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Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 39: Cabinet life. (search)
said, You know a man is heavier when he is asleep, do you suppose it possible I could have been asleep? He lived a few doors from us, and Mr. Cushing boarded not far off. Mr. Campbell lived more in the centre of the city, and Governor Marcy only a few squares from the Executive Mansion. Mr. Dobbin, the Secretary of the Navy, was also quite near, so that the Executive family of Mr. Pierce could be summoned to a meeting in an hour or less time. From this house, which had been taken by Mr. Benjamin for the winter, we moved in a few months to one round the corner on Thirteenth Street, and there lived a year. There our only child sickened, and after several weeks of pain and steady decline, died at twenty-three months old; and his lovely personality had even at that early age impressed itself on many people. He was Mr. Davis's first thought when the door opened, and the little fellow would wait as patiently as possible, sometimes a quarter of an hour, at the door to kiss his father
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 4: going to Montgomery.-appointment of the Cabinet. (search)
Davis wished very much to appoint the Honorable Robert Barnwell to be Secretary of State, on account of the great confidence he felt in him and of his affection for him; but Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, was pressed for Seiretary of the Treasury. Mr. Barnwell therefore declined the portfolio of State. Mr. Memminger's portfolio had been intended for Mr. Toombs, of Georgia. Mr. Mallory had been chairman of the Naval Committee in the Senate, and was urged for Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Benjamin's legal attainments caused him to be invited to be Attorney-General. Mr. Reagan was appointed Postmaster-General because of his sturdy honesty, his capacity for labor, and his acquaintance with the territory of the Southern States. Mr. Leroy Pope Walker's name was the only one urged by Alabama for the War Department. The Confederate Congress declared that the laws of the United States in force and use in the Confederate States of America on November Ist were continued, until repeale
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 16: Beauregard's letter. (search)
se between General Beauregard and the Secretary of War, Mr. Benjamin, caused by the organization of a rocket battery for thehis motives and his defect of judgment. This letter of Mr. Benjamin staggered General Beauregard, and he, overlooking Mr. BMr. Benjamin, referred the letter to the President. The President replied to the General, under date of November 10, 1861, and byour complaint because of the letters written to you by Mr. Benjamin, Acting Secretary of War, it was hoped that you would sof the 6th instant you accept the assurance given that Mr. Benjamin could not have intended to give you offence, you serve one in proper tone and style, and express the fear that Mr. Benjamin will, under all circumstances, view only the legal aspts of the law, etc. I do not feel competent to instruct Mr. Benjamin in the matter of style. There are few whom the public at which induces me to reply. It cannot be peculiar to Mr. Benjamin to look at every exercise of official power in its lega
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 20: the Executive mansion-the hospitals. (search)
of the coarse ways and uncomfortable concomitants of a camp, and that he missed as keenly the refinements of life to which he had been accustomed after four y.ars, as he did at first. In the last part of the war no one had delicacies, invitations very common among intimate friends were, Do come to dinner or tea, we succeeded in running the blockade this week. This meant coffee after dinner, preserved fruits, loaf-sugar, good tea, or sometimes that which was always very acceptable to Mr. Benjamin's palate, anchovy paste. He used to say, with bread made of Crenshaw's flour spread with the paste, English walnuts from an immense tree in the grounds, and a glass of the McHenry sherry, of which we had a small store, a mans patriotism became rampant. Once, when he was invited to partake of a beefsteak pie, of which he was very fond, he wrote: I have never eaten them in perfection except in the Cunard steamers (my cook had been chef on one), and I shall enjoy the scream of the sea-bird
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 64: capture of President Davis, as written by himself. (search)
depots of supplies, and I sent back a courier with a pencil-note addressed to General Vaughan, or the officer commanding the advance, requesting him to come on and join me immediately. After waiting a considerable time I determined to move on with my escort, trusting that we should arrive in Washington in time to rally the citizens to its defence. When I reached there scouts were sent out on different roads, and my conclusion was that we had had a false alarm. The Secretary of State, Mr. Benjamin, being unaccustomed to travelling on horseback, parted from me at the house where we stopped to breakfast, to take another mode of conveyance and a different route from that which I was pursuing, with intent to join me in the trans-Mississippi Department. At Washington the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, left me to place his family in safety. The Secretary of War, Mr. Breckinridge, had remained with the cavalry at the crossing of the Savannah River. During the night after my arr
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 74: after release in 1867, to 1870. (search)
Paris we had a happy reunion with Mr. and Mrs. Slidell, with the Honorable Ambrose Dudley Mann, and others we had known, and spent a few weeks happily there, but preferred to remain in London for several reasons. Even then the shadow of the bloody drama that was to end the dynasty of the Bonapartes hung over Paris, and the blue blouses talked treason in the Musee de Napoleon, and hissed out between their teeth abuse of the army officers as they passed. On our return to London we saw Mr. Benjamin quite often, and always with increasing pleasure. He had now become Queen's Counsellor, and was very successful. He appeared happier than I had hitherto seen him, but though he gave Mr. Davis one long talk about Confederate matters, after that he seemed averse to speaking of them. He was too busy to spend much time anywhere, but was sincerely cordial and always entertaining and cheery. His success at the English bar was exceptional, but did not astonish us. In speaking of his grief ov
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 78: the commencement and completion of the Rise and fall of the Confederate States of America.—the death of Jefferson Davis, Jr.—Honors Awarded by Mr. Davis's countrymen. (search)
refore must be satisfied if the end was gained of setting the righteous motives of the South before the world. As soon as The Rise and fall was completed we embarked at New Orleans, and went to Liverpool, and from there to meet our young daughter, who had left Germany for the advantage of a few months in Paris before quitting school. We remained three months in Paris, and during this time Mr. Davis spent the greater part of his time with his old friend, A. Dudley Mann, at Chantilly. Mr. Benjamin came to us there, older, but the same cheerful buoyant person, and that proved to be our last farewell to him. We returned home in November of the same year, and took up our abode at Beauvoir. The people of Alabama invited Mr. Davis to visit them the next year, and our daughter Varina, known as Winnie in the family, accompanied him. The enthusiasm with which he was received could not be described. All classes came to do him honor, and the journey was extended to Atlanta and Savannah,
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 80: General Joseph E. Johnston and the Confederate treasure. (search)
s and the mountains. Mr. G. A. Trenholm, the Secretary of the Treasury, having been left quite ill near the Catawba River, the President appointed the Postmaster-General, Honorable John H. Reagan, acting Secretary of the Treasury, who took charge of that Department, and placed the coin under charge of the cavalry to convoy it to Washington, Ga. The party left for Washington that night, and stopped for breakfast a few miles from Washington. At our breakfast halt, when the road was taken, Mr. Benjamin came to me and said good-by, and turned off south from that point. Mr. Mallory left the party at Washington, Ga., going to a friend's in the neighborhood. Next morning Colonel William Preston Johnston informed me that Mr. Reagan had applied for me to act as Treasurer, to take charge of the Treasury matters, and I was ordered to report to him, and doing so, was handed my commission, which is now before me and reads as follows, viz.: Washington, Ga., May 4, 1865. M. H. Clark, Esq.
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 5. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), The true story of the capture of Jefferson Davis. (search)
packed among the baggage, and under cover of darkness the President of the Confederacy, accompanied by his family and three members of his Cabinet, Breckinridge, Benjamin, and Reagan, drove rapidly to the train which had been prepared to carry them from Richmond. This train, it is said, was the one which had carried provisions ton atom of foundation in fact, and needs no further comment. 4th. He was also accompanied, says General Wilson, by three members of his Cabinet, Breckinridge, Benjamin, and Reagan. He was really accompanied by five members of his Cabinet, Messrs. Benjamin, Mallory, Reagan, Trenholm, and Davis; Gen. Breckinridge was not amongMessrs. Benjamin, Mallory, Reagan, Trenholm, and Davis; Gen. Breckinridge was not among them, and did not leave Richmond until the next morning. The misstatement in this case is altogether immaterial. It seems to spring out of the very wantonness and exuberance of untruthfulness in the narrator; but it serves to show how much reliance may be placed upon the accuracy of his assertions in minor matters, as well as i
William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General William T. Sherman ., volume 1, Chapter 6: Louisiana. 1859-1861. (search)
on the state of the Union; and, al-although it was universally admitted that a large majority of the voters of the State were opposed to secession, disunion, and all the steps of the South Carolinians, yet we saw that they were powerless, and that the politicians would sweep them along rapidly to the end, prearranged by their leaders in Washington. Before the ordinance of secession was passed, or the convention had assembled, on the faith of a telegraphic dispatch sent by the two Senators, Benjamin and Slidell, from their seats in the United States Senate at Washington, Governor Moore ordered the seizure of all the United States forts at the mouth of the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain, and of the United States arsenal at Baton Rouge. The forts had no garrisons, but the arsenal was held by a small company of artillery, commanded by Major Haskins, a most worthy and excellent officer, who had lost an arm in Mexico. I remember well that I was strongly and bitterly impressed by the s
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