In the Confederate service.
A record Exhibiting a signal display of courage and genius.
General Maury's career in the Confederate army is history.
The niche assigned him in the temple of fame is a high one.
It is in more than one respect unique.
A distinguished soldier of the
Confederacy remarked to the writer recently, that had
General Maury achieved in the
East the things which he achieved in the Army of the West, his final rank would have been higher and his fame greater.
As it is, he is known to the student of Confederate history as one of the bravest, one of the most skillful, and one of the hardest fighters
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in the
Southern army.
His heroic defence of
Mobile, in the spring of 1865, against the land attack of
Canby and the attack of the great
Farragut by sea, is alone sufficient to give him a lasting place in history.
General Johnston and
General Maury were old army comrades and warmest friends, but
General Johnston felt he had been improperly treated in having
General Lee assign officers to his army.
He claimed to outrank
Lee.
General Maury was much embarrassed by the view which
General Johnston took of
General Lee's action, and, with the former's permission, returned to
Richmond and requested assignment elsewhere.
General Johnston, after
General Maury returned to
Richmond, wrote to
Mr. Davis, protesting against the injustice of
General Lee's action and the then existing state of affairs.
He said he would raise no protest until after the achievement of the independence of the
Confederacy, when he would use all proper means to have his rank rightfully established.
The gauntlet thus thrown down was accepted by
Mr. Davis.
General Maury always said this caused the ultimate removal of
Johnston from the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and, as many thought, the downfall of the
Confederacy.
General Maury's request for a different post was answered with an assignment to the Army of
Fredericksburg, under
General Holmes, at Brooke's Station.
After the victory of
Manassas, both armies lay quiescent for many months.
General Maury had had no opportunity for active service when, in February, 1862, he was made chief of staff to
General Earle Van Dorn, in command of the Trans-Mississippi Department.
This distinguished honor illustrates the confidence reposed in
General Maury at headquarters in
Richmond.
Fought with great men.
It is impossible to go into detail regarding the career of
General Maury in the Confederate army.
It is interwoven with the history of the great men who led the
Southern armies in the
West—with the great
Albert Sidney Johnston; with
Forrest, the unique and wonderful; the brilliant, but unfortunate,
Van Dorn; with
Leonidas Polk, the ‘Fighting
Bishop’; with
Stephen D. Lee—with a dozen other men whose names are famous in the history of the greatest war of the world.
General Maury was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general for conduct in the Alcorn campaign.
His first command in the field was of the famous
Missouri brigade, at
Corinth, and in the affair at
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Farmington.
On the evacuation of
Corinth, May 31, 1862, he was assigned to command the rear guard of the Army of the West.
The next day he was assigned to the command of the First division of that army, with which he subsequently fought at
Iuka,
Corinth, Hatchie-Bridge and
Vicksburg.
Maury's division of the Army of the West went into action at
Corinth 4,600 strong, on October 4, 1862.
After three days of fighting, it was reduced to 1,200 men, who held
Ord's corps in check, repulsing every attack from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M., and saved
Van Dorn's army and trains.
In April, 1863,
General Maury was ordered to take command of the Department of East
Tennessee.
While in this command he received a dispatch to this effect: ‘
General Van Dorn was killed here to-day.
Representing the wishes of his whole corps of cavalry, we desire to know if you will accept its command.’
This was signed by all the generals, including
Governor Ross, of
Texas, and
General Frank Armstrong.
This, the highest compliment ever paid
General Maury, he found proper to decline.
His defence of Mobile.
Soon afterwards he was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, which he defended until the battle of
Mobile closed the war between the States, on April 12th.
The fighting began March 26, 1865, against
Canby's army of three corps of infantry, a heavy force of artillery, and
Farragut's fleet.
General Maury conducted the defence with great skill, destroying twelve of
Farragut's vessels.
On the 12th of April, pursuant to his orders from
General Lee,
General Maury marched out the remnant of his little army, now reduced to a division of 4,500 men. As he marched out with the rear guard, a flag of truce was sent out to the fleet, to apprise the enemy that he might enter
Mobile, without firing a shot into the town.
On the 14th of May, he and his army were paroled.
General Maury's life after the war was that of many a soldier of the
Confederacy.
The close of the war found him penniless.
He has often remarked upon how little fitted he was by education and training to be a man of business.
He was fond of borrowing
General Dick Taylor's opinion of the education of officers of the United States army: ‘Take a boy of sixteen from his mother's apron-strings, shut him up under
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constant surveillance at
West Point, send him out to a two-company post upon the frontier, where he does little but play seven--up and drink whiskey at the sutler's, and by the time he is forty-five years old, he will furnish the most complete illustration of suppressed mental development of which human nature is capable.’
Though without business training or inclination for business life,
General Maury went to work with a will.
Being a graduate of the
University and of
West Point, he decided to establish a classical and mathematical academy for boys at
Fredericksburg, where he lived.
Though he always spoke in humorous depreciation of the school, it succeeded.
But teaching was not at all to
General Maury's tastes, and when offered a lucrative position with an express company at New Orleans, he accepted.
After he had been in the employ of the company for some time he resigned to embark in the manufacture of rosin and turpentine in
St. Tammany Parish, La. For a year
General Maury succeeded profitably in his new enterprise, but owing to the embarrassments of the old army friend who was advancing him money for the business, he was unable to carry it on successfully.
General Maury continued the enterprise until he had lost nearly every cent.
Originated the Southern Historical Society.
He went to New Orleans with only $2.50 in his pocket.
He went to the office of an old friend,
General Simon B. Buckner, to whom he told his plight.
General Buckner told him the office of secretary of the
Southern Hospital Association had just been created the previous night, at a salary of $125 a month.
He asked
General Maury if he would accept it.
“As that is just $125 more than my present income, of course I will accept,” replied
General Maury.
He received the appointment.
The salary was soon increased to $200 a month.
It was in New Orleans, in 1868, that
General Maury set on foot a plan for the systematic collection of Southern war records, which resulted in the formation of the Southern Historical Society.
In August, 1873, at a convention held at the
White Sulphur Springs, the domicile of the society was removed to the
Capitol at
Richmond, and
General Maury was made
Chairman of the Executive Committee.
National guard Association.
During the contest of
Tilden and
Hayes for the presidency, and
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soon after the great labor riots in
Baltimore and
Pittsburg,
General Maury called a meeting in
Richmond for the purpose of taking steps to improve the militia of the
State.
At this meeting the coopera-tion of other States was invited.
Many accepted, and the National Guard Association of
America was formed as a result.
A further result was the securing from Congress of a small annual appropriation for the purpose of arming the
State military.
General Maury always said this meeting aroused such vital interest in the subject in every State that the
United States now has the most efficient national militia in the world.
In 1885,
General Maury was appointed
United States envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the
United States of
Colombia by
Mr. Cleveland.
He remained at
Bogota until after the election of
Mr. Harrison.
Made his home in Richmond.
Since his return from the
United States of
Colombia,
General Maury had resided with relatives in this city and with his son,
Mr. Dabney H. Maury, Jr., at
Peoria, Ill. Few men and women in
Richmond are unfamiliar with his rather small, spare, but stiffly erect figure.
All who knew him loved him.
General Maury angry was something few persons ever saw. He was the soul of good fellowship.
He was a man with a heart—a big one in a small body.
He was an inveterate story-teller.
His long life and his varied experiences prevented his stories from ever growing tiresome.
Offer from the Lottery.
His frankness and his honesty were probably his most striking characteristics.
The latter is splendidly illustrated by an incident of
General Maury's life after the war, one which he often told.
He was in very destitute circumstances, and had no idea whither to go to find the dollar.
One afternoon he received a letter in an official-looking envelope.
He broke the seal and found it was from the Louisiana State Lottery Company, offering him a salary of $25,000 per year if he would accept the position of president of the company.
“The temptation was a terrible one,” said
General Maury. ‘To say that it was otherwise would be to say I was more than human.
I was almost penniless, and there was no prospect of my being otherwise.
Twenty-five thousand a year was wealth which to me seemed fabulous.
I did not say anything to any one concerning the proposition.
When I went to bed I could not sleep.
I tossed and
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turned for hours, trying to make up my mind.
Finally just before dawn, I resolved to decline the offer.
I had never done anything which was not honest, and I determined that it was too late to begin.
in my old age. Sleep was easy to me then, and it was late when I awoke.
Almost as soon as I did so I arose, and writing a letter of refusal of the company's offer, posted it. I have never regretted it.’
Interest in Spanish war.
General Maury was in every fibre a soldier.
He not only had the personal courage requisite, but despite his whimsical manner of disparaging the army as an occupation, it was plain to see he was by nature a man who loved and was fitted for army life.
All his stories were of war; all his recollections of incidents of battle and adventure in the field.
When war broke out with
Spain, the old fellow would go to the
Governor's office every day and ask the influence of
Governor Tyler in securing appointment to the army.
The old warhorse scented battle once again, and wished to drink once more of the excitement of war.
General Maury was a man of the simplest tastes.
He abhorred anything which favored of display.
About five years ago he was taken ill in this city, and it was feared his death was not distant.
He spoke to a friend concerning his wishes as to the funeral.
“There must be no pomp,” he said.
‘Let the services be simple.
Let the coffin be hauled to the railroad station on a caisson, followed by a few of my old comrades.
I want my body to be sent to the old family burying-ground, at
Fredericksburg, that I may sleep with my people.’
There was general sorrow in
Richmond last night at the news of
General Maury's death.
At no other place was the expression more general or hearty than at the
Westmoreland Club, where he spent much of his time when in
Richmond.
He was a great favorite with the members of the club.
A fine painting of the
General adorns the walls of the club-house, and in the
Lee Camp gallery is another, given by the Westmoreland.
The old soldier has well earned the rest upon which he has entered, and his sleep will be dreamless and sweet in the bosom of the old State for whom he risked all save honor, and lost all save honor and life.