Senator Barton had recovered from his illness. There could be no doubt
about it. He was in the library holding forth in eloquent tones to a
group of Confederate Congressmen who made his house their rendezvous. He
was enjoying the martyrdom which the outrage on his home and the death
of his aged mother and father had brought. He was using it to inveigh
with new bitterness against the imbecility of Jefferson Davis and his
administration. He held Davis personally responsible for every defeat of
the South. He was the one man who had caused the fall of New Orleans,
the loss of Fort Donelson and the failure to reap the victory at Shiloh.
"But you must remember, Senator," one of his henchmen mildly protested,
"that Davis did save Albert Sidney Johnston to us and that alone made a
victory possible."
"And what of it, if he threw it away by appointing a fool second in
Command?"
There was a good answer to this--too good for the henchman to dare use
it. He had sent Beauregard west to join Albert Sidney Johnston's command
because Barton's junta, supporting Joseph E. Johnston against the
administration, would no longer tolerate Beauregard in the same camp
with their chief. They had demanded a free field for Joseph E. Johnston
in the conflict with McClellan or they had threatened his resignation
and the disruption of the Confederate army.
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