Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/156

 148 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Long after the war General J. E. Johnston addressed the follow- ing letter to General Hill, from which it will appear that the influence of Bragg, who was at the elbow of the President as his military ad- viser, was still omnipotent after he was transferred from the West to Richmond :

WASHINGTON, D. C, September 22, 1887. General D. H. HILL :

Dear General, Your conduct at Yorktown and at Seven Pines gave me an opinion (of you) which made me wish for your assistance in every subsequent command that I had during the war. When commanding the Army of Tennessee I applied for your assignment to a vacancy. * *

Yours very truly, J. E. JOHNSTON.

It is but just to President Davis, as well as to General Hill, to state that there was good reason to believe that the former, in his last days, became convinced that General Hill was not the author of the peti- tion, or the principal promoter of the plan for Bragg' s removal, and that it dawned upon the great chieftain that the retention of Bragg was the one mistake of his own marvellous administration of the gov- ernment of the Confederacy. When Johnston and others criticised the President, General Hill, then editing a magazine that was read by every Confederate, indignantly refused to utter one reproachful word, even in his own vindication, because, as he said, the time- servers who had turned their backs on the Lost Cause were making him the scapegoat to bear the supposed sin of a nation.

RETREAT BEFORE SHERMAN LAST CHARGE AT BENTONSVILLE.

Misjudged, deprived of command and made to stand inactive in the midst of the stirring scenes of the last days of the Confederacy, Hill was not a man to sulk in his tent. Volunteering successively on the staff of his old friends, Beauregard and Hoke, who appreciated his advice and assistance, he showed himself ever ready to serve the cause in any capacity.

The repeated and urgent requests of both Johnston and Beaure- gard that Hill should be restored to command, resulted at last in his assignment to duty at Charleston, from which place he fell back with our forces to Augusta.