"One-eyed Jeff"

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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May 12, 2010
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Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
One-eyed Jeff". This is another nickname for President Davis as written in book The Language of the Civil War by John D. Wright on page 216.

"A rude nickname for Jefferson Davis, who had a chronic eye infection causing virtual blindness. One Confederate soldier in General John B. Hood's army, when retreating after the battle of Nashville, moaned, "Ain't we in a hell of a fix, a one-eyed President, a one-legged general, and a one-horse Confederacy!"
 
Yeah, that's a bit disrespectful, but I'd rather be called that than what McClellan called Lincoln; "the original baboon." In any event, politicians sure do catch grief from their constituents. I guess times haven't changed much...
 
In The Language of the Civil War by John D. Wright page 218, he writes the nickname was "the Original Gorilla". It was a contemptuous nickname given to President Abraham Lincoln by his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, and later repeated with relish by U.S. General George McClellan. Lincoln was often on bad terms with his military people, especially "Little Mac" McClellan
 
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