Yankee Presences to prevarication.
We publish below a letter from
Capt. Jones, of the Confederate Army at
Manassas, relative to a recent correspondence about the body of ‘"the lamented
Col. Cameron."’
Captain J. nails the falsehood of the
Yankee officers to the counter like base coin.
The proneness to prevarication of the whole Yankee army, from privates and runaway
Captains to a gouty
Lieutenant General with his feet in load water, is indeed very remarkable.
The reader will be amused at
Capt. Jones' allusion to the motive with which the
Yankee officers have made their repeated parade of philanthropy in their pious pursuit of the body of the ‘"lamented
Cameron,"’ They have brought into systematic and dally use the employment of donning the livery of Heaven to serve the Devil (or
Lincoln) in:
Messrs. Editors:--My name having been connected with the tortuous proceedings of certain officials of the
United States deceased I beg leave to tax your columns as briefly as circumstances will admit.
On the 23d ult.
Major Wadsworth, of
General McDowell's staff, a flag of truce, was stopped outside of our camp at Fairfax C. H. He bore a letter which was forwarded, and it seems came to inquire after missing officers.
All in our possession that could alleviate distressed to milieus was willingly revealed, and such hospitalities as we could offer out of doors were placed at the service of our guests, which were courteously declined.
To wait for an answer to the letter or to depart was left optional with him, until it became apparent his presence would be inconvenient, when he was required to leave, with the assurance that the answer would be forwarded as soon as it arrived, which was done.
Our bearers of the reply were subjected on their way to the rudest treatment by the
Federal soldiers, and were detained more than forty- eight hours close prisoners by the officers.
The wife of an officer says that to detain her from her wounded husband she was told that
Major W. was kept more than eight hours in a drenching rain, without the offer of so much as a glass of water.
The sky was never clearer than during his sojourn with us.
Gen. McCunn's letter of the 13th instant, to me, published in your issue of the 22d, says:
‘ "
Captain Johnston says that you were kind enough to mention to him that you had found the body of one of our officers, with the likeness on his person of our
Secretary of War and his lady, and other articles of jewelry, which led you to suspect it was
Col. Cameron's." ’
I told
Captain Johnston that I had seen the miniatures in question in the possession of a private of my regiment, and that he got them from another private who had taken them from a corpse on the field.
I never have and never will take private property from the stain, unless to deliver it as soon as possible to their friends.
Capt. Johnston's letter to
Gen. McCunn, also published, is a whole- cloth fabrication, without even a shadow of foundation.
He never entered our lines, and never saw
Col. Stuart, nor communicated with him in any way. I never told him I had or would mark the spot where
Col. Cameron's remains are buried.
Please publish the enclosed letter of
Gen. McCunn to me, brought on one occasion by this same
Capt. Johnston.
It will serve, if printed as written, to show the literary status of our enemies.
All who know me are well aware I would never make a bargain with such men, even about shooting pickets, especially after they had taken the first shot.
It is so evident that
Col. Cameron's body has been a mere pretext, while military information has in every instance been the real object, that even our men have caricatured their conduct, after a sham corn-cob fight, by a wag of one party putting a dirty rag on a pole and approaching the other party to demand the dead body of a rival wag in the company. --The greatest laughter heard since the beginning of the war resulted from this piece of wit, and the dead body of
Col. Stiggins is as much the word in camp as the elephant after the celebrated play.
W. E.
Jones,
Capt. 1st Va. Cavalry.
[Captain J. did not enclose the letter from
Capt. Johnston. --Editors.]
