David E. Twiggs of Texas was a southern sympathizing officer who surrendered a large federal fort to secessionist militias. On March 1st, 1861, he was dismissed from the army for “treachery to the flag of his country,” according to a New York Times article published on March 4th, 1861.
He angrily wrote to former President Buchanan, who had just retired to his home, Wheatland in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on March 30th:
"Your usurped right to dismiss me from the army might be acquiesed in; but you had no right to brand me as a traitor. This was personal, and I shall treat it as such, not through the papers, but in person. I shall, most assuredly, pay a visit to Lancaster, for the sole purpose of a personal interview [duel] with you. So, Sir, prepare yourself. I am well assured that public opinion will sanction any course I may take with you."
This letter was also published in the New York Times in a paper from May 13th, 1861.
Despite Twigg’s anger at being branded a “traitor,” he became a Confederate Major General around two months later in late May, 1861. However, he was too ill to serve and never saw active combat. He retired in the Fall and died the next year in 1862.