Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

[177] result. The reasons why no such consequences could result are given in the closing passage of the reports of both the commanding generals, and the responsibility cannot be transferred to the government at Richmond, which certainly would have united in any feasible plan to accomplish such desirable results.

The plan of campaign, mentioned in the strategic portion of General Beauregard's report, as having been submitted to and not accepted by the President, ‘could not be found among the files of the War Department,’ for the simple reason—and Mr. Davis knew it—that the plan referred to was not proposed by letter, but communicated, personally, through Colonel James Chestnut of South Carolina, one of General Beauregard's aids. This officer carried with him a written memorandum dictated by General Beauregard to Colonel Sam. Jones, on the evening of the 13th of July, containing all the main features of the military operations, acknowledged to be ‘brilliant and comprehensive,’ but, unfortunately, opposed at Richmond, and no less unfortunately rejected.¹

Mr. Davis, after showing great incredulity as to having ever ‘entertained’ such a plan—one of the most important of the war —succeeds, however, in recalling to memory, ‘inquiry having developed the fact,’ that Colonel Chestnut did, in effect, verbally deliver a message in General Beauregard's name. That ‘message,’ as the President thought proper to call the communication he had received, was no less than the plan for an aggressive advance upon the enemy, ably and exhaustively explained by Colonel Chestnut, in a conference granted him by the President, as the representative and authorized exponent of General Beauregard's views on the subject. Besides Mr. Davis and Colonel Chestnut, Generals Lee and Cooper were present, and so was Colonel (afterwards General) John S. Preston, of South Carolina. We call the reader's special attention to Colonel Chestnut's report to General Beauregard, July 16th, 1861, on his return from Richmond, wherein appear the full details of the plan proposed, and the reasons given by the President for not adopting it. That report is to be found in Chapter VIII. of this work, page 85. We also refer the reader to the preceding chapter (Chapter XII.), in which