The President called him
to Richmond and made him his Chief of Staff.
The disaster to the Confederacy at Chattanooga which gave General Grant
supreme command of the Union forces, brought to the Johnston junta at
Richmond its opportunity to once more press their favorite to the front.
Since his Vicksburg fiasco the President had isolated him. Davis
resisted this appointment with deep foreboding of its possible disaster
to the South.
In the midst of this bitter struggle over the selection of a Western
Field Commander, the President of the Confederacy received the first
and only recognition of his Government accorded by any European power.
His early education at the St. Thomas Monastery had given the Southern
leader a lofty opinion of the Roman Catholic Church. Davis had always
seen in the members of this faith in America friends who could not be
alienated from the oppressed.
Failing to receive recognition from the great powers of Europe, he
dispatched his diplomatic representative to Rome with a carefully worded
letter to the Pope in which he expressed his gratitude to Pius IX for
his efforts in behalf of peace. The Pope had urged his bishops in New
Orleans and New York to strive to end the war.
The Vatican received the Confederate diplomat with every mark of
courtesy and every expression of respect accorded the most powerful
nations of the world.
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