Lew Wallace - flamboyant toast
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 19, 1861:
Black Republican Decency.
–We clip the following from the Evansville (Ia.) [In.?] Journal of the 6th, and give it as a specimen:
A Rick Town. [?]–Lew, Wallace, after the reception of his commission as Brigadier-General, gave a Notification to the gallant 11th regiment. Among the standing toasts drank on that occasion was the following toast in boner [honor?] to Jeff. Davis:
May he be set afloat in an open boat without rudder or compass; may that boat and contents be swallowed by a shark, and the shark swallowed by a whale, that whale in the devil’s belly, and the devil in hell, the door locked and key lost — and further — may he be chained in the southwest corner of hell, a northeast wind blow ashes in his eyes to all eternity, G — d d– him.
Colonel Wallace had the 11th Indiana dancing together in camp
Lew Wallace was a lawyer and state senator in his home state of Indiana:
At the start of the American Civil War, Wallace was appointed state adjutant general and helped raise troops in Indiana. On April 25, 1861, he was appointed Colonel of the 11th Indiana Infantry. After brief service in western Virginia, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on September 3 and given the command of a brigade.
To the extent that this is a factual story, it seems that Wallace is making sure there is no redemption for Jefferson Davis a la the biblical Jonah … or for that matter, like a theme in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, Wallace’s 1880 book.
Jeff Davis on wartime Union envelope
Soulmates
Published in 1880
1925 flick
