Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/151

 Some War History Never Published. 143

of victory, and partizan zeal invented the excuse that the gen- erals were prevented from pursuing the routed enemy and tri- umphantly entering his capital, by the untimely interference of the President, when this baseless fiction had been so utterly exploded that those who were responsible should have been ashamed of it ; in due time another complaint arose, that patriotic citizens continued to be sent forward to reinforce the victorious army and to spend their time in camps of inactivity; and this begat as fallacious a story as the first, viz. : that the inaction was due to the "policy of the administration." The two letters inserted above, one written before, and the other after the conference at Fairfax Courthouse, show what was the fact and who could best have corrected the fallacy.

" Again thanking you for your kind attention, I am, - " Respectfully and truly yours,

"JEFFERSON DAVIS."