have notice that three thousand three hundred stand of arms - seventy thousand cartridges and two hundred carbine cartridges and belts are enroute for this place. I must, as long as I stay, be faithful to my trust, and I will take immediate steps for their safe storage, though it will force me to move and use this room as a store-house. I hope however to be relieved in time so that some one else will have the pleasure of receipting for them and accounting for them.

My own opinion is that Lincoln will be installed in office — that Congress will not repeal the Union, that the revenues will be collected. The consequence is inevitable — war, and ugly war too. I do not think the South will be invaded, or plain coercion attempted; but no vessel can be cleared at New Orleans and no vessel can enter without paying duties outside. Commerce will cease unless the South can combine, organize a navy and fight their way, or unless she can form a treaty with our old enemy England. For the northern and eastern cities will never consent to pay duties and allow New Orleans to be a free port, to send into the interior goods cheaper than they

But discussion is useless. The storm is upon us, and we must each to our own ship. I hope I may meet you again but if not accept the assurances of my great affection, respect, and admiration, and my earnest prayer that you and yours may long survive to look back with satisfaction to the time when we started the Seminary in a vain belief that we were serving the cause of our common country.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 348-50

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: March 27, 1863

PITCHING CAMP.

We have cleared off the debris from a portion of the burnt district and pitched our camp there. The colonel might take a little more pride in showing us up to the naval officers at dress parade than he did when we were here last fall, but he is in command of the post; Lieut. Col. Moulton is in command of the regiment and he will do the honors. The 46th Massachusetts has arrived and will pitch their camp on the right of us, in the burnt district.

WORK ON THE FORT.

Work commenced today on the defences. Capt. Foster of Company D is to be superintendent and general boss. I was detailed to take command of a working party from my company. Now this was all new business to me. I knew nothing about building forts, so I stood with my men and looked on.

This was not very hard work, but after a spell the captain said, “Bring your men this way." The order was promptly responded to, and the boys set to work. I thought they worked well enough, although I noticed that the bank in front of them did not rise very fast, but I supposed that was owing to the hardness of the soil. After a while they complained of feeling tired; I told them to rest, and they squatted. After that they seemed to be tired pretty much of the time. The captain would come along and ask me why my men were not working. I would answer him that they were tired, and after resting would bundle their spades right smart. At night we had a bank thrown w about a rod long and nearly a foot high, but the boy's worked well and I know they will sleep well after it.

Companies A, E and I arrived yesterday, and also the companies of the expedition who left with the general, except company I, which remains at Edenton for a few days.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 86-7