Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/306

 300 Southern Historical Society Papers.

formative period of the government. Hie restless spirit and active intellect could not long brook the tedium of bureau affairs, or rest satisfied with the small engagements then incident to that position. In the following July he relinquished the port-folio of a department, the records of which he facetiously remarked " he carried in his hat," and accepted service in the field with the rank of Brigadier- General. His brigade was composed of the Second, Fifteenth, Sev- enteenth, and Twentieth regiments, Georgia infantry, and the First regiment of Georgia regulars. It formed a part of Longstreet's corps. Army of Northern Virginia.

To his imperious spirit, unused to subjection and unaccustomed to brook the suggestions and commands of others, the discipline and exactions of a m.ilitary life were most irksome, and sometimes the orders emanating from those superior in rank very distasteful. In open defiance of well known army regulations he did not hesitate, on more than one occasion, to criticise, publicly and severely, mili- tary movements and instructions which did not commend themselves to his approbation. To such an extent did this show of insubordi- nation obtain that he was suspended from the command of his brigade to await the determination of charges preferred. He resumed his command, however, at the memorable battle of Second Manassas, and at Sharpsburg held the bridge with the courage and pertinacity of a modern Horatius. In the latter engagement he was wounded. In both battles he behaved with conspicuous gallantry, and received the commendation of General Lee.

On the 4th of iMarch, 1863, he resigned his commission in the army and returned to Georgia. General Toombs was not in accord with President Davis's administration of public affairs, nor did he acquiesce in the propriety of some of the most important enactments oi the Confederate Congress. Although his affections, his hopes, and his aspirations were wholly enlisted in the Southern cause — al- though he stood prepared to render every assistance in his power — he reserved aiid exercised the right of passing upon men and meas- ures, and of gainsaying the qualifications of the one and the expedi- ency of the other, where they did not challenge his personal sanction. This attitude did not conduce to general harmony. Without hesita- tion he claimed and enforced the dangerous privilege of denouncing publicly what he disapproved, and of freely deriding that which his judgment did not countenance. Such conduct in one of his acknowl- edged ability and wide-spread influence would have been more toler- able in a period of peace; but when a new-born nation, confronting