hated West Point because it meant discipline and train- ing. Tlius he writes of Joseph E. Johnston : " I never knew as incompetent [an] executive officer. As he has been to West Point, tho, I suppose he knows everything about it." 69 And again : "Johnston is a poor devil, small, arbitrary, and inefficient. Like Walker, he undertakes to do everything from a mere fondness for power and does nothing well. He harasses and obstructs but cannot govern the army." ^0 Toombs hated Davis, because Davis supported West Point. " Davis and his janissaries [the regular army] conspire for the destruction of all who will not bend to them, and avail themselves of the public danger to aid them in their selfish and infamous schemes." 71 When the general rejoined his regiment after arrest, he is said to have cried out, *' Go it, boys ! I am with you again. Jeff Davis can make a general, but it takes God Almighty to make a soldier." ^2 Comment is needless.
Nor did he hesitate at direct disobedience when it suited him. The attack at Golding's farm, during the Seven Days' batdes, made against Lee's explicit orders, is hardly in point, because Toombs claimed to have in- structions from his immediate superior. But in the cam- paign of Second Bull Run Toombs's brigade was ordered by Longstreet to guard a certain ford. Longstreet's de- licious, patronizing account of the affair should be read in full 73 and compared with Toombs's considerably dif- fering version.74 But from both it is evident that Toombs
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