s of the war and the
dictates of common sense, I organized and caused to be
drilled, armed and equipped, a regiment of enfranchised
bondsmen, known as the 1st South Carolina Volunteers.

"For this action, as I have ascertained, the pretended
government of which you are the chief officer, has issued
against me and all of my officers who were engaged in
organizing the regiment in question, a General Order of
Outlawry, which announces that, if captured, we shall not
even be allowed the usual miserable treatment extended to
such captives as fall into your hands; but that we are to be
regarded as felons, and to receive the death by hanging due
to such, irrespective of the laws of war.

"Mr. Davis, we have been acquainted intimately in the past.
We have campaigned together, and our social relations have
been such as to make each understand the other thoroughly.
That you mean, if it be ever in your power, to execute the
full rigor of your threats, I am well assured; and you will
believe my assertion, that I thank you for having raised in
connection with me and my acts, this sharp and decisive
issue. I shall proudly accept, if such be the chance of war,
the martyrdom you menace; and hereby give you notice that
unless your General Order against me and my officers be
formally revoked, within thirty days from the date of the
transmission of this letter, sent under a flag of truce, I
shall take your action in the matter as finale; and will
reciprocate it by hanging every rebel officer who now is, or
may hereafter be taken, prisoner by the troops of the
command to which I am about returning.

"Believe me that I rejoice at the aspect now being given to
the war by the course you have adopted. In my judgment, if
the undoubted felony of treason had been treated from the
outset as it deserves to be--as the sum of all felonies and
crimes--this rebellion would never have attained its present
menacing proportions. The war you and your fellow
conspirators have been waging against the United States must
be regarded either as a war of justifiable defence, carried
on for the integrity of the boundaries of a sovereign
Confederation of States against foreign aggression, or as
the most wicked, enormous, and deliberately planned
conspiracy agains