City
iftrat

REFERENCE USE ONLY

KANSAS CITY, MO PUBLIC LIBRARY

o DOOI cmiais i

RISON

J

EFFERSON JUAVIS

D

EMBRACING DETAILS AND INCIDENTS IN HIS CAPTIVITY, PARTI
CULARS CONCERNING HIS HEALTH AND HABITS, TO
GETHER WITH MANY CONVERSATIONS ON
TOPICS OF GREAT PUBLIC INTEREST.

BY

BVT. LIEUT.-COL. JOHN J. CRAVEN, M.D., '

Late Surgeon U. S. Vok, and Physician of the Prisoner during his Confinement

in Fortress Monroe, from May 25, 18(15, up to December 25, 1863.

"Had I died m the throne, enveloped in the dense
atmos/ihfre of power, f should to many have re
mained a problem. Now, misforfiau will e-ruible

* all fff judge me ivithtyet dufittsc." NAPOLEON

* BONAPA'RTK TO D. BARKY O'MKARA.

NEW YORK:

Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway.

LONDON: S. Low SON & Co.

M DCCC LXVI.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iS66, bj
GEO. W. CARLETON,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern
District of New York.

THE NEW YORK PRINTING COMPANY

81, 83, and 85 Centre Street,

NEW YORK.

THE HON. HUGH McCULLOUGH,

Secretary of the Treasury,

WHO FIRST

Of all our Northern Public Men
HAS HAD THE WISDOM, MAGNANIMITY, AND COURAGE

To express Sympathy for the Misfortunes

OF
THE SUBJECT OF OUR MEMOIR,

BY
A Visit to Mr. Davis in his cell at Fortress Monroe,

THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED.

CONTENTS.

Page

CHAPTER L

An Introduction by Anecdote. The Old-fashioned Pre
face in a New Dress ii

CHAPTER II.
Fortress Monroe. The Ceremonial of delivering Mr.

Davis into Custody. His first Day in the Casemate 21

CHAPTER III.

Placing Mr, Davis in Irons. His Protest and his Strug
gles. My First Visit to the Prisoner . , .33

CHAPTER IV.

Conversation with Mr. Davis on many Points. The
Removal of his Shackles demanded as a Medical
Necessity 45

CHAPTER V.

Conversations of some Interest The Shackles Re
moved. Mr. Davis on Various Scientific Subjects 58

CHAPTER VI.

Operations on the Southern Coast. Davis Hears that
he is Indicted and to be Tried. His Joy. Views
of his own Defence 74

CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Davis on the New England Character. Future

of the South and Southern Blacks .... 90

viii Contents.

Page

CHAPTER VIII.

Mr. Davis on Cruelty to Prisoners. Mexico. Turtle
on the Southern Coast The Southern Leaders an
Aristocracy. Lecture on the Fine Arts, by a fc
Strange Man in a Strange Place .... 104

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Davis on Gen. Butler and Dutch Gap. He denies
that Secession was Treason. His opinion of Grant/
McClellan, Pope, and other Union Officers ; also of
Bragg, Lee and Pemberton. His Flight from
Richmond and Arrest 119

CHAPTER X.

Diseases of the Eye. Guards removed from the Prison
er's Room. Mr. Davis takes his first Walk on the
Ramparts. The Policy of Conciliation. Dr. Davis
on Improvements in Land and Naval Warfare . 146

CHAPTER XL

Mr. Lincoln's Assassination. Ex-President Pierce.
Torture of being Constantly Watched. Mr. Davis
on the Members of his Cabinet and the Opponents
of his Administration. Touching Tribute to the
Memory of " Stonewall " Jackson .... 163

CHAPTER XII.

Mr. Davis seriously 111. Restrictions on Correspondence
with, his Wife. Clement C. Clay. A Rampart In
terview. Religious Phase of Mr. Davis 7 Character 183

CHAPTER XIII.

Southern Migration to Mexico. Mr. Calhoun's Mem
ory vindicated from one Charge. Tribute to Albert
Sidney Johnston. Failure of Southern Iron-clads
and Loss of the Mississippi ion

Contents. Ix

CHAPTER XIV. Page

Mr. Davis on Negro Character. Xhe Assassination of
President Lincoln. How the Prisoner's Food was
Served. A Solemn and Interesting Statement . 214

CHAPTER XV.

Southern Non-Belligerents. The Ant-Lion and its
Habits. Mr. Davis on the Future of the Southern
Blacks 228

CHAPTER XVI.
Mr. Davis on Fenianism. Highly Important His

Views of Reconstruction 243

CHAPTER XVII.

Mr. Davis seriously III Change of Quarters officially
Recommended. The Pictures and Poetry of the
Bible. Lafayette's I mprisonment. Marvellous -
Memory and great Variety of Knowledge. Mr,
Davis on Female Lecturers. The True Mission of
Women ......... 254

CHAPTER XVIII.

Mr. Davis on Sensation News. The Condition of the
Negro. -Gen. Butler at Drury's Bluff. Bishop
Lynch and the Sisters of Charity. A Story after
the manner of President Lincoln .... 275

CHAPTER XIX.

Treason. State and National. The Fish-Hawk and
Bald-Eagle.- Mr. Davis on Senator Benton, F,x~
President Buchanan, and President Andrew John
son. Preparations to remove Mr. Davis to Carroll
Hall . . 391

x Contents.

Pa

CHAPTER XX.
Visit to RichmondGeneral Lee. Mr. Davis on

Horseback Exercise. Macaulay's Pictorial Power 30$

CHAPTER XXL

Removal to. Carroll Hall. Some Curious Coincidences.
A Foolish Precaution. Interesting Letter from
Mrs. Davis. Adventures of the Family from Incar
ceration of Mr. Davis up to date .... 3 2 3

CHAPTER XXII.

A New Regiment on Guard. Ordered not to Commu
nicate with Mr. Davis, save on " Strictly Professional
Matters." The Correspondence about Prisoner's
Overcoat ...'... 349

CHAPTER XXIII.
General Summary in Conclusion. The Character of

Mr. Davis. Let us be merciful !.*.. 3^8

THE

PRISON LIFE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.

CHAPTER I.

An Introduction by Anecdote. The Old-fash
ioned Preface in a New Dress,

LATE one summer evening, hot, hungry, dusty,
thirsty, tired, exasperated, and full of venge
ful thoughts, I was riding down the road from
the bloody and resultless encounter near Ber
muda Hundreds, 'to where my field hospitals
had been established. Saul journeying to Da-*
mascus, breathing out threatenings against
his enemies, was in no fiercer spirit The
day had been oppressively warm, our losses
enormous, our gains nothing ; and worn out
with the labor and wretchedness of superior

12 The Prison Life

tending the removal of the wounded, I was
cantering wearily but rapidly back to where
many hundred sufferers, in all stages of man-
glement, lay awaiting the painful remedy of
the surgeon's art Never before had the re
bellion, with its attendant horrors, appeared so
inhuman to my mind ; and if the hot hatreds
of my soul could have taken shape in words,
I would have exclaimed, addressing the Con
federates under Beauregard :

" Oh, that each slave had forty thousand lives,
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge ! "

Half way between the battle-field and my
hospitals, I overtook four of our boys in blue,
under a corporal, tenderly carrying to the
rear a stretcher on which lay a wounded
rebel.

Something tempted me to halt and dis
mount. God forgive me if it was a desire to
assure myself that all the suffering had not
been on our side. If so, the unworthy feel
ing was of brief duration ; for no sooner,
throwing the reins to my orderly, did I stand

of Jefferson Davis. 1 3

beside the litter and gaze upon the pale,
pinched features of the wounded man, than
all promptings of patriotic hatred vanished;
and there was nothing left in my existence
but the deep, overwhelming sympathy of the
medical man for a patient needing aid to call
him back from death.

He needed aid, indeed. His left arm was
shot through ; his right leg shattered and badly
mangled above the ankle ; his hip was torn
by the fall of his horse, and life appeared fast
ebbing. In his horse, by the way, as it fell
under him, there were sixteen bullets. He
had ridden right in on top of the 6th Conn,
regiment, and our boys had given him what
we called " a blizzard."

" My poor man," I said, " you are wounded
nearly unto death."

" I feel it," he faintly replied. " I am Gene
ral Walker, of Beauregard's staff. Let me
rest somewhere, and dictate some last words
to my Wife and Commander."

Where was my hatred now? Where the
fierce thirst of retribution that should have

14 The Prison Life

looked on this unfortunate's agony as a just
judgment ?

Giving him some brandy from a pocket-
flask, I told the corporal in charge to carry
him to my own tent, next General Gillmore's
head-quarters at Hatcher's House ; and hastily
scribbling a line to my hospital steward,
" Take charge will be with you soon," I re
mounted, and galloped off to the sickening
scenes always presented in a field hospital
after a severe engagement

It was midnight, or some little later, before
my duties to the hundreds of our boys would
allow me to visit the sufferer in my tent His
case needed immediate amputation of the
lower leg, and there was no sufficient light
for performing the operation.

" Tear down that smoke-house and kindle
a big bonfire," was my order. " We must get
light somehow, and quickly, or this man will
die. He is seven-eighths on his way to death
already."

Never before had I been so painfully anx
ious. The feeling arose, no doubt, from an

of Jefferson Davis. 15

instinct of conscience punishing my unpro
fessional thoughts or half thoughts when
first halting beside his litter. The man had
to be saved, or an unhappy recollection would
haunt my life. No appliance that care or
skill could furnish must be wanting. It had
been against Beauregard all day that my
anger had been specially kindled. I recalled
our first defeat at Bull Run. His memorable
" beauty and booty" proclamation. Was I
always to witness defeat when opposed to this
enemy ? And it was against Beauregard and
all belonging to him, that day, while the con
test lasted, that the imprecations of my soul,
if not uttered, had been most vehemently felt

But here now was a military part of Beau-
regard one of his eyes or arms over whom
I yearned as if with a brother's sympathy.*
My business was to heal the wounded, not to
wound. By what right had I indulged the
vengeful thoughts which filled my breast"
when first meeting on the road this shattered
human wreck ?

The bonfire was soon blazing, and before

1 6 The Prison Life

the operation commenced as a happy result
could scarce be hoped I procured an amanu
ensis for General Walker, to whom he hur
riedly dictated two letters. They were fare
wells to his Wife and General Beauregard.
Will the loyal world think worse of me, if I
confess, that while hearing the few feeble
whispers in which this wounded rebel commu
nicated to a strange soldier of the hostile
force what he expected to be his last words
on earth his last messages to the Commander
he reverenced, and the Wife he was to see no
more I found an unusual moisture making
my sight uncertain ?

General Walker, however, was not destined
to die. By the flickering light of the bonfire,
and with the aid of Surgeons Janeway and
Buzelle, the amputation was successfully per
formed, and his other wounds properly treated.
He remained at once my guest and patient
until sufficiently restored for safe transfer to
the General Hospital at Fortress Monroe, and
is now hopping around the earth somewhere,
bly the and, hearty on the Iftg that is left him;

of Jefferson Davis. 17

perfectly willing to be " reconstructed/' I
should imagine, in more senses than one; nor
any the less likely in future to make a loyal
citizen, from such recollections as he may yet
preserve of the bonfire and the tent, the
amanuensis and the attending doctors of that
midnight scene.

This is the material part of my preface, and
contains the only apology I shall offer in case
any over-sensitively loyal readers may feel, or
affect to feel, shocked on finding in the follow
ing pages some record of the imprisonment
of Jefferson Davis, not written to gloat over
the misfortunes of a fallen enemy certainly
not aiming to palliate his political or other
errors ; but to depict so much of him as was
revealed to the Writer during a medical attend
ance of many months while Mr. Davis lay a
prisoner in Fortress Monroe. Should any
such objectors be found, the Writer believes
himself safe in predicting that they will be
drawn pretty exclusively from that loyal class
who were non-belligerent, except in the con
tracting line, and strictly non-combatant, save

1 8 The Prison Life

for higher percentages of profit, during the
recent contest for the Union.

For the rest, the following pages have been
prepared from a conscientious conviction of
duty, under the advice of eminent and re
spected friends, and with the sanction of many
gentlemen in our public life, who are not
more exalted by station than by loyalty, intel
ligence, and moral worth.

The book aims to introduce no discussion
of any political questions connected with the
late rebellion ; nor to be a plea influencing
public judgment, either for or against, the
gentleman who was for so many months the
Author's patient. It will report him as he was
seen during a protracted and confidential
medical attendance, extenuating nothing of
public interest, and setting down naught in
malice.

Of course, the relations of physician and
patient have a sacredness of confidence which
the Writer would be the last to violate ; and
all such restrictions, in this volume, will be

of Jefferson Davis. 19

found rigidly observed. No knowledge gained
during such relationship that might injure
Mr. Davis if published, could properly or
without flagrant infidelity, be given to th
world by his medical attendant ; and it is from
a sincere conviction that the reverse, must
prove the fact, and from a sincere personal
sympathy and respect for the subject of this
memoir, that the present volume has been
undertaken.

It may here be proper to remark lest par
tisan malice should attempt from interested
motives to distort the Writer's position that
he has been through all the years of his
thinking life an earnest and active opponent
of slavery, and of all the other cardinal doc
trines on which the leaders of the late Rebel
lion claimed to base their action. He was
a member of the Republican party from its
birth down to the present day an uncom
promising supporter of the Union ; and it is
from his deep conviction that the Union can
best be reconstructed, and its harmony of
relationship restored, by pursuing a moderate

2O The Prison Life

policy and seeking to understand, in their
present frame of mind, what are the views
of the men who were recently our leading
enemies, that he would now beg the earnest
attention of all classes in the Country to such
portions of this volume as shadow forth the
opinions of Mr. Davis in regard to the future
of the South.

of Jefferson Dams. 2 i

CHAPTER II.

Fortress Monroe* Tfie Ceremonial of deliver
ing Mr. Davis into Custody, His first
Day in the Casemate.

FORTRESS MONROE is too well known to
need any description in these pages. It is
the most powerful regular fortification on the
Continent; and, with its subordinate works
is the grim Cerberus guarding the approach
by water to our National Capital. It has wit
nessed the initial movements of many most
interesting chapters in the recent war, though
itself never within reach of hostile guns,
save when the Merrimac made its brief raid
upon our fleet in Hampton Roads the raid
so notably checked by Captain Worden in
his little Monitor.

Either from it, or past it from Annapolis,
had sailed the chief expeditions, marine and

22 The Prison Life

military, of the Southern coast Beneath its
ramparts the transports of McClelland army
had made brief rendezvous when hastening
to the campaign of the Peninsula; and here
again they had to pass, when returning with
diminished ranks and soiled plumage to save
the National Capital after General Pope's dis
aster. It witnessed the sailing of Sherman's
Port Royal expedition, to which the writer
had the honor to belong ; the expeditions of
Burnside, Butler, Banks, and all the other
joint military and naval movements which
thundered for three years along the coast,
from Cape Hatteras to Sabine Pass. Far-
ragut, Du Pont and Porter stepped ashore
on its hospitable beach when returning from
their most famous exploits.

Of a truth, Fortress Monroe, though not
properly in the war, was of the war a ren
dezvous for our greatest naval, military and
civil chiefs in some of their greatest mo
ments ; nor will its least interesting reminis
cence to the future tourist be this which
records, that in one of its granite casemates,

of Jefferson Davis. 23

and looking out through the bars of a grated
embrasure on the Empire he had lost, lay for
many months in solitary confinement, and
awaiting trial, the defeated Chief of the might
iest rebellion which this earth has yet wit
nessed ; or, at least, the vastest in extent and
the most formidable in its resources, of which
history gives any clear and credible record.

And never before, indeed, did the old fort
witness such excitement, though partially sup
pressed and held in check by military disci
pline and the respect due to a fallen enemy,
as on the igth day of May, 1865, when the
propeller William P. Clyde dropped anchor
in Hampton Roads, and the news spread on
shore first in eager, questioning whispers,
then in the full assurance of conviction that
she had on board as prisoners Jefferson
Davis, late President of the late Confederacy
and his family; Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-
President; John H. Reagan, late Postmaster-
General ; Clement C. Clay, and several more
State prisoners belonging to his now scat
tered and ruined house.

24 The Prison Life

" What will they do with him ? " " When
will they bring him ashore ? " " Guess they'll
take him right on to Washington and hang
him by Military Commission ? " " Guess you're
a jackass ; they can't hang him, unless they
hang all." " Jackass yourself; the papers say
he was partner with the assassins in killing
Lincoln." "Who are the other chaps with
him ? " " Will they keep him in the woman's
toggery he had on when caught ? J> "" Guess
there's $o truth in that" " It's just as true as
preaching all the papers say so." " They'll
hang Clem. Clay sure." This was something
of the conversational buzz I had to pass
through, while hastening down from my
quarters inside the fort, to get an early view
of the little steamer, which, with her impri
soned freight, was the centre of attention.

For the next three days these speculations
continued, colloquially and in the papers ; but
meantime, and for some days previously, pre
parations had been going on within the fort,
under the direction of Colonel Brewerton of
the Engineers, which gave evidence to the

of Jefferson Davis. 25

initiated that the State prisoners on board
the propeller in the offing would soon be
transferred at least some of them, and for
the present to securer quarters. Black
smiths aiTd carpenters were busily at work
fitting up casemates number two and four in
first front, and near the postern, for the recep
tion of prisoners. They were being parti
tioned off into regular cells by busy brick
layers; heavy iron bars were placed across
the external embrasures, and windows open
ing on the interior; and the cells intended
for the prisoners were partitioned off into
two apartments, that next the embrasure be
ing intended for the captives, -while the room
or cell opening on the interior of the fort
was for his guard.

" And it has come to this," was my reflec
tion, as I stood with folded hands first con
templating these arrangements. " But a few
months ago, the man for whose reception
these preparations are b^jng made, was the
acknowledged ruler of many millions of
American citizens. He had armies at his

26 The Prison Life *

command ; cabinet officers ; a staff of devoted
adherents ; and ambassadors, though not offi
cially recognised, at all the courts of Europe.
Nearly a million of lives by battle, disease,
and starvation have been sacrificed for, and
against, the cause of which he was the chosen
representative. And it has come to this with
him!" Aye, and was soon to come to worse
But this is anticipating,

On the morning of the 2ist of May some
of the minor State prisoners on board the
Clyde the rebel General Wheeler and his
staff were placed on board the gunboat
Maumee, which then steamed for Fort War
ren in Boston harbor; while Alexander H.
Stephens, ex-Postmaster Reagan, and some
others, were soon after transferred on board
the gunboat Tuscarora, which immediately
started off to Fort Delaware, as was pre
sumed. Intense excitement, on shore and
in the neighboring vessels, accompanied all
these changes; bu,t Major-General Halleck,
who had come down some days before to
superintend the arrangements, would make

of Jefferson Davis. 27

no sign, and speculation consequently ran
higher and higher every moment as to
whether the chief prisoner of all was des
tined to remain at the fort, or be transferred
elsewhere in custody without halting.

At last, on the afternoon of the 22d, all
doubts were set at rest by the arrival of
Major-General Miles in a special steamer
from Baltimore, this officer being now as
signed to the command of the fort, relieving
Colonel Roberts ; and simultaneously there
with, from the posting of chains of sentinels
and guards to keep back the crowd along
the Engineer's Landing, and from thence
along the route to the Water Battery Pos
tern, it became clear that the important pri
soner was about being landed, and that his
route would lie in this direction.

The parting between Mr. Davis, his wife,
four children, and the other members of his
family and household who were on board
the Clyde, was extremely affecting, as I have
been 'told, by officers who were present the
ladies sobbing passionately as the chief pris-

28 The Prison Life

oners Messrs. Clay and Davis were handed
over the ship's side and into the boat, which
was to convey them, under guard, to their
unknown fate.

The procession into the fort was simple
though momentous, and was under the im
mediate inspection of Major-General Halleck,
and the Hon. Charles A. Dana, then As
sistant Secretary of War; Colonel Prich-
ard, of the Michigan cavalry, who immedi
ately effected the capture, being the officer in
command of the guard from the vessel to
the fort. First came Major-General Miles
holding the arm of Mr. Davis, who was
dressed in a suit of plain Confederate grey,
with a grey slouched hat always thin, and
now looking much wasted and very haggard.
Immediately after these came Colonel Prich-
ard accompanying Mr. Clay, with a guard of
soldiers in their rear. Thus they passed
through files of men in blue from the Engi
neer s Landing to the Water Battery Pos
tern ; and on arriving at the casemate which
had been fitted up into cells for their incarce-

of Jefferson Davis. 29

ration, Mr. Davis was shown into casemate
No. 2 and Clay into No. 4, guards of soldiers
being stationed in the cells numbered i, 3,
and 5, upon each side of them. They en
tered ; the heavy doors clanged behind them,
and in that clang was rung the final knell of
the terrible, but now extinct, rebellion. Here,
indeed, is a fall, my countrymen. Another
and most striking illustration of the muta
bility of human greatness. Let me here
give a picture of the earliest scene in the
cell of Mr. Davis, as related immediately
after its occurrence by one who was a pas
sive actor therein, my own connection with
Mr. Davis not commencing until two days
after (May the 24th), when I was first de
tailed by Major-General Miles as his attend
ing physician.

Being ushered into his inner cell by Gen
eral Miles, and the two doors leading there*
into from the guard-room being fastened, Mr.
Davis, after surveying the premises for some
moments, and looking out through the em
brasure with such thoughts passing over his

3O The Prison Life

lined and expressive face as may be imagined,
suddenly seated himself in a chair, placing
both hands on his knees, and asked one of
the soldiers pacing up and down within his
cell this significant question : " Which way
does the embrasure face ? "

The soldier was silent.

Mr- Davis, raising his voice a little, re
peated the inquiry.

But again dead silence, or only the mea
sured footfalls of the two pacing sentries with
in, and the fainter echoes of the four without

Addressing the other soldier, as if the first*
had been deaf and had not heard him, the
prisoner again repeated his inquiry.

But the second soldier remained silent as
the first, a slight twitching of his eyes only
intimating that he had heard the question, but
was forbidden to speak.

" Well," said Mr. Davis, throwing his hands
up and breaking into a bitter laugh, " I wish
m y men could have been taught your disci
pline!" and then, rising from his chair, he
commenced pacing back and forth before the

of Jefferson Davis. 31

embrasure, now looking at the silent sentry
across the moat, and anon at the two silently
pacing soldiers who were his companions in
the casemate.

What caused his bitter laugh for even in
his best days his temper was of the saturnine
and atrabilious type, seldom capable of being
moved beyond a smile ? Was he thinking of
those days under President Pierce, in which
on his approach the cannon of the fortress
thundered their hoarse salute to the all-power
ful Secretary* of War, the fort's gates leaping
open, its soldiers presenting arms, and the
whole place under his command ? Or those
later days under Mr. Buchanan when, as the
most powerful member of the Military Com
mittee of the Senate, similar honors were
paid on his arrival at every national work
even during those final moments when he
was plotting " to secure peace" by placing in
command of all our forts and armories, such
officers as he thought might be relied upon
to " go with the South if the worst came ? "

And was not his question significant:

32 The Prison Life

" Which way does this embrasure face ? J
Was it north, south, east, or west ? In the
hurry and agitation of being conducted in, he
had lost his reckoning of the compass, though
well acquainted with the localities ; and his
first question was in effect : " Does my vision
in its reach go southward to the empire I
have lost, or North to the loyal enemies who
have subdued my people ? " for it is always
as " his people" that Mr. Davis refers to the
Southern States.

His sole reading-matter a Bible and prayer-
book, his only companions those two silent
guards, and his only food the ordinary rations
of bread and beef served out to the soldiers
of the garrison thus passed the first day and
night -of the ex-President's confinement.

of Jefferson Davis. 33

CHAPTER IIL

Placing Mr. Davis in Irons. His Protest
and his Struggles. My First Visit to the
Prisoner.

ON the morning of the 23d of May, a yet
bitterer trial was in store for the proud spirit
a trial severer, probably, than has ever in
modern times been inflicted upon any one
who had enjoyed such eminence. This morn
ing Jefferson Davis was shackled.

It was while all the swarming camps of
the armies of the Potomac, the Tennessee
and Georgia over two hundred thousand
bronzed and laurelled veterans were pre
paring for the Grand Review of the next
morning, in which, passing in endless succes
sion before the mansion of the President, the
conquering military power of the nation was
to lay down its arms at the feet of the Civil

34 The Prison Life

Authority, that the following scene was en
acted at Fort Monroe :

Captain Jerome E. Titlow, of the 3d Penn
sylvania Artillery, entered the prisoner's cell,
followed by the blacksmith of the fort and his
assistant, the latter carrying in his hands some
heavy and harshly-rattling shackles. As they
entered, Mr. Davis was reclining on his bed,
feverish and weary after a sleepless night, the
food placed near to him the preceding day
still lying untouched on its tin plate near his
bedside.

"Well?" said Mr. Davis as they entered,
slightly raising his head.

" I have an unpleasant duty to perform,
Sir," said Captain Titlow; and as he spoke,
the senior blacksmith took the shackles from
his assistant

Davis leaped instantly from his recumbent
attitude, a flush passing over his face for a
moment, and then his countenance growing
livid and rigid as death.

He gasped for breath, clutching his throat
with the thin fingers of his right hand, and

of Jefferson Davis. 35

then recovering himself slowly, while his
wasted figure towered up to its full height
now appearing to swell with indignation and
then to shrink with terror, as he glanced from
the captain's face to the shackles he said
slowly and with a laboring chest :

" My God ! You cannot have been sent to
iron me ? "

" Such are my orders, Sir," replied the offi
cer, beckoning the blacksmith to approach,
who stepped forward, unlocking the padlock
and preparing the fetters to do their office,
These fetters were of heavy iron, probably
five-eighths of an inch in thickness, and con
nected together by a chain of like weight I
believe they are now in the possession of
Major-General Miles, and will form an inter
esting relic.

" This is too monstrous," groaned the pri
soner, glaring hurriedly round the room, as if
for some weapon, or means of self-destruction.
" I demand, Captain, that you let me see the
commanding officer. Can he pretend that
such shackles are required to secure the safe

36 The Prison Life

custody of a weak old man, so guarded and
in such a fort as this ? "

" It could serve no purpose," replied Cap
tain Titlow ; " his orders are from Washing
ton, as mine are from him."

" But he can telegraph," interposed Mr
Davis, eagerly; "there must be some mis
take. No such outrage as you threaten me
with, is on record in the history of nations.
Beg him to telegraph, and delay until he
answers."

" My orders are peremptory," said the offi-
cer fc " and admit of no delay. For your own
sake, let me advise you to submit with
patience. As a soldier, Mr. Davis, you
know I must execute orders."

" These are not orders for a soldier,"
shouted the prisoner, losing all control of
himself. " They are orders for a jailor for
a hangman, which no soldier wearing a
sword should accept! P tell you the world
will ring with this disgrace. The war is
over; the South is conquered; I have no
longer any country but America, and it is

of Jefferson Davis. 37

for the honor of America, as for my own
honor and life, that I plead against this degra
dation. Kill me ! kill me ! " he cried, passion
ately, throwing his arms wide open and expos
ing his breast, "rather than inflict on me,
and on my People through me, this insult
worse than death."

" Do your duty, blacksmith," said the offi
cer, walking towards the embrasure as if not
caring to witness the performance. " It only
gives increased pain on all sides to protract
this interview."

At these words the blacksmith advanced
with the shackles, and seeing that the prisoner
had one foot upon the chair near his bedside,
his right hand resting on the back of it, the
brawny mechanic made an attempt to slip one
of the shackles over the ankle so raised ; but,
as if with the vehemence and strength which
frenzy can impart, even to the weakest invalid,
Mr. Davis suddenly* seized his assailant and
^ hurled him half-way across the room.

On this Captain Titlow turned, and seeing
that Davis had backed against the wall for

38 The Prison Life

further resistance, began to remonstrate, point
ing out in brief, clear language, that this course
was madness, and that orders must be en
forced at any cost " Why compel me," he
said, " to add the further indignity of personal
violence to the necessity of your being
ironed ? "

" I am a prisoner of war," fiercely retorted
Davis ; " I 'have been a soldier in the armies
of America, and know how to die. Only kill
me, and my last breath shall be a blessing on
your head. But while I have life and strength
to*resist, for myself and for my people, this
thing shall not be done."

Hereupon Captain Titlow called in a ser
geant and file of soldiers from the next room,
and the sergeant advanced to seize the pri
soner. Immediately Mr. Davis flew on him,
seized his musket and attempted to wrench it
from his grasp.

Of course such a scene could have but one
issue. There was a short, passionate scuffle.
In a moment Davis was flung upon his
bed, and before his four powerful assailants

of Jefferson Davis 39

removed their hands from him, the blacksmith
and his assistant had done their work one
securing the rivet on the right ankle, while
the other turned the key in the padlock on
the left.

This done, Mr. Davis lay for a moment as-
if in stupor. Then slowly raising himself
and turning round, he dropped his shackled
feet to the floor. The harsh clank of the
striking chain seems first to have recalled him
to his situation, and dropping his face into
his hands, he burst into a passionate flood of
sobbing, rocking to and fro, and muttering at
brief intervals : " Oh, the shame, the shame ! "

It may here be stated, though out of its
due order that we may get rid in haste of an
unpleasant subject that Mr. Davis some two
months later, when frequent visits had made
him more free of converse, gave me a curious
explanation of the last feature in this incident

He had been speaking of suicide, and de
nouncing it as the worst form of cowardice
and folly. " Life is not like a commission
that we can resign when disgusted with the

4O The Prison Life

service. Taking it by your own hand is a
confession of judgment to all that your worst
enemies can allege. It has often flashed
across me as a tempting remedy for neuralgic
torture ; but thank God ! I never sought my
own death but once, and then when com
pletely frenzied and not master of my actions.
When they came to iron me that day, as a last
resource of desperation, I seized a soldier's
musket and attempted to wrench it from his
grasp, hoping that in the scuffle and surprise,
some one of his comrades would shoot or
bayonet me."

What has preceded this, with the exception
of the preceding paragraph and of things I
saw such as the cell, procession, etc. has
been based on the evidence of others who
came fresh from the scenes they pictured. I
now reach the commencement of my personal
relations with the prisoner, and for all that
follows am willing to be held responsible.

On the morning of May 24th, I was sent
for about half-past 8 A.M., by Major-General
Miles ; was told that State-prisoner Davis

of Jefferson Davis. 41

complained of being ill, and that I had been
assigned as his medical attendant

Calling upon the prisoner the first time I
had ever seen him closely he presented a
very miserable and afflicting aspect Stretched
upon his pallet and very much emaciated, Mr.
Davis appeared a mere fascine of raw and
tremulous nerves his eyes restless and fe
vered, his head continually shifting from side
to side for a cool spot on the pillow, and his
case clearly one in which intense cerebral ex
citement was the first thing needing attention.
He was extremely despondent, his pulse full
and at ninety, tongue thickly coated, extremi
ties cold, and his head troubled with a long-
established neuralgic disorder. Complained
of his thin camp mattress and pillow stuffed
with hair, adding, that he was so emaciated
that his skin chafed easily against the slats ;
and, as these complaints were well founded, I
ordered an additional hospital mattress and
softer pillow, for which he thanked me cour
teously.

" But I fear," he said, as, having prescribed,

42 The Prison Life

I was about taking my leave, accompanied by
Captain Evans, sd Pennsylvania Artillery,
who was officer of the day ; " I fear, Doctor,
you will have a troublesome and unsatisfactory
patient. One whose case can reflect on you
little credit There are circumstances at work
outside your art to counteract your art ; and I
suppose there must be a conflict between your
feelings as a soldier of the Union and your
duties as a healer of the sick."

This* last was said with a faint smile, and I
tried to cheer him, assuring him, if he would
only keep quiet and endeavor to get some
rest and sleep, which my prescription was
mainly addressed to obtain, that he would be
well in a few days. For the rest, of course a
physician could have no feelings nor recog^
nise any duties but towards his patient.

Mr. Davis turned to the officer of the day,
and demanded whether he had been shackled
by special order of the Secretary of War, or
whether General Miles had considered this
violent course essential to his safe-keeping ?
The Captiin replied that he knew nothing

of Jefferson Davis. 43

of the matter ; and so our first interview
ended.

On quitting Mr* Davis, at once wrote to
Major Church, Assistant Adjutant-General,
advising that the prisoner. be allowed tobacco
to the want of which, after a lifetime of
use, he had referred as .one of the probable
partial causes of his illness though not com-
plainingly, nor with any* request that it be
given. This recommendation was approved
in the course of the day ; and on calling in
the evening brought tobacco with me, and Mr.
Davis filled his pipe, which was the sole article
he had carried with him from the Clyde, ex
cept the clothes he then wore.

" This is a noble medicine," he said, with
something as near a smile as was possible for
his haggard and shrunken features. " I hardly
expected it ; did not ask for it, though the
deprivation has been severe. During my con
finement here I shall ask for nothing."

He was now much calmer, feverish symp
toms steadily decreasing, pulse already down
to seventy-five, his brain less excitable, and nis

44 The Prison Life

mind becoming more resigned to his condi
tion. Complained that the foot-falls of the
two sentries within his chamber made it diffi
cult for him to collect his thoughts ; but
added cheerfully that, with this touching his
pipe he hoped to become tranquil.

This pipe, by the way, was a large and
handsome one, made of meerschaum, with an
amber mouth-piece, showing by its* color that
it had seen " active service" for some time as
indeed was the case, having been his com
panion during the stormiest years of his late
titular Presidency. It is now in the Writer's
possession, having been given to him by Mr,
Davis, and its acceptance insisted upon as the
only thing he had left to offer.

of Jefferson Davis. 45

CHAPTER IV,

Conversation with Mr. Davis on 'many Points.
The Removal of his Shackles demanded
as a Medical Necessity.

MORNING of 25th May. My patient much
easier and better. Had slept a little, and
thanked me for the additional mattress.

" I have a poor, frail body," he said ; " and
though in my youth and manhood, while
soldiering, I have done some rough camping
and campaigning, there was flesh then to
cover my nerves and bones ; and that makes
an important difference."

He then spoke of his predisposition to
bilious fever at this period of the year, stating
that it usually began with a slight chill, then
raa into a remittent condition. Had also suf
fered much from neuralgia, by which the sight
of one eye had been destroyed ; and had been

46 The Prison Life

a victim to what he called " the American
malady, 5 ' dyspepsia, ever since quitting the
active, open-air life of the army.

Having ordered him a preparation of Cali-
saya bark after each meal to assist digestion
Mr. Davis spoke familiarly of all the various
preparations of this medicine ; then digressed
into some reminiscence of a conversation he
once had with an eminent English physician
in regard to anti-periodics.

He took the ground, said Mr. Davis, that
Peruvian bark in its various forms was the
only reliable therapeutic agent of this kind
and it may be so with the practice in England.
Here, however (I told him), we have a number
perfectly reliable, such as Salicine, from the
willow, a preparation of arsenic (in solution),
and so forth.

He appeared anxious to know what agents
could be used for adulterating quinine and
the other preparations of bark, for that they
are grossly adulterated he knew. Taking all
the risks of running the blockade, these pre
parations, or preparations purporting to be

of Jefferson Davis. 47

such, had been sold at Wilmington and
Charleston during the war, at prices in gold for
which the genuine articles could scarcely have
been procured in London. They were the
best his people could get, however, and very
thankful they were when they could be had.
Then spoke of the crime of adulterating me
dicines as heinous in the extreme, and re
ferred to a speech he had made on the subject
in the Senate of the United Sates, asking
legislative interference, and that no adulterat
ed drugs should be allowed to pass the Cus-
tom-House. His action had been based,
partly on his own acquaintance with the facts,
but more especially on a report from an emi
nent chemist in New York city, setting forth
the magnitude of the abuse, with tabular
statements.

" There was one restriction of the war," he
went on to say, " imposed by the overwhelm
ing superiority of your navy, which I do not
believe an enlightened and Christian civiliza
tion can approve. I refer to that making
medicines contraband of war. This inflicted

48 The Prison Life

much undeserved suffering on women and
children and the whole non-combatant class,
while comparatively but little affecting the
combatants. For our soldiers we had to pro
cure the requisite medicines, at whatever cost
or sacrifice ; so that the privation fell chiefly
upon those who were not engaged in the war,
save as helpless spectators. I am far from
saying this restriction was not justified by the
laws of war, as heretofore acknowledged and
practised; but whenever these laws come to
be revised in a spirit more harmonizing with
the advanced intelligence of our times, some
friend of humanity should plead that cargoes
duly vouched as only containing medicines
should not be liable to stoppage."

Happening to notice that his coffee stood
cold and apparently untasted beside his bed
in its tin cup, I remarked that here was a
contradiction of the assertion implied in the
old army question, " Who ever saw cold cof
fee in a tin cup ? " referring to the eagerness
with which soldiers of all classes, when cam
paigning, seek for and use this beverage. >

of Jefferson Davis. 49

" I cannot drink it," he remarked, " though
fond of coffee all my life. It is the poorest
article of the sort I have ever tasted ; and if
your government pays for such stuff as cof
fee, the purchasing quartermaster must be
getting rich. It surprises me, too, for I
thought your soldiers must have the best
many of my Generals complaining of the
difficulties they encountered in seeking to
prevent our people from making volunteer
truces with your soldiers whenever the lines
ran near each other, for the purpose of ex
changing the tobacco we had in abundance
against your coffee and sugar."

Replied that the same difficulty had been
felt on our side, endangering discipline and
calling for severe measures of repression.
The temptation to obtain tobacco was uncon
trollable. One of our lads would pop his
head up from his rifle-pit and cry : " Hey,
Johnny, any tobacco over your way?" to
which the reply would instantly come, "Yes,
Yank, rafts of it How is it with you on the
coffee *question?" A satisfactory reply being

SO The Prison Life

given, the whisper would run along each line,
" Cease firing, truce for coffee and tobacco ; "
and in another moment scores of the combat
ants, on either side, would be scrambling
over their respective earthworks, and meet
ing on the debatable land between, for com
mercial dicker and barter on true Yankee
style.

This picture seemed to amuse the patient
His spirits were evidently improving. Told
him to spend as little time in bed as he
could ; that exercise^ was the best medicine
for dyspeptic patients. To this he answered
by uncovering the blankets from his feet and
showing me his shackled ankles.

" It is impossible for me, Doctor ; I cannot
even stand erect These shackles are very
heavy; I know not, with the chain, how
many pounds. If I try to move they trip
me, and have already abraded broad patches
of skin from the parts they touch. Can you
devise no means to pad or cushion them, so
that when I try to drag them along they may
not chafe me so intolerably ? My limbs have

of Jefferson Davis. 5 1

so little flesh on them, and that so weak, as
to be easily lacerated."

At sight of this I turned away, promising
to see what could be done, as exercise was
the chief medical necessity in his case ; and
at this moment the first thrill of sympathy
for my patient was experienced.

That afternoon, at an interview sought with
Major-General Miles, my opinion was given
that the physical condition of State-prisoner
Davis required the removal of his shackles,
until such time as his health should be estab
lished on some firmer basis. Exercise he ab
solutely needed, and also some alleviation of
his abnormal nervous excitement No drugs
could aid a digestion naturally weak and so
impaired, without exercise ; nor could any
thing in the pharmacopoeia quiet nerves so
over-wrought and shattered, while the con
tinual irritation of the fetters was counter
poising whatever medicines might be given.

" You believe it, then, a medical necessity ? "
queried General Miles.

" I do most earnestly."

52 The Prison Life

" Then I will give the matter attention ;" and
at this point for the present the affair ended.

May 26ik. Called with the Officer of
the Day, Captain James B. King, at i P.M.
Found Mr. Davis in bed, complaining of in
tense debility, but could not point to any par
ticular complaint The pain in his head had
left him last night, but had been brought back
this forenoon and aggravated by the noise of
mechanics employed in taking down the
wooden doors between his cell and the ex
terior guard-room, and replacing these with
iron gratings, so that he could at all times be
seen by the sentries in the outside room, as
well as by the two " silent friends," who were
the unspeaking companions of his solitude.

Noticed that the prisoner's dinner lay un
touched on its tin plate near his bedside, his
meals being brought in by a silent soldier,
who placed food on its table and then with
drew. Had remarked before that he scarcely
touched the food served to him, his appetite
being feeble at best, and his digestion out of
order.

of Jefferson Davis. 53

Quitting him, called on General Miles, and
recommended that I be allowed to place the
prisoner on a diet corresponding with his con
dition, which required light and nutritious
food. Consent was immediately given, and I
had prepared and sent over from my quarters
some tea and toast for his evening's meal.

Calling about 7 P.M., found Mr. Davis
greatly improved, the tea and toast having
given him, he said, new life. Though he
had not complained of the fare, he was very-
thankful for the change. Remarked in reply
that I had observed the food given was not
fit for an invalid in his condition, and was
happy to say permission had been given me
to supply from my own table such diet as he
might seem to need. On this he repeat
ed that I had an unequal and perplexing
task.

" As a soldier you could soon dispose of
me," he said ; " but as a master of the healing
art all your energies will be taxed; and J
sometimes hope sometimes fear in vain.
You have in me a constitution completely

54 The Prison Life

shattered, and of course all its maladies ag
gravated by my present surroundings,"

He then commenced talking and let me
here say that I encouraged him in this, believ
ing conversation and some human sympathy
the best medicines that could be given to one
in his state on the subject of the weather.

How has the weather been rough or fair ?
In this huge casemate, and unable to crawl to
the embrasure, he could not tell whether the
weather was rough or smooth, nor how the
wind was blowing.

" All my family are at sea, you are aware,
on their way to Savannah ; and I know thQ
dangers of going down the coast at this sea
son of the year too well to be without in
tense alarm. My wife and four children,
with other relatives, are on board the Clyde,
and these propellers roll dreadfully and are
poor sea-boats in rough weather."

He then explained with great clearness of
detail, and evidently having studied the sub
ject, why the dangers of going down the
coast in rough weather were so much greater

of Jefferson Davis. 55

than coming north. Going down, ships had
to hug the shore-often running dangerously
near the treacherous horrors of Cape Hat-
teras; while in running north they stood out
from land to catch the favoring gulf stream,
to avoid which they had to run in shore as
close as they could when steering south.

He appeared intensely anxious on this
subject, recurring to it frequently and specu-

lating on the probable postoon of he Cfy*
at this time. '< Should she be lost he re
marked, "it will be 'all my pretty chicken
and their dam at one fell swoop. It will be
the obliteration of my name and house.

"Mrs. Davis, too," he continued, has
mu ch to contend with. Her sister has been
V ery ill, and her two nurses left her whd
here, and she could procure no others. My
only consolation is, that some of my paroled
people are on board, and soldiers make excel-
lent nurses. Soldiers are fond of chudrer.
Perhaps the roughness of the. camp-hfe
L^the contrasted playfulness o^ncy
so pleasant. Charles of Sweden, Frederick

56 The Prison Life

the Great, and Napoleon, were illustrations
of this peculiarity. The Duke of Welling
ton is the only eminent commander of whom
no trait of the sort is recorded."

Talking of propellers, and how badly they
rolled in a rough sea, I spoke of one called
the Burnside, formerly stationed at Port
Royal, of which the common remark was,
that in every three rolls she went clean
round.

" Once," I added, " when her Captain was
asked what was her draught of water, he
replied that he did not know to an inch the
height of her smoke-stack, but it was from
the top of that to her keel."

This, and other anecdotes, amused the
patient for some quarter of an hour; and
whatever could give his mind a moment's
repose was in the line of his cure.

As I was leaving, he asked had I been
able to do nothing to pad or cushion his
shackles? He could take no exercise, or
but the feeblest, and with great pain, while
they were on.

of Jefferson Davis. 57

To this gave an evasive answer, not know
ing what might be the action of General
Miles, and fearing to excite false hopes. No
such half-way measures as padding would
suffice to meet the necessities of his case ;
while their adoption, or suggestion, might
defer the broader remedy that was needed,
On leaving, he requested me in the morning
to note how the wind blew, and the pros
pects of the weather, before paying him
my visit. Until he heard of his family's
arrival in Savannah he could know no peace.

58 The Prison Life

CHAPTER V.

Conversations of some Interest. The

les Removed. Mr. Davis on Varwis Sci
entific Subjects.

27th. Called in the morning with the
Officer of the Day, Captain Titlow. Found
Mr. Davis in bed, very weak and desponding.
He had not slept Had been kept awake by
the heavy surging of the wind through the
big trees on the other side of the moat Ap
peared much relieved when I told him the
breeze was nothing like a storm, though it
blew north-easterly, which was favorable to
the ship containing his family. ,

He expressed great concern lest his wife
should hear through newspapers of the scene
in his cell when he was ironed. Would it be
published, did I think ? And on my remain
ing silent for I knew it had been sent to the

of Jefferson Davis, 59

newspapers on the afternoon of its transpiring
he interlaced his fingers across his eyes, and
ejaculated : " Oh, my poor wife, my poor,
poor girl ! How the heart-rending narrative
will afflict her ! "

He remained silent for some moments as I
sat beside his bed; and then continued, ex
tending his hand that I might feel his pulse :

" I wish she could have been spared this
knowledge. There was no necessity for the
act My physical condition rendered it obvi
ous that there could be no idea that fetters
were needful to the security of my imprison
ment It was clear, therefore, that the object
was to offer an indignity both to myself and
the cause I represented not the less sacred
to me because covered with the pall "of a
military disaster. It was for this reason I re
sisted as a duty to my faith, to my country
men, and to myself. It was for this reason
I courted death from the muskets of the guard.
The Officer of the Day prevented that result,
and, indeed," bowing to Captain Titlow
" behaved like a man of good feeling. But,

60 The Prison Life

my poor wife ! I can see the hideous an
nouncement with its flaming capitals, and can
not but anticipate how much her pride and
love will both be shocked. For myself I am
resigned, and now only say, 'The Lord re
prove them ! ' The physical inconvenience
of these things I still feel (clanking his ankles
together slightly under the bed-clothes), but
their sense of humiliation is gone.f* Patriots
in all ages, to whose memories shrines are
now built, have suffered as bad or worse in
dignities."

He thanked me for the breakfast that had
been sent him, expressing the hope that I
would not let my wife be put to too much
trouble making broth and toast for one so
helpless and utterly wretched.

" I wish, Doctor," said he, " I could com
pensate you by getting well ; but my case is
most unpromising. Your newspapers," he
went on this with a grim smile "should
pray for the success of your skill. If you
fail, where will their extra editions be their
startling head-lines ? My death would only

of Jefferson Davis. 6 1

give them food for one or two days at most ;
while my trial for I suppose I shall be give'n
some kind of trial would fatten for them a
monthfe crop of lucrative excitement"

Finding the conversation, or rather his
monologue, running into a channel more likely
to excite than soothe him the latter being the
object for which I was always willing to listen
during the fifteen or twenty minutes these
interviews usually lasted while he was seri
ously ill I now rose to take my leave, gently
hinting that he should avoid such thoughts
and topics as much as possible.

He took my remark in a wrong sense, as
if I had been hurt at his saying anything that
might cast a reflection on the justice that
would be dealt to him by my government, or
upon the style of journalism in Northern
newspapers. But I explained that nothing
could be farther from my thoughts : that my
counsel was purely medical, and to divert him
from a theme that must re-arouse the cerebral
excitement we were seeking to allay.

" For the rest, Mr. Davis " I went on, " that

62 The Prison Life

Doctor should go to College again who is
not ready to listen with interest and attention
to whatever subject may be uppermost in his
patient's mind, unless convinced that the
mind's brooding upon it will do harm, not
good. We need ventilation in the world of
mind not less than in that of physics. Our
thoughts need to go abroad in the minds of
other men, and take their exercise in the sun
light and free air of language. The doctrine
of confession in the Catholic Church is based
on the soundest principles of moral and intel
lectual hygiene. It is throwing open the
doors and windows of the soul, changing the
atmosphere, and disinfecting every crevice of
the mind of the foul vapors engendered by
the close dampness and darkness of secresy.
The physician who has not learned to act in
this faith should re-commence his education,"
Called again at 8 P.M. same day. Mr. Davis
still very weak, and had been troubled with
several faint, not exactly fainting, spells, his
pulse indicating extreme debility. He said
thr, nights were very tedious and haggard.

of Jefferson Davis. 63

During the day he could find employment
reading (the Bible or prayer-book being sel
dom out of his hand while alone), but during
the night his anxieties about his family re
turned ; and the footh-falls of the sentries in
the room with him their very breathing
or coughing continually called back his
thoughts, when otherwise and for a moment
more pleasantly wandering, to his present
situation. He had watched the weather all
day with intense interest; and had been cheer
ed to observe from the slant of the rain that
the wind appeared to continue north-east, so
, that he hoped his family were by this time in
Savannah. *

Then went on to say that he feared, after
he had been removed from the Clyde, his wife
must have suffered the annoyance of having
her trunks searched an unnecessary act, it
seemed to him, as, of course, if she had any
thing to conceal, she could have got rid of it
on the passage up.

On my remarking, to soothe him, that no
such search was probable, he said it could

64 The Prison Life

hardly be otherwise, as he hadreceiv ed a suit
of heavy clothes from the propeller ; and Gen.
Miles, when informing him of the fact, had
mentioned that there were quite a number of
suits there.

" Now I had none with me but such as my
wife placed in her own trunks when she left
Richmond, so that her trunks have probably
been opened ; and I suppose," he added with
another grim smile, " that the other clothes to
which Gen. Miles referred, are now on exhibi
tion or preserved as ' relics/ My only hope
is, that in taking my wardrobe ' they did not
also confiscate that of my wife "and children;
but I realize that we are like* him of old who
fell amongst a certain class of people and was
succored by the good Samaritan.^

" And so, Doctor," he went on, *' you think
all the miserable details of my ironing have
been placed before the public? It is not
only for the hurt feelings of my wife and
children, but for the honor of Americans
that I regret it My efforts to conceal from
my wife the knowledge of my sufferings are

of Jefferson Davis. 65

unavailing; and it were perhaps better that
she should knov^ the whole truth, as proba
bly less distressing to her than what may be
the impressions of her fears. Should I write
such a letter to her, however, she would
never get it."

Sunday ^ May 2%tk. At n A.M. this morn
ing was sitting on the porch in front of my
quarters when Captain Frederick Korte, 3d
Pennsylvania Artillery, who was Officer of the
Day, passed towards the cell of the prisoner,
followed by the blacksmith. This told the
story, and sent a pleasant professional thrill
of pride through my veins. It was a vindi
cation of my theory, that the healing art is
next only in its sacredness and power to that
of the healers of the soul an instance of
the doctrinal toga forming a shield for suffer
ing humanity, which none were too exalted
or powerful to disregard./ I hastily followed
the party, but remained/in the outer guard
room while the smith removed the shackles.
Did not let Mr. Davis see me then, but
retired, thinking it better the prisoner should

66 The Prison Life

be left alone in the first moments of regain
ing so much of his personal freedom.

Called again at 2 P.M. with the Officer of
the Day. Immediately on entering, Mr.
Davis rose from his seat, both hands ex
tended, and his eyes filled with tears. He
was evidently about to say something, but
checked himself; or was checked by a rush
of emotions, and sat down upon his bed.
That I was gratified by the change I will
not deny and let those in the North into
whose souls the iron of Andersonville has
entered, think twice before they condemn
me. The war was over ; the prisons on
both sides were empty. If by rigor to Davis
we could have softened by a degree the suf
ferings of a single Union prisoner, I, for one,
would have said let our retaliation be so terri
ble as to bring the South to justice. But
now, no sufferings of his could recall the
souls that had fled, or the bodies that were
wasted and fever-stricken. It would not be*
retaliation to secure justice, but mere ignoble
vindictiveness to further torture this unhappy

of Jefferson Davis. 67

and shattered man. Besides, as his medi
cal adviser, I could know him in no other
capacity ; and it then remained to be proved
remains yet to be proved that he was in
any manner of volition or wish responsible
for the horrors we deplore. Even Napoleon
complained that Virion, and his other com
missaries of prisoners, stole the food and
other stores furnished for their use ; and time
must develop whether, and how far, Mr.
Davis was responsible for the cruel treatment
of our boys.%

Thus feeling, I congratulated him on the
change, observing that my promise of his
soon feeling better was, being fulfilled; and
he must now take all the exercise that was
possible for him, for on this his future health
would depend. Captain Korte, too, joined
in my congratulations very kindly, and spoke
with the frank courtesy of a gentleman and
soldier.

In speaking of his present state of health,
and the treatment he had formerly been
under for the same symptoms, Mr. Davis

68 The Prison Life

referred very kindly, and in terms of admira
tion, to his former friend and medical attend
ant, Dr. Thomas Miller, of Washington.
Also to Dr. Stone, of Washington, who had
made a specialty of the eye and its diseases.
From him he had received clearer ideas of
the power of vision, and the adaptation of
the eye to various distances and degrees of
light, than from any other sourcgj- Referring
to his own loss of sight in one eye from
leucoma, or an ulceration of the cornea, he
said he could discern light with it, but could
not distinguish objects.

Entering then into conversation upon
optics and acoustic?, Mr. Davis spoke on
both subjects, but more especially the former,
with great familiarity. Referring to the
undulating waves by which both light and
sound are conveyed, he remarked :

"With what admirable perversity nature
has avoided all straight lines and angles the
curve, or waving * line of beauty/ first discov
ered to men by Hogarth, being the .rule with
her in every variety of production. In no

of Jefferson Davis. 69

leaf, flower, tree, rock, animal, bird, fish or
shell that nature has produced, can a straight
line, angle, or two lines exactly parallel be
found."

Speaking of how greatly the powers of the
sight may be increased by practice, Mr. Davis
upheld the theory that the brain, top, was
also enlarged in its capacities, both physically
and intellectually, by continual labor. He
pointed to the large brains of nearly all who
have been eminent in pursuits involving
mental labor, contending that as the labor
of the tailor develops the muscles of the
right thumb and fore-finger, those of the
delver the muscles of the leg, and so forth,
so^ the increased exercise of the brain in
creased its size. There was a fault in his
parallel, he knew, or rather what appeared to
be a fault that we can establish no analogy
between the mental and physical phases of
existence. Still it was certain that labor
enlarged all organs involved in it, so far as
we had means of judging; and that while we
did not know how the brain acted in its

70 The Prison Life

reception or emission of ideas whether
purely passively, or with some physical
action, however slight we did know for
certain that the brains of all great intellectual
workers were much larger, on the average,
than were those of men pursuing different
callings.

Remarked that with these ideas, he must to
a great extent be a believer in phrenology ; to
which he assented, while at the same time
protesting against the charlatanisms which
had overlapped, for selfish purposes of gain,
what of truth there was in the science. Be
fore the matter could be properly tested, the
anatomy of the brain should be made a
specialty, and studied with all the assistance
of innumerable subjects for many years. But
the men who now put themselves forward as
professors of the science, had probably never
seen the inside of any brain certainly not of
half a dozen in their lives.

Referring 1 to the stories that were probably
being circulated about him in the Northern
papers, and the falseness of such stories in

of Jefferson Davis. 71

general, Mr. Davis instanced what he called
the foul falsehood that he had preached and
effected the repudiation of the Mississippi
bonds.

" There is no truth in the report," he said.
" The event referred to occurred before I had
any connection with politics my first en
trance into which was in 1843; nor was I at
any time a disciple of the doctrine of repudia
tion. Nor did Mississippi ever refuse to
acknowledge as a debt more than one class of
bonds those of the ' Union State Bank
only.

" To show how absurd the accusation is,"
continued Mr. Davis, " although so widely
believed that no denial can affect its cur
rency, take the following facts. I left Mis
sissippi when a boy to go to college ; thence
went to West Point ; thence to the army. In
1835 I resigned, settled in a very retired
place in the State, and was wholly unknown,
except as remembered in the neighborhood
where I had been raised. At the time when
the Union Bank bonds of Mississippi were

72 The Prison Life

issued, sold and repudiated as I believe
justly, because their issue was in violation of
the State "Constitution I endeavored to have
them paid by voluntary contributions ; and
subsequently I sent agents to England to
negotiate for this purpose."

Recurring then to the subject of optics and
diseases of the eye which appeared a favorite
with him Mr. Davis descanted on the curious
effects of belladonna on the iris and crystal
line lens; stating that, though a valuable
remedy when only used as such, it tended to
coagulate and produce cataract in the latter
when used in excess as witness the number
of cases of this kind of injury amongst the
ladies of Italy and Spain, where the article
was much used as a toilette adjunct. He
spoke of the beautiful provisions of nature for
the protection of this organ, illustrating by
the third transparent eyelid or membrane
which all diving birds drop over the eye
when darting swiftly through the air or water,
thus protecting the delicate organ from being
hurt, while allowing a sufficiency of light to

of Jefferson Davis. 73

guide them. He could not believe that any
living things as a class were deprived of the
joy of sunlight; and while the microscope had
thus far found no organs that we could re
cognise as of sight in many -classes of living
things shell-fish, worms, and so forth he
believed that they must in some manner
be impressible with the alternations of light
and darkness. It had so long appeared a
question with him whether his own eyesight
could be saved, that he had given this subject
much attention or rather reflection ; and he
quoted from Milton with great pathos several
passages on the subject :

Oh dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon ;
Irrevocably dark ! total eclipse without the hope of day

And again :

Nor to these idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or stars, throughout the year,
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope ; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.

The Prison Life

CHAPTER VI

Operations on the Southern Coast. Davis
Hears that he is Indicted and to be Tried.
His^oy. Views of his own Defence.

MAY 29TH. Called with Captain Bispham, 3d
Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the Day.
Found Mr. Davis walking up and down the
floor, apparently better but still laboring
under some excitement He said exercise
had already done him good ; had slept much
better last night; and rejoiced to see clear
and bright weather again, though little sun
shine entered his cell. Thought though it
did not shine on him, it was shining on his
dear wife and children, safely havened from
the dangers of the ocean. #

Complained of the dampness of his cell,, as
one probable cause of his illness. The sun
could never dart its influence through such

of Jefferson Davis. 75

masses of masonry. Surrounded as the fort
was with a ditch, in which the water rose
and fell from three to four feet with the tide,
it was impossible to keep such places free
from noxious vapors.

" I am something of an engineer," he said,
" and the causes are obvious. Builders fill in
the backs of walls with stone-chips and rubble,
insufficiently mortared, through which the tidal
water ebbs and falls. When it falls it leaves
vacuums of damp air, and when it rises again,
this mephitic air, with its gases engendered in
closeness, dampness and darkness, is forced up
ward into the casemates, for no masonry is so
perfect as to exclude the permeation of gases.

" I am aware," he went on, " that officers
and soldiers and their families have been in
the habit of occupying these casemates f but
when Secretary of War I issued an order
forbidding the practice. Huts or tents -are
much healthier, more especially for children.
The casemates of Fort Pulaski were peculiar
ly unhealthy, that place being erected on
what might be called a shaking-scraw, or

76 The Prison Life

sponge of miasmatic vegetation, thoroughly
permeated by tidal action. Its foundations
had to be pile-driven at an enormous expense
of money and labor, and only from the neces
sities of the coast could such a selection of a
site have been justified."

Mentioned that I had been at the siege,
and gave him some particulars explanatory
of the actual situation at the time of the sur
render of Col. Olnjstead of the 2d Georgia
Volunteers, whom he, appeared at first inclin
ed to blame as guilty of a premature capitula
tion. After all> however, he thought the
Colonel was excusable, as further holding-out
promised no advantages to compensate its
loss, the up-river batteries of our forces mak
ing it certain that Tatnall's fleet could render
no assistance. The surrender of Port Royal
he did not think premature, under the cir
cumstances, because if his people had not
retreated when they did, our gunboats, run
ning round the creeks in rear of Hilton
Head, Port Royal and St. Helena Islands,
would have made retreat impossible; while

of Jefferson Davis.

77

the troops of our Sherman expedition when
landed were more than sufficient to overpower
the garrisons. The mistake was that power
ful works had not been erected in rear of the
islands to cover the ferries, and thus secure
uninterrupted communication with the main
land. Had this been attended to in the first
instance, there would then have been no ex
cuse for the abandonment of the powerful
works designed to protect Port Royal at
least none unless preceded by a more pro
tracted resistance.

Recurring to the subject of his family, Mr.
Davis asked me had I not been called upon
to attend Miss Howell, his wife's sister, who
had been very ill at the time of his quitting
the Clyde. Replied that Col. James, Chief
Quartermaster, had called at my quarters, and
requested me to visit a sick lady on board that
vessel; believed it was the lady he referred to,
but could not be sure of the name. Had men
tioned the matter to Gen. Miles, asking a pass
to visit; but he objected, saying the orders were
to allow no communication with the ship.

78 The Prison Life

Mr. Davis exclaimed this was inhuman.
The ladies had certainly committed no crime,
and there were no longer any prisoners on
board the ship when the request was made,
he and Mr. Clay having been the last remov
ed. The lady was very seriously ill, and no
officer, no gentleman, no man of Christian or
even human feeling, would have so acted.
Gen. Miles was from Massachusetts, he had
heard, and his action both' in this and other
matters appeared in harmony with his origin.
It was much for Massachusetts to boast that
one of her sons had been appointed his jailor;
and it was becoming such a jailor to oppress
helpless women and children. * * * * * *

June \sL Called with Captain Korte, Offi
cer of the Day, about noon. Had been sent
for at 8 P.M., but was away fishing. Mr. Davis
was suffering from a numbness of the extre
mities, which he feared was incipient paraly
sis. Told him it was merely due to an enfee
bled circulation, and recommended bathing
and friction.

He asked me what luck fishing, and ap-

of Jefferson Davis. 79

peared in better spirits than usual. Had just
heard, he said, through an irregular channel,
that he had been indicted with Mr. Breckin-
ridge in the District of Columbia, and hoped
therefore that he was about to have a consti
tutional trial not one by military commis
sion, to which he would not have pleaded,
regarding it as foregone murder. The news
had reached him through the conversation of
some soldiers in the guard-room, who some
times spoke to each other in loud tones what
they wished him to overhear. It was proba
bly in no friendly spirit they had given him
this news ; but to him it was as welcome as
air to the drowning.

He then referred to the severity of his
treatment, supposing himself at present to be
merely held for trial, and not already under
going arbitrary punishment. As this conver
sation was a very important one, I took full
note of it almost immediately on quitting his
cell, and it is now given in very nearly, if not
precisely, his own words :

" Humanity supposes every man innocent,"

8o The Prison Life

urged Mr. Davis, " until the reverse shall be
proven ; and the laws guarantee certain privi
leges to persons held for trial. To hold me
here for trial, under all the rigors of a con
demned convict, is not warranted by law is
revolting to the spirit of justice. In the poli
tical history of the world, there is no parallel
to my treatment England and the despotic
governments of Europe have beheaded men
accused of treason ; but even after their con
viction no such efforts as in my case have
been made to degrade them. Apart, however,
from my personal treatment, let us see how
this matter stands.

" If the real purpose in the matter be to
test the question of secession by trying cer
tain persons connected therewith for treason,
from what class or classes should the persons
so selected be drawn ?

" From those who called the State Conven
tions, or from those who, in their respective
conventions, passed the ordinance of seces
sion ? Or, from the authors of the doctrine
of State rights? Or, from those citizens

of Jefferson Davis. 81

who, being absent from their States, were
unconnected with the event, but on its occur
rence returned to their homes to share the
fortunes of their States as a duty of primal
allegiance? Or from those officers of the
State, who, being absent on public service,
were called home by the ordinance, and
returning, joined their fellow-citizens in State
service, and followed the course due to that
relation ?

" To the last class I belong, who am the
object of greatest rigor. This can only be
explained on the supposition that, having
been most honored, I, therefore, excite most
revengeful feelings for how else can it be
accounted for ?

" I did not wish for war, but peace.
Therefore sent Commissioners to negotiate
before war commenced ; and subsequently
strove my uttermost to soften the rigors of
war; in every pause of conflict seeking, if
possible, to treat for peace. Numbers of
those already practically pardoned are those
who, at the beginning, urged that the black

8^2 The Prison Life

flag should be hoisted, and the struggle
made one of desperation.

" Believing the States to be each sover
eign, and their union voluntary, I had
learned from the Fathers of the Constitu
tion that a State could change its form of
government, abolishing all which had pre
viously existed ; and my only crime has been
obedience to this conscientious conviction.
Was not this the universal doctrine of the
dominant Democratic party in the North
previous to secession? Did not many of
the opponents of that party, in the same
section, share and avow that faith? They
preached, and professed to believe. We
believed, and preached, and practised.

" If this .theory be now adjudged errone
ous, the history of the States, from their
colonial organization to the present moment,
should be re-written, and the facts sup
pressed which may mislead others in a like
manner to a like conclusion.

But if as I suppose the purpose be to
test the question of secession by a judicial

of Jefferson Davis. 83

,

decision, why begin by oppressing the chief
subject of the experiment? Why, in the
name of fairness and a decent respect for
the opinions of mankind, deprive him of
the means needful to a preparation of his
defence ; and load him with indignities
which must deprive his mind of its due
equilibrium? It ill comports with the dig
nity of a great nation to evince fear of giv
ing to a single captive enemy all the advan
tages possible for an exposition of his side
of the question.^/ A question settled by vio
lence, or in disregard of law, must remain
unsettled for ever./*

x "" Believing all good government to rest on
truth/ it is the resulting belief thatJBJustice Jo
anxJMividual is a pi^blic injury, which can
only find compensation in the reaction which
brings retributive justice upon the oppressors.
It has been the continually growing danger
of the North, that in attempting to crush the
liberties of my people, you would raise a
Frankenstein of tyranny that would not down
at your bidding. Sydney, and Russell, and

84 The Prison Life

Vane, and Peters, suffered; but in their death
Liberty received blessings their lives might
never have conferred.

" If the doctrine of State Sovereignty be a
dangerous heresy, the genius of America
would indicate another remedy than the sacri
fice of one of its believers. Wickliffe died,
but Huss took up his teachings; and when
the dust of this martyr was sprinkled on the
Rhine, some essence of it was infused in the
cup which Luther drank.

"The road to grants of power is known
and open ; and thus all questions of reserved
rights on which men of highest distinction
may differ, and have differed, can be settled
by fair adjudication; and thus only can they
be finally set at rest"

He then apologized for talking politics to
one who should not hear such politics as his ;
but out of the fulness of the heart the mouth
speaketh, and in his joy at the unhoped-for
news that he had been indicted, and was to
have a trial which he supposed must be pub
lic, and which publicity would compel to be

of Jefferson Davis. 85

not wholly one-sided, there was some excuse
for his indiscretion.

To change the subject, he returned to fish
ing, of which we had been speaking. Was a
follower and admirer of the sport, but more in
theory than practice. His life had been too
busy for the past thirty years to allow his in
dulging even his most cherished inclinations,
except at rare intervals. Izaak Walton had
been one of his favorite authors; and one of
the counts he had against Benjamin Frank
lin, was the latter's fierce attack on the gentle
fisherman. Indeed Franklin had said many
things not of benefit to mankind. His soul
was a true type or incarnation of the New
England character hard, calculating, angu
lar, unable to conceive any higher object than
the accumulation of money. He was the
most material of great intellects. None of
the lighter graces or higher aspirations found
favor in his sight ; and with true New Eng
land egotism, because he did not possess cer
tain qualities himself, they were to be ignored
or crushed out of existence everywhere. The

86 The Prison Life

hard, grasping, money-grubbing, pitiless and
domineering spirit of the New England Puri
tans found in Franklin a true exponent
Noble qualities he had, however courage,
truth, industry, economy and honesty. His
school of common sense was the apotheosis
of selfish prudence. He could rarely err, for
men err from excess of feeling, and Franklin
had none. The homely wisdom of his writ
ings, judged from the material stand-point,
could never be surpassed ; and while he con
fessed to disliking him, he was compelled to
admire his " Poor Richard " from its sinewy
force.

Mr. Davis then spoke of the restrictions
placed upon his reading, which he supposed
must soon terminate if he was to be placed
on trial. Books would be indispensable to
preparing his defence, nor did he see how he
could be denied free intercourse with counsel.

Books, if he could get them, would be a
great consolation. True, he had the two best
pointing to his Bible and prayer-book ; but
the mind could not keep continually at the

of Jefferson Davis. 87

height and strain of earnestness required for
their profitable reading. That the papers and
other publications of the day should be de
nied him, he could understand though even
this would not be right when he was prepar
ing for trial He would then require to know
what phase of public opinion he addressed ;
for in all such trials and in this age of
.publicity there must be two tribunals one
inside, but infinitely the vaster one outside
the court-room. To old English or other
books for his perusal, wliat objection could
be urged ? Such indulgences were given to
the worst criminals before trials; and even
after cpnviction the prison libraries were
open for their use. A mind so active as his
had been for forty years, could not suddenly
bring Its machinery to a pause. It must
* either have food, or prey upon itself, and this
was his case at present. Except for the pur-
pose of petty torture, there could be no color
of reason for withholding from him any books
or papers dated prior to the war.

June Jtkl received the following letter

88 The Prison Life

from Mrs. Davis, dated Savannah, June ist,
1865, to Dr - J- J- Craven, Chief Medical Offi
cer, Fort Monroe, Va.

SAVANNAH, GA., June ist, 1865.

DR. J. J. CRAVEN, Chief Med. Officer, Fort Mon
roe, Va,:

SIR, Through the newspapers I learn that
you are the Surgeon of the post, and con
sequently in attendance upon Mr. Davis,
Shocked by the most terrible newspaper ex
tras issued every afternoon, which represent
my husband to be in a dying condition, I
have taken the liberty, without any previous
acquaintance with you, of writing to you.
Perhaps you will let me know from your own
pen how he is. Would it trouble you too
much to tell me how he sleeps how his eyes
look are they inflamed? does he eat any
thing ? may I ask what is the quality of his
food? Do not refuse my request ^ It seems
to me that no possible harm could accrue to
your government from my knowing the ex
tent of my sorrow. And if, perchance, actu
ated by pity, you do not tell me the worst, the

of Jefferson Davis. 89

newspapers do, and then the uncertainty Is
such agony ! You will perceive, my dear sir,
that I plead with you upon the supposition
that you sympathize with our sorrows, and in
the sufferings of the man have lost sight of
the political enemy, who no longer has the
power to do aught but bear what is inflicted.
I will not believe that you can refuse my
petition. If you are only permitted to say
he is well, or he is better, it will be a great
comfort to me, ;who has no other left. If you
are kind to him, may God have you in His
holy keeping, and preserve all those sources
of happiness to you which have, in one day,
been snatched away from,

Yours very respectfully,

VARINA DAVIS.

go The Prison Life

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Davis on the New England Character.
Future of the Sputk and Southern Blacks.

JUNE 8th. Was called to the prisoner, whom I
had not seen for a week. Entered with
Captain E. A. Evans, Officer of the Day.
Found Mr. Davis relapsing and very despond
ent Complained again of intolerable pains
in his head. Was distracted night and day by
the unceasing tread of the two sentinels in his
room, and the murmur or gabble of the guards
in the outside ceil. He said his casemate was
well formed for a torture-room of the inquisi
tion. Its arched roof made it a perfect whisp
ering gallery, in which all sounds were jumbled
and repeated. The torment of his head was
so dreadful, he feared he must lose his mind.
Already his memory, vision, and hearing, were

of Jefferson Davis. ' 9 1

impaired. He had but the remains of one
eye left, and the, glaring, whitewashed walls
were rapidly destroying this. He pointed to
a crevice in the wall where his bed had been,
explaining that he had changed to the other
side to avoid its mephitic vapors.

)f the trial he had been led to expect, had
heard nothing. This looked as if the indict
ment were to be suppressed, and the action
of a Military Commission substituted. If so,
they might do with him as they pleased, for
he would not plead, but leave his cause to the
justice of the future. As to taking his life,
that would be the greatest boon they could
confer on him, though for the sake of his
family he might Vegret the manner of its
taking.

Talked with Mr. Davis for some time, en
deavoring to allay his irritation. The trouble
of his head did not arise from the causes he
supposed, but from a torpid condition of the
liver, and would be at once relieved by a bi
lious cathartic which I prescribed. It was
impossible that any malarial poisons at this

92 The Prison Life

season of the year could have influence in his
casemate, 'the ventilation was thorough, the
place scrupulously clean ; and the very white
wash of which he complained as hurting his
eyes, was a powerful disinfectant, if such
poisons existed. After the action of the
rtiedicine he would look on the world witft a
more hopeful view. In regard to his expected
trial, knew nothing, never had known any
thing, and even knowing would be forbidden
to speak.

He said he had not mentioned the matter
to question me, but as an ejaculation of
impatience, for which his intolerable pain
must bear the blame. He was no stranger
to pain, nor easily overcome by it. At
Buena Vista, though severely wounded, he
kept saddle until the close of the day ; but
the f>ain of ixo wound could compare to this
aching fury of the brain.

June <^th. Called, accompanied by Cap
tain Korte, Officer of the Day. Mr. Davis
very well almost entirely relieved. Said he
would believe after this that disquietude

of Jefferson Davis. 93

could be best reached through the stomach.
Had slept well, and was greatly refreshed ;
his head almost free from pain.

Calling me to the embrasure, he pointed
out some dark spots on the slope of the
moat opposite, and asked me what they
were. Told him they were oysters. He
had thought so, but was not sure. Had
seen them growing in a stranger place the
branches of trees so heavily fruited with
them a.s almost to break. Told him I had
seen the same thing, but only along the
coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida. In the South the oysters cling to
high rocks and drooping branches of trees,
only requiring to be submerged for a few
hours at high tide ; while with us, the frosts
of winter compel them to keep in deep water.

Mr. Davis spoke of the Coon oysters of
the Southern coast the long, razor-shaped
oysters, growing on high ledges, and referred
to the negro version of how the coons
obtained their flesh. Their story is, that
the coon takes in his mouth a blade of

94 The Prison Life

bluebent, or meadow grass, and when the
oyster opens his shell, drives the stiletto
point of- the grass into his flesh, killing him
instantly, so that he has no power to close
his defences. This, though ingenious, is
not true. The coon bites off the thin edges
of the shell at one point, a f nd then sucks
out all the softer parts of* the body.

In regard to the propagation of oysters,
had some talk, Mr. Davis thinking the
spawn drifted in the water unable to control
itself and adhered to the first solid sub
stance rock, bank, or branch with which
it was brought in contact This, *I ex
plained, was not so ; the oyster, for the first
three or four days of his life, being a tuni-
cated pteropod, able to swim in any direc
tion he may please. At the end of this
'first period, when he finds a congenial
object to fasten upon, he literally settles
down in life and commences building him
self a house from which there is no annual
" May moving " no process of ejectment
short of death.

of Jefferson Davis. 95

Talking of the shell-fish and snails of the
Southern coast, Mr. Davis referred to the
beautiful varieties of helix (bullima immaculata,
very rare, and bullima, oblongatd) that may be
seen feeding on the wild orange-trees of
Florida. Also to the sport of harpooning
devil-fish by night, first attracting them to the
surface by a fire of pine-knots kindled in a
cresset over the bow of the boat. The skin
of the largest devil-fish ever known, he said,
had been preserved in Charleston, its weight
when caught being fourteen hundred pounds.
Told him I had seen one caught about two
years before weighing over six hundred
pounds, and the old negroes of the island said
it was the heaviest they had seen. He talked
of the molluscs and Crustacea of the coast,
this appearing a favorite subject, and his re
marks being much pleasanter, though of less
interest, than when given a political complex
ion. He possesses a large, varied, and prac
tical education ; the geology, botany, and all
products of his section appearing to have in
turn claimed his attention. Not the superfi-

96 The Prison Life

cial study of a pedant, but the practical ac
quaintance of a man who has turned every
day's fishing, shooting, riding, or pic-nicking,
to scientific account

June loth. Mr. Davis out of sorts, very ill-
tempered. Complained that his clean linen,
to be sent over twice a week by General Miles,
had not been received. General Miles had
taken charge of -his clothing, and seemed to
think a change of linen twice a week enough.
It might be so in Massachusetts. But now
even this wretched allowance was denied.
The general might know nothing of the mat
ter ; but if so, some member of his staff was neg
ligent It was pitiful they could not send his
trunks to his cell, but must insist on thus
deling out his clothes, as though he were a
convict in some penitentiary. If the object
were to degrade him, it must fail. /None
could be degraded by unmerited insult heaped
on helplessness but the perpetrators/ The
day would come that our people would be
ashamed of his treatment For himself, the
sufferings he was undergoing would do him

of Jefferson Davis. 97

good with his people (the South). Even those
who had opposed him would be kept silent,
if not won over, by public sympathy. What
ever other opinions might be held, it was clear
he was selected as chief victim, bearing the
burden of Northern hatred which should be
more equally distributed.

Speaking of the negroes, Mr. Davis re
marked, as regards their future, he saw
no reason why they must die out, unless
remaining idle. If herded together in idle
ness and filth, as in the villages established
by our military power, the small-pox, licen
tiousness, and drunkenness would make short
work of them. Wherever so herded, they
had died off like sheep with the murrain.
But remaining on the plantations, as hereto-
tofore, and employed for wages, they were a
docile and procreative people, altogether differ
ing from the Indians, and not likely to die out
like the latter. Their labor was needed ; and
though they could not multiply so fast in free
dom as under their former wholesome restraints,
he saw no good argument for their dying out

98 The Prison Life

In ten years, or perhaps less, the South will
have recovered the pecuniary losses of the
war. It has had little capital in manufac
tures. Its capital was in land and negroes.
The land remains productive as ever. The
negroes remain, but their labor has to be paid
for. Before the war, there had been 4,000,000
negroes, average value, $500 each, or total va
lue, two thousand millions of dollars. This was
all gone, and the interest upon it, which had
been the profits of the negro's labor in ex
cess of his cost for food, clothing, and medi
cines. Still their labor remains ; and with this,
and such European labor as will be imported
and such Northern labor as must flow South,
the profits of the Southern staples will not be
long in restoring material prosperity.

The Brfi ts of the cotton crop are enor
mous. Good bottom lands, such as on the
Mississippi and Yazpo rivers, yield a bale of
400 Ibs. per acre, and some as high as a bale
and a quarter ; but this is rare. The uplands
throughout Georgia, South Carolina, Alaba
ma, etc., yield about from half to three-quar-

of Jefferson Davis. 99

ters of a bale ; and under the old system of
labor, a good negro averaged ten bales a sea
son. The land of the Sea Islands ran about
200 Ibs. to the acre ; but its fine, long, silky,
and durable staple made it from twice to four
times the value of other cotton.

In his freedom, if capable of being made
to labor at all, the negro will not average
more than six bales a year ; but as the price
of cotton has more than doubled, and is hot
likely to recede, even this will yield an enor
mous profit. Six bales, of 400 Ibs. each, will
be worth $600 at twenty-five cents per pound,
while the cost of this species of labor will be
about $150 a year per hand and found a
profit of certainly not less than $300 a year
on each black laborer employed.

The land will not pass to any |pat extent
from its former proprietors. They will lease
it for a few years to men with capital, and
then resume working it themselves; or sell
portions of it with the same object, not
materially decreasing their own possessions.
When the country is quiet and the profits of

ioo The Prison Life

the crop come to be known, there will be a
rush southward from the sterile New Eng
land regions and from Europe, only equalled
by that to California on the discovery of gold.
Men will not stay in the mountains of Ver
mont and New Hampshire cultivating little
farms of from fifty to a hundred acres, only
yielding them some few hundreds a year pro
fit for incessant toil, when the rich lands of
the South, under skies as warm and blue as
those of Italy, and with an atmosphere as
exhilarating as that of France, are thrown
open at from a dollar and a half to three dol
lars per acre. The water-power of the South
will be brought into use by this new immi
gration, and manufactures will spring up in
all directions, giving abundant employment
to all elates. The happy agricultural state
of the South will become a tradition ; and
with New England wealth, New England's
grasping avarice and evil passions will be
brought along.

The estimate that a million negroes have
died off during the war, he considered exces-

of Jefferson Davis. 101

sive. They had fled or been dragged away
from their old homes in great numbers ; but
much less than a million, he thought, would
cover their casualties. As to any general
mingling of the races, nature had erected
ample barriers against the crime. Depraved
white men occasionally had children by black
women; but it was comparatively rare for
mulattoes to have large or healthy families ;
and quadroons, though extremely amorous,
rarely had children at all. There could be
no danger that Southern white women of the
poorer class, though left greatly in excess of
the white male population by the war, would
either cohabit with or marry negroes. Public
sentiment on the point is so strong they dare
not do it; nor had they any inclination. It would
be regarded South as crimes against nature are
regarded in all civilized communities.

The blacks were a docile, affectionate, and
religious people, like cats in their fondness
for home. The name of freedom had charms
for them; but until educated to be self-sup
porting, it would be a curse. If herded toge-

IO2 The Prison Life

ther in military villages and fed on rations
gratuitously distributed, rum, dirt, and vene
real diseases would devour them off the face
of the earth in a few years. With peace
established, they would return, in ninety-five
cases out of the hundred, to their old planta
tions, and work for their old masters. Free
dom was to them an orgie, of which such as
had enjoyed it were rapidly sickening. While
health lasted, and idleness was saved its
penalty by government support, they might
get along well enough. But when sick, starv
ing, and ill-treated, their first wish was a long-
ing to be back with their old masters, and
redomiciled on their old plantations. Of this,
even during the war, and at penalty of return
ing to slavery, he had seen many instances
enough to convince him that with freedom
assured, or rather its evils to them in their
unprepared state better understood the great
majority of the blacks would flock back
eagerly.

Mr. Davis said he heard my little daughtei
had undertaken to be his housekeeper, and

of Jefferson Davis. 103

sent over his meals. He knew the kind hand
of woman was always tenderest in the great
est grief. It only needed they should see
misery to wish and labor for its relief, unless
some great moral turpitude repelled. He
begged me to carry the assurance of his gra
titude, and hoped if he might never see her
himself that his children would some day
have opportunity to thank the young lady
who had been so kind to their father.

IO4 The Prison Life

CHAPTER VIII.

Mr. Davis on Cruelty to Prisoners. Mexico*
Turtle on the Southern Coast. The
Southern Leaders an Aristocracy. Lecture
on the Fine Arts, by a Strange Man in a
Strange Place.

JUNE nth. Called with Captain R. W. Bick-
ley, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, Officer of the
Day. Mr. Davis still improving, febrile symp
toms abated, and had slept, for him, very well
the night before. Thanked me for some fruit
sent with his breakfast, and then spoke of the
fruits of the tropics and their beautiful adap
tation to the wants of the inhabitants. Also
of Mexico, its climate and productions; a
land for which God had done everything, and
" where only man was vile." Considered the
Mexicans not capable of self-government;
they must be cared for, and it belonged to

of Jefferson Davis. 105

America to protect them. Had the South
succeeded * without the help of France, this
would have been one of his first cares, "and
he should not have hesitated a moment.
The South having failed, leaving the
North more powerful than ever, the duty
of establishing a continental protectorate
was imperative, and could not long be
evaded.

Mr. Davis remarked that when his tray of
breakfast had been brought in that morning,
he overheard some soldiers in the guard-room
outside commenting on the food given our
prisoners during the late war. To hold him
responsible for this was worse than absurd
criminally false. For the last two years of
the war, Lee's army had never more than
half, and was oftener on quarter rations of
rusty bacon and corn. It was yet worse with
other Southern armies when operating in a
country which had been campaigned over
any time. Sherman, with a front of thirty or
forty miles, " breaking into a new county,
found no trouble in procuring food ; but had

io6 The Prison Life

he halted anywhere, even for a single week,
must have starved. Marching every day, his
men eat out a new section, and left behind
them a starving wilderness.

Colonel Northrop, his Commissary-Gene
ral, had many difficulties to contend with;
and, not least, the incessant hostility of cer
tain opponents of his administration, who, by
striking at Northrop, really meant to strike

at him. Even General , otherwise so

moderate and conservative, was finally in
duced to join this injurious clamor. There
was food in the Confederacy, but no means
for its collection, the 'holders hiding it after
the currency had become depreciated ; and,
if collected, then came the difficulty of its
transportation. Their railroads were over
taxed, and the rolling-stock soon gave out
They could not feed their own troops; and
prisoners of war in all countries and ages
have had cause of complaint. Some of his
people confined in the West and at Look
out Point, had been nearly starved at certain
times, though he well knew> or well believed,

of Jefferson Davis 107

full prison-rations had been ordered and paid
for in these cases.

Herd men together in idleness within an
inclosure, their arms taken from them, their
organization lost, without employment for
their time, and you will find it difficult to
keep them in good health. They were or
dered to receive precisely the same rations
given to the troops guarding them ; but dis
honest Commissaries and Provost-Marshals
were not confined to any people. Doubtless
the prisoners on both sides often suffered
that the officers having charge of them might
grow rich; but wherever such dishonesty
could be brought home, prompt punishment
followed. General Winder and Colonel Nor
throp did the best they could, he believed;
but both were poorly obeyed or seconded by
their subordinates. To hold him responsible
for such unauthorized privations was both
cruel and absurd. He issued order after
order on the subject, and, conscious of the
extreme difficulty of feeding the prisoners,
made the most liberal offers for exchange

io8 The Prison Life

almost willing to accept any terms that would
release his people from their burden. Non-
exchange, however, was the policy adopted
by the Federal Government -just as Austria,
in her later campaigns against Frederick the
Great, refused to exchange; her calculation
being, that as her population was five times
more numerous than Prussia's, the refusal to
exchange would be a wise measure. That it
may have been prudent, though inhuman,
situated as the South was, he was not pre
pared to deny; but protested against being
held responsible for evils which no power of
his could avert, and to escape from which
almost any concessions had been offered.

Anxious to hear the opinion of Mr. Davis
about the future of Mexico, I brought back
the conversation to that point, suggesting that
when the country became quiet, and with our
continual influx of European immigration, we
might have men and enterprise enough to re
settle Mexico, and colonize out the present
indolent and inefficient race.

" The " programme might answer, " he

of Jefferson Davis. 109

thought, " for the thinly peopled parts, though
even the;re its fulfillment must be in the re
mote future. When the Valley is reached,
however, the population is comparatively
dense twenty to the square mile ; and politi
cal economy teaches that no people so nume
rous can be crushed out by colonization. A
new race must come in to master and guide
them, using the present generation as hewers
of wood and drawers of water, while educat
ing the next generation for a happier and
more intelligent future. It was on a recogni
tion of this necessity the French Emperor
based his scheme of European protection ; but
in failing to make terms with the seceded
States, and support them in their struggle, he
proved that his comprehension was not equal
to the, problem. The failure of the South
rendered a future of European rule for Mexico
impossible."

June 14^4. Visited prisoner in company
with Captain Evans, Officer of the Day. Pre
scribed for some slight return of nervous
headache and sleeplessness. Referring to

no The Prison Life

our previous conversation about the shell-fish;
etc., of the Southern coast, Mr. Davis said
that books of a scientific nature, if allowed
him, would keep his attention occupied, and
could do no harm. Would be glad to have
a few volumes on the conchology, geology, or
botany of the South, and was at a loss to
think how such volumes could endanger his
safe-keeping.

Said that the loggerhead-turtle appeared a
contradiction of the rule that nature makes
no vain effort nothing that had not a per
ceivable use. Here, however, was an animal
averaging from one to three hundred pounds
weight, very plentiful from Hatteras to the
Gulf, for which human ingenuity had yet
found no use. But what part it may perform
in the economy of the ocean must of course
remain a mystery. That it had some useful
mission amongst the denizens of the deep, all
analogy would lead us to believe. Early in
the spring they come up from the Caribbean
Sea and Gulf of Mexico, only approaching
the shore to lay their eggs when the high

of Jefferson Davis. in

tide serves just after dusk of the evening.
The male then remains at the edge of the
surf, while the female crawls up the beach to
find a proper place for laying. The place
being selected, she first makes a hole with
her head; then increases its size to about that
of a peck measure, by putting one of her fore-
fins into it, and twisting herself around until
the required space has been scooped out.
The eggs are then laid, about 200 in number,
nearly the bulk of a hen's egg each/but with a
soft, pliable, and very tough white skin. This
done, she packs sand over them to the proper
depth, and smoothes the place by crawling
over it several times with heavy pressure.

Of these eggs, when undisturbed, about
eighty per cent, are hatched ; in some four or
five weeks swarms of little turtle suddenly
breaking out, each about the size and color of
a ginger-snap, and hurrying towards the water
with infallible instinct. The eggs have three
active and powerful enemies the coon, the
*crow, and the negro. The coon hunts the
turtle-nest by smell, as a certain breed of dogs

112 The Prison Life

in France hunt the truffle, and having taken
his first meal, leaves the nest open to the
crows, who are not long in finishing what
may be left. The negroes search the shores
every morning at daylight in this season, and
when they find the track made by a turtle's
flippers follow it up to where the nest is
buried, prodding into the sand with a long
stick until it is found, and carrying off the con
tents. The loggerhead is famous for its longe
vity, and occasionally weighs from four to six
hundred pounds.

Speaking of the peculiarities of his people
as he always styled the late Confederate
States Mr. Davis said they were essentially
aristocratic, their aristocracy being based on
birth and education ; while the men of the
North were democratic in the mass, making
money the basis of their power and standard
to which they aspired. It always commanded
a premium socially, and was accepted in lack
of other qualities. No matter how ill-bred or
base, no man possessed of wealth who had
not been made judicially infamous, was ex-

of Jefferson Davis. 1 1 3

eluded from northern society. This money-
element entered into the politics of the
North, while at the South it was, and always
had been, powerless. At northern primary^
elections and nominating conventions, the
reins were for him who had money to pay for
being allowed control ; and the power thus ob
tained by money was used to get back what it
had cost, and "to treble that sum during its,
tenure.

Birth is a guarantee we do not ignore in
raising stock, nor should we in growing men.
Which should be more important the pedi
gree of a horse on which we stake our
money, or that of a man we are asked to
select for some position of control? The
basis of political prominence at the North
has been money first, and secondly loqua
ciousness, effrontery, the arts of the dema
gogue; while at the South except in the
case of shining talents lifting some individual
to eminence by their force birth, education,
and representative rather than noisy or
showy qualities, formed the ladder to distinc-

H4 The Prison Life

tion. No one could fail to be impressed with
this difference while attending our National
Conventions, Congress, or any other body in
which the two sections were represented.
He must not be misunderstood as wishing to
imply that we had no good blood, no educa
tion, no culture at the North far from it, for
he knew we had all in abundance ; but under
our political system, and owing to the vast
influx of a foreign population, they were
excluded from our public or representative
life. In a word, prominence at the North
has, of late, been obtained either by money
of the man made prominent, or that he
served the money interests of those who
pushed his elevation. This evil must con
tinually increase with the increase of immi
gration ; while at the South, birth, education,
and intelligence had beenj:he chief usual ele
ments of political distinction the first neces
sity being, however, that the man selected
should be a true representative of the views
of his constituency, whether those views were
right or wrong according to northern notions.

of Jefferson Davis. 115

To this representative quality, Mr. Davis
went on, were due the various positions with
which the South had honored him. His
selection to the chief office of the Confe
deracy was in no manner sought The rea
sons inspiring the choice were obvious. He
was a Mississippian ; had graduated at the
Military Academy ; served with some dis
tinction in the Mexican war ; had large expe
rience in the military comjnittee of the Se
nate, and in the War Department But one
of his chief recommendations lay irf'this,
that after the removal of Calhoun and Gen
eral Quitman by death, he became the chief
exponent or representative of those princi
ples of State Sovereignty which the South*
cherished, and of which, as he claimed, the
Fathers of the country had been the found
ers, Thomas Jefferson the inspired prophet,
and they the eloquent apostles. He was cer
tainly not more responsible for his own eleva
tion than any of those who had voted to
make him President

June i^th. Visited Mr. Davis with Cap-

1 1 6 The Prison Life

tain Korte, Officer of the Day. General
Miles, learning that the pacing of the two
sentinels in his room at night disturbed Mr.
Davis and prevented his sleeping, gave orders
that the men should stand at ease during
their two hours of guard, both night and
day, instead of pacing their accustomed beat
This, Mr. Davis said, was much pleasanter
for him, but cruel for the men obliged to
stand so long in one position, as if they had
been bronze or marble statues. Feared, as it
cost them suffering, it would make them hate
him more, as the cause though innocent
of their inconvenient attitude; and there
were plenty of men wearing uniforms of that
"color who hated him more than enough
already.

From this point Mr. Davis glided off to
some considerations of statuary, commenting
on the growing taste for representing animals,
birds and men, in painful or impossible atti
tudes in the basso-relievos, bronzes, and other
ornaments of modern sculpture. Stricken
deer contorted by death-wounds ; horses with

of Jefferson Davis. 117

sides lacerated by the claws of a clinging
tiger; partridges, or other birds, choking in
snares or pierced with arrows ; dying Indians,
wounded gladiators, dying soldiers pain oi'
death in every variety of- grade, seemed to
form the present staples for popular bronze
and Parian ornament Our sculptors made
their horses stand eternally with fore-paws
poised in air in an attitude only possible for
a moment to the living animal. Such works
were not pleasing, but the reverse. They
fretted the sensibilities with petty pain,* and
lacked the repose which should form the
chief cl>arm of sculpture. The groups of the
Laocoon and Dying Gladiator were the only
eminent works of antiquity of which he had"
heard or seen casts, in which pain or horror
had been the elements depicted ; and in these
the treatment had been so overwhelmingly
grand as to numb the sense of suffering by
the splendor of their beauty. For modern
sculpture, however the statuary designed for
parlor ornaments he wished to see more
pleasant themes. The agony of a wounded

Ii8 The Prison Life

deer or bird could have nothing to recom
mend it but the fidelity of imitation with
which the agony was portrayed ; while in the
Laocoon, there was the titanic struggle of the
father to free his children from the coils of
the serpent, and behind the Dying Gladiator
rose up the gazing circles of the amphi
theatre each subject wakening trains of
thought and 'emotion which concealed our
sense of physical pain, or only allowed it to
obtrude as a sort of undertone, or diapason,
to the awful beauty of the picture.

Mr. Davis, on this subject, was really elo
quent, showing a keen appreciation of art,
and I only regret that my notes report him
so imperfectly. It struck me as a strange
place for such a dissertation, a strange man
strangely circumstanced to be its author, and
a strange incident two armed soldiers stand
ing like statues within a cell, to have given
origin in such a mind to a lecture on the
aesthetics of repose applied to modern sculp-
ture.

of Jefferson Davis. 119

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Davis on Gen. Butler and Dutch Gap.
He denies that Secession was Treason. His
Opinion of Grant, McClellan, Pope, and
other Union Officers ; also, of Bragg, Lee
andPemberton. His Fligfatfrom Richmond
and Arrest.

JUNE i&t& Called on Mr. Davis with Cap
tain Jerome E. Titlow, Officer of the Day.
Found him continuing to improve in general
health much stronger than he had been on
his arrival. Complained of a stricture ,or
tightening of the chest, accompanied by a dry
cough. Ordered him to exercise his arms by
swinging them back and forth horizontally
twice or thrice a day.

Standing at the embrasure, the white sails
of a passing vessel suggested the trade and com
merce of the James, for the mouth of which it

I2O The Prison Life

appeared steering. Together in fancy we reas-
cended the banks of the river, with which Mr.
Davis was familiar. He asked the fate of all
the beautiful plantations along its shores ; of
Brandon belonging to the Harrisons on the
south bank, a place Gen. Butler had harried ;
of Westover; and beautiful Shirley on the
north bank, just opposite Bermuda Hundreds,
belonging to that noble Virginian of the old
school, Mr. Hill Carter. Told Mr. Davis it
was the only one left standing, in all its beauti
ful antiquity, of the palaces that once lined the
James. Carter had been kind to the wounded
of McClellan's soldiers and had taken no part
in the war, though very possibly a Southern
man in sentiment His place consequently
had been not only spared from incursion, but
guarded with jealous care by daily details, and
was the green spot in the desert made by the
movements of contending armies.

Talking of Gen. Butler, said Mr. Davis, with
a smile, Richmond owes him something, if
only for giving it the best joke of the war. He
referred to the Dutch Gap Canal, considered

of Jefferson Davis. 121

as a war-measure, for as a commercial one,
improving the navigation of the James, it was
full of advantage. It was a task imposing
great hardships upon many thousand soldiers ;
and must have been inspired by Grant's simi
lar attempt to change the course of the Mis
sissippi at Vicksburg. If successful, the canal
only avoided one battery, Fort Howlett, which
might have been carried by a resolute effort ;
nor could any of us understand what adequate
object could be gained by it when completed.
The James, from Dutch Gap to Richmond,
was too shallow for gun-boats ; was paved with
torpedoes, and obstructed in every conceivable
manner. Besides, the works at Chapin's and
Drury's Bluffs would still remain.

Commercially, the canal might be of great
value to Richmond. The loop of the river
which it cut off about seven miles in length
formed the shallowest and most intricate
part of its navigation, from Rockett's to the
sea. By making a lock of the Dutch Gap
Canal, and throwing a dam across the river
just below the higher lock, the water up to

122 The Prison Life

Richmond might be permanently raised two
feet and placed beyond tidal influence, thus
allowing vessels of ten or eleven feet draft to
reach the city in all stages of the tide, while
at present vessels drawing even eight or nine
feet can , only with extreme difficulty be
brought up at high tide. Commercially, the
canal was good ; but as a war-measure, of no
value.

Mr. Davis said it was contrary to reason,
and the law of nations, to treat as a rebellion,
or lawless riot, a movement which had been
the deliberate action of an entire people
through their duly organized State govern
ments. To talk of treason in the case of the
South, was to oppose an arbitrary epithet
against the authority of all writers on interna
tional law. Vattel deduces from his study of
all former precedent and all subsequent in
ternational jurists, have agreed with him
that when a nation separates into two parts,
each claiming independence, and both or
either setting up a new government, their
quarrel, should it come to trial by arms or by

of Jefferson Davis. 123

diplomacy, shall be regarded and settled pre
cisely as though it were a difference between
two separate nations, which the divided sec
tions, de facto, have become. Each must ob
serve the laws of war in the treatment of
captives taken in battle, and such negotiations
as may from time to time arise shall be con
ducted as between independent and sovereign
powers. Mere riots, or conspiracies for law
less objects, in which only limited fractions
of a people ai^e irregularly engaged, may be
properly treated as treason, and punished as
the public good may require ; but Edmund
Burke had exhausted argument on the sub
ject, in his memorable phrase, applied to the
first American movement for independence :
" I know not how an indictment against a
whole people shall be framed."

But for Mr. Lincoln's untimely death, Mr.
Davis thought, there could have been no
question raised upon the subject. That event
-*-more a calamity to the South than North,
in the time and manner of its transpiring
had inflamed popular passions to the highest

124 The Prison Life

pitch, and made the people of the section
which had lost their chief now seek as an
equivalent the life of the chief of the section
conquered. This was an impulse of passion,
not a conclusion which judgment or justice
could support. Mr. Lincoln, through his en
tire administration, had acknowledged the
South as a belligerent nationality, exchanging
prisoners of war, establishing truces, and
sometimes sending, sometimes receiving, pro-
positions for peace. On the last of these oc
casions, accompanied by the chief member of
his cabinet, he had personally met the Com
missioners appointed by the Southern States
to negotiate, going half way to meet them
not far from where Mr. Davis now stood ; and
the negotiations of Gen. Grant with Gen.
Lee, just preceding the latter's surrender,
most distinctly and clearly pointed to the
promise of a general amnesty ; Gen. Grant,
in his final letter, expressing the hope that,
with Lee's surrender, " all difficulties between
the sections might be settled without the loss
of another life," or words to that effect

of Jefferson Davis. 125

To my -question what he thought of Gen
eral Grant, Mr. Davis replied that he was a
great soldier beyond doubt, but of a new
school. If he had not started with an enor
mous account in bank, his checks would
have been dishonored before the culmination
was reached. At Shiloh he'was defeated the
first day, and would have been destroyed or
compelled to surrender next morning, but for
Buell's timely arrival with a fresh and well-
disciplined reinforcement, the strength of
which had been variously stated.

When Secretary of War, he thought
McClellan the ablest officer in the army,
and had employed him on two important
services as Military Commissioner in the
Crimea, and to- explore a route for the
Pacific railroad both of- which duties had
been discharged in a manner to increase
his reputation. He organized the Army of
the Potomac admirably, but it required a
commander of more dash to wield the
weapon in the field. McClellan's caution
amounted very closely to timidity moral

126 The Prison Life

timidity, for he was personally brave. On
his first landing in the Peninsula there had
been only 7,000 troops to meet him, and
these he should have rushed upon and over
whelmed at whatever cost Cautious, and
wishing to spare the blood of his men, he
commenced a regular siege at Yorktown
giving his enemies time to concentrate suffi
cient numbers and drive him back. As a
magnanimous enemy he respected McClellan,
but thought he had been promoted too rap
idly for his own good before he had ripened
in command and gained the experience requi
site for the supreme position. Had he been
kept in a subordinate capacity the two first
years of the war, rising from a division to a
corps, and thence to command in chief, he
would have been the greatest of our soldiers.
He had the best natural gifts and highest
intellectual training, and was just becoming
fitted, and the best fitted, for his position
when removed. Had he been supported by
the government he might have taken Rich
mond two years earlier, and it was with joy

of Jefferson Davis^ 127

Mr. Davis heard of his removal after the bat
tles of South Mountain and Antietam. Such
sacrifices of officers to the ignorance of an
unwarlike people, anxious to find in him a
scapegoat for their own lack of discipline or
endurance, were unavoidable in the early
stages of every popular war.

Pope, while Secretary of War, he had
never been able to make serviceable, and
Pope held his own gallantly. His mind was
not less inflated than his body. He was a
kind of American gascon, but with good sci
entific attainments. Sumner and Sedgwick
were gallant and able soldiers excellent com
manders in action, courteous and reliable in
all the relations of life. Hunter, of whom I
asked him specially as one of my old com
manders, was his beau ideal of the military
gentleman the soul of integrity, intrepidity,
true Christian piety and honor. Mr. Davis
had long been associated with him, both in
the service and socially, and believed Hun
ter's want of success due in a great measure
to his unwillingness to bend to anything

128 The Prison Life

mean or sinister. He was rash, impulsive ; a
man of action rather than thought ; yielding
to passions which he regarded as divine in
stincts or intuitions the natural temper of a
devotee or fanatic.

Of the officers on the Confederate side,
Mr. Davis spoke in high terms of General
Lee, as a great soldier and pure, Christian
gentleman ; also, in praise of Bragg and Pem-
berton, though the two latter, from unavoida
ble circumstances and the hostility of the par
ty opposed to Mr. Davis, had not been ac
corded the position due to their talents by
public opinion in either section. Pemberton
made a splendid defence of Vicksburg, and
might have been relieved if the officer com
manding the army sent to relieve him (Gene
ral Johnson) had not failed to obey the posi
tive orders to attack General Grant which
Mr. Seddon, then Secretary of War, had sent.
If the same officer, who was upheld in com
mand by the anti-administration party, had
vigorously attacked Sherman at Atlanta when
directed, the fortunes of the war would have

of Jefferson Davis. 129

been changed, and Sherman hurled back to
Nashville, over a sterile and wasted country
his retreat little less disastrous than Napo
leon's from Moscow. He did not do so, and
was relieved General Hood, a true and spir
ited soldier, taking his place but the oppor
tunity was then gone ; and to this de
lay, more than to any other cause, the
Southern people will attribute their over
throw, whenever history comes to be truly
written.

Bragg's victory over Rosecrans at Chicka-
mauga, Mr. Davis regarded as one of the
most brilliant achievements of the war, con
sidering the disparity of the forces. The
subsequent concentration - of Grant and
Hooker with Rosecrans, and the victory of
their combined forces at Lookout Mountain,
was the result of an audacity or desperation
which no military prudence could have fore
seen. So confident was Bragg in the impreg
nability of his position, that immediately after
Chickamauga he detached Longstreet, with
16,000 men about a third of his entire force

130 The Prison Life

to make a demonstration against Krioxville
thus indirectly threatening Grant's communi
cations with Nashville. Bragg's position was
finally carried by the overwhelming numbers
of the enemy. The opponents of his admin
istration censured Bragg for detaching Long-
street, but the subsequent events which made
that movement unfortunate were of a cha
racter which no prudence could have foreseen,
no military calculation taken into view as
probable.

All such reflections were idle, however, con
cluded Mr. Davis, and he must not be again
betrayed into their indulgence. Success is
virtue and defeat crime. This is the philoso
phy of life at least the only one the great
masses of mankind feel ready to accept Woe
to the conquered is no less a popular cry in
the nineteenth century than when the barba
rians first yelled it as they swarmed with drip
ping swords to the sack of Rome.

Mr. Davis then spoke of the circumstances
attending his flight from Richmond.

On leaving Richmond he went first to Dan-

of Jefferson Davis. 1 3 j

ville, because it was intended that Lee should
have moved in that direction, falling back to
make a junction with Johnson's force in the
direction of Roanoke River. Grant, however,
pressed forwaid so rapidly, and swung so far
around, that Lee was obliged to retreat in the
direction of Lynchburg with his main force,
while his vanguard, which arrived at Danville,
insisted on falling back and making the rally-
ing-point at Charlotte in North Carolina.

In Danville Mr. Davis learned of Lee's sur
render. Immediately started for Goldsboro',
where he met and had a consultation with
Gen. Johnson, thence going on south. At
Lexington he received a dispatch from John
son requesting that the Secretary of War
(Gen. Breckinridge) should repair to his head
quarters near Raleigh Gen. Sherman having
submitted a proposition for laying down arms
which was too comprehensive in its scope for
any mere military commander to decide upon.
Breckinridge and Postmaster-General Reagan
immediately started for Johnson's camp, where
Sherman submitted the terms of surren-

132 The Prison Life

der on which an armistice was declared the
same terms subsequently disapproved by the
authorities at Washington. -

One of the features of the proposition sub
mitted by General Sherman was a declaration
of amnesty to all persons, both civil and mili
tary. Notice being called to the fact parti
cularly, Sherman said, " I mean just that ;"
and gave as his reason that it was the only
way to have perfect peace. He had previ
ously offered to furnish a vessel to take away
any such persons as Mr. Davis might select,
to be freighted with whatever personal pro
perty they might want to take with them, and
to go wherever it pleased.

General Johnson told Sherman that it was
worse than useless to carry such a proposi
tion as the last to him. Breckinridge also
informed General Sherman that his proposi
tion contemplated the adjustment of certain
matters which even Mr. Davis was not em
powered to control. The terms were accept
ed, however, with the understanding that
they should be liberally construed on both

of Jefferson Davis. 133'

sides, and fulfilled in good faith General
Breckinridge adding that certain parts of the
terms would require to be submitted to the
various State governments of the Confede
racy for ratification.

These terms of agreement between John
son and Sherman were subsequently disap
proved by the authorities at Washington, and
the armistice ordered to cease after a certain
time. Mr. Davis waited in Charlotte until
the day and hour when the armistice ended ;
then mounted his horse, and, with some ca
valry of Duke's brigade (formerly Morgan's),
again started southward, passing through
South Carolina to Washington, in Georgia.
At an encampment on the road, he thinks,
the cavalry of his escort probably heard of the
final surrender of General Johnson, though
he himself did not until much later. Being
in the advance, he rode on, supposing that
the escort was coming after.

As with his party he approached the town
of Washington, he was informed that a regi
ment, supposed to belong tp the army of

134 The Prison Life

General Thomas, was moving on the place
to capture it, ir violation, as he thought, of
General Sherman's terms. On this he sent