Maury, Dabney Herndon, 1822-1900 to Walker
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02215 Author/Creator: Maury, Dabney Herndon, 1822-1900 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 23 December 1862 Pagination: 2 p. : Height: 31 cm, Width: 22 cm Order a Copy
Remarks that he has been unable to fight any battles in his home state (Virginia), but has instead served in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Wishes that the French Emperor, Napoleon III, would speed mediation. Notes that his promotion has not altered him, as he still wears the same corduroy jacket, keeps his hair cut the same way, and shares the same feelings as before. Discusses his promotion, the Confederacy and fellow generals (including Earl Van Dorn, John Clifford Pemberton, William Loring, Franklin Gardner, Lloyd Tilghman, William Montague Browne, and Albert Rust). Says "...My rapid promotion has not turned my head….Like our old Commander Holmes I received the first news of my promotion to Major General with considerable misgivings about my fitness for such responsibilities...We have very little ability in this Army. Van Dorn is head and shoulders above them all...He has certainly the most eager desire for danger for its own sake, of any man I ever saw....Pemberton is nothing...Old...Price is a noble old fellow - very brave, very shrewd and not much of a soldier for detail...I have never seen any one who commands so entirely and so justly the love and confidence of his Troops...I am sick of this Army. It has gotten into such a villainous habit of running...But we are positively 'going to make a stand' now always provided the Enemy does not play us some Yankee trick, and 'flank' us or do some such mean thing...".
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