Page:Confederate Portraits.djvu/44

 14 He was much indebted to General Ewell in the Valley Campaign."

It was natural enough for Johnston to think these things. It would have been better if he had not said them.

When it is a question of Davis's friends and favorites, the criticism becomes manifest irritability. Thus Johnston writes to Randolph, whom he really admired. "Your order was positive and unconditional. I had no option but to obey it. If injustice has been done it was not by me. If an improper order was given it was not mine. Mine, therefore, permit me to say, is not the one to be recalled or modified." He writes to Benjamin, whom he did not admire at all: "Let me suggest that, having broken up the dispositions of the military commander, you give whatever other orders may be necessary." As for Pemberton, who disobeyed him, and Hood, who supplanted him, he has no belief in their capacity nor patience with their blunders.

When it comes to Davis himself, the tone is no more amiable or conciliatory. The long, vigorous, and eloquent letter, written in regard to the question of rank which originated the trouble, deserves to be studied in every line. This was the one which Davis briefly docketed as "insubordinate." It is insubordinate, in spite of its logic and its nobility, and its significance is increased by Johnston's own confession that he waited for a night's reflection before sending it. "If the action