UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LIBRARIES
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VOL. XXXII
JANUARY, 1924
MRS. FRANK HARROLD, OF GEORGIA President General United Daughters of the Confederacy
(See page 5.)
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YOU WILL BE FASCINATED WITH THE
Authentic History Ku-Klux Elan, 1865-187'
By SUSAN LAWRENCE DAVIS
“ Truth is stranger than fiction ”
There is no greater romance in the annals of mankind tha that woven by the KU-KLUX KLAN in redeeming the Sout from “CARPETBAG” RULE and protecting at all times th FLOWER OF WOMANHOOD, and whose lofty ideals wer based on the brotherhood of man.
More than thirty HALFTONE ILLUSTRATIONS showing portraits of the originators of the KLAN and their meeting places
It will be an AUTOGRAPH EDITION, bound in CON FEDERATE GRAY VELLUM. Advance orders already re ceived leave only a limited number of this beautiful edition Each copy will be personally signed by the author, and this wil be the only AUTOGRAPH EDITION printed, so reserve your copy now. Price, $5.00, Postpaid
ISSUE FURTHER DELAYED, BUT DELIVERY WILL BE MADE AS SOON AS OFF THE PRESS
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S. L. Davis & Co., 305 Woodward Building) Washington, D. C.
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LEADING ARTICLES IN THIS NUMBER. PAGE
Message from the Commander in Chief U. C. V 3
A Friend in Deed 4
The New President General U. D. C. The Lee Anniversary 5
The David O. Dodd Memorial 6
One of War’s Mysteries. From “Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury” 7
The Virginia Convention of 1861. By Sterling Boisseau 8
The Cavalry at Knoxville. By J. W. Minnich 10
The Richmond Howitzers and the Battle of Ball’s Bluff. By G. Nash Morton . . 13
Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. By John Purifoy 16
Battle of Piedmont. By Gen. J. D. Imboden 18
Macon in the War between the States. By Howard Meriwether Lovett 20
Escape From Johnson’s Island. By Mrs. S. W. Morton 22
The Women of the Confederacy. By Mrs. Charles R. Hyde 23
Departments: Last Roll 24
U. D. C y > 30
C. S. M. A 33
S. C. V 35
Mrs. Mary J. Dooling, of Locksburg, Ark. (Box 116), would appreciate hearing from any comrades of her husband, P. (Pat) H. Dooling, who served with the 1st Missouri Artillery, as she is trying to establish his record so as to get a pension.
Fred G. Mills, 91 Grant Street, Somer- ville, Mass., is seeking information of Christian Nicholas Slicer, a member of Company K, 14th Louisiana Regiment
(Lafayette Rifles, Capt. David Zable’s Company). He wants to locate him, if living, or to learn where he is buried.
Capt. Edward N. Regua, who served in Hunter’s Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, Trans-Mississippi Department, wishes to get a pension, and anyone who remembers him as a soldier in the Confederate army will please write to Judge Robert A- Waddill, Bartlesville, Okla,
MONEY IN OLD LETTERS: Look in that old trunk up it garret. It may contain some old le Old used Confederate and old U States postage stamps up to 189 valuable. Please be sure to leav t stamps on the envelopes, as I pay ic for them that way. Write me whay find. George H. Hakes, 290 B way, New York City.
W. M. Cook, of Rocky, Okla news well in advance, and write will be eighty years old in Januarya I expect to take the Veteran as loij I live, and after I have answerer t last call, I want my children to reacit
PETTIBONE -
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rect with the factory, inquiries invited.
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NASHVILLE, TENN., |
JANUARY, 1924. No. 1. | s- A- CU^INGHAM |
ESS AGE FROM THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.
Naples, Collier County, Fla., January 1, 1924.
? My Comrades: That the new year now with us may g to each one of you good health and abundant pros- | :y is my very sincere wish.
i ay our Heavenly Father in his wisdom, goodness, gra- . mess, and loving-kindness lengthen our days and permit ! i mingle again together and to enjoy the hospitality of the r of Memphis at our reunion in that city in June next is instant thought and daily prayer.
y predominant thought has been the care for and com- of the Confederate veterans who will gather at Memphis June. I believe that this view animates and governs members of the Memphis Reunion Committee. I am ;ctly satisfied that the Memphis reunion will be in every ;ct thoroughly a veterans’ reunion, and the thought to i end will predominate in the making of arrangements by Memphis Reunion Committee. With that end in view, 1 suggested to the Reunion Committee a home and home for every Confederate veteran. Comrades, who, while sing with me in this view to a certain extent, have sug- :d that one of the delights of convention periods is where ades can be quartered in large groups where they can ogether and swap experiences, etc.
distinguished comrade writes me, and his views are ; led to consideration by the Memphis Reunion Com- se, that both home comforts and group gatherings of the ■ans are desirable. I give an extract from his letter: t would be a lovely thing both for the host and for the ■an for the Southern and Confederate sentiment of the o find expression in such hospitality, and for the veteran le other hand to feel that he had come home to his kind, :here are thousands of veterans where this entente would its perfect fulfillment. Our comrades come from all s of life. Of the thirty-three past reunions, I have at- t ;d twenty-nine, and with the comrades of our Camp have oied quarters with them in a tobacco warehouse at sville, fair grounds at Richmond, Washington Artillery 1 at New Orleans, etc., and I recall how some of the old [ s got together, smoked corncob pipes, played their :s, and some of them danced, and all tell about their f ps and other experiences, and set up until one or two
A.M., and are sleeping at nine a.m. It would seem that pro- visions should be made for both.”
Every provision will be made for the entertainment of the Sponsors, Maids, and other ladies of the Official Staffs, who will attend the Memphis reunion, but I believe that as a special duty it will be an added pleasure to the splendid women of the South, who will represent our various organizations at the reunion, to devote some of their time to visiting and look- ing after the veterans. This care and attention will be es- pecially gratifying to my comrades and obviate criticisms that I have heard “that our gatherings were more for the women than for the veterans.” The thought was conveyed to me in a letter from a prominent North Carolina veteran, and I accord to him credit for the suggestion which I heartily approve and earnestly commend. I believe that the women of the South will most enthusiastically contribute their valuable and valued aid in the matter. They can and will find the time, and it will be to them a pleasure in doing what is here suggested, and at the same time they will have ample opportunity for full enjoyment of the balls, receptions, etc., that will be provided for them by the people of Memphis.
Railroad Rates.
At an early date, I took up with the Memphis Reunion Committee the matter of reduced railroad rates of the rail- roads both east and west of the Mississippi River, not only for the United Confederate Veteran organization, but for all auxiliary organizations. A special Transportation Com- mittee was appointed by the Memphis Reunion Committee, and have been and are diligently at work to secure the best rate possible from the railroads. A rate has been requested of one cent per mile traveled, and chairmen of the following passenger associations have been communicated with, as reported to me by the Chairman of the Reunion Transpor- tation Committee:
Southeastern. — All east of Mississippi and south of Ohio and Potomac Rivers, to include Washington, D. C., and Cin- cinnati, Ohio.
Southwestern. — All west of Mississippi and South of Mis- souri Rivers as far west as El Paso, Albuquerque, etc.
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Central. — All east of Mississippi, North of Ohio, and as far east as New York, Pennasylvania State line.
Trunk Line. — All north of Potomac east of New York, Pennsylvania State line, and west of New England States.
Request was made for round trip rate of one cent per mile for Confederate veterans, Members of immediate families, Sponsors, Maids, etc., Ladies’ Memorial Association, Daugh- ters of Confederacy, Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Date of sale desired, June 1-5, inclusive, and final limit June 30.
Rate one cent per mile traveled, estimated attendance, 41,000.
There should not be, but doubtless there will be, opposition by some of the railroads to the rate requested from them. Public sentiment in favor will secure the rate, and to this end I bespeak the friendly interest of the newspapers throughout the territory in which the reduced rate is requested. If every one who reads this request in the Veteran will take the interest that should be taken in having it carried out, no better service can be rendered than by calling the attention of the newspaper in his or her locality and asking friendly aid of such newspaper. It is a rightful request, and should be courteously and earnestly placed before the various railroads. To effect what is desired, the expression of the press and the people should be requested at once. Let us all work to this end.
My reports are to the effect that the various subcommittees of the Memphis Reunion Committee are working earnestly toward making it one of the great reunions for Confederate veterans, and that it will be a great success none can doubt. The new auditorium and the new hotel at Memphis will be completed in ample time for our convention. Let us one and all show the good people of Memphis that we fully appreciate what they are doing toward our entertainment next June.
It is said that we all start every new year with good in- tentions and resolutions. One of the best resolutions which I commend to the people of the South in this new year is to resolve to subscribe for the Confederate Veteran, and to carry out this resolution. It is the official organ of every Confederate organization. In order to practice what I preach, please find inclosed three dollars to pay for two annual subscriptions to the Veteran, to addresses herewith.
W. B. Haldeman,
Commander in Chief United Confederate Veterans.
THE MASTER AND HIS SLAVE.
BY W. E. DOYLE, TEAGUE, TEX.
The probate records of Freestone County, Tex., show that on July 23, 1854, John Whitt, of said county, made his will, which was probated January 28, 1856, Mr. Whitt having died a few months before that date.
In that will is this solemn statement or request: “I will and desire that my beloved slaves be treated humanely and kindly, and their condition be as much ameliorated as is con- sistent with a state of slavery. I have not in my lifetime treated them, and hope that those who shall succeed me after my death will not treat them, in such a manner as that we shall be ashamed to meet them in heaven.”
In this will Mr. Whitt applies the term .‘‘beloved” to his wife and children and, apparently, with as much solemnity, applies it to his slaves. Yet, there may be some people north of Mason and Dixon's line who doubt that a real friend- ship existed between the master, his family, and the servant.
Teague is in Freestone County, and I have copied exactly the records referred to above.
A FRIEND IN DEED.
j. M.
WEISER IN HIS GREAT GRAND- FATHER’S REGIMENTALS.
Throughout its existence the Veteran has been sustainei largely through the helpfulness of good friends everywhere
who have given o| their time cheerful!;' toward arousing ii comrades and friend a spirit of apprecia tion of this journal o history and what. $| stands for, and thei reports of subscrip tions secured comini in from time to tim are inspiration fo special effort to mak it worthy of thei zeal. A good frien: who has lately beer especially active ii this way is J. M Weiser, of Dublin- Va., who felt he had ; good idea abou building up the Vet.' ERAN’s circulation and by putting tha idea into practice hi has added a hundrei new subscriptions, an: is now well started oi the second hundred;
With even a tenth o such effort generally, the result would make the Veteran independent. Others will be written of later.
Comrade Weiser is one of the younger veterans both ii years and spirit. He was born August 17, 1845, and volun teered for service at the age of eighteen, becoming a member o Company F, 54th Virginia Infantry, under General Bragg He was afterwards under Joseph E. Johnston in the Atlantf campaign, followed Hood to the bloody fields of Franklii and Nashville, was captured at the battle of Bentonville N. C., and closed his war career as a prisoner at Point Lookil out. Returning home, he finished his education at Hampdei Sidney College, then traveled through the West for somj! years as a special correspondent of the Pioneer Press, being writer of ability. However, the old home State drew hire back, and for twenty years he has served his native town ai justice of the peace, and in other ways he has helped to bette local conditions and advance his community materially! Though not a licensed lawyer, he knows much law, and hi; keen judgment renders his findings worthy of the highesj respect by fellow citizens and members of the bar, only twief having been reversed by higher courts in his twenty years o office. He is also Adjutant of Pulaski County Camp, No 1829 U. C. V.
This picture of Comrade Weiser was taken on the lawn o his cottage home at Dublin, and he is wearing the continenta regimentals of his great grandfather, Sergeant Henry Weiser who was one of the half dozen expert rifle shots selected fron' Morgan’s riflemen to pick off the British General Frazier a Saratoga.
Working with head, hands, and heart, loyally, freely an: well, the life of this comrade stands as an example that coul: be most worthily followed.
Qogfederat^ l/eterap.
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THE NEW PRESIDENT GENERAL U. D. C.
SUGGESTED PROGRAM FOR LEE ANNIVERSARY.
Mrs. Frank Harrold, of Americus, Ga., elected President General United Daughters of the Confederacy, at the Wash- igton convention, is widely known throughout the South nr her self-sacrificing spirit and constant effort to render the ighest type of Christian service for her people. She is nthusiastic and active in all good works along patriotic lines, nd especially is she imbued with the spirit of the Confederacy, :s memories, and glorious ideals. Her elevation to leadership f this great organization is the first instance of promotion
0 that high office from official ranks, she having served as irst Vice President General since the convention in St. ,ouis. And she brings to the office a record of accomplish- lent as leader of her State Division during the past four ears which makes this a deserved recognition of her ability
1 leadership. Her activity and zeal have been an inspiration o the membership, and just a few of the things accomplished uring her administration are recounted here:
Three thousand five hundred members added to the )ivision in four years.
A directory of the membership, containing 16,000 names ompiled and distributed free of charge.
The income of the Division doubled.
The Division has doubled the amont paid annually to the 'reasurer General.
Three times Georgia has won the general organization prize )r the State compiling the greatest number of World War :cords.
The State has twice won the Raines Banner, given for istorical work.
In 1922 Georgia won the prize for the greatest number of ew members.
The educational work of the Georgia Division has amounted ) $30,000 annually for the past four years.
Mrs. Harrold is a daughter of Mr. Billington S. Walker, of lonroe, Ga., and a sister of Gov. Clifford M. Walker, of Georgia. She was educated in the Monroe public schools nd at Lucy Cobb Institute, where she graduated with first ionor in her class. Her mother was Miss Alice Mitchell, of iriffin, and the Walker home at Monroe has long been noted >r its hospitality. Removing to Americus upon her marriage,
Irs. Harrold has taken a part in all Church, club, and social ffivities of the town, her natural ability as a leader has been :cognized and appreciated. Her noble heritage of Christian kith, loyalty to ideals, courage, and patriotism, bequeathed y a long line of distinguished ancestors, has inspired her j' ith an earnestness to be worthy of that heritage and to pass on enriched by her own accomplishments.
The Napier Artillery. — Le Roy Napier's name occupies very prominent place in Confederate history. It was he who juipped the Napier Artillery, the cannons alone costing in ccess of $60,000. When the cause of the Confederacy was cing a very severe crisis, Le Roy Napier, Sr., father of the mous commander, sold his entire cotton holdings in Liver- lol and diverted the proceeds to the cause of State Rights, o him belongs the honor of buying the first Confederate ind to finance the war. — Maccn (Ga.) News , Centennial dition.
Gen. Viilliam B. Haldeman, Commader in Chief U. C. V., 11 be at his winter home in Florida for the next four months, is mail address is Naples, Collier County, Fla.
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Feeling that it is the duty of all veterans, Sons, and Daugh- ters of the Confederacy to meet in some appropriate place to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of the noble Christian soldier, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and as it is sometimes difficult to make up a program, the Veteran copies some items from programs that have been used, leaving to the local committee the arrangement of numbers and se- lection of songs.
Invocation.
Song, “How Firm a Foundation,’’ General Lee’s favorite hymn.
“Dixie,” sung by Children of the Confederacy, audience joining in the chorus. The words to this song by Dr. Wharton are much more appropriate than the original.
Reading of General Lee’s “Farewell Address” to his soldiers, or his order to restrain his troops when passing into the enemy country, or some other selection illustrating some phase of his character.
Violin or piano solo, “Medley of Southern Airs.”
Address on General Lee (a short address is usually more appreciated on such occasion).
Solo. Some old Southern song. The poem on “Dixie” by Dr. F. O. Ticknor, sung to the air of Annie Laurie, is most effective.
A reading of some selection, such as “The Little Bronze Cross,” is a good number just before or after presentation of the Crosses of Honor.
A song in which the audience can join.
Benediction.
There will be a special celebration at Stone Mountain on January 19 to dedicate the figure of General Lee, the first of the central group on which work is being done.
ONE OF THE BRA VEST TEN.
Much interest is being shown in the list of those whose likenesses will be perpetuated in the granite of Stone Moun- tain, and the following suggestion as to one of the ten selected to represent the “bravest of the brave” is worthy of con- sideration:
“Wheni>'the ten bravest soldiers of the Confederacy are selected for the Stone Mountain Memorial, prominent among them should be John Tolbert, color bearer of Company B, 7th Virginia Infantry. It is said that at the battle of Gettys- burg this brave Rappahannock boy had his colors shot down seven times — each and every time picking them up and ad- vancing until he almost reached the enemy’s line. His life was saved because the commander of the 25th New York Cavalry ordered his men not to fire on such a brave man. Recently the survivors of the 25th New York Cavalry erected at Gettysburg a shaft to his memory. Could there be a more fitting testimonial to this practically unknown hero than to immortalize his name with his likeness carved on Stone Mountain with Lee and Jackson?”
The Veteran would be glad to publish accounts of such brave deeds, and even though all these heroes cannot be immortalized on Stone Mountain, their deeds will thus be put on record in history. A suggested title for such stories is: “The Bravest Deed I Ever Witnessed.”
In renewing subscription for two years, Thomas D. English writes from Danville, Ky. : “At this writing I am hale and hearty and hope to be a reader^of the ^Veteran for many years to come.”
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MEMORIAL TO DA VIS OWEN DODD, OF ARKANSAS.
Confederate veterans of Arkansas, Daughters, and Sons of the Confederacy united to pay tribute to the boy hero of that State, David Owen Dodd, in the erection of a monu- ment setting forth his patriotic action during the War between the States for which his life was a sacrifice. This monument was placed on the grounds of the War Memorial Building in Little Rock, and at the dedication exercises, Governor Mc- Rae made an address on the heroism of this young martyr and spoke of the fitness in having the mon- ument on the grounds dedicated to the heroes of all the wars of the country.
The story of this boy’s heroism is told in the in- scriptions on the monu- ment. A soldier in spirit, though not enrolled in the army of the Confederacy, he was evidently entrusted with a high mission by some Confederate commander, and his life was the forfeit. On the central shaft, just beneath the likeness of the brave boy carved in high relief, is inscribed:
“ David O. Dodd,
Arkansas Boy Martyr of the Confederacy.
Born November 10, 1846.
Executed January 8, 1864.
“Aye, such was the love of the boy for his Southland, Such his endurance, his courage, his pride,
That, ere he’d betray his own beloved band,
He sacrificed all and gallantly died.”
MRS. GEORGE B. GILL.
d , t.
making up the fund, and under the administration ol Mrs. George B. Gill, as President of the Arkansas Division U. D. C., the work was pushed to completion. Mrs. Gill was ! given the honor of writing the inscriptions, and in response to 1 her request through the Presidents of Chapters of the Division, i flowers in profusion came from all parts of the State, gathered by children from their gardens, so that even the grave in Mt Holly Cemetery was covered with these fragrant tokens.
The quotation on the central shaft of the monument is from , a poetic tribute by Mrs. Josie Frazee Cappleman to the mem-1 j ory of the boy martyr. A letter from the sisters of young; ,j Dodd, Mrs. Leonora Dodd Richmond and Mrs. Senora Dodd I Booth, of Washington, D. C., expressing appreciation of thej j memorial erected to their brother, was read by Mrs. Capple- | man as a part of the exercises at the unveiling. Two young girls, Misses Frances Vogler and Frances Gunn Richardson, dressed in the colors of the Confederacy, drew the veil from; the monument, and flowers in red and white were placed by: children on the base of the monument. \
Leaders in the movement for this memorial were: Omer R.S Weaver Camp, U. C. V.— B. F. Red, Gen. B. W. Green, R. T.J Martin; Memorial Chapter, U. D. C. — Mrs. George B. Gill A Mrs. J. T. Beal, Mrs. G. A. Leiper, Mrs. George Vaughan,;;! Mrs. J. M. Lofton; Keller Chapter — Mrs. P. J. Rice, Mrs A Lawson Reid, Mrs. Pratt Cates, Mrs. R. J. Lea; Churchili j Chapter — Mrs. Forney Smith, Mrs. J. F. Weinmann, Mrs. I, Josie Frazee Cappleman, Miss Leonora Beavers; Robert CA Newton Camp, S. C. V.— M. E. Dunaway, Dr. J. D. Jordan, J Prof. J. H. Hinemon, A. J. Wilson.
“ Dark was his doom as the darkness of ages;
Hard was his fate as the fellest of crime;
A blot on the enemy’s blackest of pages
To murder a boy in his proud boyish prime.
But never a word of the source of his secret,
Never a word for the sake of e’en life;
True to the core for the hearts that had trusted,
A martyr to man ’neath the standard of strife.”
— Josie Frazee Cappleman. J,
On the left panel: “ David Owen Dodd, a South- ern boy of seventeen, when leaving for his home in the Southern part of the State was arrested, tried by Federal court-martial, and hanged in front of Old St. John’s College, Little Rock, Ark.” On the right: ‘ ‘Papers found on David’s person revealed valuable information to the Confeder- ate forces. Freedom was offered if he would divulge the name of his informant, butj_he pre- ferred death to dishonor.”
The idea of paying some tribute to such hero- ism as Was displayed by David O. Dodd, origi- nated with two young girls (now Mrs. Kathleen Kavanaugh and Mrs. P. J. Rice, of Little Rock) some ten years ago when members of a history class in one of the public schools of the city. They were studying of the nation’s heroes and became especially interested in this young hero of their own State and believed a permanent record of his bravery should be made. A million-dollar hospi- tal for children under his name was the first plan, but later on the memorial idea had to be changed to something of less expense. They had the as- sistance of the Veterans, Daughters of the Con- federacy, and Sons] of Confederate Veterans in
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,. ONE OF WAR’S MYSTERIES.
at Appendix B of “The Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury,” tl by Diana Maury Corbin.)
1 In the winter of 1863, while Grant’s army was lying before i Vicksburg, a young gentleman of Virginia, serving in the
tTonfederate army at Vicksburg, disappeared under circum- stances of extraordinary mystery, and to this day his fate emains as inexplicable as it was on that when he was first nissed by his comrades.
On the 27th day of January, 1863, the Confederate army jccupying Vicksbuig and its vicinity numbered near thiity housand effectives. Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson was in chief command, and Maj. Gen. Dabney H. Maury was next j n rank, and commanded the right wing, holding the lines : rom Haynes’s Bluff, on the Yazoo River, to the city of Vicks- burg.
On the morning of January 27, General Maury, accom- panied by Col. William E. Burnett, his Chief of Aitillery, and by his young aide-de-camp, John Herndon Mauiy, son of | Commander Matthew F. Maury, rode to General Stevenson’s leadquarters in Vicksburg, and, after concluding his business there, sent those two gentlemen of his staff to make a recon- loissance of certain positions near the Big Black Road. This iiwas about 10 a.m. He has never seen his young aide-de-camp ind kinsman, John Maury, since that moment; nor has he ;ver been able to ascertain with certainty what has been the ate of the young man.
Burnett returned to dinner at headquarters, and reported :hat about 1 p.m., having finished their business about the Big Black Road, young Maury left him in order to ride down I to a point opposite the mouth of the canal and observe what I the enemy was about there. No uneasiness was felt on ac- count of his nonreturn that night. But when ten o’clock iiad passed next morning, and “Johnny,” as all called him, had not yet been seen or heard of, a vague anxiety began to make itself felt. This was soon increased by hearing that on the previous evening, at about three o’clock, Generals Stevenson, Barton, and other officers from Fredericksburg, Va., of which town John H. Maury was a native, had seen a riderless horse resembling his gray mare on the far side of a :revasse in the levee of the plantation of Mr. Smedes, about four miles below Vicksburg. On hearing this, General Maury, iccompanied by several officers and couriers, rode to the point ndicated by General Stevenson, and there found his young kinsman’s horse with saddle on and bridle hanging loose.
I A. strong levee had been built by Mr. Smedes from the High- lands, more than a mile distant, down to the Mississippi River in order to shut out the waters of a bayou, which at some seasons would otherwise inundate his plantation. Recently :his bayou had torn its way through this levee, making a oreach of about twenty yards width, through which the water was now running deep. The trail of the mare led from the Highlands along the levee, entered the bayou at the crevasse, ind passed out on the other side. From the point of exit the mare had been running back and forth so much that the party were unable to follow the trail farther, but concluded that [Maury had been drowned in the attempt to cross the water, And immediately procured boats and commenced an active search for his body. This was continued without ever dis- sovering any trace of the missing man until the next evening, when Colonel Burnett, an experienced Texas hunter, reported :hat he had been carefully examining the trail of the mare, ind that he observed she was evidently mounted when she emerged from the bayou beyond the crevasse; that she had hen been ridden at a trot along the levee to a point not far
from the river; that at this point her footprints on the levee ceased, she having turned off from it into the overflow, made a detour, and come up upon it again nearer to the crevasse; that from that point where she had thus come upon the levee she had galloped (riderless) back to the brink of the crevasse, near which she remained until she was found there; that, at the point where the mare had turned off, he found the paper cases of several cartridges, different from any used in our army; also a piece of india rubber or gutta-percha, such as Confederates could not procure, which had been used to cover the cone of a rifle. There were also at this point evidences of a scuffle, and on the brink of the Mississippi River, a few hundred yards distant, he found the edge of the bank freshly broken off, and signs that several men had there embarked in a small boat.
Although the space in which the body must lie — had the young man been drowned, as at first supposed — was small and easily examined, no one of the searching party had dis- covered any trace of it. Therefore, on hearing Burnett’s re- port, the conclusion was adopted that Maury had been cap- tured by some scouting party from the army across the river, and had been borne, a prisoner, to the other shoie.
Next morning Major Flowerer, Adjutant General of Maury’s Division, was sent under a flag of truce to General Grant to make inquiry about Lieutenant Maury. To our grief and sui prise, he returned in the evening with the report that nothing was known of him by the Federal commander; but with the courteous assurance from General Grant and Admiral Porter, who knew young Maury well, that they would take all possible means to ascertain whether he had been made a prisoner by any of their party, and would communicate to General Maury the earliest intelligence they could procure.
General Grant had been personally acquainted with General Maury at West Point and in Mexico, where they had served together; and the unfortunate young officer whose fate was under investigation was known to Admiral Porter and to other officers of the United States Navy, who had met him while he was a boy at the Observatory of which his father was so long the chief. The conviction was then positive, as it is now, that those officers were sincere in their desire and active in their efforts to find the pool boy.
Soon after the fall of Vicksburg (Jury, 1863), General Maury, then in Mobile, received an ill-written letter (from an unknown and evidently uneducated writer) informing him that his young cousin had been made prisoner and had died of pneumonia, on the third day after his capture, on board a Federal gunboat lying off Vicksburg. At the time very little importance was attached to this letter. But not long after, Colonel Underhill, a gallant young Scotchman who had re- signed his commission in the British army to serve in that of the Confederacy, wrote to General Maury a very clear and consistent nariative, which he had received from a Captain Smith of the 13th Iowa Regiment, United States Army.
Captain Smith and Colonel Undeihill were natives of the same county in Scotland, and met during a truce before the lines of Vicksburg, Underhill then being aide-de-camp to Gen. Stephen D. Lee. During a sociable conversation on one occasion, Smith told Underhill that on the 27th of January he had crossed from the mouth of the canal with a party of four or five men to the levee on Smedes's plantation, in order to ascertain if we were constructing any batteries there. That soon after reaching the levee he observed a Confederate officer riding down it toward the point where he and his scouting party were. Lying close, they waited until the officer had come up to them and dismounted. While he was looking through his field glasses at the Federal works on the
8
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opposite bank, Smith and his men sprang upon him and se- cured him. The mare broke away, ran out into the “ove;- flow,” and, surmounting the levee, galloped back to the point whence she had come. As soon as it became dark, Smith recrossed the Mississippi with his prisoner, and sent him to Grant’s headquarters, where he believed he was when General Maury’s flag of truce came to inquire for him two days after. Captain Smith showed Underhill the opera glass which he had taken from his prisoner and retained as a trophy of his ex- ploit. The glass was that which General Maury had on that morning lent to his cousin (with his name and rank upon it).
There are several points in this narrative which give it every appearance of tmth. It agreed, in the main, with Burnett’s observations, and the theory deduced from them, of which neither Underhill nor Smith had ever heard. The opeia glass seemed to fix the fact of capture, while the re- spectable standing of the two gentlemen, and the absence of any motive or object for such a fiction, leave us no right to question any part of their story.
As to Smith’s belief that young Maury was at Grant's headquarters while that General was denying all knowledge of him, we must remember that Smith could only know that Maury had been sent up to headquarters, while Grant, having just arrived at the army with large reenforcements, and being occupied in organizing his forces, could not be expected to be interested in, or even informed, of the capture of a lieutenant. Therefore, we are justified in believing young Maury was captured and borne across to the Federal army. What was his subsequent fate is the mystery which has never yet been revealed.
For more than fifty years the father, the uncles, and many others of the kindred of this young gentleman have been well known officers of the naval and militaiy seivice of the United States. Having passed almost his whole life at the National Observatory at Washington, he was himself well known to scores of navy officers. These circumstances, considered to- gether with his position as staff officer of the general second in command of the army then at Vicksburg; the immediate, active, and persistent search made for him; the cordial in- terest evidenced by General Grant, Admiral Poiter, Captain Breeze, and other officers of the Federal seivice in the in- vestigation this made about his fate, combine to make the mysteiy whkh enshrouds it as extraordinary as it has been inexplicable; while the beautiful traits, the fine intellect, the excellent attainments, and the gallant yet gentle and , olite bearing of the young man, invest it, to all who knew him, with a peculiar and most painful sadness.
“His parents are now in the decline of life. Exiles from their home, they are borne down by this mysterious sorrow. If there be anyone living who knows facts relative to the time and manner of young John Maury's death, we beg such a one to make them known. Let not this cruel silence be longer kept.”
This appeal was made by General Maury through the columns of the Richmond Whig in 1867. It was immediately copied into many Southern papers, among others, by the Mobile Advertiser and Register, which says;
“We published a week ago an article from the Richmond Whig upon the subject of the mysterious disappearance at Vicksburg, in January, 1863, of Lieut. John Herndon Maury, of the Confederate army, a son of Commodoie M. F. Maury, at that time serving upon the staff of his relative, Maj. Gen. Dabney H. Mauiy.
“On the day when that article appeared — that is, on Sunday last — a stranger called at the office of this paper and
stated that he had some information upon the subject of the mysterious disappearance of the young officer.
“This gentleman gave his name as W. H. Harris, of Louisi- ana, formerly in the Confederate service as a scout, under the orders of Gen. Stephen D. Lee.
“None of the editoiial corps of the Advertiser and Register were in when Mr. Harris called. A memorandum of the in- formation given by him was hastily taken by one of the clerks of the office. It is very imperfect and unsatisfactory, and we have lefrained from publishing it in the hope of learning something more upon the subject, but have not been able to do so.
“Mi. Hariis states, according to this memorandum, that Lieutenant Maury was captured by a paity of the enemy and taken across the Mississippi River, and that he was then shot, oi, in other words, murdered, by order of one Griffin, a de- serter from the Confedeiate service.
‘He says that six balls were shot through his body, and, that he was buried on the spot, about eight miles below Vicksburg, on the opposite bank of the river.”
Many attempts have been made by Maury’s family to communicate with this Mr. Hanis, but he has never been heard from since.
THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 1861.
BY STERLING BOISSEAU, RICHMOND, VA.
•
The Virginia convention of 1861 met in Richmond in the Capitol building February 13, 1861. The Legislature being in session, the convention met the next day in the hall of the Mechanic’s Institute, there located on Ninth Street, west side, between Main and Franklin streets, though nearer Franklin than it was to Main, and facing the lower southern end of the Capitol Square. This description is given because at least one writer has stated that the Mechanic’s Hall was then located on Bank street, which runs along the southern end and borders1 on the Capitol Square. The convention adjourned sine die on December 6, the same year. It had an adjourned vacation . on May 1 to June 12, and again from July 1 to November 13. if
This was one of Virginia’s great conventions. It may be' called the sister convention to the one just preceding the Revolutionary .War. In one the Colonies seceded from Great Britain; in the other the State seceded from the United States. Indeed, it is called the Secession Convention, and this has a double significence, for not only did Virginia secede from the Union, but fifty counties in the northwest seceded from Virginia and formed the State of West Virginia. In the* last show down of her delegates, Virginia seceded by a maJ ! jority, while West Virginia seceded by a minority of her delegates, as will be seen later.
The convention was composed of one hundred and fifty-’ two delegates duly elected from all the one hundred and fifty counties then embraced in the commonwealth. Some ol these counties, according to population, had two delegates,; some one, and, in some cases, as many as four counties to- gether had only one representative. The personnel of thisj convention will compare, in ability and prominence, favorably with any of the conventions of the State. There were three ministers of the gospel, one ex-President of the United States one ex-governor, many prominent lawyers, financiers, anc other business men whose biographies should be written anc included in a full history of this great assembly, which has! not been done. More has been written by far by Wesi; Virginia writers than by those in the old State.
The convention elected John Janney, who was classed as t Union man, as president, and John L. Eubank as secretary;
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This would indicate that the majority of the delegates were n favor of staying in the Union under certain conditions. Vfr. Janney made a great speech in which he expressed hope hat the “flag that now floats over this Capitol .... may re- nain there forever.” But he also said, with almost prophetic visdom, “The opinions of to-day may all be changed to- norrow,” as, in fact, they were.
Virginia made two great efforts to preserve peace and the Jnion during the session of this convention. The first was he calling of the “Peace Convention,” which met in Washi- ngton, participated in by twenty-one States. A Virginian, :x-President Tyler, was its president. Resolutions were passed >y this “Peace Convention,” and submitted to Congress, >ut nothing came of them.
The proceedings of this “Peace Convention,” or “Peace Congress,” fill a large volume. One of the Northern delegates aid that the fugitive slave law, although the law of the land, 'could not and would not be obeyed.” (See speech of Mr, Chase in the convention.)
Another referred to the Union as not being “worth a rush without a little blood letting.” (See letter of Mr. Chandler.)
Defiance of law and blood letting was in the Northern nind, as here indicated in a peace congress called by Virginia, nd the same carried into execution.
The second effort made by Virginia for peace was the send- ng of a committee of three, William Ballard Preston, Alexan- ler H. H. Stuart, and George W. Randolph, to see President Jncoln, but this, too, was without avail. The report of this ommittee is a part of the proceedings of the Virginia con- tention, but is too lengthy for this paper.
As stated, the majority of the delegates on assembling was or peace and remaining in the Union. I have a letter written iy my father, the delegate from Dinwiddie, to my mother m March 12, in which appeared: “The majority of the con- tention is opposed to secession.” Then, too, on April 4, Mr. iarvie, of Amelia, moved to amend the sixth resolution by triking out the whole, and insert the following:
“ Resolved , That an ordinance resuming the powers dele- cted by Virginia to the Federal government, and provision or submitting the same to the qualified voters of the common- realth for their adoption or rejection at the polls in the pring elections in May next should be adopted by this con- rention.”
This was defeated by a vote of ninety to forty-five of those 'Oting, seventeen delegates not present and voting. This ras in the nature of a test vote only. The whole resolution nust be analyzed — viz., “striking out the whole of the sixth esolution,” and “submitting to the people next May.”
Now, if the majority of the delegates was against secession t the opening, again on two other occasions, as recited, what aused Virginia to secede? “The opinions of to-day may be 11 changed to-morrow,” as Mr. Janney said in his address on eing elected president. Now the charge had come and with t the cause.
Mr. Lincoln, who had been elected President of the United itates by a minority of the votes cast, called on Virginia to urnish her quota of troops to coerce the seceding States back nto the Union. A secret session of the convention was im- nediately called, and the vote taken, eighty-eight to fifty-five or secession of those present and voting. As there were ne hundred and fifty-two delegates, this will show only ne hundred and forty-three voting, nine not being present, r not voting. The ordinance of secession was passed April 7, 1861.
Here is where many writers stop, and do not go further ito the matter of those not present and those who changed
from against secession to for secession. The final vote stood one hundred and two for secession, forty-seven against, one excused from voting at his request (Mr. Wilson), and two not voting at all, presumably absent from the convention (Mr. Saunders and Mr. Maslin).
As to the West Virginia delegates — that is, the delegates from the northwest Virginia counties, afterwards the State of West Virginia — the writer wishes he might be able to pass by the facts as recorded, that several of these were expelled from the convention; the names may be had from the pro- ceedings. Of the fifty counties that now form the State of West Virginia there were forty-seven delegates. A majority of these voted against secession at first, but on the last show- down a majority signed the Ordinance of Secession — that is, of the forty-seven original delegates, twenty-six signed the ordinance; twenty-one did not. It so happened that the counties of Buchanan and Tazewell, now in Virginia, and McDowell, now in West Virginia, were represented by two delegates, both of whom signed the Virginia Ordinance of of Secession. This would increase the number signing to twenty-eight to twenty-one who did not.
Two of the West Virginia delegates who had not voted were granted leave to cast their votes for secession, and three changed from against to for secession. One, Mr. Benjamin Wilson, was, at his request, excused from voting, and Mr. Thomas Maslin seems not to have voted, but signed the ordinance.
There was bitter feeling displayed in many instances, and writers on both sides have, since the convention, indulged in this same bitterness.
One writer accuses the Virginia delegates of being usurpers — that is, fifty counties call the other one hundred counties usurpers. Another calls the representatives of the one hun- dred counties “rebels,” “traitors,” etc., and the Confederate government “a bastard government.” On the other hand we find one of the Virginia delegates in a speech referring to West Virginia as “the bastard offspring of a political rape.” However, we find, many years after the War between the States, the veterans of both sides and the sons, and grandsons of each fighting shoulder to shoulder and side by side in the war with Spain. The United States acknowledging the right of Cuba to secede from Spain. We also see the United States recognizing and indorsing the secession of Panama from Columbia, and, more recently, the same United States, in the World War, recognizing, under the head of self-determination, the rights of Poland and a number of other countries to secede from Germany, Austria, and Russia. Indeed, the United States required Virginia to renounce her right to secede before being readmitted into the Union, a tacit admission of the right that existed.
Virginia, with the other States of the Confederacy, accepted the result of the war. We are now a reunited nation by virtue thereof. Would that there could be a “United History,” written by representatives of the States involved, particularly Virginia and West Virginia, that posterity might not have to read two sets of history, in some cases biased.
A Northern writer has said that war decides only which of the two contending parties is the stronger; a history written jointly would show the facts. Neither side possessed all of the right nor all of the wrong.
The questions of State Rights and that of slavery should be treated fairly and without bias. The Northern States settled the slave question as they saw fit. Why should not Virginia have done the same? By her laws from colonial times she showed her desire to settle it by emancipation, freedom, and otherwise. Jefferson, a Virginian, suggested Liberia, while
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others favored a State set apart in the Union. Monroe, a Virginian, had the capital of Liberia named for him, Mon- rovia. Marshall, another Virginian, had a certain section of Liberia named for him. A study of the emancipation move- ment will show numbers of Virginians prominent in the movement, and given special credit for the same. Numbers of Virginians gave freedon to their slaves in their wills and otherwise.
Robert E. Lee never owned a slave except those he in- herited, and these he emancipated. Matthew Fontaine Maury, the ‘‘Pathfinder of the Seas,” owned one woman, who remained as a member of his family. He was not in favor of slavery, considered it a curse, yet both these resigned posi- tions in the service of the Llnited States to stand for State Rights.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston never owned a slave, neither did Gen. A. P. Hill; Gen. J. E. B. Stuart owned two, inherited one, bought one; he disposed of one for cruelty, the other he gave away. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee never owned a slave.
Stonewall Jackson, born in the now State of West Virginia, owned two, whom he bought at their own requests. He immediately offered both the privilege of buying their free- dom; one accepted, the other refused, preferring to remain with the family.
Dr. Hunter McGuire, of the Stonewall Brigade, stated that in Jackson’s Brigade, only one man in thirty owned a slave, nor ever expected to own one. (Dr. McGuire attended Jackson after he was wounded, and later became one of the leading surgeons of the country, and a man otherwise prominent.)
Alexander H. H. Stuart, who was classed as a Union dele- gate in the Virginia convention, made a report to the con- vention on the slavery question, bearing also on the John Brown outrages at Harper’s Ferry. This report should be read, as it was a part of the proceedings of that body.
He stated that “No law can be found on the statute books of any Northern State which confers the boon of freedom on a single slave in being. All who were slaves remained slaves. Freedom was secured only to the children of the slaves, born after the days designated in the laws; and it was secured to them only in the contingency that the owner of the female slave should retain her within the jurisdiction of the State until after the child was born,” etc., too lengthy to quote in full here.
Our West Virginia friends complained of a nonequalization of taxation, and not being able to get the same internal im- provements as those in the eastern part of the State. It has been human nature to spend the most money where the most people resided. This is done even now in cities and in country districts; In their case there must have been good ground for complaint, as a resolution was offered in the convention to remedy this, and the address by Governor Letcher, distributed over the State, under date of June 14, 1861, says in part: “There has been a complaint among you that the eastern portion of the State has enjoyed an exemption from taxation to your prejudice. The State, by a majority of ninety-five thousand, has put the two sections on an equality in this respect.”
Thus it seems that the majority here was trying to make amends for past delinquencies; but this had no effect.
The object of this paper is to try to bring out some facts, hoping that some one may follow it up and write a history of this convention showing the true facts. It was the official entry of Virginia into the Confederacy, as well as resuming the rights she had before the United States was formed. The Colonies and States existed before the Union; the Union was the child of the States, the States the creator of the Union.
The creator does not rebel against its creature, neither does the father rebel against the child.
May not the future historian take cognizance of the fact that Mr. Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy was arrested, put in irons, cast into prison, and kept there foi some time, was brought before a petty jury composed largely of negroes, but never came to trial, and was given his liberty on bond?
There are still some who stood for State Rights who objec i to being called rebels, traitors, usurpers, etc.; others simplj'jj pass these things by with a smile. The old song written sooi after the war entitled, “ I am a good old rebel,” indicates th« feeling. It was in this frame of mind that the writer compose! the following lines, which have already appeared in th( Veteran, but the indulgence of repeating them as a close t< this article is requested:
State Rights and Secession.
My daddy was a rebel, a State Rights rebel he,
His great-great dad a rebel too for rights of Colony;
If one was wrong and the other right, ‘tis more than I can see— The principle of Washington, the principle of Lee.
When old Virginia seceded she was forced into the fight; West Virginia seceded from her, the North said this was right Both North and South helped Cuba from Spain to make th break — -
For Cuba to secede from Spain was right and no mistake.
When Panama seceded, she was recognized, we see,
And more than recognition; that too is history.
Now self-determination is world-wide on the way;
Secession by another name’s the order of the day.
The “yellow peril” an issue about the Golden Gate,
The Volstead Act an issue within the Empire State.
Truth crushed to earth rises again, takes only Time to tell — - For State Rights and Secession let’s give the Rebel Yell.
1
THE CAVALRY AT KNOXVILLE.
BY J. W. MINNICH, MORGAN CITY, LA.
In the October Veteran appears an article by J. A. I Granberry on “Longstreet before Knoxville,” an event whic almost fully confirms Comrade Stiles’s flip on Longstre<; as printed on page 383, as follows: “Merely a rumor, (i Longstreet, acting alone, never took anything.” Though 1 was a great fighter acting under orders, yet, as General Li once complained, “General Longstreet is so slow.”
It is not my intention here to detract one iota from h great and well-earned reputation, for there were few men the Confederate service who had a greater admiration for tl “Old War Horse” than myself.
But young as I was then, I felt that he had his “limit, tions,” and that as commander of a large and independe!: force, he was not a “success.” This began to dawn on me| Knoxville, and the query among us of the cavalry was, “ Wlj didn't he walk right into Knoxville?” We all felt that j: could have taken the place — -not so easily as some suppose!, but it could have been taken without much greater loss thai we suffered when the attack was made. Our troops hi forced Burnside into Knoxville, after crossing a wide, del river in the face of a very light opposition at Loudon an Lenoir, and had followed the enemy so rapidly that he coul not offer any protracted resistance to our advance.
The soldiers were enthusiastic and eager to try conclusio'.
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ith the enemy, and were in high hope of capturing the town id its defenders, or, at least, driving them out and into the pen country. Longstreet’s force was greater than Burn- de’s by several thousands, if the official reports of the two jmmanders are to be relied on, and as we understood at the me, but in both cases we overestimated the numbers of ich by several thousands. We fully expected Longstreet •ould move to the assault on the next morning (the 18th), nd great was our surprise and chagrin when the day passed } quietly that I cannot recall a single shot being fired, unless was a few cannon at greater or less intervals and a few fle shots at long and ineffective range.
Instead of making an immediate assault and forcing the efenses, as could have been done, Longstreet sat down to a :ege of the place, thus giving Burnside time to strengthen he light defenses which our troops had previously built. Vhen, on the 29th, the assault was made, twelve days had lapsed, and then, with only half or less of the troops that hat should have been employed, the attack, under the cir- umstances, was bound to fail, as it did — and all because of .ongstreet’s slowness. This was the way we viewed it at the ime and in subsequent operations in East Tennessee.
There is one point, however, on which I think Comrade Cranberry is wrong, based upon my knowledge and ex- 'erience. He says: “As we were accompanied (attended) by large force of cavalry,” and therein he is most certainly in rror. The cavalry north of the river consisted of our brigade nly, and one company, or possibly two, acting as head- uarter’s scouts, couriers, etc., a member of which some ears ago claimed that that small contingent was the only caval- y with Longstreet when he arrived before Knoxville. I took he trouble to set him right on that point. Our brigade con- isted of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th Georgia Regiments, Col. C. C. Crews commanding the brigade. But Colonel Tews, with the 1st Georgia, did not cross the pontoon be- ow Loudon, but with the other cavalry went from Loudon ip the Little Tennessee, and attacked and drove the enemy avalry from Marysville to opposite Knoxville. This was dartin’s Division, Wheeler's corp, and it crossed the river below Knoxville a day or two after our arrival in front of the own on the evening of the 17th.
Possibly Longstreet had sent this large cavalry force up he south side of the river with the view of having it cross the iver at the ford by which it afterwards did cross, and thus get in he rear of the enemy and cut off his retreat, or, at least, to etard him to the extent of enabling our troops, numerically uperior, to catch up and bring on an engagement in the open nd beat him. But the cavalry found itself hampered in its novements by a stiff resistance to its progress, and was orced to drive the opposition to its defenses near Knoxville iefore it could cross the river; and for that reason our cavalry ould not cross to the north side in time to intercept the nemy — if such was the intention.
There was no forage, practically, on the north side of the iver; hence the transfer of the great bulk of the enemy’s avalry to the south or east side of the river where the forage /as more plentiful and, in many cases, as yet untouched, t was this force our cavalry had to contend with at Mary- ille and other points on the route to Knoxville by the east ank.
This disposition of Burnside’s cavalry was undoubtedly nade known to General Longstreet upon his arrival at Lou- on; hence the sending of the bulk of our cavalry up the left ank and thus clear his right flank, keeping only one brigade o guard his left flank from a possible attack by Colonel lyrd, who was at Kingston with a brigade of Tennessee
cavalry, with some infantry. The numbers of that force were unknown at the time.
Our brigade crossed on the pontoon in the wake of the advance guard, which had become engaged almost as soon as it landed, and met with some casualties of a minor nature, as we met several men going to the rear, nursing wounds, soon after crossing. We pushed on until we reached the Kingston and Knoxville road, where part of the brigade was sent toward Kingston for several miles to and beyond the intersection of the Rock Ferry road. Meeting no enemy, and learning that Byrd was at Kingston, and no doubt un- aware as yet that we had crossed the river, we felt safe from any interference by Byrd; and returned to the Loudon inter- section for the night.
The infantry and artillery wagons, etc., crossed by the pontoon during the day and night of the 14th, and, turning to the right to connect with the Knoxville-Loudon road, engaged the enemy at Lenoir Station on the forenoon of the 15th. In that we had no part, having been sent toward Kingston, but about 9 A.M., of that day we started up the Kingston-Knoxville road at a rapid gait, meeting no opposi- tion until we arrived within sight of the large brick house at Campbell’s Station. There we found our rapid advance checked by a small cavalry command — ‘probably not more than a regiment, which seemed inclined to contest our farther advance. For some time we engaged them with artillery, as the range was too great for rifles to be effective. After a short exchange of pleasantries they disappeared behind a ridge, and we saw no more of them that day. What loss they incurred, if any, I never learned. To my own knowl- edge, we had two men wounded in my company by spent balls, one on the forehead, which raised a bump the size of a pigeon’s egg and a severe headache, and the other was struck in the pit of the stomach (solar plexus), which made the boy very sick for a while. At a much shorter range — well both would have proved fatal.
Why we did not advance farther was a puzzle to us of the ranks just then, but we were shortly enlightened when we saw a mass of blue coats debouch from the woods almost in our rear and deploy in the open field into column of regiments and advance rapidly toward Campbell’s Station, but, fortu- nately they were on the Loudon-Knoxville road, and we were some two hundred yards north by west of the Kingston- Knoxville road, less than half a mile between the roads at that point. The two roads met at Campbell’s house.
Though that mass of infantry passed within easy range, we did not molest them, nor did they molest us. We may have numbered 1,000 men, with three guns, while they appeared to number not less than 8,000 men. In fact, we felt that we were in a critical position, our only road out between the two, and behind us a high, brush-covered ridge, our policy was to let them go by quietly, since they appeared disposed to be decent.
They passed on and disappeared, as had the cavalry, but halted about a mile or less above the intersection of the road to Concord Station, leading from Campbell’s to the river through the village. We bivouacked where we were, and the next morning passed in the rear of our batteries engaged in shelling a Federal battery in the open field. Their infantry was in line about a quarter of a mile, more or less, in the rear of their batteries, extending across the valley, each end of the line resting on wooded hills which bordered the valley on both sides. In the engagement which followed, we took no part, having been sent down to Concord Station to remove any troops that might still be there; but they had abandoned the town during the night, or early morning, and we found not
12
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even the company bakers. But we found what was far more important to us just then than a batch of prisoners would have been, and that was a batch of fresh-baked dough —
2.000 loaves of good wheat bread — something. we had not seen or tasted for a month or more, probably more, as our wagons could not keep up with our rapid moves, and more often than not we were dividing rations with our horses.
We did not spend more than two hours in Concord, then retraced our steps toward Campbell’s, where we joined in the pursuit of Burnside’s rapidly retreating troops, who had again taken to the road after an hour's stand. They did not stop until they entered the defenses of the town. Only a line of skirmishers were left outside the breastworks, who opened fire ineffectively on us when we arrived in sight of the town just before sunset. We had outstripped the slower marching infantry. We camped that night where we had halted, or near there, and then until the 23rd did picket duty, our main body having in the meantime crossed the river, and we rested our mounts until the evening of the 23rd, when the whole of the cavalry force, practically, started on an all-night ride to Kingston, arriving before that place about daybreak, Gen. Joe Wheeler in command. We carried on a desultory skir- mish the whole day with Colonel Byrd’s force, and left him in full possession at dusk. A disgruntled set of men we were, too. My regiment, the 6th Georgia, lay at the foot of a hill on which was a section of a battery invisible to us, and less than three hundred yards away, which was exchanging com- pliments with our battery posted on a hillside about a quarter of a mile to the right and rear of the left of our line. No damage was done to our guns, but the enemy’s shot and shell, striking the hillside in front, around and above the guns, showered them with pebbles and small bowlders. As we could see no one to shoot at, we lay there doing nothing. Many of the boys slept soundly after their night ride.
From reports read many years after the war had ended, I learned that some of our troops on the extreme right had made a charge on the enemy’s position and had been re- pulsed with loss. So Colonel Byrd reported. Reports from our side were very indefinite. As we had lain wholly inactive during the whole day, out of sight, we could have no knowl- edge of what was transpiring on other parts of the scene of operations.
As General Wheeler was directing the operations, we ex- pected that a determined effort would be made to drive the enemy out of Kingston, and to hold the place, but nothing of the kind occurred, if such had been the object of the ex- pedition. At dusk we withdrew quietly and wended our way back to the intersection of the Loudon road, hungry, thirsty, and disgruntled. Our brigade was left at the intersection to guard against an attack on our communications from the directionof Kingston.
On the 28th word came to us, late in the evening, that the next morning an attempt would be made to storm the works at Knoxville. Some of us were jubilant and confident (con- fidence was our long suit), while others were less optimistic, myself among the latter. There had been too long a delay in getting into action. We understood that Longstreet had
22.000 troops to hold Burnside, with from 15,000 to 20,000, inside the town, and our superior cavalry could prevent supplies reaching him and we could starve him out. But as for taking the place by storm, that appeared to be another matter. We knew that the defenses had been greatly strength- ened during the time we had been practicably idle, and any attempt to storm them must prove costly. Still we hoped for success before Sherman could reach Loudon. We had heard of the debacle at Missionary Ridge, and were no little de-
pressed by the news of that and others which had come to us previously — to wit, that there had been defections among the Tennessee troops, who had become disgusted with the con- duct of the Tennessee and Chickamauga campaigns, and of the severe measures taken by General Bragg in inflicting punishment on the “mutinous” contingents. Bragg was becoming more and more unpopular throughout the army. Then we learned that Sherman was marching up the val- ley with ten or twelve thousand men, some said fifteen thousand, to relieve Burnside. Naturally, we were anxiously awaiting the results of the attack. From our position, thirty- five miles below Knoxville, with the light wind bearing in our direction, we heard the cannonading distinctly at times.
Early that night news came that the attack had failed and Longstreet had lost eight hundred men. A gloom as deep as the gloom of the night’s darkness settled down upon us. Sherman’s advance was reported to be between Athens and ‘ Sweetwater, the latter place only six miles from Loudon, and advancing rapidly. Longstreet must raise the siege, that was i certain; which he did. The next day, during the early after- 1 noon, we received orders to move at nightfall and rejoin the , army at Knoxville. Orders were sent to the various picket posts to hold the posts until night had settled down, and then to withdraw quietly and follow the brigade till they caught j up. The orders were obeyed except in the case of the picket at Rock Ferry. By some mischance that post, consisting of four or five men, was overlooked and they were captured by Byrd’s scouts. At dusk the brigade started on a long night ride, and at sunrise we were in sight of Blaine’s Crossroads, J eighteen miles above Knoxville, fifty-three miles from our starting point at dusk. During the night the weather had cleared and, under the influence of a strong northwester, the road had frozen hard, and every little pinnacle of mud was an icy point that lacerated the feet of the infantry, many of whom were little bitter than barefoot; some, as I was told, wholly so. I know that after daybreak, when near the cross-i roads, I saw blood on the frozen road which only bleeding j feet could have left. But the sun rose clear and warm, | ushering in a beautiful and warm day, enabling us to dry out j our sodden clothes, which had been crackling with ice during j the night.
I have not had the opportunity or pleasure of reading i General Longstreet’s book, referred to by Comrade Gran- | berry, but if any troops were left at Knoxville on the 30th oi j November, we failed to see them, and our brigade was the j rearguard as far up as Bean’s Station and I know that as soon as we arrived in sight of Knoxville we were cautioned to be as quiet as possible, as the infantry had all left the place; and when we arrived at the intersection of the Clinton ( road there was what we considered a long halt. The northei j was just beginning to make itself felt, and we were shivering. . and the wind no doubt aided in drowning any sound of out | marching, which otherwise might have been carried to th< troops in the trenches less than half a mile distant. But if I they did hear any movements, it is probable they supposed i they were made by troops taking up a new position west off i the town. The night was as yet very dark, and they could not see what was passing almost within easy rifle range, and w< j felt relieved when we again started forward. Had they bul | known, or even guessed, they could have cut us off anc , forced us to make a wide detour to reach the crossroads! 1 As it was, we passed by unmolested, and when only a couple; of miles above the town, the weather began to clear and freeze;1 ' and it was a hard freeze, though the sun came out warn afterwards, and for some days after it was very pleasant On the 10th of December then there was rain, sleet, snow
^opfederat^ l/eterai?*
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ind another freeze — and a fight at Russellville or Cheek’s Crossroads. But that is “another story.” After Knoxville ;ame in rapid succession Clinch Mountain, December 6; Morristown, Russellville, December 10; Bean’s Station, December 14; Blaine’s Crossroads, December 16; Hay’s Cerry-North’s Farm, December 24; Mossy Creek, December >9, January 10; Strawberry Plains; Dandridge, January 16; Cair Gardens on 27th — all small affairs, but costing my •egiment more than two hundred men. We had left Cumber - and Gap the previous June 962 strong and had some re- buffs in the meantime, and on the 27th of January following [my last fight) the regiment mustered only 462 all told. Before my last fight we learned that Longstreet had returned :o Virginia with his corps. I marched afoot, in an opposite direction — Chattanooga, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago, and m to Rock Island. I left there June 18, 1865.
THE RICHMOND HOWITZERS AND THE BATTLE OF BALL’S BLUFF.
BY LIEUT. G. NASH MORTON, MARTIN’S BATTERY.
I was in Arkansas when the war broke out. I was anxious to join the troops of my native State and was waiting for her to secede. She was so slow that I had completed all my arrangements to join the Hempstead Cavalry, in which were several of my intimate friends, among whom was Armistead Burwell, afterwards Judge Burwell, of Charlotte, N. C. At last the news came that Virginia had seceded. I telegraphed to Hampden Sydney to have my name enrolled in the com- pany made up of “the boys” of that college, and immediately set out for my home in Charlotte County. In descending the White River, we stuck fast on a sand bar, and were delayed
G. NASH MORTON IN UNIFORM OF RICHMOND HOWITZERS.
there for nearly two weeks. There was not a dwelling in sight anywhere. For miles on either side stretched the low wooded bottom lands subject to overflow.
Already disposed to chills and fever, of which I had had frequent attacks, I contracted a malignant form of that most depressing ailment. Arriving at Gravel Hill, my home, I had to undergo a course of medicine, which depleted still further my strength. As soon as the malady was sufficiently subdued,
I got ready to join the “boys,” who were now in West Vir- ginia. My uncle and guardian, Mr. George C. Hannah, had robbed the plantation blacksmith shop of the large steel file, used in shoeing horses, and had it ground down to a huge knife with which I could chop off Yankee heads by the score. It was fitted with handle, leather case, and belt by old “ Uncle George,” plantation shoemaker. Such was our conception of war equipment. In camp, I found this battle-ax an excellent tool for chopping kindling wood.
On arriving in Richmond, I fell in with two old acquaint- ances making for the same destination as myself, Mr. Denny, of Richmond, and Mr. Thornton Nevin, of New York State. Both were students of Union Seminary, Va. Mr. Nevin was the son of General Nevin, who, though a Northern man, was a stanch friend of the South. On one occasion, when a regi- ment was marching by his gate on the way South, he stood at the gate, crying out: “I hope you will every one get killed.” Why he was not hanged and quartered was perhaps due to his immense popularity among the poor people for miles around his mansion.
While arranging for passes and transportation, the news came that General Garnett had been defeated and that the “Hampden Sydney Boys” were prisoners. All three of us immediately applied for membership in the company of the Richmond Howitzers, stationed near Manassas. When ad- vised that we had been accepted, the Secretary of War held us back until he could learn whether or not we were prisoners of war. In the meantime, Mr. Denny had taken us to his home, and never were two strangers more cordially received nor more hospitably treated. The two sisters were busy every moment in devising and with deft fingers executing some- thing new for brother’s comfort in camp, and what brother had, we had to have likewise. This spirit of hospitality and helpfulness toward stranger soldiers passing through Rich- mond on the way to the seat of war seems to have been characteristic of Richmond girls down to the end.
When news came that only those actually present were surrendered, we were released, and we proceeded in box cars on our way to Manassas. Arriving at the station, I belted on my machete, strapped on my knapsack, and leaped from the side door of our box car. I was so weak that I staggered under my load against the side of the deep railroad cut where our train had stopped.
Our first march after entering camp was from Manassas to Leesburg, about thirty miles. The march, though long, was not a difficult one. We had nothing to carry except the clothes on our backs, for the Howitzers had a baggage train equal to that of a brigade in the last stages of the war. We wore " havelocks” on our caps for the first and the last time. They were soon discarded along with many other things which filled our knapsacks as useless encumbrances.
I remember how, on the march, the hours were beguiled as I conversed first with one and then another of the men whom I had known before the war. There was Bob Stiles, who was to become famous as the author of “Four Years with Marse Robert,” speaking with authority on the high standard of honor among the students of the University of Virginia in
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contrast with the low standard prevailing at Yale, for he had but recently been a student at both. He was conversing with S. Taylor Martin, another university man, who was to be my superior officer, but close friend and companion, in Martin’s Battery. There was John Esten Cooke, the novelist, whose acquaintance I had made in the summer of 1860, when we were both guests at the hospitable “Bower,” the home of the Dandridges near Martinburg, in the lower Valley. There were, of course, Denny and Thornton Nevin, the latter to be my pastor for several years at Dobb’s Ferry, N. Y. Also the inimitable John Nimmo, whom I had met at Charlotte Court- house. There were Gibson and Allen Morton, both class- mates of mine at college, class of 1859-60. Allen, the brother of Col. Richard Morton, and of his class facile princeps until his head was turned by Murphy, the chess player. Allen learned to carry on several games at one time, and also to play blindfolded, but all this at the expense of his studies. Late in the war, in one of our great battles, a bullet struck him square in the forehead and put at rest forever that fine and active brain.
At Leesburg, we pitched our camp near Mr. Washington Ball’s house, close by a magnificent spring from which issued quite a large brook. Not far off was a farmhouse, still on Mr. Ball’s property, where we could purchase fresh eggs and butter and delicious rich milk. The house stood near the outer edge of the broad, even plain extending from the foot hills on which we were encamped far away toward the Po- tomac. Skirting the river was a considerable stretch of wood- land concealing precipitous bluffs rising from the river. It was in this wood and on the edge of these bluffs that the battle was fought.
Between us and the town of Leesburg was the estate of Mayor Swan, a Union man, who had removed to Baltimore on the outbreak of war. His house, with the beautiful grounds surrounding it, on which roamed several tame deer, was left in the keeping of a caretaker. Although the house was directly on our way in passing to and from the town, and we had to pass through the park, yet I never knew a soldier to enter the house or to break a twig on this alien’s premises. He was let severely alone.
Mr. Ball was a near relative of General Washington. He was a cultured and well-informed gentleman, and those of us who were fond of society made occasional visits to his house, where we were always weil received, although Mr. Ball him- self was seldom cheerful. For some months we had a delight- ful picnic. We roamed over the country around, visited the ladies in Leesburg, played hockey, or bandy, as it was called in the South, where it was chiefly played on land and not on ice as in the North. As played by us, with a heavy dogwood stick, whose root formed the curve, and with the hard knot of wild grape vine for the ball, it was a real battle. It was a serious matter to be struck by either the stick or the ball. In the midst of a heated game, which I had organized among the Howitzers, I ran up behind an opponent to catch his stick as it was in full swing to strike the ball, and the end of the curve struck me on the face, cutting the entire eyebrow down over my eye, giving me my first wound of the war. Mr. Anderson, a fellow Howitzer, “ Father Anderson,” as we called him, ignorant of germs, microbes, and the like which so bother the modern surgeon, took out his needle case, which had been put into his knapsack by the good folk at home for the pur- pose of sewing on buttons and mending rents, and sewed up the wound, which healed in due time.
While at Ball’s Bluff a little incident occurred which had no little influence on me whenever in the future I happened to be under fire. Near the farmhouse, of which I have already
spoken, was a Siberian crab-apple tree, heavily laden with ripe fruit. While I was under the tree picking up some wind falls, a fellow Howitzer shook the tree and the apples fairly rained down, literally covering the ground, but not one struck me. It seemed impossible that I should escape, and yet I did. When bullets were flying thick and it seemed impossible that I should escape, I almost always recalled the incident under the apple tree and took courage.
The captain of a company of the 13th Mississippi, who was doing guard duty at Ball’s Bluff, became quite chummy with the men of our battery. He was a quiet, good-natured soul, talkative but serious, and he seemed fond of our society. Each one of us felt himself the equal of any infantry captain, and this particular infantry captain was proud that we recognized him.
One night we heard one shot after another fired by the pickets with the solemn interval of a funeral bell. Then there was skurrying to and fro. Men eagerly prepared for the long- wished-for opportunity of looking our enemy in the face. We marched out and unlimbered our gums in battery in the field adjoining the wooded country about the Bluff. Our genial infantry captain deployed his company as skirmishers in our front, and with them entered the wood. This was the last we saw of the poor fellow, for he fell in battle the next day. We spent the night in this position. What sleep I got thaM night was on the top of a worm fence just in our rear.
The next day we were ordered to take position on a hill to the right of the position which we had occupied during the night and across the road leading from Leesburg to Edward's ! Ferry. On this hill were the outlines of some earthworks, called by courtesy, “the Fort.” The Fort commanded ap- proaches to Edward’s Ferry, but for our guns the ferry itself was not within range.
General Evans, who commanded the Confederate forces,: was there most of the day. We Howitzers, who were all generals, and who felt no particular awe of the shoulder strap kind, crowded around him to hear the first news from the: field as messengers came and went and to listen to the orders sent back. The General was on horseback and was imbibing generously. When inspiration was slow in coming from above, he invoked the aid of his canteen hanging at his side.
Barksdale’s Mississippi Regiment was the first to become] involved with the enemy. A messenger came from him saying that he needed reenforcements. General Evans ordered up the other Mississippi regiment and took a drink. Presently another messenger came with a like call for reenforcementsM “Order up Colonel Hunton,” who commanded the 8thj Virginia, and so it went on until all his troops, except the Howitzers, became engaged. Not a cannon was fired on ouij side, and I do not think that a single one was fired by the] enemy. It was altogether an infentry fight, and at close|t; quarters For a small affair it was terrific. The deadly airr; of the Mississippians made almost every shot effective. In a small clearing near the Bluff, perhaps some negro's corr' patch, the dead lay so thick that one could almost step frorr] one body to another. The slaughter, however, was greatest where the enemy was driven headlong over the bluff, anq where they endeavored to embark to recross the river. Colo nel Baker, of California, who cammanded the Federals on th(! battle line, was killed, and his death was greatly deplored throughout the North. It was stated at the time that w< killed, wounded, and took prisoners more men than we hacj in our little army. The battle was fought in the woods] We could hear the rattle of the infantry, but could see noth ing. Whatever generalship was displayed belonged to Barks dale, Hunton, and the other colonel.
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That night my section of the battery was ordered to un- imber on the Edward’s Ferry road where it passes through :he wood. It was a dreary night. The mud in the road was Dver our shoes. It had rained and now the rain turned into mow. We took it by turns to man the guns and to sleep. Two of us joined our bed clothes. One oilcloth was spread }ver fence rails thrown down in the mud, two blankets covered us, and the second oilcloth was spread over the top of the whole to ward off the snow and rain.
Shortly after the battle, the enemy sent across the river at Edward’s Ferry a flag of truce asking permission to bury his dead. Of course, the Howitzers had to be on hand to see that everything went smoothly. It was a cold, bleak day, the north wind blowing through us. None of us wore overcoats. The Yankees were all muffled up in theirs, the poor fellows trembling in their boots and looking miserable generally, reflecting on their dreadful disaster. When one of them spoke ; of the cold, Lieutenant McCarthy, who had his trousers stuck in his boots, pulled them out on one leg, taking care to pull up his drawers with the trousers, and showed his bare leg to the speaker, who was now joined by the whole group. “Look,” said he, “ We don’t even wear drawers.” The Yan- kees looked with amazement at each one of us without over- coats, and wondered, no doubt, as to what class of Hyper- boreans we belonged.
General Evans now began a mysterious movement which even to to-day remains unsolved. At night he would order his whole army to fall back several miles, and then to return by morning and occupy the old positions until night, when the maneuvers of the previous night was repeated. It was said at the time that he had disobeyed orders in fighting the battle, that his orders were to fall back before the enemy and to draw him in upon the impregnable position prepared for him at Manasses. He could not be punished for fighting a suc- cessful engagement, especially as the people were tired of the ; waiting policy of our army, and that now General Evans was i trying to undo the consequences of his error by pretending to be afraid. But it had no effect, and after more than a week of ^1 this foolishness, we settled down in camp, the artillery on the hill as before, and the infantry below us guarding the river.
1 While near Leesburg, our battery was sent with a support - ing force to assist General Ashby in an attack on Harper’s Ferry. We marched cautiously at night along the river road and in the early morning we reached the foot of Loudon ] Heights. We had to unlimber our guns and pull them up by hand to the top of the Heights. We found some wooden block
I; houses on the summit. The enemy in Harper’s Ferry threw J several rifle shells, which came very near hitting us. If they had gotten our range and kept up the fire, they might have done us a great deal of damage. We certainly could not have reached them with our smooth-bore twelve-pounders, which
I could only send a ball to the foot of the mountain. I worked my way down the hillside toward the fighting in the Valley, and there had my first experience under fire. I had a splendid , view of Ashby on his white horse as he formed his men in line of battle and charged in echelon across the field and into the wood near the Ferry. He captured the place, and we returned iji to Leesburg.
j! We settled down in camp and endeavored to make war as lf pleasant as possible. Several of us of like inclination drummed d||j up some fox hounds in the neighborhood, and hired some f(,| plow horses from a near-by farmer, and took regularly to fox J hunting over the scene of the late battle. The foxes were S( numerous, and we could always get up a chase, but holes in the cliffs were numerous also, and we never succeeded in J catching the fox, who, as soon as he got tired, took to a hole.
It was contrary to the unwritten law of fox hunters in Vir- ginia to shoot a fox chased by hounds, so we had to give him a chance for his life, which he always saved by running to cover.
We spent many pleasant hours around the camp fires John Esten Cooke would tell a long, dry story, which generally had the appearance of a novel in the making. John Nimmo would break in with some of his drollery and set us all to laughing. John was a character. He was a New York drum- mer of Southern birth, and I had often met him at Charlotte Courthouse, where he was always a guest at my grandfather’s. He was long, slim, and bony. He was rheumatic and wore red flannel underwear, which added greatly to his picturesque- ness, especially in the morning when he turned out to wash his face. His good-natured groans, as he straightened his aching limbs, with now and then a swear word at his rheuma- tism, if the pain was too severe, could be heard all over the camp. He wore a huge mustache, which gave him a military look. Sometimes when sitting around the fire, he would burst out in a deep stage voice with some familiar quotation, now it was from Don Juan:
“’Tis sweet to hear the watch dog’s honest bark
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home. ’Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
Our coming and grow brighter when we come.”
Or he would break out with this from Othello:
“Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.
Then must you speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well; ... of one whose hand,
Like the base Judean, threw a pearl away Richer than all his tribe.”
John would then give us a Sunday school lesson in Shake- • speare that would put old Pollonius himself to the blush, quoting “full of wise saws and modern instances.” “Modish it means,” said John, “not modern.” But John was a brave soldier, and he did his share of work and duty without complaint in spite of all his aches and pains. Lieu- tenant McCarthy was a whole-souled, impulsive Irishman, beloved by all the men. On duty he was as strict as any martinet; off duty he was everybody’s friend and companion. In battle he seemed oblivious of danger. He was killed long after I left the battery.
In November, 1861, the election for President came off, and, as I had just become of age, I cast my first vote for Mr. Jefferson Davis, as, I believe, every member of the battery did.
While at Leesburg our captain, Shields, was promoted to colonel and placed in charge of Camp Lee, near Richmond, and Dr. Palmer was elected captain of the battery.
At some time during our stay at Leesburg, we all had an acute attack of homesickness, and I was again overcome by my old enemy, the chills. I obtained a furlough and hired a wagon to drive me to Manassas Junction. The roads had been badly cut up, and it took us all day to make the journey. The house which had been recently knocked up with upright boards to serve as a hotel stood like an island in the midst of liquid mud. I had to sit up all night, as there was no vacant bed in the house. I could not even lie down upon the floor, as it was trampled over with mud at least an inch thick. Home, when I got there, was never so sweet.
I never returned to the Battery, where I should have liked to serve as a private to the end of the war, but I could not stand the loss of sleep in doing guard duty, for when aroused for the second watch, I could sleep no more that night. So when offered two lieutenancies, one in Mr. Martin's Battery, the other in Richardson’s Battalion of Scouts, Guides, and Couriers, I felt bound to accept one of them.
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BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, JULY 3, 1863.
BY JOHN PURIFOY, MONTGOMERY, ALA.
After its strenuous march from Heidlersburg, twelve or fifteen miles from Gettysburg, and the battle on Wednesday, July 1, and after galloping in pursuit of the broken Federal battalions into the town of Gettysburg and returning to Seminary Ridge after night and assuming position slightly north of the Lutheran Seminary (from which the ridge gets its name) near the point at which the Cashtown-Chambers- burg road and cut of the then unfinished railroad (now a com- pleted railroad and in use from Hagerstown, Md.) cross the ridge, Carter’s Artillery Battalion, to which Reese’s Alabama (Jeff Davis) Battery was attached, operating with Rodes’s Division, Ewell’s Corps, remained at attention, prepared to move promptly at any moment to the point at which its services should be most needed, during the night of the 1st and the entire day and night of the 2nd.
This means that the men of the batteries were at all times alert and ready to move with celerity; that they were clad in their ordinary, and perhaps only, dress day and night, and understood that they might be called upon to move at a double-quick at any moment; that the horses used to draw the gun and caisson carriages were kept in harness and, except for brief periods when they were taken for water, they were kept hooked to the carriages ready to move. A sentinel paced through the guns at night and kept watch over horses and guns.
Nothing occurred in the immediate vicinity of the position of the battalion during this time out of the ordinary routine, except the desultory firing of Hurt’s Whitworths, in position some hundred yards or more north of the position held by Carter’s Battalion and on the extension of the same ridge, and artillery firing of the same character, with an occasional spurt, by some of the artillery of Hill’s corps, in position on the same ridge south of the Seminary.
The Whitworth guns were of English manufacture and had reached the Confederacy through the blockaded ports. I am not informed as to whether there were more than two pieces of Whitworth artillery in the Confederate armies. These had first been turned over to Hardaway’s Battery, and when Hardaway was promoted to lieutenant colonel, Lieutenant Hurt was promoted to captain of the company, and his company continued to operate the guns. Hurt’s command was a part of McIntosh’s Battalion, A. P. Hill’s Corps.
Maj. Gen. Daniel H. Hill states that “at Upperville, on November 2 (1862), this gun put to flight two Yankee
batteries, and cavalry and infantry, at the distance of three and one-half miles.’’ At Fredericksburg, December 13, 14, and 15, the same authority says: “ Hardaway got a position with his Whitworth gun from which he could enfilade the line. They had established themselves in a hedgerow and had it lined with artillery. He drove out all their batteries and made them leave at a gallop.” Hill also thinks that it was Hardaway’s Whitworth gun that killed the Federal general, George D. Bayard, on December 14, as no other Confederate guns could carry so far as to the point where Bayard was struck. I heard of smaller Whitworths having been used by Confederate sharpshooters, and that they proved to be very effective at long distances which could not be reached by ordinary army rifles. At the time given by Gen. D. H. Hill, the firing of a gun with any degree of accuracy at the distance of three and one-half miles was remarkable and unusual by any other gun. The achievements in the recent World War seem to have greatly eclipsed the Whitworth record of sixty years ago, and the Whitworth presumably will have to modest- ly shrink into obscurity.
It is not amiss to say here that maps numbered 16 and 17, pp. 299 and 308, respectively, Volume III., "Battles and Lead- ers,” purporting to show the positions of the troops of both armies on the 2d of July, place Carter’s Battalion in position near the northern edge of Gettysburg. Nelson’s Battalion is also located in position near by. My recollection is very clear that Carter’s Battalion was not removed from Seminary Ridge on that date. In his report, Lieutenant Colonel Carter said: “On Thursday, July 2, my battalion was held in readi- ness to move into position, but was not engaged.”
Lieut. Col. William Nelson, who was ordered to report to Major General Rodes, and by Rodes to report to Lieut. Col. Thomas H. Carter, commanding the artillery of Rodes’s Division, said: “Having done so, I was ordered early on Thursday morning to keep my guns in readiness for action immediately in rear of the heights overlooking the town (Seminary Ridge evidently), at about one-fourth of a mile to the left of the Cashtown pike. About 11 A.M., I was ordered to bring my battalion immediately in rear of Gettysburg College, park my batteries, and await events. Having, with your assistance, selected positions which my batteries could occupy, in case the enemy should turn their attention to that portion of the line, I remained at that point until night when I returned to the position occupied in the morning.”
This report was made to Col. J. Thompson Brown, Acting Chief of Artillery for the Second (Ewell’s) Corps. When the 1 batteries of Lieutenant Colonel Nelson were in park in rear of Gettysburg College, his battalion was then near the point at which the maps noted above placed it, but he states his batteries were in park and not in position for action, as shown on the maps.
Early Friday morning, July 3, before Aurora’s approaching light had driven away the lingering morning stars, and long before Phoebus Apollo, in his flaming car of day, had dried Aurora’s tears from the grass in the meadows and swales, the slumbering hosts on the battle field of Gettysburg were aroused by the roar of artillery and rattle of musketry. This commotion, exceedingly unwelcome at this hour, was a signal to the tired and sleeping hosts whom fate had spared from the death missiles, and others who had escaped the surrender of themselves and arms during the two previous days of un- bridled carnage, to quickly shake off their drowsiness and assume their assigned positions to meet such emergency as might confront them.
Sleep is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap; the balance that sets the king and the shep- herd, the fool and the wise man even. It resembles death; there is very little difference between a man in his last sleep and a man in his first sleep. Here were mingled hosts of sleepers of both classes; the one ready to do the bidding of their commanding officers, even to the point of joining their fellows whose sleep will ever prevent them from responding to the sound of the bugle or the tap of the drum; even the roar of artillery and the rattle of musketry will make no impression on their deaf ears. Only “the last loud trumpet’s wondrous sound” on the resurrection morn will wake them, transfigured at their Maker’s call. All, Confederate and Federal, with the fashion of their countenances altered and shining like his own, will respond to the call.
When the firing ceased on the night of Thursday, July 2, Longstreet’s troops were in possession of the high ground along the Emmettsburg road, which was held by Sickles’s Third Federal Corps when the Confederate advance began on the right. The several brilliant and determined, but unsup- ported, advances, which came near being successes, made by the Confederate attacking column, led General Lee to believe
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that, with proper concert of action, and the increased support which the artillery would render on the right, the Confederate troops would ultimately succeed, and he accordingly de- termined to continue the attack on the 3rd of July. The general plan was unchanged. Longstreet, reenforced by Pickett’s three brigades, which arrived near the battle field during the afternoon of the 2d, was ordered to attack next morning, and Ewell was ordered to assail the enemy’s right at ' the same time.
When Ewell received orders to renew his attack on the enemy’s right, on Friday morning, the 3rd, as Johnson’s J position was the only one affording hopes of doing this to advantage, he was reenforced by Smith’s Brigade of Early’s Division, and Daniel’s and Rodes’s (old) brigades of Rodes’s Division. Just before the time fixed for Johnson's advance, the enemy attacked him, to regain the works captured by Steuart the evening before. They were repulsed with heavy loss, and he attacked in turn, pushing the enemy almost to the top of the mountain (Culp’s Hill), where the precipitous nature of the hill and abatis of logs and stones, with a very heavy work on the crest of the hill, stopped Johnson’s farther advance.
Half an hour after Johnson attacked, and when it was too late to recall him, Ewell was notified that Longstreet would not attack until 10 o’clock; but it turned out that his attack was delayed until after 2 o’clock. Thus at the very outset the concert of action so much hoped for by General Lee had utter- ly failed.
When Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum, who was in command of the Federal right, learned that the returning divisions on the night of the 2nd, which had been detached for service with the hard-pressed Federal left, had encountered Confederate troops in their works, and that such troops had taken posses- sion in their absence, he ordered that an attack be made on them at daylight on the morning of the 3rd, and that they be driven from the captured works.
Accordingly the twenty pieces of artillery, ten rifles and ten 12-pounders, operating with the Twelfth Corps, were I placed in posifion, bearing on the vacated works held by Johnson’s Confederate Division, about 1 a.m., of the 3rd.
At 4:30 a.m., these twenty guns were opened on the Con- federate lines in possession of the Federal works, chiefly on the east side of Culp’s Hill and the stone wall running parallel with the Baltimore pike. The batteries fired for fifteen minutes without intermission, at a range of from 600 to 800 yards. During the intermission which followed, an assault by the infantry occurred. And again about 5:30 a.m., were the batteries opened, and continued firing at intervals until 10 a.m., hurling a storm of missiles upon the Confederates, who were without the aid of artillery, the Confederate guns of this arm of the service being at too great distance to render effective service. There was complaint even, by the Federal infantry, over whom their batteries fired, that some of their men were hit, and even killed, by the defective ammunition used, notwithstanding the statement by the Twelfth Corps chief of artillery that the “firing of the artillery was excellent and splendidly accurate.”
Major General Slocum said: “The enemy had been reen- forced during the night and were fully prepared to resist our attack. The force opposed to us, it is said, belonged to the corps under General Ewell, formerly under General Jackson, and they certainly fought with a determination and valor which has ever characterized the troops of this well-known corps. We were reenforced during the engagement by Shaler’s Brigade, of the Sixth Corps, and two regiments from General Wadsworth’s Division, of the First Corps, and also
by Neill’s Brigade, of the Sixth Corps, which was moved across Rock Creek and placed in position to protect our extreme right.
“The engagement lasted until 10:30 a.m., and resulted in our gaining our entire line of entrenchments and driving the Confederates back of the position originally held by them; in the capture of over 500 prisoners in addition to the large number of wounded left on the field, besides several thousand stand of arms and three stand of colors. Our own loss in killed and wounded was comparatively light, as most of out troops were protected by breastworks.
“The portion of the field occupied by the Confederates presented abundant evidence of the bravery and determi- nation with which the conflict was waged. The field of battle at this point was not as extended as that on the left of our line, nor was the force engaged as heavy as that brought into action on that part of the line. Yet General Geary attests that over 900 of the enemy were buried by our troops, and a large number left unburied, marching orders having been received before the work was completed.”
This was the engagement that created the turmoil which aroused the sleeping hosts during the early morning hours. It will be noted that the seven brigades under Johnson’s com- mand were forced to combat the entire Twelfth Corps of six brigades, and Shaler’s and Neill’s of the Sixth Corps, increas- ing the number to eight brigades, and an additional force of two regiments from Wadsworth’s Division, of the First Corps. Here was an entire corps and fragments of two others, aided by twenty pieces of excellent artillery.
In noting his losses of officers, Gen. Edward Johnson, among a number of others, says: “ Maj. B. W. Leigh, my chief of staff, whose conscientious discharge of duty, superior attain- ments, and noble bearing made him invaluable to me, was killed within a short distance of the enemy’s line.”
This heroic officer made himself conspicuous by his great courage, as is shown in the reports of more than one Federal officer. Brigadier General Geary, commanding one of the two divisions of the Twelfth Corps, states among other incidents: “At 10:25 a.m., two brigades of Johnson’s Division, having formed a column of regiments, charged upon our line on our right. . . . The 1st Maryland Battalion (rebel) was in
advance, and their dead lay mingled with our own. This was the last charge. As they fell back, our troops rushed forward with wild cheers of victory, driving the rebels in confusion over the entrenchments, the ground being covered with their dead and wounded. Large numbers of them crawled under our breastworks and begged to be taken as prisoners. Among these were many of the celebrated “Stonewall” Brigade, who, when ordered for the last time to charge upon Greene’s breastworks, advanced until they met our terrible fire, and then, throwing down their arms, rushed in with white flags, handkerchiefs, and even pieces of white paper, in preference to meeting again that fire which was certain destruction. As they threw themselves forward and crouched under our line of fire, they begged our men to spare them, and they were permitted to come into our lines. The commanding officer of the regiment raised the white flag, when Major Leigh, assistant adjutant general of Johnson’s Division, rode forward to order it down, and fell, pierced by a dozen balls, his body remaining in our possession.”
Col. W. R. Creighton, of the 7th Ohio, says of this incident: “About 11 a.m., July 3, I observed a white flag thrown out from rocks in front of our entrenchments. I immediately ordered my men to cease firing, when seventy-eight of the enemy advanced and surrendered, including three captains, two first lieutenants, and two second lieutenants. At the
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time the white flag was raised, a mounted rebel officer, Major Leigh, assistant adjutant general to General Ewell (General Johnson), was seen to come forward and endeavor to stop the surrender, when he was fired upon by my men and instantly killed.”
THE BATTLE OF PIEDMONT.
(Written by Gen. J. D. Imboden in 1883.)
(Continued from December number.)
When the General said he had received my note a few moments before, I inquired whether he had ordered the artillery and supports to report to me? He replied that he had, and that they would be up in less than five minutes, I was astonished to hear that they were so near, when he re- marked that all his troops were just back of us a few hundred yards. This astounded me; and my first thought was that his guides had misled him, or had left him and he had lost his way from Mrs. Gratton’s to Mowry’s hill. I exclaimed, ‘‘My God, General! You are not going to fight here, and lose all the advantage of position we shall have at Mowry’s hill?” Poor Jones is dead, was killed that day and it might be well to drop this interview right here. But the truth of history is perhaps the best policy, and I will give it all. Col. Robert White, commanding the 23rd Virginia Cavalry, was with me and heard it, perhaps others, but I do not now remember who. Jones replied: ‘‘Yes! I am going to fight right here, if Hunter advances promptly to the attack. If he don’t, I will go over there and attack his where he is,” pointing to his troops then deploying into line. I answered: “ We have no advantage of ground here, and he outnumbers us nearly three to one, and will beat us." This seemed to anger him, for he replied with great warmth and an oath: ‘‘I don’t want any advantage of ground, for I can whip Hunter anywhere." I then said with equal warmth, ‘‘General I will not say you cannot whip him here, but I will say, with the knowledge I have of his strength, that if you do, it will be at the expense of a fearful loss of life on our side, and believing we have no right to sacrifice the lives of our men where it is possible to avoid it, as it is now, if you will even yet fall back to Mowry’s hill, I enter my solemn protest against fighting here to-day.” This aroused his anger still further, and turning sharply upon me, he said: “Sir! I believe I am in command here to-day.” I responded: “You are, sir, and I now ask your orders and will carry them out as best I can; but, if I live, I will see that the responsibility for this day’s work is fixed where I think it belongs.”
This ended the colloquy, which was carried on very rapidly where we sat on our horses a little way off to ourselves, for just then Lieut. Carter Berkeley dashed up with his guns and reported to me for orders. I directed him to unlimber and open fire at once on Stahl’s Cavalry, then massing about 1,200 or 1,500 yards in front of us. In less than a minute Berkeley was at work, and the effect of his well-directed shots was the rapid demoralization of Stahl’s troopers, whose confusion was very great, till they withdrew to a safer dis- tance. General Jones, almost immediately calmed down as soon as the firing of Berkeley’s guns began, for he was brave to a fault, and I believe enjoyed the roar of the battle field. He asked me to ride with him alone over the ground between the road and the river toward Samuel B. Finley’s house, directing his staff to remain till our return, remarking jocular- ly: “Gentlemen, I don’t want any of you killed and don't want to be killed myself to-day.” We had not ridden 500 yards, when, emerging from a belt of woods, the enemy dis-
covered us and opened fire with a rifle battery, so well aimed that one shot did not miss Jones ten feet. We galloped back and examined the line of battle Jones had selected for his left, in the edge of the woods on the north side of the road, just a few rods below the village of Piedmont.
Here all the infantry were in line, including the Augusta reserves, and constituted the left wing of Jones’s little army. The men were in high spirits and cheered us as we rode along their front, where, for a part of the distance, they had torn down fences to form breastworks of the rails. Jones was gleeful, and often repeated as we passed from one command to another: “Aim low, boys, aim low, and hit ’em below the belt. And be sure you see them before you shoot. Aim low and make every shot tell.” Thus cheering his men, we re- gained the road. By this time the enemy had opened a heavy artillery fire on Berkeley, and had driven in my skirmish line so far that they had brought our guns under the range of their musketry. I had received a message from that part of the field saying that all Berkeley’s horses would soon be killed and the section would be unable to withdraw. I turned to Jones and said, “General, you have heard the message, what orders shall I give Lieutenant Berkeley?” “Direct him to move his guns back to this point immediately, and will put him and the rest of our artillery into the fight. Riding again toward the brow of the hill where there was considerable skirmish firing and a pretty heavy discharge from the enemy’s batteries, then all in position on the opposite hill, we obtained a view of the whole of Hunter’s army forming line for the attack.
My brigade, mounted, was in a field on the south of the road, and a good deal exposed, where they could do no good. Seeing which, I asked the General for orders. His reply was: “Move your men back. You will find Vaughan dis- mounted just back of the village. Dismount your men, sending your horses to the rear in the woods, and take position on Vaughan’s right. You see that hill over there (pointing toward the round hill), throw out flankers to the foot of that hill, and protect my right flank. Hunter will try to turn my position there, and if you can provent that, it is all I shall ask of you. I’ll attend to the rest of the field.” I replied, “Your orders will be carried out fully,” touched my hat in salute and rode away. That was the last time I ever saw Gen. William E. Jones. In an hour afterwards he was dead and his body in the hands of the enemy.
In seeking the position to which I was ordered on Vaughan’s right. I had to pass through Piedmont, and found his left resting on the road, and his line extending southward just in the edge of the woods on the Beard farm. Jones, with the infantry and artillery, was more than a quarter of a mile farther down the road, which left an unoccupied gap to that extent between the left wing of his little army and the right, a most dangerous and, as the result showed, fatal mistake in the formation of our lines.
I had reached my position, which commanded a view of nearly the whole field, when we discovered a heavy body of troops advancing on the north side of the road to attack Jones. These were the large brigade of Gen. R. B. Hayes, of Ohio (afterwards President of the United States) and of Coloned Utzy (pronounced " Yute-sey ”), of Pennsyl- vania (a very gallant officer and noble-hearted gentleman, who has since the war become my warm and intimate friend, commanding a brigade). They had been preceded by a caval- ry dash that was easily repulsed. Hayes and Utzy came bravely and steadily to their work, but were met with a fire so galling and destructive that they recoiled and fell back
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over the brow of the hill in disorder. Protected by the hill, they rapidly reformed and returned to the attack, and were again driven back. This was the supreme moment, the crisis in the battle. Hunter was alarmed and had his wagon train in his rear turned around preparatory to retreat. If Vaughan and I had then been ordered forward the day would undoubtedly have been won. Our joint commands, 1,600 to 1,800 strong, had not fired a shot, for there was no enemy in our front, but there was a dense copse of woods over a quarter of a mile distant, and in front of us, and that extended to within 300 or 400 yards of Jones’s infantry right flank on the road below the village.
By his two assaults on Jones’s front, Hunter had dis- covered the “gap” of fully one-fourth of a mile between Jones’s right flank on the north side of the road and Vaughan’s left flank on the south side. He resolved, therefore, to make one more assault on Jones, and this time to assail him in flank. The copse of wood in front of Vaughan’s troops and mine favored this, as it enabled Hunter, unseen by us, to throw a brigade into these woods, form it in line at right angles to Jones, and dash through the exposed opening or “gap ” — within perhaps thirty minutes after Hayes and Utzy’s second repulse. From our position on the right, we saw this flanking brigade emerge from the woods and move at quick time up a gentle slope directly on Jones’s flank. This move- ment was immediately in front of Vaughan’s Brigade, dis- tant perhaps 600 yards. My brigade was still further off, being to Vaughan’s right. Even then, if Vaughan and I had had orders, or permission discretion, to move, a rapid charge on the left flank of this flanking brigade of the enemy would have at least checked it and given Jones time to change front to the right and repel it. But Vaughan’s orders, like mine, as he informed me that night, were peremptory to take the position assigned him and hold it till further orders.
So there he an I were held inactive, and, in less than ten minutes from the time the enemy emerged from the woods, they struck Jones in flank, killed him and many of his officers and men, and, doubling up his whole line, drove what they did not kill, wound, or capture toward Middle River and across it, with the exception of a few men who escaped in the direction of New Hope under cover of the woods.
The moment Jones was struck in flank I saw the day was lost, and ordered my men to regain their horses and mount so as to be ready to cover the retreating infantry. The artillery had fortunately been posted a little farther back than Jones’s main line and escaped the charge of the flank- ing brigade of the enemy, and thus had a chance to escape up the road toward New Hope, about a mile distant. I started to see General Vaughan to concert a joint movement under his command, as my senior, to hold the now victorious enemy-in check, supposing that he, being nearest Jones, would have received orders. I met a courier from Vaughan coming for me to go and meet and confer with him. Within a minute after- wards he and I met, when he remarked: “ I am the senior and in command. Jones has been killed, and the infantry are in full flight. We must save all we can of our poor fellows, but I don’t know this country, was never in it in my life before. You know it well, I hear, and I will adopt your suggestions.” My reply was: “There is not a moment to be lost. We must gain the road as quickly as possible and, if pursued, fight our way back to Mowry’s hill. We can hold the enemy there till night, collect our scattered men, and then decide where to go and what to do.” I gave him guides and requested him to move out first, halt, and form at New Hope, as a support to my brigade, on the New Hope side of the belt of woods just
above the Beard farm. I sent orders to my command to move out by the left flank as rapidly as possible to the Crumpecker farm, to which I galloped with some of my staff to select ground for a stand.
As I reached the open ground, I came upon McClanahan’s heroic battery of six guns. They had wheeled into the first field on their right where the road emerges from the woods, and had halted 300 or 400 yards from the woods, and were rapidly going “into battery for action” on admirably chosen ground.
I called out to them from the road: “That’s right, boys; double shot your guns with canister, and we will support you.” The officers of that battery, especially Capt. John H. McCIanahan, and Lieut. Carter Berkeley, and H. H. Fulton, had no superiors of their rank in all the Confederate army for cool, undaunted courage and skill in their important arm of the service, and the company noncommissioned officers and privates was composed entirely of picked men, devoted alike to their brave, intelligent, and gentlemanly officers and to our cause and country. There was no situation before which that battery ever quailed and there never was a time when its nerve was more severely tested than at that moment, for they had just narrowly escaped from a disastrous field, and they knew they were being pursued by the flushed victors, for we could even then distinctly hear the bugle notes of Stahl’s cavalry brigade sounding the “charge” with which they came sweeping through Piedmont town toward us; and the heavy thud of hoofs on the solid road from more than 2,000 excited horses was distinctly audible by the time they had reached the Beard house, though we could not see them for the belt of woods through which the road runs, it had been there cut out and cleared of timber for more than sixty feet wide. fH
While the battery was unlimbering, a battalion of about eighty Tennessee riflemen, under Maj. W. W. Stringfellow, as I now remember his name, a perfect little game cock, not over five feet six or eight inches in height, and who had escaped from the battle field when poor Jones and so many others were killed, came out of the edge of the woods at a double quick and on up the lane toward me. I halted the Major and asked, “Will your men fight again?” He replied: “Yes, like hell if you give them the chance.” I then directed him to form his men behind a strong rail fence which ran at right angles to the road and on the opposite side from the battery, and to open fire as soon as the head of the enemy’s column came in sight. He gave the order, when his men scrambled over the fence with a defiant yell and, stringing themselves along the cross fence, two or three in a corner, were ready for action. In less time than it has taken to detail these prepa- rations, the enemy appeared in close column, platoon front, at a gallop. Just at the entrance to the lane, the battery poured a salvo of all six guns into them, and the Tennesseeans a rifle volley. The crashing of the shot on men and horses could be plainly heard. The head of the column, apparently several files deep, went down in a mass of groaning men and horses. The charge was checked, and another salvo from the battery compelled the column to retire. They rallied, however, on the other side of the wood and reformed near the Beard house.
By that time my brigade, mounted, came upon the field and formed line on some elevated ground a little in the rear of and to the right of the Tennesseeans. The enemy’s bugles again sounded the charge beyond the wood, and on came the column. Just as it reached the same, to them, ill-fated spot, the six guns of the battery again belched forth their iron contents and the Tennesseeans poured out another
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volley from their rifles, when down went men and horses and a wild retreat began toward Piedmont. They had enough; and, no doubt, discovering the proximity of new supports to the battery, my brigade having but just arrived, deemed further attempted pursuit hazardous, for we never saw them again.
After waiting a half hour to see if they would renew the attack, I ordered the battery to retire by sections, halting the sections at intervals of about four hundred yards, un- limbering till the other guns had passed and in their turn taken position and unlimbered successively, moving my brigade and the infantry battalion parallel to the rear guns until we had passed New Hope, some two miles. Here we came up with Vaughan, and he and I consulted about our further course. The full extent of the disaster then known to us, we could not expect, with fugitives and all, to have over 2,000 or 2,500 men fit to further oppose Hunter. General Vaughan said that Jones had received a telegram from General Lee the evening before, but had not shown it to him, or anyone so far as he knew, and, as he had put it in his pocket, the enemy would no doubt find it and learn its contents. We also knew that Crook and Averill were then within one or two days’ march of Staunton.
Under these circumstances, it was decided that General Vaughan in person should proceed at once to Fisherville and open telegraphic communication with General Lee, and ask for a copy of Lee’s telegram to Jones so that we might judge what effect it would have on Hunter’s movements; and that I should bring on the troops to Fisherville that night, so that if reenforcements were on their way from Richmond, we would be in a position to again confront Hunter near Staunton; but if no help reached us, we could retreat to Rockfish Gap and thus save our commands and baggage from annihilation.
I reached Fisherville with the troops about 11 o’clock at night and found General Vaughan at Mr. Schmucker’s house. He handed me a long telegram he had received from General Lee, repeating the one sent to Jones the day before. I cannot quote its language, but remember perfectly its purport. He had telegraphed Jones that it was impossible for him to spare any troops to the Valley for at least a week to come; that he, Jones, with such troops as he had must fight Hunter and drive him back, and then turn upon Crook and Averill and drive them out of the Valley. We knew, of course, Hunter would see this dispatch, as it would be found on Jones’s body, and that thus informed he would push on to Staunton next day, and we could not prevent it. We there- upon decided to fall back to Waynesboro and Rockfish Gap early next morning and await orders or reenforcements from General Lee.
This is a detailed account of the battle of Piedmont. Its incidents are indellibly impressed on my memory, for it was the first time I had ever seen Confederates routed on a battle field of their own selection. My protest against fighting where we did, and the altercation with General Jones, coupled with the disastrous outcome of the combat, fixed every incident on my mind never to be forgotten.
Our losses were very heavy and never, from the nature of the temporary organization of the fragmentary detach- ments of our forces, could be ascertained. Killed, wounded, captured, and missing, the aggregate was little, if at all, less than 1,500 men and their arms. Besides Gen. William E. Jones commanding, Colonel Brown, of the 60th Virginia Infantry, whom I had assigned to the command of one of the temporary brigades formed at Mrs. Gratton’s, was killed.
Several of the officers and men of Harper’s Regiment of Augusta Reserves were killed and many wounded. TLe most prominent of these who fell was Robert L. Doyle, who had been lieutenant colonel in the 62nd Virginia Regiment Mounted Infantry, of my brigade, and resigned, being far be- yond military age, but had turned out then as a volunteer with the reserves and was acting captain of one of the companies. Poor Doyle! He was a brave, genial gentleman, a good officer, and the life of the camp and the bivouac with his fun and anecdotes.
It would make this report too long to mention all the noted dead and wounded of that fateful day. No troops ever fought better than those who were engaged, and some day the people of Augusta County ought to erect a shaft on the spot where Jones fell and inscribe upon it the names of the glorious dead who there poured out their life’s blood, dying to protect their soil and county seat from the invader’s foot. In vain, it is true, but none the less glorious was their death, and its mem- ory deserves to live as marking above all others one spot in Augusta memorable above all others, though the county teems with memories.
MACON IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.*
BY HOWARD MERIWETHER LOVETT, AUTHOR OF “GRANDMOTHER i!
STORIES FROM THE LAND OF USED TO BE.”
On December 1, 1860, at 12 m., the ordinance of secession was passed in South Carolina. Precisely at that hour, one hundred guns were fired in Macon, Ga., amid the ringing of bells and shouts of the people. On this date and hour was sounded the knell of that civilization known as the Old South.
The people rejoiced that night, believing that political in- dependence was heralded by the bold action of Carolina. , No prophet could foretell the tragedy of a four years’ war and its direful results and far less see beyond the dark tragedy a future of undreamt progress and power for the whole country.
The year 1860 closed with another startling event. This transpired at Charleston, on Christmas Day. Major Ander- son, U. S. A., was commandant of the garrison at Fort Moul- trie, that historic fort of the American Revolution where the first decisive victory of the war for independence was won by Carolinians. It was now the crisis of another revolution; there was an explicit understanding between the President of the United States and the governor of Carolina that no hostile operations should occur on the waters around Charles- ton’s ports — and every courtesy had been extended to the commandant at Fort Moultrie. Notwithstanding, on Christ- mas Day, Major Anderson committed the overt act of spiking the guns, burning this fort, and removing his garrison of ninety-eight men to Fort Sumter. This was the first bellig- erent act of the approaching conflict. Fort Sumter was to go down in history with the story of the firing of the first gun as casus belli, but the spiking of the guns at Fort Moultrie broke the peace. Grand old Fort Sumter stands in history as a fort that was never surrendered, the siege of Charleston and its defense by Confederate soldiers, for bravery and en- durance, ranks with the siege of Sebastopol.
The first unmistakable gesture toward the coming war was made that Christmas Day when Majsr Anderson spiked the guns of Fort Moultrie, and the news ran like wildfire through- out the Southern States. Georgia was awakened from the capital to Savannah. Governor Brown, on January 3, arrived at the seaport and dispatched a corps of one hundred and fifty guns of the city military under Maj. A. R. Lawton to seize Fort Pulaski and the Savannah defenses. Then followed
♦All rights reserved by the author.
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the State convention, January 16, which decided the momen- tous question of secession. At this convention, Bibb County was represented by the finest citizenry: Washington Poe, Eugenius A. Nisbet, and John B. Lamar were delegates. The action of our State in withdrawing from the Union is associated with the purest and most honored names of his- tory, and there is the record of valor, honor, sacrifice, and all the great virtues that belonged to the manhood of the South’s representatives.
Macon’s part in every movement of patriotism dates from the initiatory step and extended throughout the war period. Her gallant sons promptly responded to the call to arms in defense of home and country. Her wisest statesmen were sent to represent Georgia in the Confederate Congress. Less than a month after the spiking of guns at Fort Moultrie (January 23), delegates were selected to go to the new con- gress, which met at Montgomery on February 4; the new constitution for the Confederate States was adopted on the 8th of the same month. President Jefferson Davis was elected the following day, and he was inaugurated on the 18th. So it may be said that the Southern Confederacy was born in February, the birth month of the State of Georgia, the 12th of February being Georgia Day, when we proudly commemo- rate the landing at Savannah, in 1732, of the noble Oglethorpe and his matchless colony.
February, 1861, was a month of great events. In April was to come the portentous sequel to that overt act on Christ- mas Day in the firing on Fort Sumter and the call of President Lincoln for troops to invade the South.
On March 4, 1861, the day that Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the Federal Government, our Confederate Con- gress adopted the Stars and Bars as the flag of the Con- federacy. At three o’clock P.M., on that day, the first flag of the young republic was hoisted over the Capitol at Mont- gomery. The design of the Confederate banner was tele- graphed throughout the South, and on the night of the 4th Mrs. Thomas Hardeman, of Macon, with characteristic energy and patriotism, devoted herself to the labor of making the first Confederate flag to wave over the soil of Georgia. She worked all night, and the immortal flag was presented to the Floyd Rifles early on the morning of the 5th of March, 1861. It was thrown to the breeze from the armory, receiving from the proud recipients the first salute fired in the State in honor of Confederate colors.
On the 19th of April, 1861, the Rifles and Volunteers of Macon Vere summoned to the defense of Virginia in Con- federate service. They left on twenty-four hours’ notice, and arrived at Norfolk in three days, having the honor of being the first troops outside the boundaries of the Old Dominion to arrive in defense of her honor. These two companies, in con- nection with two others from Georgia, formed the famous 2nd Georgia Battalion: Capt. Thomas Hardeman, of the Rifles, was major in command. Between the two dates — March 5, when the first Confederate flag was given to the breeze from the Armory at Macon, and April 19, when the first Georgia troops marched to battle — had been the sur- render of Fort Sumter to Confederates on April 12, and war had been made irrevocable. President Lincoln’s call for seventy-five thousand troops to suppress the rebellion was a clarion call to the South to rise in defense against the military invasion of her soil.
A wealth of literature and biography from Southern pens has glorified the patriotism and characters of those days, tomes of books have been written on the history of the Con- federacy— social, economic, political, and military. To one born after the cruel war was over, a casual survey of historical
events brings to notice one remarkable point of view, and’that is the attitude of mind adopted and maintained by President Lincoln in ignoring the existence of a Southern Confederacy. He held the thought with all the perverse contradiction of fact, so familiar to those versed in new psychology, that there was no such thing as a Confederate government; our Con- stitution, Congress, President, cabinet, and complete de- partments of government were treated as mere errors of mortal mind, negative to the reality of the Federal government, having no existence in reality. It did come to pass that the nation which rose so pure and fair did actually fall, so pure of crime, because it was not recognized at home or abroad. , But after all the auto-suggestion practiced by the Federal officials during the war to claim nonexistence of this nation — created by Jefferson Davis, as Gladstone said — there came a day in April, 1865, when recognition was given. The terms of sur- render were addressed by General Grant to “General R. E. Lee as commanding the army of the Confederate States of America.* The Army of the Potomac recognized the Army of Northern Virginia, not as rebels of the Federal government, but as the conquered army of a fallen nation; a triumph at the last hour bought with blood and that shines above every nonrecognition thought ever held by a Federal mind and with a fame as lasting as the Stone Mountain Memorial.
The months of war that followed the marching away of the Georgia troops to Virginia were filled with valiant deeds by the people at home. In May, 1862, the arsenal at Savannah, under charge of Col. R. M. Cuyler, was removed to Macon. An extensive foundry owned by the Misses Findlay, with all its machinery, was commandeered, and a dozen large store- houses and other buildings were occupied for the deposit of a great variety of articles connected with the Ordnance De- partment. Over three hundred and fifty artisans and work- men were constantly kept at it in the manufacture of cannon, shot and shell, saddle harness, and leather work. The twelve- pounder Napoleon guns made by the arsenal were the pride of the army. The labor and armory establishments kept many operatives engaged in the manufacture of small arms, cartridges, etc. Numerous smaller factories turned out swords, buttons, enameled cloth, matches, soap, and wire. The latent genius for invention with which Southerners are endowed was called into activity by the dire necessity for self-preservation. Early in 1861 some of the most distin- guished West Pointers reported to the Confederate govern- ment for service. Lieut. George Washington Rains, who had made a brilliant scientific record, a son of the South, reported for duty to President Jefferson Davis and was placed at once on special duty in the Ordnance Department and commis- sioned July 10, 1861. Gunpowder was most urgently needed. Carte blanche was given him as to choice of location and nature of the plant necessary for its manufacture, and this plant, at Augusta, supplied all the armies east of the Mississippi. In the face of almost insurmountable difficulties, in seven short months, the plant was in operation, and was at the time the largest and most complete powder manufactory ever seen on this continent. Wonderful achievements were made in the building of the first iron-clad by Commodore Matthew Fon- taine Maury and John Mercer Brooke; in the perfecting of the torpedo by Gen. Gabriel J. Rains; the completing of the sub- marine and electrical torpedo under direction of Commodore Maury for the sea-coast defenses of the South — all represent- ing the genius at work throughout the Confederacy. These inventions, and others, were later confiscated by the Federals to be utilized and handed down to posterity without giving credit to the Southerners to whom it was due.
. . - i ■ n — ■ - ■ -rs
*See£terms ofjjsurrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Va.» April 9, 1865;
22
Macon, being the center of Georgia and of the Confederacy, was the locality of important institutions.
The Treasury Department established a depository here, appointing W. B. Johnston as head of the operations. At one time $1,500,000 in gold was under its protection. This de- pository took highest rank of similar offices outside of Rich- mond, and its central situation made it the most important distributing point. Here, in seven days of February, 1864, the depository counted in and took up $15,000,000, during the funding of the first issue of Confederate notes. Thus was the South drained of her treasure, as well as life blood, in defense of her land.
For protection of the State, local forces were organized, consisting of old men and youths left behind when the soldiers marched away to battle. To the organization and command of this special military department, Gen. Howell Cobb was detailed from the army of General Lee, and at once established headquarters of the Army of Georgia Reserves in Atlanta, in 1863, which was removed to Macon in 1864. The appearance of General Cobb in his native and beloved State, where he was venerated for his valor, patriotism, and prudence, in- fused a new spirit of zeal among the desponding. He soon organized armies throughout the State and protected it from invasion by the enemy on the coast and from raiders in the mountains; besides acting as an important auxiliary to the armies in Tennessee and North Georgia.
On April 27, 1861, was organized the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Relief Society, with Mrs. Washington Poe, President; Mrs. Thomas Hardeman, Vice President; Miss M. E. Boss, Secretary; and Miss Julia Wrigley, Treasurer. The first public meeting was held May 1, a constitution was adopted, and the efforts of the Society directed to the furnishing of lint, bandages, and gar- ments to the sick and wounded in the field. An executive committee was elected and subcommittees appointed over the different classes of work to be performed. More than two hundred members had been added to the Society before the 1st of September, including an auxiliary society, consisting of a little band of juvenile patriots, who completed in two months thirty-six pairs of drawers, twenty pairs of socks, and thirty-three shirts. These donations from the children were accepted and an appropriate resolution passed. In the first seven months the ladies raised $7,391.95, besides large quan- tities of useful material for camps and hospitals. By the fall of 1861 many sick and disabled soldiers were passing through Macon from battle ground and camp, and these, suffering for food and attention en route, led to the establishment of what was called a Wayside Home.
A company of ten citizens purchased the old Macon Hotel and placed it under the charge of the Relief Society, by which it was converted into a hospital and hotel for disabled soldiers — and a most beneficent institution it proved to be. Here on the historic spot of the old hostelry conducted by Mr. Stovall, where Lafayette had been entertained a quarter of a century before, the gentlewomen of Macon entertained the heroes of the Confederacy, ministering to their needs with all the tender- ness of Sisters of Mercy. The Wayside Home has been de- scribed by one who saw it some years after the war as a com- modious, two-story building, surrounded by a garden and roses. [Continued in February number.
Capt. W. W#. Carson, Knoxville, Tenn., says: “We old rebels think that the Veteran is doing great things for us and for our dead, and even for the nation, by setting out a little of the truth month by month.”
ESCAPE FROM JOHNSON’S ISLAND.
BY MRS. SALLIE WINSTON MORTON, ARDMORE, OKLA.
In the November Veteran there was an article on “ Famous War Prisons and Escapes,’’ but there was no mention of the escape of prisoners from Johnson’s Island, in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio, which was one of the most noted of such escape adventures.
I have in my possession a small book with the title, “An Escape from Johnson’s Island,” which was written by my father, the late Col. John R. Winston, of the 45th North Carolina Regiment, who was a descendant of some of the builders of the nation, namely, Sir Edward Spottswood, first governor of Virginia, and Patrick Henry, of Revolution- ary War fame.
Colonel Winston was captured at the battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, and sent to Fort Johnson, where two thou- sand officers and three hundred privates were confined. This prison was inclosed by a wall fifteen feet high, and contained thirteen frame buildings, of which some were ceiled, but most were only weather boarded.
Many ineffectual attempts were made to escape from this cold, gloomy prison, which was repulsive to the sons of the fair Southland. The one successful effort was made January 1, 1864, by Colonel Winston, of North Carolina, Captain Davis and Captain Robinson, of Virginia.
This was accomplished by digging a tunnel with pocket- knives from the prison cell through the “dead line” to the outer wall, which was scaled by means of a laddre made of bench legs joined with clothes lines. Here they were success- ful in evading both the upper and the lower line of sentinels.
With the thermometer at 30 degrees below zero, and the lake covered with ice, they crossed to Ottawa County, Ohio, a distance of one mile. With little more than $2 to defray the expenses of three men, they set forth on the perilous journey of three thousand miles, of which the most hazardous event was the crossing of the Detroit River. This necessitated a crawl of two miles over ice which was broken into large blocks, and air holes that could not be discerned because of the dark- ness and the newly fallen snow. After traveling one hundred and five miles in four days and nights, having eaten only two meals and three very light lunches, and slept but twelve of the ninety-six hours, they reached the Canadian border, where they were extended a hearty welcome. On their departure, the Canadians presented them with a purse containing $1 ,350 in gold. After a voyage down the St. Lawrence River and on the Atlantic ocean, they finally ran the blockade into Wil- mington, N. C.
When these brave officers arrived at their homes, through loyalty to their cause they again offered their services at the battle front, where they received a warm welcome and con- gratulations from their comrades in arms.
The Educated North. — Another illustration of the shallowness and uselessness of much of the education of this country was given by no less an outfit than the undergradu- ates of the University of Maine. A questionnaire was sent out as to who was Henry James. Quite a number of the students had never heard of any James but the two-gun bandit who shot up so much of Missouri. Other questions were answered to the effect that Martin Luther was the son of Moses, the author of “Vanity Fair” was Shakespeare, Dis- raeli was a poet, and Moses was a Roman ruler. — National Tribune.
23
Qotyfederat^ l/cterai}.
THE WOMEN OF THE CONFEDERACY.
(A tribute delivered by Mrs. Charles R. Hyde before the U. D. C. convention in Washington.)
Perhaps no women of the period were more delicately reared than the women of the Confederacy, but when the hour of trial came none more willingly denied themselves every luxury or gave greater proof of devotion to a cause, and “the principle of State rights was incarnate in the historical life of the Southern people.”
If the South was unprepared for war, Southern households were less prepared to endure a four years’ siege, and after the blockade was thrown around them with the isolation of a Chinese wall, Southern women found that they must manu- facture or devise a substitute for three-fourths of the articles in common use, and also for food, drink, and medicine. This they did with much cheeifulness and resourcefulness, and the result of their labors was such that we who are descended from them need not the example of Spartan mothers nor Roman matrons to inspire us, for we have known and loved the woman of the sixties.
Time would fail me to tell of their ingenius manufactures. In the Confederate Museum in Richmond and in the Daugh- ters of the Confederacy Hall in Charleston you may see for yourself articles made by them which sufficed for every natural need of life. Their celerity of manufacture was such that cases have been recorded where a soldier hurriedly called to his command was clothed in a homespun suit made on the plantation in twenty-four hours from the wool on the sheep’s back. But when the ewe lambs of the flock volun- teered, old Mammys could be correspondingly slow, like Penelope, retarding the weaving “to keep Mammy’s baby at home.” But self-preservation is the first law of nature; a castaway on a desert island devises means to prolong his existence.
The women of the South evinced other and higher qualities. Few have suffered greater privations, and as one after another need came upon them heroism became more apparent; deli- cate hands that had wandered idly over the harp strings dug the dirt from the smokehouse floors to obtain the much- needed salt; dainty feet that had known only the satin slipper ran on willing errands shod in coarse shoes the maiden had fashioned herself. They toiled early and late; they managed successfully large plantations with only the assistance of faithful slaves; they denied themselves the necessities of life that every little saved might sustain the able-bodied man- servant and thus set free the soldiers in the field. They gave cheerfully of their penury, sending boxes to the soldiers con- taining wonderful homemade uniforms which their own hands had woven, army blankets made from carpets torn from the floors, and raincoats for sentinels fashioned from old rubbet piano covers. They knitted far into the night after the precious lights were extinguished, and then kept lonely vigils at prayer till dawn for the loved ones far away.
They took long, dangerous rides over mountain and stream warning their countrymen of imminent dangers; they nursed day and night without pay in poorly equipped improvised hospitals; they dwelt in caves amid shot and shell at Vicks- burg; they cut up their wedding dresses to make flags and embroidered patriotic sentiments upon them; and young girls cut off their long hair, woman’s crown of glory, to sell in the markets of Europe to obtain funds for the cause they loved. But it is of more than this I would speak: I would recall to your mind the high resolve, the unparalleled fortitude, the undying devotion they displayed in sustaining the morale of the Confederacy. To them a cause for which they had gladly given husbands, sons, brothers, and lovers was sacred,
and they were nothing behind them in the desire to sustain constitutional lights, the full knowledge of which was their inheritance from illustrious sires.
They constantly wrote letters and sent addresses to the soldiers in camp and field which breathed the purest patri- otism and inspired hope when even the face of Providence seemed veiled. One of the addresses reads:
“We have no fears for the future. Our honor and welfare are in the keeping of brave heatts and strong arms. De- barred from sharing with you the dangers of the battle field, our prayers shall follow you, and history in recording your virtues will write in letters of living light.”
And when the end of all their hopes came, an end which they had never expected, and they saw go down in defeat a cause so dear to them they “laid in dust life’s glory dead” and ate their ciust drenched with tears, but they did not despair.
Women who had searched upon the battle field for their slain as did Edith at Hastings, or, like Rizpah of old, suffered neither “the birds of the air to rest upon them by day nor the beasts of the field by night” till stronger hands could dig a grave, or, with the defiance of Antigone, giving them sepulcher despite military prohibition, with sublime devotion, amid the wreck and ruin of once happy homes, welcomed the ragged remnant of a great army, knowing that they were companions of heroes, and “endured as seeing the invisible.” There was much to be done, and the work was a solace. With the end of the Confederacy came the downfall of the only domestic system known to them, and with brave hearts they took up untried duties. The fire must be rekindled upon the hearthstone and the children fed; the forbidden gray uniforms, often the soldier’s only garment, tattered as it was, must be dyed another color and the offending buttons covered with treasured bits of crepe.
They took up their heavy burdens, but all over our be- loved land were mothers who, like Rachel, could not be com- forted, for their sons were not; widows who were widows indeed; and many faithful to a tryst with a boy lover clad in Confederate gray who waved his hand in farewell and rode away to disappear from their ken forever, went through life constant to a vow, caring for no other man, knowing that down here “ ’tis dust to dust beneath the sod, but there, up there, 'tis heart to heart.”
When quieter days came they began the work of gathering together the sacred dust of soldiers who lay in unmarked graves and reared monuments to them, and the sentiment engraved upon one of these tells the world the character of the men they loved and sustained, planter and poor man alike , all stood for their homeland in her hour of need:
“These were men whom power could not corrupt,
Whom death could not terrify,
Whom defeat could not dishonor.”
Such were the women of the Confederacy!
They were our mothers. We have seen and known them, but the day is fast a pproaching when a generation will arise which “knows not Joseph,” and it is our sacred duty to tell the story of the deathless devotion of the women of the sixties.
“On Lough Neagh’s bank as the fisherman strays When the clear cold eve’s declining,
He sees the round towers of other days In the waves beneath him shining!
Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,
Catch a glimpse of days that are over;
Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time For the long faded glories they cover.”
24
Qo^fcderat^ l/eterap.
Sketches In this department are given a hall column ol space without charge; extra space will be charged lor at 20 cents per line. Engravings, $3.00 each.
“Fading away like the stars of the morning,
Losing their light in the glorious sun.
Thus would we pass from the earth and its toiling, Only remembered by what we have done.”
Texas Comrades.
The following Confederate veterans of Williamson County, Tex., have recently “passed over the river” to join the many comrades on the other shore:
From Bedford Forrest Camp, No. 1609 U. C. V., of Leander, Tex., is reported the death of John M. Faubion, who was born near Newport, Tenn., and had reached the advanced age of eighty-two years. For two years before the War be- tween the States he was a member of Captain Fry’s company of Texas Rangers, then commanded by Gen. Henry McCullough, afterwards a distinguished Confederate general. John Faubion entered the Confederate service in 1861, as a member of Company A, Captain Ventress, of Morgan’s Battalion of Cavalry, Green’s Brigade, and served to the end of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Department. After returning home he was married to a Miss Harmon, of which union were born two sons and a daughter, both sur- viving him, also his second wife, who was Mrs. Thomas J. Cashion. He was a man of quiet and unassuming disposition, a good citizen, fulfilling all the duties of such. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Four brothers also served throughout the war, now all dead.
Another member of Forrest Camp, M. W. Casbeer, died at the age of eighty years. He entered the Confederate service in 1862 and served throughout with Company G, 17th Tekas Infantry, Walker’s Division. He was married in October, 1865, to Miss Amy Smart, and to them were born two sons and two daughters, who survive him. He became a member of the Christian Church in 1878, and was a devoted member during all his after life. It was said of him that he was “a character looked to by all who knew him as a silent proof of the divinely endowed in mankind.” In the fullest sense “he lived in his house by the side of the road and was a friend to man.”
J. H. Hargis, Commander of Albert Sidney Johnston Camp, of Taylor, Tex., was born in Sequatchie Valley, near Chatta- nooga, Tenn., July 7, 1844, and died at his home near Taylor, Tex., October 11, 1923, in his eightieth year. In his seven- teenth year he entered the Confederate service as a private of Company H, 4th Tennessee Cavalry, Forrest’s Brigade, Dibrell’s Division, Wheeler’s Corps, and participated in all the actions of his command throughout the four years of war. He was once in prison at Johnson’s Island, but was never wounded. He was with Forrest when General Streight was captured and when the patriotic young girl, Emma Sansom, rendered such valuable aid. Comrade Hargis was never
married, but made his home with his brother, D. Hargis, at the splendid residence owned jointly by them. He was ever devoted to the cause for which he had fought, and contributed liberally to the work of the U. C. V., organization, as well as to every other good cause. He was commanding his Camp at the time of his death, and was a regular attendant on reunions of his comrades until his health failed.
[J. H. Faubion, Commander Camp Bedford Forrest, Leander, Tex.]
A. J. Humphreys.
The hearts of many old neighbors and friends of A. J. Humphreys in Monroe, W. Va., were saddened by news of his death, which occurred on November 6, 1923, at the home of his daughter in Ashland, Ky., after a short illness. He was born on Anthony’s Creek, Greenbrier County, Va., June 7, 1837, but as a young man he went to Monroe County and by far the greater part of his life was spent at and near Gap Mills; for a few years he lived at Pomeroy, Ohio. In January, 1861, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Ann Eads, of Gap Mills, and after the war was over, he and his wife made their home at Gap Mills and there reared their family, becoming valued factors in that community.
At the outbreak of war between the States, Mr. Humphreys enlisted in the Confederate army and served in General Jenkins’s Cavalry and with the Confederate engineers, mak- ing the record of a loyal and valiant soldier.
As an engineer, he was at Christiansburg, Va., attending the repairs of the (then) Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, on April 12, 1865, when, at that place, the forces under General Echols, in which his brother, M. W. Humphreys, was serving, were disbanded on learning that General Lee had surrendered. He was a man with marked intellectual gifts, a gentleman of courtesy and honor, kind as a neighbor and affectionate in his domestic relations. He loved little children, and the influences of his life were cheering and helpful. His wife died some three yeais ago, after which he made his home with his daughters, Mrs. I. R. LeSage, of Huntington, and Mrs. J. A. Bywaters, of Ashland, Ky. He is also survived by two sons, Dr. W. J. Humphreys, of Washington, D. C., one of the most eminent authorities in the science of physics in the United States and the author of several scientific works, and Dr. L. W. Hum- phreys, a prominent physician of Huntington; and by four brothers, among them Prof. M. W. Humphreys of the Uni- versity of Virginia.
His body was placed in a mausoleum at Huntington, and later on will be taken back to Monroe and laid by the side of his wife in the Mt. Carmel Cemetery at Gap Mills.
Col. Olferd Striegler.
At his home in Menard County, Tex., on September 26, 1923, Col. Olferd Striegler died in his eighty-fifth year. He enlisted in the Confederate service as a member of Company F, McCord’s Regiment, Texas Frontier Cavalry, and served as a faithful and patriotic soldier to the close of the war.
Comrade Striegler was born in Denmark, March 7, 1839, his parents removing to Swinburn in 1841, then emigrating to Texas in 1845 and locating near Fredericksburg. He was married in October, 1869, to Mrs. Lucy Ann Roberts, who died six years ago. He was an active member of the Mountain Remnant Brigade (5th) of the Texas Division, U. C. V., whose annual reunions he greatly enjoyed, and he held the honored position of first colonel of this brigade from its organization. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. Surviving him are two daughters and a son.
[L. Ballou, Brigade Adjutant U. C. V.]
Qopfederat^ Ueterap,
25
Frank Stovali/Roberts.
Frank Stovall Roberts, a native of Georgia, born at Macon on March 31, 1846, died at his home in Washington, D. C., on October 19, 1923.
He was a stu- dent at Athens,
Ga., preparing for the University of Georgia, when the war came on in 1861. His two brothers, Charles and Joseph (Jodie), entered the Con- federate army im- mediately, but his parents prevailed on Frank to wait, as he was only fifteen and the baby of the family.
However, in March, 1863, when a call came for volunteers, he en- listed at Augusta,
Ga., in a battalion of four companies then being organ- f • FRANK STQVALL ROBERTg
lzed. This com- mand was sent to Charleston for some weeks and camped on James Island, but it was not ordered into action, and shortly returned to Augusta and disbanded. Young Roberts re- turned to Athens, where he was ill for several months. His brother Charles came home on leave, as the Army of Tennessee was in winter quarters at Dalton, and in December both brothers left home to join the Oglethorpe Infantry, which was the 2nd Georgia Battalion of Sharpshooters, Jackson’s Brigade, Hardee’s Corps, Army of Tennessee. Shortly after joining this organizat on, Frank Roberts was picked for order- ly duty by Maj. S. A. Moreno, Adjutant General on Jackson’s staff, and went on duty at brigade headquarters. In Febru- ary, 1864, Hardee’s Corps was called out to oppose Sherman, and on its return to winter quarters Frank Roberts was left in the hospital at Dalton, then sent to the hospital at Marietta, where he remained until early in April, 1864, when he rejbined his command. He took part in the Atlanta campaign, and after a few days at home in ear y September, he rejoined the the army and followed Hood into Tennessee, taking part in the bloody battle of Franklin and the rout at Nashville, then on the retreat south to Bainbridge, Ala., where the Sharp- shooters were detailed to support a battery posted to defend the pontoon bridge against Federal gunboats.
The retreat from Nashville entailed terrible suffering in the bitter cold weather, and Comrade Roberts was one of the many who became ill and were sent to the hospital at Iuka.
After a few days, all who could walk were ordered to go to Corinth, as it was rumored that a Federal force was advancing from Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. At Corinth the Sharpshooters were joined by his brother Charles, who had escaped from a prison train that was taking him North, and in a few days Comrade Roberts joined him. The two brothers and a comrade of Company B set out to walk to Verona, Miss., but were fortunate in getting a train to Me- ridian, and a few days later reached Mobile, Ala. There Comrade Roberts was in the hospital for two weeks, and was
then sent to the hospital at Macon, where he was when news of the surrender came. On the 20th of April, 1865, General Wilson arrived in Macon with his cavalry, and Comrade Roberts was captured and paroled.
After the war he located in Mobile, Ala., and there, on December 26, 1888, he married Miss Mary Herbert Mastin, youngest child of Dr. Claudius Henry Mastin. A daughter and a son were born to them, the daughter dying in 1915.
In 1898, Comrade Roberts was appointed paymaster's clerk U. S. A., at Atlanta, Ga., and later he was in Cuba for two years. Returning to the States, he served at many posts, including San Antonio, Tex., St. Louis, Mo., Washing- ton, D. C., New York City, St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle, Wash. He was on duty in Washington, D. C., when trans- ferred to the retired list in 1911, and continued to make that city his home. Since his retirement he had taken an active interest in preserving and correcting records of Southern history, especially of the war period, and had written much on that subject, as well as on the Southern people, customs, and life of the days gone by, especially in his native Georgia. He was taken ill in January, 1923, and suffered a long and severe illness — but his health improved, and he resumed his study and writing. The end came suddenly on the morn- ing of October 19, and he was laid to rest in Arlington Na- tional Cemetery by the side of the daughter whom he had so deeply mourned.
Comrades of Trigg County, Ky.
Reportd by Capt. F. G. Terry, Cadiz, Ky:
John H. Caldwell, a sergeant of Company A, 9th Regiment, Kentucky Volunteers, a part of the Orphan Brigade, died at his home near Cadiz, Ky., November 5, 1923, aged eighty-one years.
He was born in Trigg County, graduated at Bethel College, Russellville, Ky., in 1861, and shortly thereafter enlisted with Capt. Will Caldwell and entered the 9th Regiment, Colonel Hunt. He took an active part in the battles of Shiloh, Hartsville, Stones River, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Miss., Chickamauga, and was with General John- son from Dalton to Atlanta, Jonesboro, and New Hope. His brigade was later mounted and served to the close of the war under the command of Gen. Joe Wheeler. He was paroled with his company and regiment at Washington, Ga., May, 1865.
Returning to his home, he engaged in farming and teaching; later in life he was a successful surveyor and engineer. He was widely read and kept up with the affairs of the country. He was a loyal and faithful member of his Church (Baptist), and ever a true lover of the cause of the South and its friends. He leaves a family of one son and two daughters.
He was adjutant of Camp No. 965, U. C. V., for twenty- five years, and his departure from among us leaves but six original veterans in the county.
Pinkney B. Harrell, a lieutenant of Company D, 50th Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, Captain Richards, Colonel Sugg, died at his his home near Cadiz, Ky., November 7, 1923, aged eighty-eight years. He was a native of Trigg County, and entered the service of the Confederacy by enlisting with Captain Richards at Dover, Stewart County, Tenn., in the summer of 1861, and assisted in erecting the works creating Fort Donelson. He remained there till the arrival of the Federal forces under the command of General Grant, and was made prisoner with the other Confederates under General Buckner in February, 1862; was confined at Camp Douglas till September, and then exchanged at Vicksburg. At Jack- son, Miss., he reenlisted “for the war,” after which he had
26
Qopfederat^ l/eterai).
a wonderful experience in the campaigns of Generals Bragg and Johnston. He was fond of relating his trials and troubles at Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, from Dalton to Atlanta. About the close of the Atlanta campaign he was forced to retire from active duty on account of a badly injured leg. Mr. Harrell was a farmer, a man with decided notions as to politics and religion, and especially was he loyal to his Church and to his Confederate comrades. His departure is a great loss to his community, for he was greatly respected and venerated by all.
Capt. Smith Lipscomb.
On Sunday morning, December 2, and only a few weeks before he would have celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday, there passed into the Great Beyond the soul of Capt. Smith Lipscomb of Bonham, Tex., one of the best known and loved among the Confederates of Texas. He was a familiar figure at State and national meetings of the Confederate veterans and was known wherever they gathered.
Smith Lipscomb was born in Spartanburg District, S. C., February 26, 1840. He was present when the firing on Fort Sumter took place, and when war was declared he went into the fray as a member of the 18th South Carolina Regiment. He was later appointed lieutenant and then captain of his company.
He was at the battle of Petersburg, Va., and was one of the three survivors who were blown up in that awful eruption of dirt, stone, and living bodies at the Crater explosion and came out alive. He alighted on his feet, and continued to advance toward the enemy.
At the reunion at Richmond in 1907, Senator Daniel intro- duced Lipscomb and recited his wonderful experiences in that inferno.
Lipscomb was at the surrender at Appomattox, and re- ceived his parole there. He had served throughout the entire war, being twice wounded. He was regarded as one of the ablest and bravest of the minor officers of Lee’s army.
He returned home to a land devastated by war. Soon after- wards he was married, and went to Texas in 1866, settling first on the Brazos. In 1869 he moved to Fannin County, stopping for a few years at Ladonia. In 1873 he moved to Bonham to become a deputy under Sheriff John Dunn. So ably did he do his duty that at the end of Dunn’s second term, he was elected sheriff and served four years. He was then elected tax collector for four years. His service in both offices was marked by ability, courage, honesty, and efficiency. At the end of his second term as collector he retired to private life and spent the remainder of his life on his farm.
He was a member of the Baptist Church, and a man of the strictest sense of honor and honesty. He is survived by his aged wife, five daughters, and three sons. On the day of his burial the business houses of the city closed their doors for one hour during the funeral service.
William Tolbert.
Comrade William Tolbert, Adjutant of Ben McCulloch Camp, U. C. V., of Mount Vernon, Tex., departed this life on November 19, 1923. As a Confederate soldier, he served with Company D, 11th Texas Infantry, Randall’s Brigade, Trans- Mississippi Department. He was a member for many years of the Missionary Baptist Church at Mount Vernon and always on the side of right and justice. A good soldier, good citizen, Christian gentleman, he will be sadly missed by his comrades of the Camp and all other friends.
[Committee: J. A. Dozier, T. L. Bryant, H. H. Weaver.]
J. C. Campbell.
J. C. Campbell, Commander of J. E. B. Stuart Camp, U. C. V., of Terrell, Tex., died on November 22, 1923. He was one of the most beloved and highly esteemed Confederate veterans of his section.
Entering the Confederate service early in 1861 as a member of Company E, 20th Texas Cavalry, he served with honor to the end in 1865. He shared in the privations and misfortunes of the Southern people after the war, and to the end of life was a stanch champion and defender of the principles for which he had fought.
As Commander of our Camp, succeeding Capt. J. W. Hardin, he held the love, esteem, and confidence of all com- rades; in his private life he was known as a man of high ideals, strong convictions, with the courage to do the right on all occasions. He was a good citizen, a good neighbor, a kind and indulgent husband and father. In his passing we feel the loss of his comradeship and the uplifting influence of his association.
[From resolutions passed by J. E. B. Stuart Camp, Novem- ber 22, 1923. E. T. Stewart presiding; J. R. Bond, Secretary.^
Silas A. Henry.
On March 21, 1923, Silas A. Henry died at his home in Russellville, Ark., after a short illness, at the age of eighty-two
years, and was laid to rest in Pisgah Cemetery, south of Pottsville.
Comrade Henry was born in York County, S. C., June 10, 1841, the son of Andrew K. and Elizabeth Parker Henry, families of note in the history of the State. His parents removed to Arkansas in 1856 and settled in the New Hope community, his father liv- ing to the ripe age of eighty-six. Silas Henry re- ceived a fair education for the time, and when war came on in 1861 he answered his country’s call at the age of twenty, and made an enviable record as a soldier. He served as a member of Company B, Ben T. Embry’s company, Arkansas Mounted Rifles, McIntosh's Brigade, and was the last survivor of this noted company. He took part in the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Mo., Murfreesboro, Chicka- mauga, and Franklin, Tenn., being wounded in each of the latter battles. One wound was received while charging the breastworks, and his comrades paid glowing tribute to his bravery. He returned home after the war and made as good citizen in peace as soldier in war. He served two terms as sheriff of Pope County, and later was county treasurer, capably discharging the duties of both offices.
Comrade Henry was thrice married, his first wife being Miss Nannie Bingham, of North Carolina, and of their ten children he is survived by six sons and a daughter. His second mar- riage was to Miss Nancy Oates, of Pottsville, who lived but a few years. In 1909 he married Mrs. Hattie McKay, who also survives him.
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, faithful to the end. He was a man of typical Southern characteristics — gentlemanly demeanor and hospitality, and was never better pleased than when entertaining his friends in his home.
Qopfederat^ l/eterai).
Capt. R. J. Wilson.
Capt. R. J. Wilson, born in Pope County, Ark., September 20, 1835, died at his home in Russellville, January 31, 1923, having passed into his eighty-eighth year. His parents were natives of Tennessee, but went to Arkansas in 1834 and settled on a government claim. Of their eight children, Captain Wilson was the last survivor.
His opportunities for education were limited, but young Wilson made his way into Northwest Arkansas and there at- tended Cane Hill College, and was known as a good student. During his en- tire life he was a student of affairs, and by careful and constant reading kept capt. r. i. Wilson.
himself abreast of the
times. After leaving college he returned home and continued agricultural pursuits until 1861, when he enlisted for the Confederacy, joining Scott's Squadron. He was promoted to captain and participated in many battles and skirmishes in service under Generals Price and Shelby. He returned home penniless to take up the battle of life, and became one of the successful men of affairs of his section as a merchant and landholder. He helped to organize the People’s Bank of Russellville in 1890, and was its president to his death. His nickname of “Honest Bob” shows the universal feeling toward him as a business man. He was public spirited, a leader in movements for the good of his community and State.
In 1870 Captain Wilson was married to Miss Cassandra B. Ford, of Shreveport, La., whose father was a pioneer of that State. She died in 1884, leaving four children, and these sons and daughters are prominent citizens of Pope County. He was a lifelong member of the Presbyterian Church, serving as ruling elder and as teacher in its Sunday school, liberal in support of his Church and faithful to his duties as long as able. He lived a long and useful life and left an example of duty well done.
Comrades at Houston, Tex.
The following losses in membership of Dick Dowling Camp, i No. 197 U. C. V., since August, 1923, were reported by J. T. Eason, Adjutant:
E. Barnes, died August 5.
W. H. Fleig, Confederate navy, aged one hundred years, six months, ten days; died September 13.
J. C. Parker, Company C, Madison’s Regiment Texas !j Cavalry ; died in October.
W. E. Goodman, Clark’s Engineers; October.
G. I. Turnley, adjutant Company G, 10th Alabama In- ' fantry; October 23.
P. N. Harris, captain Company I, 4th Tennessee Cavalry; November 4.
Levi Hickey, Company C, Morgan’s 5th Kentucky Cavalry; November 4.
E. P. Allen, Hood’s Texas Brigade; November 30.
J. L. Hardy, Company K, 1st Tennessee Infantry (not a member of Camp).
Samuel Bell Hoskins.
{From memorial resolutions prepared by a committee R. E. Lee Camp, 158 U. C. V., of Fort Worth, Tex.)
Samuel B. Hoskins was born in Shelbyville, Bedford County, Tenn., November 26, 1839. He grew to manhood in his native county and State and had attained his majority when war between the States was declared. Born and bred of true Southern lineage, he inherited all the patriotic zeal of Southern manhood and early enlisted in Company A, 24th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, and proved himself a superb soldier. Though small of stature, his powers of physical en- durance were phenomenal. It is related of him that at the end of a long forced march he was one of three men in the entire regiment who reached their destination without lag- ging. Hardy, brave, and dependable, he was often called for hazardous duty and always responded with alacrity.
He was in all the campaigns of the Army of Tennessee, especially in the battles around Murfreesboro. Never danger- ously wounded, he served continuously and with distinction to the close of hostilities and surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston.
He married Miss Sarah Jackson, of Bedford County, Tenn., and from this union were six children, three sons and three daughters. In 1894, after thirty-six years of wedded bliss, his beloved Sarah went to join her children and loved ones who had gone before. In 1895, Comrade Hoskins came to Texas, and has since made his home with his daughter, Mrs. J. A. McLin, who, with her brother, James Hoskins, of Azle, are sole survivors. On November 24, 1923, he quietly slipped away into the arms of his spirit loved ones and friends as falls to sleep the little babe upon its mother’s breast.
In all respects Comrade Hoskins was a man of sterling qualities. In religion, in politics, in all moral issues, and in civic righteousness, he stood foursquare for the right.
[Maj. John E. Gaskell, Fort Worth, Tex.]
Andrew Jackson Farley.
A gallant soldier of the Confederacy, Andrew Jackson Farley, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Ruby Dobbs, at Waxahachie, Tex., on December 5, 1923. At the age of twenty-four years he joined Company B, 3rd Tennessee Infantry, John C. Brown’s regiment. He escaped capture at Fort Donelson, and joined the 1st Tennessee Cavalry, Wheeler’s regiment, and so served until the surrender in 1865.
After the war, Comrade Farley returned to Giles County, Tenn., and there married Miss Maltha Ann Knight, and to them were born ten children — six sons and four daughters, all of whom survive him, also his wife. He removed to Texas in 1891 and made his home there to the end. He was born and reared in Giles County, Tenn.
E. B. Thompson.
E. B. Thompson of Thomaston, Ga., was born in Hart County, Ky., on February 22, 1837, and became a resident of Upson County, Ga., in July, 1859. He joined Company D, 13th Georgia Infantry, in Thomaston, July 1, 1861, and served in the Confederate army until the surrender at Appomattox, reaching home in Georgia by May 1, 1865. He was wounded at Monocacy, July 9, 1864, at the same time that General Evans was wounded; and he received three wounds at the battle of Winchester, Va., September 19, 1864. He was lieutenant and in command of his company at the surrender in 1865; had been on the pension rolls of Georgia since 1913. His death occurred at Thomaston on November 2, 1923.
[J. E. F. Matthews.]
28
Qopfederat^ l/eterap.
D. R. Caldwell.
D. R. Caldwell, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Tyler Tex., died suddenly on December 10, 1923, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. L. R. Herring. After funeral services there his body was taken to Noonday and interred in the family cemetery.
He was eighty-two years of age and was born in Chambers County, Ala. He lived in his native State until the War between the States, when he was among the first to enlist under the Stars and Bars. He served with distinction in the 6th Alabama Infantry taking part in many of the famous battles in Virginia. He was with the expedition commanded by Gen. Jubal Early, which penetrated as far north as Silver Springs, only three miles from Washington City. He was wounded three times, and was confined in the hospital at Richmond, Va.
After the war he returned to Alabama, and was married to Miss Amanda Henderson. They removed to Texas in the late sixties and settled near Noonday, where he lived up to a few years ago, when he moved to Tyler, which was his home until death. He is survived by a daughter and a son, Will H. Caldwell, also by one brother, B. H. Caldwell.
Comrade Caldwell was a member of the Baptist Church for over fifty years and took an active part in all Church work in the First Baptist Church of this city. He was one of its best citizens and had friends all over that section of the country.
W. R. Campbell.
Comrade W. R. Campbell was born in Alamance County, N. C., on March 8, 1841, where he lived and grew to young manhood in the home of his parents. He moved to Arkansas and there resided until the breaking out of the War between the States, when, in response to the first call foi volunteers, he enlisted in Company D, 8th Arkansas Regiment, under Capt. W. P. Jones. On the 7th of June, 1861, with ninety- six privates and seven commissioned officers, he left West Point, Ark., and went into training at Jacksonport for sev- eral months. With his command he spent the winter of 1861-62 in camp at Bowling Green, Ky. In the spring his command was ordered to Corinth, Miss. He fought bravely in the two days’ battle at Shiloh on the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, in which many of his brave and heroic comrades lost their lives. He also fought with distinguished courage in the battle of Perryville, on the 8th of October, 1862; Murfrees- boro, Tenn., December 31 and January 2nd, 1863; Chica- mauga, September, 1863; Franklin, November 30, 1864, where he was severely wounded, from the effects of which he lost a leg. He was taken prisoner and sent to Nash- ville and thence to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he was kept in prison until the latter part of May, 1864. He was then sent to Galveston, Tex., with others to be exchanged, but after his arrival in New Orleans the order for the ex- change of prisoners was revoked, and they were sent to Vicks- burg, Miss., until the close of the war.
After the war he came to Haywood County, where he con- tinued to live a useful and honorable life until his death on the 7th of August, 1923. He lived an exemplary, Christian life, was a patriotic and public spirited citizen, conspicuous for his amiability, rugged integrity, and loyalty and devotion to his friends, and especially to his old comrades. He was a kind husband, an indulgent father, a generous neighbor, and loyal friend.
He left a wife and a number of sons and daughters to take his place in life and to battle for the accomplishment of the lofty purposes to which his life was earnestly devoted.
[Committee: M. V. Crump, John R. Bond.]
W. F. Miller.
From”VesoIutions passed by Joseph E. Johnston Camp, No. 119 U. C. V., of Gainesville, Tex., the following is taken:
Comrade W. F. Miller, born in Giles County, Tenn., February 11, 1843, died at his home near Gainesville, Tex., January '^'6, 1923. He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 soon after war was declared, in Company F, 12th Tennessee Infantry, Smith’s Brigade, Cheatham’s Division, Hardee’s Corps.
He made a good and faithful soldier, taking part in several hard battles, one of them being the battle of Shiloh. However, he had the good fortune to go through the entire war without being wounded. He returned to his home in Tennessee at the close of the war, and soon afterwards he married and moved to Texas, settling in the Cross Timbers about eight miles east of Gainesville, where he resided until his death.
Comrade Miller professed religion when young and joined the Baptist Church. He was not only loyal to his country, but made a valiant and faithful soldier for Jesus Christ. He was on the moral side of every question and a true and loyal citizen of which any community might be proud.
"Be it resolved, That in the death of Comrade Miller, Joseph E. Johnston Camp, No. 119 U. C. V., has lost another honored member, his family a kind and indulgent husband and father.” [J. P. Hall, A. G. F. Lay, Committee .]
George Murray Robertson.
George Murray Robertson passed away on October 17, 1923, at his home in Deerbrook, Miss. He was born and
reared in Huntsville, Ala., descended from two prom- inent Southern families, his father being Rev. John Murray Robertson, of Maryland, and his mother, Rebecca Lowrie Robert- son, of North Carolina.
As a youth of eighteen years in 1861, he joined the 4th Alabama Cavalry, Colonel Russell, Company C, Captain Gurley.
In his “ Life of Forrest,” Dr. Wyeth tells us of the bravery of Gurley’s Com- pany and how much For- rest depended on Com- I pany C. Captain Gurley time and again said he could always depend on Murray in any contingency. There were four Robert- son brothers in Russell’s regiment, three with Gurley.
Murray Robertson was with us at the reunion in October i looking well, strong, and handsome.
He was all that a son, brother, husband, and father should be — thoughtful of others, kind and generous to all.
His family still cherish a beautiful little silk flag presented to him on September 1, 1862, at Mooresville, Ala., by Molly Hussey, on which is written these words: “Receive this flag as an emblem of friendship, and may it fan thy noble brow to victory.”
He leaves a wife, four children, and a sister to mourn his loss. Wherever he went he made lasting friends. His faith I was that of his forefathers, trusting and true, and those near and dear to him, while mourning, feel that to some it will not be a long parting. [A. B. D. R.]
29
Qopfederat^ l/eterai>*
Gen. William W. Chamberlaine, U. C. V.
(From resolutions passed by Camp No. 171 U. C. V., of Washington, D. C.)
“Died, at his home in Washington, William W. Chamber- laine, October 19, 1923, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, and at the time of his death Honorary Commander with the rank of brigadier general of the United Confederate Veterans for the District of Columbia.
“He was a member of the Army of Northern Virginia and a native of Norfolk. His military service was notable. He served with the artillery and so greatly distinguished himself in the bloody battle at Antietam (known in Confederate history as the battle of Sharpsburg) as to be cited by Presi- dent Jefferson Davis for gallant service and special efficiency in that memorab e engagement. For this service he was commissioned a captain. With a small number of men he defended a bridge successfully with one piece of artillery. As private and noncommissioned officer and captain, he engaged actively in many of the great battles of the war. Probably no soldier or officer rendered more efficient service than did this veteran.
“At the close of hostilities, Captain Chamberlaine returned to his home and there engaged in the banking and railroad i business. For a long period of time he was comptroller of the J Seaboard Air Line Railroad. He was exceedingly active in i business and built the waterworks of the city of Norfolk.
“He retired in 1909, and became a resident of Washington. He took great interest in the organization and membership of this Camp, and also continued his membership and unabated interest in the Virginia Camp of Confederate Veterans. He maintained to the last his unceasing interest and connection with the Grand Camp of Virginia Veterans. When a vacancy | occurred, Captain Chamberlaine was elected to be brigadier i general of the District of Columbia Brigade. He was uni- versally respected and admired for his manhood, his sin- i cerity, his courteous and upright course, and for his patriotism.
We, his associates in war and in peace, admired and loved ! him, and shall continue to cherish his memory so long as we live; therefore be it
“ Resolved , That we deplore the death of our brigadier commander, and place on record this estimate of his services and worth as an example to all who shall come after us.”
[Charles B. Howry, D. C. Grayson, J. Aill ene Brown, Committee .]
Maj. R. A. Briggs.
On April 24, 1923, Maj. R. A. Briggs answered the last , roll call at his home in Shelbyville, Ky., in his eighty-first year. He was born October 6, 1842, near Bloomfield, in Nelson County, Ky., the son of Andrew and Sarah Ferguson Briggs. His father was a native of Scotland and his mother a member of a pioneer Kentucky family.
In 1862 he joined Gen. John H. Morgan’s command,
; serving as a member of that great cavalry leader’s bodyguard.
He was on the famous raid through Indiana and Ohio, making his escape by swimming his horse across the Ohio River at Buffington Island. From there he attempted to join the Confederate forces in Southwest Virginia, but was captured and confined in Camp Chase. After being released at the close of the war, he returned to his native county and on May 30, 1865, was married to Miss Mary E. Wykoff, who survives him with six children. At his death, and for several years previous, he was Commander of Camp John H. Waller U. C. V., of Shelbyville. His funeral services were conducted at the Methodist Church, of which he was a member, and he was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery with Masonic honors, he being a member of Solomon’s Lodge.
Col. J. A. Long.
Col. Jacob Alson Long died at his residence in Graham, Alamance County, N. C., October 4, 1923, after several years
of failing health.
Jacob Alson Long was the third son of Jacob Long and Jane Stuart Stockard. He was born at the old Long home- stead near Graham, April 6, 1846. While a student at the academy at Hyco, Va., in 1864, he left his books and enlisted in Wright’s Battery, a Vir- ginia organization, and continued with the Army of Northern Virginia until Lee’s surrender at Appo- matox.
After the war ended he returned home and later studied law under William K. Ruffin, a son of Chief Justice Ruffin, who was regarded by many as the best teacher of law in the State. After receiving his license, Colonel Long began the practice of law in Graham in 1870. In 1893 he served one term in the State legislature, and was recognized as one of the strong and leading men of that body. He was chairman of the Finance Committee of the House.
He was always an ardent Confederate and deeply interested in whatever concerned the welfare of the veterans of the Confederacy and he held the rank of colonel in the United Confederate Veteran’s Association, Army of Northern Virginia.
On December 20, 1871, he was married to Miss Esta Teague, only child of David Patterson Teague and Julia Frances Foucette. To this union were born seven children. These are: Mrs. S. Edward Everett, Mrs. John C. Halladay, and Mrs. Hersey Woodward, Jr., of Suffolk, Va.; Mrs. Robert J. Mebane, of Greensboro, N. C.; Mrs. A. H. Graham, of Hillsboro, N. C. ; and two sons, Jacob Elmer Long, of Durham, N. C., and Ralph Long, of Winston-Salem, N. C.
Two years ago Colonel and Mrs. Long celebrated their golden wedding, surrounded by their children and grand- children.
He was a member of the Masonic Fraternity and a Presby- terian in faith, which well accords with his personal traits of character — a faithful adherence to high ideals and fidelity to every trust.
Gently, painlessly, like a little child he went to sleep, surrounded by his wife, all of his sons and daughters, and his youngest brother.
Rev. J. W. Perry.
Rev. J. W. Perry, than whom there was no more loyal soldier and Confederate veteran, died at his home in Green- ville, Ga., November 12, 1923, in his seventy-seventh year. Doctor Perry served many pastorates in his day, being one on the most prominent Baptist ministers in Georgia, and was universally beloved by all who knew him.
A native South Carolinian, he removed with his parents in very early life to Florida, from which State he entered the Confederate service when quite a lad. His wife and several sons and daughters survive him.
[E. B. Terrell.]
COL. T. A. LONG.
Qoijfedcrat^ l/efcerai).
Xllnitefc daughters of tbe Confederacy
''egoism VTpa/ces JT/amory <5V»r«<r/"
Mrs. Frank IIarrold, President General Ainericus, ( ia.
Mrs. J. T. BeaX-e, Little Rock, Ark First Vice President General
Mrs. Frank Elmer Ross, Riverside, Cal Second Vice President General
Mrs. Charles S. Wallace, Morehead, N.C Third Vice President General
Mrs. Alexander J. Smith, New York City Recording Secretary General
Mrs. R. H. Chesley, Cambridge, Mass Corresponding Secretary General
All communications for this Department should be sent
Mrs. J. P. Higgins, St. Louis, Mo Treasurer General
Mrs. St.John Alison Lawton, Charleston, S. C Historian General
Mrs. W. J. Woodrief, Muskogee, Okla Registrar General
Mrs. W. H. Estabrook, Dayton, Ohio Custodian of Crosses
Mrs. W. D. Mason, Philadelphia, Pa Custodian of Flags and Pennants
direct to Mrs. R. D. Wright, Official Editor. Newberry, S. C.
FROM THE PRESIDENT GENERAL.
To the United Daughters of the Confederacy: In expressing my thanks for the great honor you conferred upon me at the 1923 convention in Washington, I feel that it is not for my- self that I should speak, but rather as the representative of the Georgia Division, for no one knows better than I that it has been through the splendid work of the Georgia Daughters as a Division that my name as their Division President was brought before the general organization.
“The glory of life is —
To love, not to be loved;
To give, not to get;
To serve, not to be served.”
The Georgia Daughters have proved the truth of this old precept in their every thought and deed during the years that I have been their President. It would have been impossible for me not to have learned the perfect truth of those same lines with their example constantly before me. Therefore, it is with nothing but the intense desire to serve you that I accept the trust and begin my service to you as President General, United Daughters of the Confederacy.
It is, beyond question, the greatest honor that can be paid to any woman to know that she has the confidence of the members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy; to know that they are willing to place themselves for two years under her guidance. It is the knowledge of this confidence that compensates for the time and strength I have given and shall give to our organization.
Duty and service are the supreme factors in life. Looking into my own heart, I can say to you with fervor: “I shall try at all times to make a good fight and to keep the faith.”
Let us hold fast to our trust in God, depending always upon his love, mercy, and justice, and consecrating ourselves to the thought that “To-day is your day and mine. The only day we have, the day in which we play our part. What our part may signify in the great whole we may not understand, but we are here to play it; now is our time, this we know; it is a part of action, it is a part of love, and it is for us to express love in terms of usefulness.”
Again let me thank you for bestowing upon me this supreme honor. In attempting to fill the high office of your President General, I shall strive at all times to live up to our avowed ideals and to serve you to the utmost of my ability.
Yours in U. D. C. bonds,
Allene Walker Harrold.
NOTES ON THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION.
The opening exercises of the thirtieth annual convention, United Daughters of Confederacy, were held in the beautiful ball room of the New Willard Hotel, from the ceiling of which hung nineteen crystal chandeliers, whose bright lights are reflected by seventeen pier mirrors, reaching from floor to ceiling; its eighteen immense windows, with heavy hangings of gorgeous rose velvet; its two thousand gilt chairs, so arranged as to seat comfortably a capacity audience; strains of in- spiring music from the Marine Band Orchestra; Confederate veterans in uniform occupying boxes on each side of the platform; beautiful young Southern girls in costumes of white with red, acting as pages; handsomely gowned women and distinguished sons of the South — such was the setting for the entrance of the General U. D. C. officers, the speakers, and the guests of honor.
Addresses of welcome were delivered by Mrs. W. E. Hutton, President of the District of Columbia Division, who presided, and by Hon. E. F. Colladay, President Board of Trade, representing Hon. Cuna H. Rudolph, President Board of Commissioners of the District. Greetings were extended by Gen. W. B. Haldeman, Commander in Chief U. C. V.; Mrs. Anthony Wayne Cask, President General D. A. R.; W. McDonald Lee, Commander in Chief S. C. V. To all of these Mrs. Charles B. Bryan, of Tennessee, daughter of Admiral Raphael Semraes, gave feeling response. Hon. John Temple Graves being prevented by illness, Representative Tom Connally, of Texas, delivered the address of the evening. Mrs. C. R. Hyde, of Tennessee, presented the ex-Presidents General, Mrs. Katie Cabell Muse, Mrs. Lizzie G. Henderson, Mrs. C. B. Stone, Mrs. A. B. White, Miss Mary B. Poppen- heim, Mrs. R. W. McKinney. Mrs. C. P. Odenheimer was prevented from reaching Washington for the opening meet- ing, but was presented later during the convention. The Honorary Presidents present — Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Bryan, and Mrs. Norman Randolph — were presented by Mrs. W. D. Lamar, of Georgia. Mrs. A. A. Campbell, of Virginia, pre- sented the President General, Mrs. L. R. Schuyler.
The addresses were interspersed with delightful musical numbers. So great was the interest in the opening of the convention that by the time the exercises began, the hotel elevators were allowed to be run only as far as the ninth floor, and at that point firemen were stationed with orders to allow no one else to go to the tenth floor. On Historical Evening the crowd was fully as large.
* * *
The vital interest of a convention centers in the report of the President General. For more than an hour Mrs. Schuyler read, so clearly and distinctly that not a word was lost, the record of her efforts for the past year, the contents showing that remarkable success had crowned these earnest efforts.
Matters mentioned in the report, some of which were given later in detail in individual reports, were:
31
tfefceraQ,
The signing by the President General of 30,888 Certificates in the two years.
The chartering of a Chapter in Providence, R. I., thereby adding another State to the list, making thirty-six States, with a Chapter in France.
The fine response from Divisions to Relief Work. The name of the committee was changed, with Mrs. Randolph’s consent, from the “Janet Weaver Randolph Relief Fund for Needy Confederate Women” to the Mrs. Norman V. Ran- dolph Relief Fund for Needy Confederate Women,” to prevent confusion with the fund in the Virginia Division hearing Mrs. Randolph’s maiden name. A contribution of $500 to this fund was reported as having been given by Bernard Baruch, of New York, through the President General, Mrs. Schuyler.
The stupendous task of arranging scholarships, the funds for which total more than $123,000, besides the income from the $50,000 Hero Fund.
The appointment of Dr. Matthew Page Andrews on the Advisory Committee undertaking to put out the American
I Historical Motion Pictures under the caption “Yale Uni- versity Press,” a request having came to the President General from A. Id. Jennings, Historian General S. C. V., for aid in securing representation of Southern organizations on this committee.
The endowment of two dormitories, at a cost of $1,500 each, in George Peabody College for Teachers — one by the Mary Mildred Sullivan Chapter of New York, bearing the name of Mrs. Sullivan, and the other from a member of the same Chapter, Mrs. Theda Buford Philips Hill, to bear the name of her father, James Allen Phillips.
The great progress made during the past year on the Jefferson Davis Highway, six States having the route officially designated, with the Highway finished and marked in some ; of them.
The urging of Chapters to contribute to the Maury Monu- ment fund, so that the $1,089.45 still lacking on the pledge of $5,000 may be contributed without further delay.
Among the acts of the convention was the unanimous adoption of the three recommendations made by the President |i General — viz. :
1. That the sum of one thousand dollars be appropriated annually for the Jefferson Davis Highway.
2. That the sum of fifteen hundred dollars be added to the one thousand dollars appropriated last year for the bust of General Lee to be presented to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, England.
3. That the convention confer the United Daughters of the Confederacy Cross of Honor for World War Veterans upon one of the South’s most distinguished Confederate Sons, Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee Bullard, U. S. A., Com- mander of the Eastern Area, and also upon Major Wallace Streater, U. S. A., to whom we owe the conception of this beautiful cross.
Also the adoption of a recommendation from the Com- mittee to award the University Prize Essay, that there be an endowment fund of $10,000, the interest from which shall be used for a prize, or prizes, in universities of the country. Eight hundred dollars has accumulated on the fund, and the President General contributed her expense account of $200, provided the fund should be named for the 1 late Mrs. Simon Baruch, of New York.
The advancement of the Cunningham Memorial from a Scholarship to a Fellowship in George Peabody College for Teachers.
The indefinite postponement of the report of the Committee on the revision of State Constitution and By-Laws.
The election of ex-President Woodrow Wilson and of Chief Justice Howard Taft as honorary associate members.
The election of Mrs. Fannie Ransom Williams, of North Carolina, and of Mrs. William Hume, of Tennessee, as Honor- ary Presidents.
When the announcement was made that only $7,000 more is needed for the completion of the Jefferson Davis Monument at Fairview, Ky., a total of $7,777, was quickly subscribed from the floor. At Birmingham the North Carolina Di- vision pledged $1,000; it has paid $2,250.
Rules for the bestowal of the Cross of Service on lineal (male) descendants of Confederate veterans serving during the World War were adopted, and will be printed and dis- tributed to Chapters as quickly as possible. The Crosses are $1.00 each, and bestowal days are January 14, January 19, June 3, September 27, November 11 (Armistice Day). The convention also voted the bestowal of two crosses of service every year at the annual meeting of the U. D. C. on men who had won especial distinction during the World War. Gen. Lejeune and Col. Joseph Wheeler were the true re- cipients under this action for this year.
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Historical Evening was unusually brilliant, being presided over by Mrs. St. John A. Lawton, South Carolina, Historian General. Among the striking features, were the bestowal of the Crosses of Service on Gen. Robert Lee Bullard and on Maj. Wallace Streater; the return to Gen. Nat. Wales, of Massachusetts, of his sword, captured by Scout William Downs Farley, of South Carolina, the presentation being made by Mrs. E. D. Smith, wife of Senator Smith, of South Carolina, and a niece of Scout Farley, to an army officer detailed for the purpose of receiving it; the unveiling of the portrait of Admiral Semmes by his daughter, Mrs. C. B. Bryan, of Tennessee (the portrait that is to be placed in the Salon d’Alabama at Geneva); the presentation of Division Historians, of Dr. Matthew Page Andrews; of A. H. Jennings, Historian General S. C. V.; and the award of prizes to Miss Marion Salley, of South Carolina; Mrs. Bennett D. Bell, of Tennessee; Mrs. Bell Allen Ross, of Alabama; Mrs. J. L. Woodbury, of Kentucky; Mrs. W. G. Williams, of North Carolina; Miss Lucy West, of Texas; Mrs. E. J. Burch, of South Carolina; Mrs. R. P. Holt, of North Carolina.
Mrs. W. E. Massey, Director General C. of C., spoke on the “Children of the Confederacy” and delivered prizes totaling $100, given by Mrs. Lawton, Historian General, in checks to Thompson Hunt, twelve years, of Virginia; Elizabeth Lott, seventeen years, of South Carolina; Jennie Jones, thirteen years, of Virginia, for the best answers to a set of historical questions. Mrs. C. J. Milling, President of the South Carolina Division, presented to the Historian General, Mrs. Lawton, the complete works of John C. Calhoun, to be sent to the Oxford Library in response to a request from the Oxford professor of American history. The climax of an evening replete with interesting incidents was reached in a wonderful address, “Jefferson Davis, the American,” by Hon. Douglas Freeman, editor of the Richmond News-Leader.
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Apart from the convention proper there stand in bold relief three notable occasions: The trip to Annapolis for the presen- tation of the Maury Portrait to the Naval Academy; pilgrim- age to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Nation- al Cemetery, and the privilege accorded the members of the convention of paying homage to ex-President Woodrow Wilson.
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On the afternoon of Tuesday, November 20, several hun- dred delegates, with the general officers, went to Annapolis. The President General, Mrs. Schuyler, presided over the exercises, and the presentation of the portrait was made by Mrs. Charles Phillips, of the Atlanta Chapter, the donor. The acceptance was by Rear Admiral Wilson, Superintendent of the Academy, who introduced Dr. Charles Alphonso Smith as the speaker. Dr. Smith recounted many incidents and events in the life of Maury that made him a great naval man. Miss Hergesheimer, of Nashville, Tenn., the painter of the portrait, was present at the unveiling. It shows Maury in full uniform, with his hand resting </