Among his first recruits in his campaign against Jefferson Davis was the
fiery, original Secessionist, Roger Barton. Barton had never liked
Davis. Their temperaments were incompatible. He resigned his position on
the staff of the President, allied himself openly with Johnston and
became one of the bitterest and most uncompromising enemies of the
government. His position in the Confederate Senate would be a powerful
weapon with which to strike.
The substance of Johnston's claim on which was founded this malignant
clique in Richmond was the merest quibble about the date of his
commission to the rank of full general. Because its date was later than
that of Robert E. Lee he felt himself insulted and degraded.
When the President mildly and good naturedly informed him that his
position of Quartermaster General in the old army did not entitle him to
a field command and that Lee's rank as field commander was higher, he
replied in a letter which became the text of his champions. Its
high-flown language and bombastic claims showed only too plainly that a
consuming ambition had destroyed all sense of proportion in his mind.
With uncontrolled passion he wrote to the President:
"Human power cannot efface the past. Congress may vacate my
commission and reduce me to the ranks.
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