An Anecdote of Jefferson Davis

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 14, 19 July 1890, Page 4

An Anecdote of Jefferson Davis

A year before the close of the War army orders brought me to Columbus Georgia. At that place the Confederate Government had located a large ordnance establishment. An officer, Col. Oladowski — not unknown, I believe, in the old service 4^one day handed me a heavy black 'object some six inches in diameter, ■•aying, 'What is that ?' I answered, :f t A lumb of coal.' * Examine it closely' •said he. ; Taking a knife and cutting •'<at u f found it to be a hollow iron casting roughly shaped to resemble coal, and covered with asphaltum or some 'such substance in which was baked f}&a\ dust and small lumps of coal, T 'giving the whole the exact appearance -of ordinary coal. A number of similar pieces were exhibited, of ■ Various sizes and shapes. The officer -explained that he had them made, had carried some of them to Richmond, -and exhibited them to President Davis, with a carefully-prepared plan, by which he proposed to have them sent by suitable men. to various points on 4he Mississippi river where the Federal coaled, and after being filled With a strong explosive deposited among the coal designed for the gunboats, or «yen introduced into their bunkers. BTe had also -perfected a plan to have them introduced into the Northern nayy yards and in various foreign stations of the United States Navy. That it could be done by shrewd and desperate men is beyond -doubt. As the explosive which they "were to be filled was most powerful, and only exploded by heat, they *would not have been detected, and, -exploding in the furnace of a gunboat wquld have sent all on board to the bottom. The officer told me that when he exhibited them to Jefferson Davis, the President was horrified, and furiously declared himself insulted lhat any man should have dared to suppose that he would be a ;|>arty to Jany [such unjustifiable move of warfare; 'and,' said the office?, •the President's eye fairly blazed, while he gave me such a blessing that I would have been glad to crawl into a raf-hole to get away fiom him. When he had exhausted his i'u.y, i c said abruptly, 'Return to your station, | sir, this very day.' 1 firmly believo he would have put me in arrest aurl perferred charges, but that he did i ot i want the matter to become public' — Carlisle Terry, M.D., in Century Magazine.