Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/344

 334 Southern Historical Society Papers.

bar, she sailed in ballast, having taken in coal and such crew as could be secured for her. She left Georgetown in the broad light of day, flying the Confederate flag, before the blockaders returned to port.

" After this she made several successful trips through the block- ade and later was transferred to other parties, and subsequently she was attacked by the enemy and destroyed at the mouth of the Oge- chee river. I am persuaded that the Federals did not know that the Nashville went into Georgetown until it was revealed to them by my capture below New Orleans in April, 1862. I had then among my private papers the rough draft of my report to Secretary Mallory, in which I had announced to him the escape of the vessel from More- head City and her entrance into Georgetown. The Federal ofiicer who read this rough report seemed to have the impression that the Nashville had sailed direct to Nassau, and so expressed himself to me. On my telling him that I had taken her into Georgetown he was greatly surprised, and the circumstances of her escape were thus for the first time communicated to the Federal Government."

Norfolk, Va., 1882.

Letter from President Davis to the Reunion of Confederate Veterans at Dallas, Texas, August 6th, 1884.

Beauvoir, Miss., July 29, '84. Major John F. Elliott :

My Dear Sir : I have received yours of the 28th instant, and the renewed invitation to attend the reunion in Texas of the old settlers and ex -Confederates intensifies the regret heretofore expressed at my inability to be present on that occasion. The very gratifying terms of your letter revives the grateful recollection of the many manifestations of the kind regard of your people. From the date of your revolution and admission as an independent State of the Union, I have watched your progress and development with the hope and expectation that Texas would be in the fulfilment of her destiny the Empire State of the American Union. Her vast territory, with a corresponding variety of climate, soil, mineral and agricultural pro- ducts, form a solid basis for such an anticipation should her territory remain undivided. It was with such hopes for her future that, in the ofiicial position to which I refer, I resisted the transfer of the north- ern portion of the State to the public domain of the United States ; but shorn of that portion of her territory which was north of the