Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/976

912 to the bar at the age of twenty-one. Soon afterward he journeyed to Texas, intending to purchase a ranch, and bearing letters of introduction to Gov. Sam Houston, by whom he was received with much courtesy. Abandoning his purpose of ranch life, he accepted from the governor an appointment to Colonel Bailey's command of Texas Rangers, and served five months in the service of the State. After the election of President Lincoln he returned to Virginia, and en route visited the Louisiana military institute, desiring to meet his friend, Maj. Frank Smith, an assistant professor As he entered the grounds he observed a white man with sleeves rolled up, trousers in boots, digging a posthole, with four or five negroes standing about in absorbed attention. Addressing this peculiarly industrious individual, Mr. Groner inquired as to where he could find his friend. "Well," replied the man with the spade, "I am Major Sherman, president of the school. Come along with me and I will show you the way, just as soon as I show these ——— niggers how to dig postholes." As they walked he discussed with the future Federal commander the recent presidential election and its probable results. When the likelihood of war was mentioned, Sherman remarked with great emphasis that in such a case he would "resign, join the Union army and come down here and kill every rebel I can." The discussion was quite animated, and Groner retorted that if Sherman were found in the ranks of an invading army he would exhaust all the methods of civilized warfare to accomplish his capture. In after years these two belligerent debaters became the best of friends. At Jackson, Miss., Mr. Groner visited Governor Pettus, who commissioned him to go to New York and supervise the shipment of rifles to the State from Springfield, Mass. This service performed he returned to Norfolk, to prepare for the approaching conflict, and receiving several communications from Governor Pickens of South Carolina, he engaged in organizing a regiment of volunteers for the purpose of aiding in taking Fortress Monroe. For advice in regard to this enterprise he visited Governor Letcher, during the session of the convention, accompanied by Adjutant-General Richardson and bearing a letter from ex-Governor Wise. Governor Letcher proposed to submit their views to the convention, but fearing that such a course would inform the Federal authorities, he declined to pursue the enterprise, and immediately proceeded to Jackson, Miss., and reported to Governor Pettus. Through the kindly offices of the latter he visited President Davis and was commissioned and confirmed by the provisional congress of the Confederate States, as assistant adjutant-general, with rank of captain in the regular army. Assigned to duty at Montgomery, under Leroy Polk Walker, the first secretary of war, he had among his early duties the arrest and imprisonment of Captain Worden, U. S. N., afterward famous as the commander of the Monitor, who had been allowed to visit the Federal defenses at Pensacola on his promise to give no information and report to the Confederate authorities on his return, but had instead attempted to proceed directly to Washington. Captain Groner also had the distinction of transmitting the telegram from the secretary of war to General Beauregard, ordering the opening of the attack on Fort Sumter. The call of President Lincoln for 75,000 troops was