Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/295

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ill the war under the orders of the- Secretary of the Navy only, and never heard <! .my of General Rains' work, hut in two instances.

Once, when told that he had placed a M-lf'-arting "torpedo" in the river, I immediately complained to the Minister of the impro- priety of this art. as it would close the river to our vessels and seri- ously affect the management of my electrieal submarine defences, mthority of the Minister I had the " torpedo" dragged for and .ed.

-econd instance was toward the close of the war, when some

of these self-acting torpedoes of General Rains were again placed in

the |au,"s river, and the Confederate steamer Shultz went down the

M'ied with Federal prisoners to be exchanged at "City

Fortunately for the South there was not another pretext

v >1 murder and assassination against it. The Shultz passed

the R.iins torpedo going down and delivered the prisoners safely,

but when returning she struck it and was destroyed.

ears that I commanded the electrical submarine de- lencrs not a fr'endly skin was broken to my knowledge, and it must 1 that I had to experiment and bring the system to perfection. I never met or communicated with General Rains or m \ i'M?h >1 to his "submarine defences" during the war or sine*.

If your memorv still fails you, there are four well-known officers living .m testify to the exactness of all I have here written,

viz: Ca;>t.t, ( ,, \\ H. Parker, J. Pembroke Jones, John M. Brooke, and J. 'i ivior Wood.

I have her.. lore to request that as an act of simple justice you will answer this letter and correct the mistakes referred to. Very truly and respectfully yours,

HUNTER DAVIDSON.

HI.AUVOIR, HARRISON COUNTY, Miss.,

January 25, 1882. CAPTAIN HIMKR DAVIDSON:

Sir -Yours of the 5th December (in duplicate) has been re- ceived and typens with a call on me to do you justice. If you were surprised at not finding in my book your name mentioned in connec- tion with t> s. I was certainly not less so at your arraignment ot me as having done you an injustice by the omission.

If you will refer to the preface of the book you will see in the first