Authors: David J. Eicher
Ely M. Bruce Horatio W. Bruce
Theodore L. Burnett
James S. Chrisman
John M. Elliott
George W. Ewing
Willis B. Machem
Humphrey Marshall
James W. Moore
Henry E. Read
George W. Triplett
Louisiana
Charles M. Conrad
Lucius J. Dupré
Henry Gray
Benjamin L. Hodge
Duncan F. Kenner
John Perkins Jr.
Charles J. Villeré
Mississippi
Ethelbert Barksdale
Henry C. Chambers
William D. Holder
John T. Lamkin
John A. Orr
Otho R. Singleton
Israel Welsh
Missouri
John B. Clark
Aaron H. Conrow
Robert A. Hatcher
N. L. Norton
Thomas L. Snead
George G. Vest
Peter S. Wilkes
North Carolina
Robert R. Bridgers
Thomas C. Fuller
Burgess S. Gaither
John A. Gilmer
James M. Leach
James T. Leach
George W. Logan
James G. Ramsay
W. N. H. Smith
Josiah Turner Jr.
South Carolina
Lewis M. Ayer
William W. Boyce
James Farrow
William Porcher Miles
William D. Simpson
James H. Witherspoon
Tennessee
John D. C. Atkins
Michael W. Cluskey
Arthur S. Colyar
David M. Currin
Henry S. Foote
Joseph B. Heiskell
Edwin A. Keeble
James McCallum
Thomas Menees
John P. Murray
William G. Swan
John V. Wright
Texas
John R. Baylor
A. M. Branch
Stephen H. Darden
Caleb C. Herbert
Simpson H. Morgan
Frank B. Sexton
Virginia
John B. Baldwin
Thomas S. Bocock
Daniel C. De Jarnette
David Funsten
Thomas S. Gholson
John Goode Jr.
Frederick W. M. Holliday
Robert Johnston
Fayette McMullen
Samuel A. Miller
Robert L. Montague
William C. Rives
Charles W. Russell
Waller R. Staples
Robert H. Whitfield
Williams C. Wickham
Territories
Arizona
Marcus H. Macwillie
Cherokee Nation
Elias C. Boudinot
Choctaw Nation
Robert M. Jones
Creek and Seminole Nations
S. B. Callahan
T
HE
days I spent with my father tramping around Richmond and among the stacks of many a library in the South were greatly enjoyable.
The friendly help I received over the course of this project made it not only possible to write about the Confederacy’s glory
days, but also a great joy. On the home front I must first thank my wife, Lynda, and son, Christopher, for their never-ending
support and encouragement. This work would not have been possible without them. That is true, too, for my father, John Eicher,
a superb Civil War historian and fantastic traveling companion who shares stories of the war with an enthusiasm unmatched
by anyone I know. My sister, Nancy Eicher, has also shared her support as she has traveled through various battlefields.
I owe a great debt of thanks to Laura Baird for carefully proofreading the manuscript. Many thanks to Terri Field for her
exceptional maps created for the book.
For guidance and help with various questions along the way, I thank the following historians: Ed Bearss, John and Ruth Ann
Coski, Lance Herdegen, Robert K. Krick, Michael Musick, T. Michael Parrish, and Marion Dawson Phillips. I am indebted to the
staffs of the Library of Congress, the Library of Virginia, Miami University, the Museum of the Confederacy, and the National
Archives and Records Administration. Additionally, for fielding queries, I thank Bill Brown, Jennifer Cole, Kevin Gannon,
Mark Lause, and Bill Welsch.
For their terrific, on-site help at various institutions, I owe thanks to Betty Allen, Capitol guide, Virginia State Capitol,
Richmond, Virginia; Laura C. Brown, head of public services, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill; Sam Fore, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Henry G. Fulmer, manuscripts librarian,
South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia; Mark K. Greenough, supervisor and historian, Capitol Guided
Tours, Virginia State Capitol, Richmond; Stephanie A. T. Jacobe, visual resources manager, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond;
Ginger G. Mauler, Jennifer McDaid, and Tom Crew, the Library of Virginia, Richmond; Patrick McCauley, Department of Archives
and History, Columbia, South Carolina; Linda M. McCurdy, director of research services, Rare Book, Manuscript & Special Collections
Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Becky McGee-Lankford, Debbie Blake, Chris Meekins, and Carol Campbell, Department
of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina; Jacqueline V. Reid, reference archivist, Duke University Libraries, Durham,
North Carolina; Teresa Roane, Valentine Museum/ Richmond History Center, Richmond; Gregory H. Stoner, Toni M. Carter, David
Ward, Jonathan Bremer, and Sherry Wright, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; Stacey Tompkins, Eleanor Mills, and Nelda
Webb, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Jewel Turpin, Capitol hostess, Virginia State Capitol, Richmond;
and Heather A. Whitacre, manager of photographic collections, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond.
For his patience, skill, and timely suggestions, I owe a great debt to my agent, Michael A. Choate of the Choate Agency. For
his patience, editorial guidance, brilliant editorial suggestions, and vision, I have been privileged to work with Geoff Shandler,
editor in chief at Little, Brown. His insight and interest in the topic have kept the project moving along on track. His spectacular
editing skill is amazing. Thanks are also due to Elizabeth Nagle, Junie Dahn, and Peggy Freudenthal of Little, Brown, and
to Rickie Harvey, who copyedited the book. I also wish to thank Deborah Baker, who brought the book to Little, Brown and showed
genuine support for the topic and the writer.
David J. Eicher
Waukesha, Wisconsin
June 2005
1. Prologue
1.
Worsham,
One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry,
xvi.
2.
Putnam,
Richmond during the War,
314.
3.
Adams as quoted in King,
Louis T. Wigfall,
19.
4.
Wigfall as quoted in King,
Louis T. Wigfall,
40.
5.
Russell,
My Diary,
62.
6.
Congressional Globe,
36th Cong., 1st sess., 1298-1303.
7.
Houston as quoted in King,
Louis T. Wigfall,
77.
8.
Congressional Globe,
36th Cong., spec. sess., 1439-41.
9.
Wigfall as quoted in King,
Louis T. Wigfall,
110.
10.
Wigfall as quoted in Russell,
My Diary,
99.
11.
King,
Louis T. Wigfall,
15.
2. Birth of a Nation
1.
Rogers,
Confederate Home Front,
24-25.
2.
William C. Davis,
Jefferson Davis,
171-72.
3.
Yancey as quoted in William C. Davis,
Jefferson Davis,
307.
4.
DeLeon,
Four Years in Rebel Capitals,
23-27.
5.
Davis as quoted in William C. Davis,
Jefferson Davis,
307.
6.
Davis,
Papers of Jefferson Davis,
7: 46-51.
7.
Stephens as quoted in Schott,
Alexander H. Stephens,
334-35.
8.
Stephens to R. Schleiden, minister of the Bremen Republic, Richmond, VA, Apr. 26, 1861, in Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb,
Correspondence,
563-64.
9.
Stephens to “a friend” in New York, in Toombs, Stephens and Cobb,
Correspondence,
504-5.
10.
Stephens as quoted in Rable,
Confederate Republic,
43.
11.
Davis,
“Government of Our Own,”
74-75.
12.
As quoted in ibid., 76.
13.
As quoted in Rogers,
Confederate Home Front,
25.
14.
Cobb to his wife, New Orleans, LA, Apr. 7, 1861, in Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb,
Correspondence,
559-60.
15.
William Porcher Miles to Howell Cobb, Charleston, SC, Jan. 14, 1861, in Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb,
Correspondence,
528-29.
16.
Cobb to James Buchanan, Macon, GA, Mar. 26, 1861, in Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb,
Correspondence,
554-55.
17.
Cobb to Ambrose R. Wright, Montgomery, AL, Feb. 18, 1861, Stephens Papers, Lib. of Cong.
18.
Stephens to Samuel R. Glenn, National Hotel, Washington, DC, Montgomery, AL, Feb. 8, 1861, Stephens Papers, Lib. of Cong.
19.
Davis,
Rhett,
398.
20.
Rhett to Robert Branwell Rhett Jr., Montgomery, AL, Feb. 20, 1861, Rhett Papers.
21.
Keitt as quoted in Current et al., eds.,
Encyclopedia of the Confederacy,
2:876-79.
3. Portrait of a President
1.
Russell as quoted in Cooper,
Jefferson Davis,
333.
2.
Davis to the Congress, Montgomery, AL, Apr. 29, 1861, in Davis,
Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist,
5:67-84.
3.
Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln,
1: 120.
4.
Scott,
Memoirs,
2: 625-28.
5.
Donald,
Lincoln,
282.
6.
Lincoln,
Collected Works,
262-71.
7.
Chesnut as quoted in Cooper,
Jefferson Davis,
334.
8.
Klein,
Days of Defiance,
408.
9.
Pease and Pease,
James Louis Petigru,
156.
10.
Pryor as quoted in Klein,
Days of Defiance,
398.
11.
U.S. War Dept.,
War of the Rebellion,
I, 1, 13.
12.
Ibid., 14.
13.
Crawford as quoted in Hewett,
O.R. Supplement,
I, 1, 59.
14.
Chester as quoted in Johnson and Buel, eds.,
Battles and Leaders,
1: 65-66.
15.
Doubleday,
Reminiscences,
142.
16.
Chester as quoted in in Johnson and Buell, eds.,
Battles and Leaders,
1: 73.
17.
U.S. War Dept.,
War of the Rebellion,
I, 1, 12.
4. The War Department
1.
Rogers,
Confederate Home Front,
31.
2.
Davis as quoted in Dawson,
Be It Known,
4-5.
3.
Jones,
Rebel War Clerk’s Diary,
36-37.
4.
Ibid., 38.
5. Moore,
Confederate Commissary General,
49-50.
6.
Jeremy P. Felt, “Lucius B. Northrop and the Confederate Subsistence Department,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
69 (1961): 181-93.
7.
Symonds,
Joseph E. Johnston,
97-98.
8.
Mallory diary, Richmond, VA, Sept. 16, 1861, Mallory Papers.
9.
Eicher and Eicher,
Civil War High Commands,
807.
10.
Davis to the Congress, Montgomery, AL, May 17, 1861, in Richardson, ed.,
Compilation of Messages,
1: 100-101.
11.
Robert H. Smith as quoted in Yearns,
Confederate Congress,
22-23.
12.
Ibid., 24-25.
13.
Worsham,
One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry,
6.
5. A Curious Cabinet
1.
Toombs to Alexander H. Stephens, Richmond, VA, Jun. 8, 1861, in Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb,
Correspondence,
568-70.
2.
Toombs to Alexander H. Stephens, Richmond, VA, Jul. 5, 1861, Stephens Papers, Duke University.
3.
Kimball,
Capitol of Virginia,
62.
4.
White House of the Confederacy,
17-20.
5.
Despite the fact that uncountable hours of speeches made from the floor of the Confederate House and Senate were recorded in government documents, evidence of where the sessions took place disappeared in a building collapse after the war. Only hints remain from a few newspaper accounts and a handful of illustrations made for papers such as
Harper’s Weekly
and
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News.
In 2002 Mark K. Greenough, supervisor and historian of Capitol Guided Tours in Richmond, analyzed illustrations and accounts of the House and Senate and discovered correlations with some of the window-frame types in two rebuilt rooms. He now believes the Confederate Senate met in a second-floor committee room adjacent to the governor’s room, above the House of Delegates Chamber where the 1870 collapse occurred. Ornamental details in a
Frank Leslie’s
illustration made after the collapse, but showing the room up through the ceiling above the collapse, seem to confirm this hypothesis. Further, Greenough believes the Confederate House of Representatives met in what is now termed the Old Senate Chamber, on the first floor, based on an 1862
Richmond Daily Whig
article that described having the windows lengthened in the room used by the House. That room now contains long windows of the same type described that stretch to the floor. After nearly 140 years of uncertainty, Greenough’s clever detective work has, seemingly, solved the puzzle of where the Confederacy enacted its laws (Mark K. Greenough, private communication, Richmond, VA, 2002).