Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/140

 132 Southern Historical Society Papers.

AN EFFORT TO RESCUE JEFFERSON DAVIS.

Statement of General Wade Hampton as to the Connection of Himself and Command Therewith.

[The following communication was elicited by an article by Gen- eral Wheeler, which appeared under the caption above in the Century of May, 1898 (pp. 85-91). Every reference in it to General Hamp- ton seems to be dictated by respect and consideration, and it would scarcely be generally inferred that there was any desire on the part of the gallant General Wheeler to impute dereliction or disaffection in the companions of General Hampton. General Hampton's letter is published by request through a distinguished Confederate cavalry officer. EDITOR.]

DAGGERS SPRINGS, VA., August i6th, 1899. My Dear General, Your absence on your patriotic mission, where you not only had the opportunity of gaining additional distinction, but availed yourself of it most gallantly, prevented an earlier answer to your article in the Century of May last. I need not tell you that, like all others of your old Confederate comrades, I have been grati- fied by your distinguished and brilliant success, for it has been a matter of pride to all of us that an old Confederate soldier was able to "show how fields were won," and this has been a special cause of pride to me, because you ended your career as a Confederate soldier as a member of my command. All these considerations, which actuate me now in writing to you, will tend to assure you that my only object in correcting some mistakes into which you have fallen in your article, unwittingly I am sure, is to do justice to my staff and to the brave men I had so long commanded. I have been asked by some of these men to do this, for they have felt that any intimation that they had deserted, even in the darkest hour of the Confederate cause, was an aspersion on their loyalty to that cause and the commander upon whom they had never turned their backs. Major McClellan, of my staff, has spoken already for himself, and I must do the same for the other members and for my men. In order to make my narrative clearly understood, it will be necessary to give some papers copied from official source, and to be found in Vol.