“Inauguration of Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, at Montgomery, Ala., on Monday Feb 18, 1861. – From Sketch by our Special Artist;” (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, March 23, 1861)
Friday, February 18, 2011
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1861.
The forepart of the day was bright but the air cold and chilly, the latter part cloudy, windy and cold, freezing a little. Gov Polk of Missouri was in our room this morning. He is M.C. now. I was introduced to him. Mrs & Miss Butterfield were also at the pat off this morning. Mr B. left them with me and I attended them round the building. Put stove up in our third story after dinner, have had some stove pipe stolen from the celler the past week. Went down to the “National” and “Willards,” bothe Houses seem quite full. Conversation much less excited than a month since.
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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.
—Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Southern Confederacy.—(Doc. 37.)
[FEBRUARY 18(?), 1861.]
Governor PICKENS, Charleston, S.C.:
Kingman, known as “Ion,” who corresponds with the Baltimore Sun, and is considered reliable in his letter of yesterday, says he has seen and read a letter from a former member of Congress from South Carolina, which assures him that Fort Sumter will be taken on or before the 4th of March, “without reference to what the Montgomery government may advise or order on the subject.”
This startles the President. Will you quiet him by your reply?
The State commissioners will adjourn during the week. No result yet.
JOHN TYLER.
