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A resource for those interested in the study of America's Civil War
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President Davis Names Commissioners
President Davis names three commissioner, Pierre Rost, to Spain, James Mason to Great Britain, and John
Slidell to France. They are tasked to obtain foreign recognition for the Confederacy.
Jedediah Hotchkiss, the famous topographer for Stonewall Jackson's, writes to his wife:
"Saturday Night -- Aug. 24th 1861
My Ever Dear Wife
I wrote to you a week ago from Huntersville & have thought every day since that I could write to you again, but
time, fully occupied, has passed on rapidly and now I am at the close of another week, and I did not know it my
dear, until I asked, that it was Saturday night so completely does war unhinge all ones ideas of the lapse of time
-- and I am afraid I shall have no Sunday tomorrow for maps are wanted & the information is at hand and I must
put it down -- You can judge how busy I am when I tell you that I had two newspapers lent me today & did not
read them had to return them unread -- and that is really strange for me you know well -- But I must go back
and give you an account of the days -- and by the way -- I intend to send you a journal of my doings, seeings
&c and you must keep it, for that is the only way I can have one kept -- and you will be glad to know what I am
daily doing -- Sunday Aug. 18 I spent in Huntersville -- it rained very hard all day -- no half way work about it,
and the streams got very full I read & wrote some & talked with Capt. Moorman of the Greenbrier Cavalry, who
had by our permission had his bed put on the floor in the room where we stayed -- as we had a fine place &
some fire & so had expelled some of the chilly dampness & gotten rid of the sickly smell that pervaded
everything there -- Dr. Butcher is my bed fellow -- a kind hearted man from Randolph Co -- I wrote to you about
him -- I declare I must quit -- the old tallow dip we have is so bad that I cannot see -- so good night & may God
be with you all --"