Named Entity Results
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1

ways seemed to suggest to Mr. Bishop the question of the Catechism, Who made ye, Dauvid? to which Atchison always answered, Gaud, and Mr. Bishop invariably responded, Quite right, Dauvid; quite right. I left him in the college when I went to West Point, and afterward, when I met him in the United States Senate, in which he was one of the Senators from Missouri, my first greeting was, Who made ye, Dauvid? I loved him when we were boys, and he grew with growing years in all the graces of manhhis statement concerning him, though based primarily on my personal knowledge of Mr. Davis, is not unsupported by the testimony of others who were equally intimate with him. In November, 1823, Jefferson Davis was appointed to a cadetship at West Point Military Academy, New York, by President Monroe, and we drifted apart. Judge Peters, of Mount Sterling, Ky., was another classmate of Mr. Davis at Transylvania. When I was with him, wrote the Judge, as soon as he heard of Mr. Davis's d

g that was needful. The consequence would be that he would have to carry his talents into some calling for which he was especially endowed. To take this extraordinary genius for illustration, though he readily mastered every branch of the curriculum of the Military Academy, and would doubtless have been useful as an engineer in the army, his career as a civilian proved that another field was more peculiarly his, and that he could there render greater service to his country. In the year 1842, on the decease of Mr. Hasler, Professor Bache was appointed Superintendent of the Coast Survey, and introduced methods and established rules in regard to triangulation and deep-sea soundings which have given to the American coast and sea border the best charts, I think, in existence, and which will remain for Bache an enduring monument. A great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin and grandson of Alexander Dallas, Secretary of State under Mr. Jefferson's administration, he seemed to have inherite

ed to me much the relation of a parent, notified me that he had received the news of my appointment as a cadet in the United States Military Academy; and, fearing the consequences of being graduated at the early age of seventeen, he insisted that I should proceed at once to West Point. Of course I disliked to go down from the head class of one institution to the lowest in another; but I yielded and went to West Point, to find that I was too late; that all the candidates had been admitted in June or the first of September; that the classes were engaged in their studies; and that the rule was absolute as to the time of admission. But Captain (afterward General) Hitchcock, then on duty in the Academy, had known my family when he was on recruiting duty in Natchez, and asked a special examination for me. Chance favored me. There was just then a Mr. Washington, who had been permitted, on account of his health, to leave the Academy for a year or two. He had gone to France, and, because of

Chapter 4: enters West Point. Mr. Davis continued his autobiography by saying: I passed my examination for admission to the senior class, and as it was so long ago I may say that I had taken an honor, when I received intelligence of the death of my father. He died on July 4, 1824, at the age of sixty-eight. No son could have loved a father more tenderly. When Mr. Davis was thirty-nine, he came accidentally upon a letter of his father's which he tried to read aloud, but handed it Mr. Davis was thirty-nine, he came accidentally upon a letter of his father's which he tried to read aloud, but handed it over unread and left the room unable to speak. Below is a quaint, pitiful letter from the bereaved boy to his sister-in-law, after hearing of his father's death. The formal manner of the letter he retained as long as he lived. Lexington, August 2, 1824. Dear Sister: It is gratifying to hear from a friend, especially one from whom I had not heard from so long as yourself, but the intelligence contained in yours was more than sufficient to mar the satisfaction of hearing from anyone.

elation of a parent, notified me that he had received the news of my appointment as a cadet in the United States Military Academy; and, fearing the consequences of being graduated at the early age of seventeen, he insisted that I should proceed at once to West Point. Of course I disliked to go down from the head class of one institution to the lowest in another; but I yielded and went to West Point, to find that I was too late; that all the candidates had been admitted in June or the first of September; that the classes were engaged in their studies; and that the rule was absolute as to the time of admission. But Captain (afterward General) Hitchcock, then on duty in the Academy, had known my family when he was on recruiting duty in Natchez, and asked a special examination for me. Chance favored me. There was just then a Mr. Washington, who had been permitted, on account of his health, to leave the Academy for a year or two. He had gone to France, and, because of his name, had rece

o the infantry, and, with others of the same class, ordered to report to the School of Practice at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Mo. When I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point that truly great and good man, Albert Sidney Johnston, had preceded me from Transylvania, Ky.; an incident which formed a link between us, and inaugurated a friendship which grew as years rolled by, strengthened by after associations in the army, and which remains to me yet, a memory of one of the greatest and best characters I have ever known. His particular friend was Leonidas Polk, and when Johnston was adjutant of the corps Polk was the sergeant-major. They were my seniors in the Academy; but we belonged to the same set, a name well understood by those who have been ground in the Academy mill. Polk joined the Church from convictions produced, as I understood, from reading Gregory's letters--a noted religious work of that day — aided by the preaching of our eloquent and