Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., page 265

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[265] agreeing, by resolution, to share in the crime of plundering the National Government by accepting a portion of the money which the Louisiana politicians had stolen from the Mint and Custom House at New Orleans,¹ the Convention adjourned.² At that time vigorous preparations for war were seen on every hand. Volunteers, even from Tennessee, offered their services. In many places in the Gulf States enlistments went rapidly on; and by the first of April, probably twenty thousand names were on the rolls of the growing insurgent army.

The conspirators of Texas, we have observed, were represented in the Convention at Montgomery. The people of that State had lately suffered the most flagrant wrongs at the hands of disloyal men; and that Commonwealth had been the theater of an act of treachery of the vilest and most injurious nature, performed by the veteran soldier, General David E. Twiggs, of Georgia, who was next in rank to Lieutenant-General Scott, in the Army of the Republic.

We have observed that the conspirators and disloyal politicians of Texas had placed the people of that State, who, by an overwhelming majority, were for the Union, in an attitude of rebellion before the close of February, and that the Revolutionary Committee³ had appointed Messrs. Devine and

David E. Twiggs.

Maverick, Commissioners to treat with General Twiggs, the Commander of the Department, for the surrender into their hands of all the property of the National Government under his control. Twiggs was a favorite of the Administration, and his conduct denotes that he was in complicity with the conspirators at Washington.

1 See page 185.

2 The proceedings of this Convention, and of the “Provisional Government of the Confederate States,” have never been printed. The original manuscripts were discovered by some of General Wilson's command at Athens, in Georgia, after the downfall of the rebellion. They were in three boxes, in one of the recitation-rooms of the University of Georgia. A correspondent of the New York Herald, writing from Athens, on the 19th of June, 1865, gives the following interesting history of these papers, which consist of journals, correspondence, et coetera:--

“As the Provisional Congress was about to expire, a proposition was made that the journals should be published. This was objected to, on the ground of furnishing much valuable information, and a law was passed authorizing and requiring the President of the Congress, Howell Cobb, to have three copies made of all the journals. He was at that time in the Army, commanding the Sixteenth Georgia Regiment, and down on the Peninsula, below Richmond. He at once engaged J. D. Hooper, former clerk, to undertake the job. Whatever were his hinderances it is not known; but he did very little, and after having them on hand for a long time, died. They were then shipped to a gentleman in Georgia, with a request to complete the work. Papers were missing, requiring months to find; materials hard to get, and the work, therefore, never was completed. They were at one time held in Atlanta, but the Unionists coming too near, .were hurried off to West Point, Georgia. There a strong rumor of a raid springing up, they were carried to Tallapoosa County, Alabama, on a plantation. In marching from Dadeville to Loachapoka, General Rousseau passed within four miles of the house where they were; and when his men were destroying the railroad at Notasulga, and were having the little fight near Chehaw, the boxes were hid out in the woods, two miles off, and were watched by two negro men. They were then removed to Augusta, Georgia, and thence, when Sherman came, tearing down through Georgia like a wild horse, they were pushed along into the upper part of South Carolina. Thence in the spring they were brought over to this place.” These journals are among the archives of the “Confederate Government,” at Washington City. 3 See page 188.

3 See page 188.

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Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

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