Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/123

 and General Jefferson C. Davis, who commanded a division in the Fourteenth Corps attached to Sherman's command,—the same General Jeff. C. Davis, who, at the beginning of the war, had attracted much attention by the killing of General Nelson in the Galt House at Louisville. General Sherman kindly invited me to sit with them, and I did so. A few minutes later General Howard entered. I have already mentioned that General Howard enjoyed the reputation of great piety, and went by the name of “the Christian soldier.” General Sherman greeted him in his brusque way, exclaiming: “Glad to see you, Howard! Sit down by the fire! Damned cold this morning!” Howard, who especially abhorred the use of “swear words,” answered demurely: “Yes, General, it is quite cold this morning.” Sherman may have noticed a slight touch of reproof in this answer. At any rate, I observed a wink he gave General Davis with his left eye, while a sarcastic smile flitted across his features. It became at once clear what it meant, for Davis instantly, while talking about some indifferent subject, began to intersperse his speech with such a profusion of “damns” and the like, when there was not the slightest occasion for it, that one might have supposed him to be laboring under the intensest excitement, while really he was in perfectly cold blood. In fact, as I afterward learned, General Davis was noted for having mastered the vocabulary of the “Army in Flanders” more completely than any other man of his rank. Howard made several feeble attempts to give a different turn to the conversation, but in vain. Encouraged by repeated winks and also a few sympathetic remarks from Sherman, Davis inexorably continued the lurid flow of his infernalisms, until finally, Howard, with distress painted all over his face, got up and left; whereupon Sherman and Davis broke out in a peal of laughter. And when I ventured upon a remark about Howard's