Beschreibung:

CIVIL WAR]. DAVIS, JEFFERSON, C.S.A. President . Autograph letter signed ("Jeffers Davis") as C.S.A. President, to an unidentified recipient, Richmond, 21 September 1863. 3 1/2 pages, 4to, on lined stationery, neatly silked, minor soiling and fold breaks. DAVIS PRAISES THE FIERY R.A. TOOMBS, HIS FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, FOR HELPING FREE THE SOUTH FROM "A UNION SO ODIOUS TO OUR PEOPLE" A fine war-date letter, written one day after the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. A conciliatory President Davis extols the fiery Georgian Robert Augustus Toombs, who had been his rival for the Confederate presidency and later C.S.A. Secretary of State. Dissatisfied with that position, Toombs had resigned to become a Brigadier General in July 1861. At Malvern Hill, he was reprimanded by D.H. Hill, whom he challenged to a duel, and, at Antietam, he and his brigade valiantly held the stone bridge (later "Burnside's bridge") but when further promotion was not forthcoming, Toombs resigned on 4 March 1863. Davis writes that "I have for some time been aware and have regretted that Gen[era]l Toombs should have become alienated from me because of my having failed to give him military promotion. Notwithstanding my prepossession in his favor it was not possible for me to gratify what seemed to have been his wish. When General Toombs first requested me to appoint him a Brigadier (he was then Secretary of State) my reluctance to placing a civilian in so high a command without previous experience in the field yielded to several considerations which appeared to justify an exception in his favor..." Toombs had long complained loudly about the lack of agression -- as he saw it -- of the Confederate Army's mostly West Point-educated generals and was famous for protesting the Confederacy would be "died of West Point." Davis alludes to Toomb's bias: "Know that among some of our people an impression prevailed that I was unduly partial to those officers who had received an education at the Military Academy, and [I] was willing to concede something to that impression though I did not recognize its justice... "I...have learned from the late Genl Tho[ma]s S. Jessup that Toombs had rendered good service in the Florida [Seminole] war...and gave high promise as a soldier. His abilities as a public man were so distinguished, and his services in the political contest which has freed us from a Union so odious to our people had been so signal that I could not but feel a hope of his displaying in the field qualities to justify my giving him the post he solicited. This hope was not realized....You are aware the Executive [President] is almost exclusively dependent on official reports for a knowledge of the claims of officers to promotion. Having in the first instance appointed General Toombs to a high military grade before his capacity to command had been tested, I had gone as far as my sense of duty permitted, and can only regret that he failed to secure from his Superiors that appreciation of his ability which would warrant his promotion...It may be fairly expected that when time shall have soothed the irritation now felt by...Toombs he will do me justice and no longer attribute to unworthy motives my having selected others for the promotion to which he judged himself entitled..."