William T. Sherman to Thomas Ewing, January 8, 1860

State Seminary, Alexandria, Jan. 8, 1860.

Dear Sir: As you can well understand I am in the midst of busy times, answering letters, making reports, issuing orders, etc., all pertaining to the organization of a new school on a new plan for this part of the world. The weather has been exceedingly boisterous. Snow fell here last week, five inches, but it lay only one day. To-day was like May with you. But the rains and frosts have made the roads bad and have in a measure delayed the coming of our cadets. They have been so used to delay and procrastination that they could not understand the necessity of time.

I took things in hand a la militarism, usurped full authority and began the system ab initio. We now have thirty-two cadets who attend reveille and all roll calls like soldiers, have their meals with absolute regularity and are already hard at work at mathematics, French, and Latin. I am the only West Pointer, but they submit to me with the docility of lambs.

A good many gentlemen have attended their sons and are much pleased with the building and all arrangements. They occasionally drop the sentiment of their gladness that thus they will become independent of the North and such like, but not one man has said one word about John or anything at which I could take exception.

The supervisors seem glad to devolve on me all the burdensome task of details, and are now loud in their determination to besiege the legislature to so endow the Seminary that it shall be above all danger or contingency. The governor sent me word to-day to give him some points for his message, and I have written him at length urging him to get the state, out of her swamp lands, to double our endowment. The present comes from the United States. If Louisiana gives equal we will have an income of $16,200, which would put us above all want. Or if she will simply appropriate to pay for the sixteen cadets which she forces us to educate and support. . .

This however is too good a berth to risk.¹ I perceive I have a strong hold there. The South are right in guarding against insidious enemies or against any enemies whatever, and I would aid her in so doing. All I would object to is the laying of plans designed to result in a secession and Civil War. The valley of the Mississippi must be under one government, else war is always the state. If I were to suspect that I were being used for such a deep laid plan I would rebel, but I see daily marks of confidence in me and reliance upon my executing practical designs, and if I were to say that I contemplated leaving I would give great uneasiness to those who have built high hopes. Still if is in earnest and I can hold off till the legislature shows its temper (it meets Monday, the 16th) I will be in better attitude to act.

Here at $3,500 I could save little after bringing my family, but I would have good social position, maybe a good house and, taken all in all, a pleasant home, for such I should make it, designing to keep my children here summer and winter, always. Epidemics never originate here. Sometimes they come up after having sojourned some time below. . .

We must absolutely have help this year or the Seminary cannot pay the salaries stipulated for, nor build houses for the families. I now handle all the moneys and am absolute master of all the business. We have a treasurer twenty miles off, under bond, whereas I, in fact, have in my possession all the moneys, $6,000 nearly, and for its safety they have never asked of me a receipt. I cannot therefore mistake the confidence of the Board. Caution must be my plan now.

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¹ Sherman here refers to an offer made to him of a position in London. — Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 104-6

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, December 16, 1859

Seminary, Alexandria, La., Dec. 16,1859.

. . . I wrote you and Minnie from New Orleans as I told you I would. I did start back in the “Telegram” Monday evening, and Red River being up, we came along without delay, reaching here Wednesday morning. I had despatched by a former boat a good deal of freight, brought some in the same boat, and all the balance will be here in a day or so. I walked out from Pineville, which is the name of a small group of houses on this side of Red River, and sent the cart in for my trunk and for the drummer I had picked up in New Orleans. I wanted also a tailor and shoemaker, but failed to get them. On getting out I was much disappointed at receiving no letters, but was assured that all the mails had failed for a week; and last night being mail night I sent in my new drummer who brought out a good budget, among them your letters. . . So, as you seem to know, this is an out of the way place without telegraphs, railroads, and almost without mails.

It so happened that General Graham came out the very day of my return, not knowing that I was here, and he brought with him Mr. Smith, the professor of chemistry, who is one of the real Virginia F. F. V.'s, a very handsome young man of twenty-two, who will doubtless be good company. He is staying with General Graham, but will move here in a few days. General Graham seemed delighted with the progress I had made, and for the first time seemed well satisfied that we would in fact be ready by January 1.

I have not yet been to Alexandria, as I landed on this side the river and came out at once, but I shall go in on Monday and see all the supervisors, who are again to meet. I know the sentiments of some about abolitionism, and am prepared if they say a word about John. I am not an abolitionist, still I do not intend to let any of them reflect on John in my presence, as the newspapers are full of angry and bitter expressions against him. All I have met have been so courteous that I have no reason to fear such a thing, unless some one of those who came, applicants to the post I fill, with hundreds of letters, should endeavor to undermine me by assertions on the infernal question of slavery, which seems to blind men to all ideas of common sense

.

Your letters convey to me the first intimation I have received that the project of ——— had not long since been abandoned. . . You remember I waited as long as I decently could before answering Governor Wickliffe's letter of appointment, in hopes of receiving a word from ——— who promised Hugh to write from London.  Not hearing from him and having little faith in the scheme, I finally accepted this place as the best thing offering. Even yet I think this is my best chance unless the question of slavery and my northern birth and associations should prejudice me, and should ——— make his appearance here I should have to be very strongly assured on the subject of pay and permanency before I would even hint at leaving. Of course if I could do better, there is no impropriety in my quitting as there are many strong applicants for the post, many of whom possess qualifications equal if not superior to me. I still do not believe that ——— is to be relied on and I don't expect he has the most remote intention of coming here. . .

These southern politicians have so long cried out wolf that many believe the wolf has come and therefore they might in some moment of anger commit an act resulting in Civil War. As long as the Union is kept I will stand by it, but if we are going to split up into sections I would prefer our children should be raised in Ohio or some northern state to the alternative of a slave state, where we never can have slave property.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

I have already described this place to you — the building being of course not at all designed for families and I shall not, as long as I control, permit a woman or child to live in it. The nearest house is an open, cold house a quarter of a mile distant occupied at present by Professor Vallas, wife and five children. During my absence at New Orleans they had here bitter cold weather, the same that killed all the orange trees at New Orleans, and Mr. Vallas tells me he and his family nearly froze, for the house was designed for summer, of the “wentilating” kind.

There are other houses between this and Alexandria of the same general kind, but they are from one and one-half to two and one-half miles distant, too far off for any person connected with the Seminary to live. The plan is and has been to build, but the Seminary is utterly unable to build, nor can it hope to get the money save by a gift from the legislature. General Graham thinks they will appropriate $30,000. Governor Moore, though in favor of doing so, has his doubts and was candid enough to say so. Without that it will be impossible for me to bring you south even next winter. The legislature meets in the latter part of next January and we cannot even get our pay until they appropriate, but they must appropriate $8,100¹ because it belongs lawfully to the Seminary. . .

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¹ Interest on the Seminary land fund. - Ed.

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 84-6

Braxton Bragg to William T. Sherman, December 16, 1859

Thibodeaux, La., December 16, 1859.

My Dear Sherman: I received your letter from the city. Had your visit only been a week later I could have met you, as my confinement is over for the present. My crop was finished on the 12th, and is by far the most profitable one I have made-giving me a net profit of $30,000 on an investment of $145,000.

On the first Monday, January second, I intend in Baton Rouge to enter on the duties of an office to which I am just elected, “Commissioner of the Board of Public Works,” a new office in this state, but the duties are old, have been discharged heretofore by swamp land commissioner, engineers, etc. The new board is to form a bureau for the general supervision and control of all state work, to appoint all officers and agents, etc. The duties are heavy, expenditures large (over $1,000,000 a year) and the patronage extensive.

Peculations, frauds, swindling and ignorance all combined to render the previous system obnoxious, and I am told the new law was intended to clear off the whole debris, that a new state of affairs might be inaugurated. I did not and do not wish the office, as it gives no prominence and little compensation, but friends, principally Richard Taylor, son of the old general, pressed me to accept a nomination, as they could find no other man whose name could defeat the rogues. Under this pressure I gave up my privacy, and shall strive to inaugurate an honest administration of affairs.

If I do no more I shall at least deserve the thanks and probably receive the maledictions of many who do not or will not understand the merits of my conduct. How long the duties will retain me in Baton Rouge on my first visit I can not foresee; but long enough I hope, to see many members of the legislature. I believe I have some influence with R. Taylor,¹ the senator from this district, and I will try to intrest him in the Seminary. He is a very plain, straightforward man, of great independence, candid, honest and clearheaded. Whatever he promises we may rely on, as he has great influence. I have but few others to look to as acquaintances now, except the senator from Terrebonne, F. S. Goode, who is like Taylor, and with whom I shall intercede. The representatives from this parish are very poor sticks and unreliable.

We must try and secure an additional allowance or an appropriation to pay for the sixteen state cadets. I clearly see that you will need funds very soon, unless this can be done, for the people of the country are not yet sufficiently aware of the institution and its plan, etc., to patronize it beyond your suggestion. In time I have no doubt, if we can sustain it in its infancy, it will become popular and self-supporting. In the meantime, we must try to harmonize conflicting interests and opinions.

We all aim at the same great end — to furnish the most suitable and most useful education to the rising young men of our state. High literary institutions are growing up around us in every direction, but in the scientific and military we are sadly deficient. No class of people on the face of the earth are more dependent on science and discipline for success than the southern planters. Scan the whole area of our state and see what proportion of its capital and labor is devoted to science. See our levees, canals, for navigation and drainage; our steamers, our foundries, and last, our plantation machinery. Then apply this science to our soils, and see our woful deficiency and waste in our want of system in cultivation. The very plantation is a small military establishment, or it ought to be. By military I don't mean the old fogy notion of white belts, stiff leather stocks and “palms of the hands to the front,” but discipline, by which we secure system, regularity, method, economy of time, labor and material.

This all tends to secure better health, more labor and less exertion, and with infinitely less punishment, more comfort and happiness to the laborer, and more profit and pleasure to the master. The other consideration weighs no little with me. We have a large class of our population in subordination, just and necessary. Where do we find the fewest mutinies, revolts and rebellions? In the best disciplined commands. Human nature is the same throughout the world. Give us all disciplined masters, managers, and assistants, and we shall never hear of insurrection — unless as an exception — to be suppressed instanter without appeal to foreign aid.

As I shall not have time now to write General Graham, you can show him the foregoing. No consideration can overcome my preference for a military school, but I am open to policy in the course necessary to obtain it. For the present your course is plain, it seems to me. You are an agent selected to carry out the views of others. Your opinion might be expressed as a candid man, but your action should be confined to carrying out the system laid down for your government. When called upon for your views, give them freely. At all other times execute faithfully what is laid down for you. But this is advice I need not give you as from your letters it is the sensible view you have taken of the subject.

The other question, personal to yourself, I can readily see is calculated to make you sensitive and uncomfortable. I hope no one will be so unjust and indelicate as to refer to such a matter, but should it be done, keep silent and refer the matter to your friends. I will answer any such insinuations and vouch for your soundness in any and all ways. I have known you too long and too well to permit a doubt to cross my mind as to the soundness of your views. What sentiments your brother may entertain will be a subject for our representatives at Washington. It is all right and proper that you should wish him success. I do not, of course, know his opinions, but I believe that if he had your experience with us we should have no cause to fear him. His recommendation of that fellow's incendiary work was unfortunate, but I have no doubt was done without reflection or a knowledge of what he was doing, and that he heartily repents of an inconsiderate act. I have not the same charity for a good many of our northern representatives. They go too far, as do some of our own, but they being the aggressors there is some palliation on our side.

Mrs. B. joins me in regards and wishing you every success.

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¹ Richard Taylor, son of President Taylor, later a confederate general. — Ed.

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 80-3

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, Sunday, December 12, 1859

New Orleans, Sunday, Dec. 12.

. . . I am stopping at the City Hotel which is crowded and have therefore come to this my old office, now Captain Kilburn's, to do my writing. I wish I were here legitimately, but that is now past, and I must do the best in the sphere in which events have cast me. All things here look familiar, the streets, houses, levees, drays, etc., and many of the old servants are still about the office, who remember me well, and fly round at my bidding as of old.

I have watched with interest the balloting for speaker, with John as the Republican candidate. I regret he ever signed that Helper book, of which I know nothing but from the extracts bandied about in the southern papers. Had it not been for that, I think he might be elected, but as it is I do not see how he can expect any southern votes, and without them it seems that his election is impossible. His extreme position on that question will prejudice me, not among the supervisors, but in the legislature where the friends of the Seminary must look for help. Several of the papers have alluded to the impropriety of importing from the north their school teachers, and if in the progress of debate John should take extreme grounds, it will of course get out that I am his brother from Ohio, universally esteemed an abolition state, and they may attempt to catechize me, to which I shall not submit.

I will go on however in organizing the Seminary and trust to the future; but hitherto I have had such bad luck, in California and New York, that I fear I shall be overtaken here by a similar catastrophe. Of course there are many here such as Bragg, Hebert, Graham, and others that know that I am not an abolitionist. Still if the simple fact be that my nativity and relationship with Republicans should prejudice the institution, I would feel disposed to sacrifice myself to that fact, though the results would be very hard, for I know not what else to do.

If the Southern States should organize for the purpose of leaving the Union I could not go with them. If that event be brought about by the insane politicians I will ally my fate with the north, for the reason that the slave question will ever be a source of discord even in the South. As long as the abolitionists and the Republicans seem to threaten the safety of slave property so long will this excitement last, and no one can foresee its result; but all here talk as if a dissolution of the Union were not only a possibility but a probability of easy execution. If attempted we will have Civil War of the most horrible kind, and this country will become worse than Mexico.

What I apprehend is that because John has taken such strong grounds on the institution of slavery that I will first be watched and suspected, then maybe addressed officially to know my opinion, and lastly some fool in the legislature will denounce me as an abolitionist spy because there is one or more southern men applying for my place.

I am therefore very glad you are not here, and if events take this turn I will act as I think best. As long as the United States Government can be maintained in its present form I will stand by it; if it is to break up in discord, strife and Civil War, I must either return to California, Kansas or Ohio. My opinions on slavery are good enough for this country, but the fact of John being so marked a Republican may make my name so suspected that it may damage the prospects of the Seminary, or be thought to do so, which would make me very uncomfortable. . .

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 75-7

William T. Sherman to George Mason Graham, December 2, 1859

Seminary, Friday, Dec. 2 [1859].

Dear General: I was in town [Alexandria] yesterday at 8 a.m. and waited till ten to prove the paper which we left with Mr. Boyce. I then got the first page and corrected it. He had not prepared the paper and would have to strike off the whole number of sheets of the first matter before trying the second page. I therefore assured myself that it was in proper order, and left Boyce to correct the second page and came out with Captain Jarreau.

I think we have made fair progress now, and I have given Mr. James¹ written instructions with drawings of what remains to be done, and by my return from New Orleans I hope to see all the necessary tables, benches, desks, blackboards, stands, shelves, and hooks all done. I have one man cutting wood, and Jarreau promises another next Tuesday, so that I feel confident that we shall be more than ready by Christmas.

I think also that in New Orleans I will be satisfied to depend on Alexandria for blankets of which both Robertson and Henarie have a good supply at fair prices from $3.25 to $4.50 a pair. Same of brooms, glass tumblers, assorted hand soap and castile soap. I think also we may depend on the Trechur for wash-basins and dippers. All else on my list I will try and bring up. I feel a little embarrassed by Mr. Ford's offer to make twenty-five or thirty mattresses without naming price. It would be better to have mattresses made uniformly by one responsible person, but as in case of accident to Mr. Ford and there being no other mattresses to be had in Alexandria I may purchase more than otherwise might seem prudent.

In New Orleans, I will ascertain the price of everything needed by us in future, and then if persons in our neighborhood apply we can encourage the manufacture of about the quantity needed at standard prices. . .

I generally have strong opinions on a subject of importance, but experience has taught me the wisdom of forbearance, and as the Board will again attempt to meet on the tenth during my absence, I will only say now that I listened to your argument and that of the other members with great interest.

I have always believed that a Military Academy was only possible, when the state made present compensation, or held out future inducements, to compensate the cadet for the usual drills, guards, and restraints customary in such colleges, here and abroad. I doubt whether we could when cadets pay all expenses enforce that rigid obedience without which the system would become ridiculous. I am satisfied that we can make certain drills, guards, and military parades and exercise so manifestly advantageous to the cadets, that their own sense, judgment, and fancy will take the place of compulsion, and the course of studies being more practical, and useful, will be preferred by cadet and parent to the old routine of grammar and everlasting lexicon.

As to the encampment, I think in the regulations there is no mention made of an encampment, nor do I recall any expression that would lead to it. Therefore they will need no amendment on that point. The Board can pass over the point in silence. If you are not fortified in the legislature it might also be wise to allow a few years to slide along till we have four classes of well drilled cadets. Let them at first have the vacation allowed in Kentucky, elsewhere, and at all literary colleges. If our system of instruction be good, and if we take good pains to impress the cadets with our kindness, justness, fairness, and give them a manly bearing, good ideas of truth, honor, and courtesy, and withall teach them practical wisdom, by going home they will spread the good seed, and actually serve the cause of the institution in its infancy, better than they could in the mere routine duties of a camp. I do not think an encampment necessary to our course of instruction, nor does it seem to me prudent to prevent cadets from going home; if such be the custom, and if their parents desire it. I don't think Captain Jarreau² will object as his contract runs for only six months, and longer if we are all satisfied. My idea is to make all things conspire to the economy, cleanliness, good order, and proper instruction of those cadets, till we naturally pass into the system which is to last, for some system “must endure.”

Should the legislature of this state determine to put an arsenal here, the necessity of a guard is then patent and she would naturally offer to pay us, and make it to our interest to guard her property, afford a safe place for arms, rendezvous, and safety for this at present remote district of valuable country. We would then have a good necessity, a good reason for an encampment, which now would be a mere naked ceremony. Nevertheless my theory is that the Board must legislate, and I will try to execute their resolves and policy. . .

_______________

¹ The contractor. — Ed.

² The Seminary steward. — Ed.

SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L. Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 70-2

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 12, 1859

Alexandria, La., Sunday, Nov. 12 [1859].

I wrote you a hasty letter yesterday whilst the stage was waiting. General Graham and others have been with me every moment so that I was unable to steal a moment's time to write you. I left the wharf boat at the mouth of Red River, a dirty, poor concern where I laid over one day, the stage only coming up tri-weekly, and at nine o'clock at night started with an overcrowded stage, nine in and two out with driver, four good horses, Troy coach, road dead level and very dusty, lying along the banks of bayous which cut up the country like a net work. Along these bayous lie the plantations rich in sugar and cotton such as you remember along the Mississippi at Baton Rouge.

We rode all night, a fine moonlight, and before breakfast at a plantation we were hailed by Judge Boyce who rode with us the rest of the journey. His plantation is twenty-five miles further up, but he has lived here since 1826 and knows everybody. He insisted on my stopping with him at the plantation of Mr. Moore, who is just elected governor of Louisiana for the coming four years, and who in that capacity will be President of the Board of Supervisors, who control the Seminary of Learning, and whose friendship and confidence it is important I should secure. He sent us into town in his own carriage. Alexandria isn't much of a town, and the tavern where I am, Mrs. Fellow's, a common rate concern, as all southern taverns out of large cities are. Still I have a good room opening into the parlor.

General Graham came in from his plantation nine miles west of this, and has been with me ever since. At this moment he is at church, the Episcopal. He will go out home tonight and to-morrow I go likewise, when we are to have a formal meeting to arrange some rules and regulations, also agree on the system of study. He is the person who has from the start carried on the business. He was at West Point, but did not graduate, but he has an unlimited admiration of the system of discipline and study. He is about fifty-five years, rather small, exceedingly particular and methodical, and altogether different from his brother, the general.¹

LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY IN 1860
Sherman's office was the room to the left of the entrance.

The building is a gorgeous palace, altogether too good for its purpose, stands on a high hill three miles north of this. It has four hundred acres of poor soil, but fine pine and oak trees, a single large building. Like most bodies they have spent all their money on the naked building, trusting to the legislature for further means to provide furniture, etc. All this is to be done, and they agree to put me in charge at once, and enable me to provide before January 1 the tables, desks, chairs, blackboards, etc., the best I can in time for January 1, and as this is a mere village I must procure all things from New Orleans, and may have to go down early next month. But for the present I shall go to General Graham's tomorrow, be there some days, return here and then remove to the college, where I will establish myself and direct in person the construction of such things as may be made there.

There is no family near enough for me to board, so I will get the cook who provides for the carpenters to give me my meals.

It is the design to erect two buildings for the professors, but I doubt whether the legislature will give any more, $135,000 having already been expended. The institution, styled by law the Seminary of Learning, has an annual endowment of $8,100, but it is necessary for the legislature to appropriate this annually, and as they do not meet till the third Monday in January, I don't see how we can get any money before hand. I think when the appropriation is made, however, my salary will be allowed from November 1.

When I first got here it was hot, but yesterday it changed, and it is now very cold. I have a fire here, but several windows are broken, and the room is as cold as a barn, and the lazy negroes have to be driven to bring in wood.

I expect plenty of trouble from this source, the high wages of servants and the necessity to push them all the time to do anything. I would hire whites, but suppose it would be advisable and good policy to submit to the blacks for the present.

On arrival here I found your and Minnie's² letters, seven days in coming, which is better time than I expected. Mails come here tri-weekly by stage by the route I came. . .

­­_______________

¹ General R. B. Mason, Sherman's commanding officer in California. — Ed.

² Sherman’s eldest daughter.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 47-52

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 6, 1859

Baton Rouge, Sunday, November 6, 1859.

I wrote you from the Kennett at Cairo - but not from Memphis. I got here last night about dark, the very day I had appointed, but so late in the day that when I called at the governor's residence I found he had gone to a wedding. I have not yet seen him, and as tomorrow is the great election day of this state I hear that he is going down to New Orleans to-day. So I got up early, and as soon as I finish this letter, I will go again.

I have been to the post-office and learn that several letters have come for me, all of which were sent to the governor. Captain Ricketts of the army, commanding officer at the barracks,¹ found me last night, and has told me all the news, says that they were much pleased at my accepting the place, and that all place great reliance on me, that the place at Alexandria selected for the school is famous for salubrity, never has been visited by yellow fever and therefore is better adapted for the purpose than this place. He thinks that I will have one of the best places in the country, and that I will be treated with great consideration by the legislature and authorities of the state. I will have plenty to do between this and the time for opening of school. I have yet seen nobody connected with the school and suppose all are waiting for me at Alexandria, where I will go tomorrow. . .

_______________

¹ The United States military post at Baton Rouge. - Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 45-6

Thomas Overton Moore

This gentleman was a North Carolinian. The esteem in which his family were held in their native State is evidenced by the naming of Moore County for them. Governor Moore's grandfather on the distaff side was General Thomas Overton, who held the position of major during the Revolutionary War under General Lee's father. He acted as Second for General Jackson in a duel, and his son, General Walter H. Overton, was aid to Jackson at New Orleans.

When Governor Moore came to Louisiana he settled in Rapides Parish as a cotton planter, and was sent from there to the State Senate in 1856, where his political course was so creditable he was elected Governor on the Democratic ticket of 1860. Early in his administration “he convened the Legislature in extra session to determine the course Louisiana should pursue in view of the evident determination of the General Government to destroy the institution of slavery.”

Through Governor Moore's advice a convention was called by the Legislature, at Baton Rouge, on the 23d of January, 1861. The 26th of the same month the Convention passed the Ordinance of Secession and Louisiana bid farewell to the Union. Thus were fulfilled the prophetic warnings of every Governor who had controlled the State for during more than forty years, beginning with Governor Robertson, in 1820. No sooner had the decree of Secession been declared than Governor Moore ordered Adjutant General Grivot to organize the militia force of the State, consisting of 24,000 men, ready for active service. With these troops the military posts and garrisons within the State were taken possession of, with many thousands of stands of arms and immense quantities of ammunition. A Soldiers' Relief Association was formed, and free markets opened in New Orleans. Governor Moore compelled the banks to suspend specie payments, even though by this move they forfeited their charters, as he considered this necessary for their protection. Being petitioned by many cotton factors of New Orleans to issue an order forbidding the introduction of cotton within its limits, he did so, although such a course was not guaranteed by law of any kind but that of practical sense and emergency of circumstance. When, by the disastrous fate of war, New Orleans passed under Federal control, in 1862, Governor Moore called together the Legislature at Opelousas; the quorum of members being small they were reassembled at Shreveport. Here his official term drew to a close, and he passed the scepter of State Government on to his successor, the brave and gallant Allen.

Governor Moore cannot be described better than in the words of Meynier: “He was remarkable for his truthfulness and strict integrity as well as for the purity of his private life. His disposition was fiery, and, politically a democrat, he believed in the precepts of Jefferson and Jackson, being a great admirer of the General's determination whose example he followed in his gubernatorial career.”

Governor Moore's life ended at his home in Rapides Parish, June, 1876, aged seventy-one.

SOURCE: Mrs. Eugene Soniat du Fossat, Biographical Sketches of Louisiana's Governors, p. 37-8

Diary of William Howard Russell: June 9, 1861

A thunder-storm, which lasted all the morning and afternoon till three o'clock. When it cleared I drove, in company with Mr. Burnside and his friends, to dinner with Mr. Duncan Kenner, who lives some ten or twelve miles above Houmas. He is one of the sporting men of the South, well known on the Charleston race-course, and keeps a large stable of racehorses and brood mares, under the management of an Englishman. The jocks were negro lads; and when we arrived, about half a dozen of them were giving the colts a run in the paddock. The calveless legs and hollow thighs of the negro adapt him admirably for the pigskin; and these little fellows sat their horses so well, one might have thought, till the turn in the course displayed their black faces and grinning mouths, he was looking at a set of John Scott's young gentlemen out training.

The Carolinians are true sportsmen, and in the South the Charleston races create almost as much sensation as our Derby at home. One of the guests at Mr. Kenner's knew all about the winners of Epsom Oaks, and Ascot, and took delight in showing his knowledge of the “Racing Calendar.”

It is observable, however, that the Creoles do not exhibit any great enthusiasm for horse-racing, but that they apply themselves rather to cultivate their plantations and to domestic duties; and it is even remarkable that they do not stand prominently forward in the State Legislature, or aspire to high political influence and position, although their numbers and wealth would fairly entitle them to both. The population of small settlers, scarcely removed from pauperism, along the river banks, is courted by men who obtain larger political influence than the great land-owners, as the latter consider it beneath them to have recourse to the arts of the demagogue.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 286-7

Diary of Sergeant George G. Smith: April 20, 1863

Arrived at Opalousas. This was the third capitol the rebels had made for this state since the rebellion. We expected to catch some of their honorable bodies, the members of the Legislature, but they were too wary. The saying, “A stag oft hunted grows wild,” was true in this case. The authorities surrendered without opposition. Opalousas ordinarily contains about 6,000 inhabitants, and is situated in one of the richest farming sections of the state. Watered by the Teche and Atchaffalaya Bayous which divide and subdivide forming a network of bayous which are navigable for steamboats a considerable portion of the year, which while they irrigate and fertilize the land, afford at once a cheap and easy means for the conveyance of the rich products to the sea and to the markets of the world. Cotton and sugar cane ordinarily are the staple products, but this year it was planted mostly with corn to feed the armies. Colonel Holcomb ordered me to turn my gun and equipments over to the quartermaster and act as lieutenant of Company E.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 48-9

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Friday, May 8, 1863

We reached Marshall at 3 A.M., and got four hours' sleep there. We then got into a railroad for sixteen miles, after which we were crammed into another stage.

Crossed the frontier into Louisiana at 11 A.M. I have therefore been nearly a month getting through the single state of Texas.

Reached Shrieveport at 3 P.M., and after washing for the first time in five days, I called on General Kirby Smith, who commands the whole country on this side of the Mississippi.

He is a Floridian by birth, was educated at West Point, and served in the United States cavalry. He is only thirty-eight years old; and he owes his rapid rise to a lieutenant-general to the fortunate fact of his having fallen, just at the very nick of time, upon the Yankee flank at the first battle of Manassas.¹

He is a remarkably active man, and of very agreeable manners; he wears big spectacles and a black beard.

His wife is an extremely pretty woman, from Baltimore, but she had cut her hair quite short like a man's. In the evening, she proposed that we should go down to the river and fish for cray-fish. We did so, and were most successful, the General displaying much energy on the occasion.

He told me that M'Clellan might probably have destroyed the Southern army with the greatest ease during the first winter, and without running much risk to himself, as the Southerners were so much overerated by their easy triumph at Manassas, and their army had dwindled away.

I was introduced to Governor Moore, of Louisiana, to the Lieutenant-Governor Hyams, and also to the exiled Governor of Missouri, Reynolds.

Governor Moore told me he had been on the Red Eiver since 1824, from which date until 1840 it had been very unhealthy. He thinks that Dickens must have intended Shrieveport by “Eden.”²

Governor Reynolds, of Missouri, told me he found himself in the unfortunate condition of a potentate exiled from his dominions; but he showed me an address which he had issued to his Missourians, promising to be with them at the head of an army to deliver them from their oppressors.

Shrieveport is rather a decent-looking place on the Red River. It contains about 3000 inhabitants, and is at present the seat of the Louisianian Legislature vice Baton Rouge. But only twenty-eight members of the Lower House had arrived as yet, and business could not be commenced with less than fifty.

The river now is broad and rapid, and it is navigated by large steamers; its banks are low and very fertile, but reputed to be very unhealthy.

General Kirby Smith advised me to go to Munroe, and try to cross the Mississippi from thence; he was so uncertain as to Alexandria that he was afraid to send a steamer so far.

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¹ Called by the Yankees "Bull Run."

² I believe this is a mistake of Governor Moore. I have always understood Cairo was Eden.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 80-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 31, 1861

Mr. Benjamin, it is understood, will be a candidate for a seat in the C. S. Senate. And I have learned from several members of the Louisiana legislature that he will be defeated. They charge him with hob-nobbing too much with Northern friends; and say that he still retains membership in several clubs in New York and Boston.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 89