Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/341

Rh I am also under obligations for services voluntarily rendered by Captain McMahan, and also Captain Laster, late of Tennessee cavalry, during the engagement.

, Brigadier-General. Official copy:, Assistant Adjutant-General.

, August 11, 1864. Hon., Secretary of State, Richmond, Va., C. S. A.:

Sir—I deem it due to Mr. Holcombe and myself to address you in explanation of the circumstances leading to and attending our correspondence with Hon. Horace Greeley, which has been the subject of so much misrepresentation in the United States, and, if they are correctly copied, of at least two papers in the Confederate States.

We addressed a joint and informal note to the President on this subject, but, as it was sent by a messenger under peculiar embarrassments, it was couched in very guarded terms, and was not so full or explicit as we originally intended or desired to make it. I hope he has already delivered it, and has explained its purpose and supplied what was wanting to do us full justice.

Soon after the arrival of Mr. Holcombe, Mr. Thompson and myself in Canada West, it was known in the United States, and was the subject of much speculation there as to the object of our visit. Some politicians of more or less fame, and representing all parties in the United States, came to see Mr. Holcombe and myself—Mr. Thompson being at Toronto and less accessible than we were at the Falls—either through curiosity or some better or worse motive.

They found that our conversation was mainly directed to the mutual injury we were inflicting on each other by war, the necessity for peace in order to preserve whatever was valuable to both sections,