The Richmond Daily Dispatch:
Thursday morning...July 28. 1864

Miscellaneous.

Edmund Kirke, who was recently in Richmond with Col Jacques, has published a card, in which he says that Jefferson Davis stated to him: "This war must go on till the test of this generation falls in his tracks, and his children seize his musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right to self government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for independence, and that or extermination we will have."

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James R. Gilmore was a wealthy merchant and, under the name of Edmund Kirke, a well-known publicist of mildly emancipationist views. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 10, 1823. Entering business at a early age, Gilmore made annual business trips to the south, and at the age of twenty-five became the head of a new cotton and shipping firm in New York City, from which he retired before the beginning of the Civil War. In the early years of the War, he published several novels, containing realistic portrayals of Southern life and feeling, under the pen name Edmund Kirke. He also wrote numerous war-song and ballads.
http://collections.library.appstate.edu/findingaids/ac602

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Richmond Daily Dispatch.
Wednesday morning....July 27 1864

The gentlemen who have thus succeeded in visiting Richmond are Col Jas F Jaquess, of the 73d Illinois regiment, and Edmund Kirke, of New York, the well known author. Col Jaquess has been in the army almost since the beginning of the war. He is a gentleman of about 45 years of age, is pleasing in his address, although somewhat reserved in manners