UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LIBRARIES
I
k -
|
11'- wsssfillSte* |
||
tsnnaaBBs VOL. XXXVI.
J^MM^l^^m^4^J^!M^^^l^!'i■ltLu^aasgi JANUARY, 1928
MM—
NO. 1
THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON PRESTON Son of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Preston, of Charlotte, N. C. Great-Grandson of Stonewall Jackson
•jmmimm
2
Qopfederat^ t/eteraf).
OUT-OF-PRINT BOOKS.
In the following list are many valuable works on Confederate history, and all of them more or less scarce at this time. As time goes on their value increases, as they become more and more difficult to procure, and those who are interested in building up a Confederate library should not let this opportunity pass. As there is but one copy to offer of some, your second and third choice should be given. Short History of the Confederate States of America. By Jefferson Davis.
Cloth.... $5 00
Memoirs of Jefferson Davis. By Mrs. Davis. Two vols 8 00
Life of Jefferson Davis. By Frank H. Alfriend 4 00
Messages and Papers of the Confederacy. Compiled by Hon. J. D. Richard- son. Two vols 7 00
Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. By Gen.
Henry Lee; edited by his son, Gen. R. E. Lee 6 00
Life and Letters of Gen. R. E. Lee. By Dr. J. William Jones 4 00
Four Years with General Lee. By Col. Walter L. Taylor 3 50
Four Years under Mars' Robert. By Col. Robert Stiles 3 50
Life and Campaigns of Gen. N. B. Forrest. By Jordan and Pryor. Auto- graphed by General Beauregard. 6 50
Reminiscences of the Civil War. By Gen. John B. Gordon 5 00
Scraps from the Prison Table of Camp Chase and Johnson's Island, with list of prisoners there exchanged September, 1862. A valuable historic record.
By Joe Barbiere 5 00
Prison Life of Jefferson Davis. By Dr. John N. Craven 4 00
Shelby and His Men. By John N. Edwards, who served with the great Mis- souri cavalry leader 5 00
Service Afloat. By Admiral Raphael Semmes 7 50
Two Years on the Alabama. By Lieut. Arthur Sinclair 5 00
With Sword and Scalpel. By Dr. John N. Wyeth 5 00
A Belle of the Fifties. By Mrs. Clement Clay Clopton, of Alabama 5 00
A Southern Girl in 1861. By Mrs. D. Giraud Wright 4 50
Poems by Henry Timrod. Memorial Edition 2 50
Order from the Confederate Veteran, Nashville, Tenn.
TO HONOR MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY. The Matthew Fontaine Maury Association, of Richmond, Va., has the following pamphlets for sale:
1. A Sketch of Maury. By Miss Maria Blair.
2. Matthew Fontaine Maury. By Mrs. Elizabeth Buford Phillips.
3. Memorials to Three Great Virginians — Lee, Jackson, Maury. By John Coke, Miller, and Morgan.
4. Financial Prospectus.
All four sent for $1.00, postpaid.
Order from Mrs. E. E. Moffitt, 1014 West Franklin Street, Richmond, Va.
LEADING ARTICLES IN THIS NUMBER. page
Message from the Commander in Chief, U. C. V 3
Robert Edward Lee, Spldier and Gentleman. By John Grimball Wilkins 4
Tribute to Gen. C. I. Walker. By Col. Ell Torrance 5
The Lee Museum. By William M. Brown 5
The Burning of Columbia. By Mrs. Jane Adger Glassell 6
Tribute to the Gallant Pelham 7
William R. Bringhurst: A Tribute 8
The Ordinance of Secession 9
The Culture of the Old South. By Mrs. William Lyne 10
^^^frowfcand Capture of Colonel Streight . Bj Capt. James Dinkins. 15
/' Bean's Station, Tenn. By J. W. Minnich 18
Tb • Battle of Monocacy. By Judge G. H. Worthington 20
-Mgi.ers of the Declaration of Independence 38
Denartnienis: Last Roll 24
U. D. C 28
C. »M. A 34
5. CIV 7.7..'!'.!. 36
J. A. JOEL & CO
SILK AND BUNTIN FLAGS AND BANNER
U. S., CONFEDERAT] AND STATE FLAGS
SPECIAL FLAGS AN BANNERS MADE T ORDER AT SHOR NOTICE
147 Fulton Strec New York, N. Y.
Seeks to Locate Sword. — W. Chew, 1836 Park Row, Dallas, Tc writes: "My uncle, Robert E. Ch. major in a Tennessee Regiment, killed at the battle of Prairie Gr< Ark. Dr. Keller, who lived of years at Hot Springs, told me that or of the regiment preserved my uncle sword and watch, and I am hoping 1 locate them by making this inquir through the Veteran. Any inform- tion will be appreciated.
A. J. Rynerd, 3215 Oakland Avenu. Dallas, Tex., makes inquiry for a hi: cory of Walthall's Mississippi Brigid which he thinks was written by the la1 Captain Sykes, of Aberdeen, Mis Anyone knowing of this book will plea; communicate with him.
J. C. De Puyster, 447 South Orang Avenue, Orlando, Fla., wishes to seem a roster of those who served undi General Forrest, or to learn whethi J. W. Howell, who, he thinks, ' ^ iv^e from Pikesville, Ala., was one of '
The Davis Fai
CDavies and. Da'
in Wales and Amek
Genealogy of Morgan David, 1611- 19^7, compiled by Harry Alexan- der Davis. Over 400 families of the name. Male and female lines shown. Complete ancestral record of Jefferson Davis. Contains many Confederate service records never before published. Discount to Chapters, U. D. C.
455 Pages, Full Index, Clofh, '$T0.00
Address Maj. Harry A. Davis 316 Shepherd St., N. W. WASHINGTON, D. C.
Qp\) federate l/eterap
PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF CONFEDERATE ASSOCIATIONS AND KINDRED TOPICS.
\
tered as second-class matter at the post office at Nashville, Term., inder act of March 3, 1879.
ceptance of maiing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec- ion 1103, act of October 3, 1917, and authorized on July 5, 1918. blished by the Trustees of the Confederate Veteran, Nash- ville, Tenn.
OFFICIALLY REPRESENTS: United Confederate Veterans,
United Daughters of the Confederacy,
Confederated Southern Memorial AssociATloNt Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Though men deserve, they may not win, success;
The brave will honor the brave, vanquished none the less.
ice $1.50 Per Year. \ gle Copy, IS Cents. /
Vol. XXXVI. NASHVILLE, TENN., JANUARY, 1928.
No. 1.
fS.A. CUNNINGHAM i Founder.
UNITED CONFEDERATE VETERANS
GENERAL OFFICERS.
N. J. C. Foster, Houston, Tex Commander in Chief
N. H. R. Lee, Nashville, Tenn Adjutant General and Chief of Staff
IS. W. B. Kernan, 7219 Elm Street, New Orleans, La.
Assistant to the Adjutant General N. W. D. Matthews, Oklahoma City, Okla Chaplain General
DEPARTMENT COMMANDERS.
N. E. D. Taylor, Richmond, Va Army of Northern Virginia
in. A. T. Goodwyn, Elmore, Ala Army of Tennessee
N. R. A. Miller, Abilene, Tex Trans-Mississippi
DIVISION COMMANDERS.
abama — Jasper Gen. T. P. Lamkin
Kansas — Little Rock Gen. J. W. Hollis
3RIDA — Tallahassee Gen. T. J. Appleyard
orgia — Atlanta Gen. D. B. Freeman
ntucky — Richmond Gen. N. B. Deatherage
uisiana — Coushatta Gen. L. W. Stephens
aRYLAnd — Baltimore Gen. H. M. Wharton
ssissippi — Durant Gen. F. A Howell
ssouri — Kansas City Gen. A. A. Pearson
rth Carolina, Ansonville Gen. W. A. Smith
lahoma — Tulsa Gen. J. A. Yeager
jth Carolina — Columbia Gen. D. W. McLaurin
nnessee — Nashville Gen. John P. Hickman
xas — Dallas Gen. R. C. Cornwall
iginia — Petersburg Gen. Homer Atkinson
est Virginia — Lewisburg Gen. Thomas H. Dennis
lifornia — Los Angeles Gen. S. S. Simmons
HONORARY APPOINTMENTS.
n. James A. Thomas, Dubr , Ga Honorary Commander for Lift
N. K. M. Van Zandt, F. orth, Tex Honorary Commander for Life
n. W. B. Freeman, Richr d, Va Honorary Commander for Life
n. Felix H. Robertson, Waco, Tex Honorary Commander for Life
v. Giles B. Cooke, Mathews, Va Honorary Chaplain General forLife
IE TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REUNION, U. C. V.
The Place. — Little Rock, Ark.
The Time.— May 8-11, 1928.
The Headquarters. — Hotel Marion.
A MESSAGE FOR COMRADES IN THE NEW YEAR.
January 1, 1928.
This day I send greetings to my comrades who have sur- vived for nearly sixty-four years the War between the States, wishing you this year health and contentment. May sweet angels attend you in life or in death.
I am calling on each State Commander that the per capita dues be sent in to the national and State Adjutants at once. This amount should be fifty cents from each veteran, twenty- five cents for national and twenty-five cents for the State. This is the only way to have your Camps in good standing, for your State to have the proper number of delegates to the Little Rock reunion.
I am asking also the Confederate Associations and n y staff to give special effort to add to the circulation of the Vt. " n for the new year. As this is the only way we have to keep i-i touch with each other, please renew and get new subscribers for the new year, 1928, so we may have a large circulation. "Please do not fail in this."
With love and best wishes, your obedient servant,
J. C. Foster, Commander in Chief, U. C. V.
A LIFE AND ITS ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
On the 7th of November, Gen. K. M. VanZandt, former Commander in Chief, U. C. V., celebrated his ninety-first birth- day by attending to his regular duties as president of the Fort Worth National Bank, which he helped to organize more than fifty years ago. In looking back over his long and ac- tive life, General VanZant told of his ambitions when he located at Fort Worth, going there from Marshall, his first home in Texas. These ambitions were four:
To establish a school, a Sunday school, a newspaper, and a railroad — and he accomplished it all, in addition to founding the first bank there. And many other things he helped to accomplish for his home city, and his life there has been an example of right living, so that he is known as the "First Citizen of Fort Worth." Ever looking forward, he visions the continued material advancement of his city, holding that its development as a great business metropolis should be with the desire also to create a center of morality and culture — ■ and that is his creed.
4
^oi>federat<^ l/eterap.
Qopfederat^ l/eterai).
Office: Methodist Publishing House Building, Nashville, Tenn.
E. D. POPE. Editor.
ROBERT EDWARD LEE— SOLDIER AND GENTLEMAN
BY JOHN GRIMBALL WILKINS, CHARLESTON, S. C.
To a visitor from the Southland, Arlington, the old home of Gen. Robert E. Lee, gives a heartache. The rooms of the old mansion are left to memories and silence. His name is not on the Temple of Fame at Arlington, yet he was the finest soldier the English race ever produced, and America should be proud of this great son. For four long years, with his poorly equipped army, he faced the well-fed and well-equipped soldiery of the North. His genius was always bright. He was so gentle in peace, so invincible in war, with a character so clean, with a nature so loved and honored. Why, Stone- wall Jackson said of Lee, "I would follow him blindfolded."
When a Southerner stands before the statue of Lee in Rich- mond, it makes his heart beat warm and quick, and he feels a pride coming into his soul, for that man belongs alone to Dixie. It took the sweet, chivalrous charm and spirit of the Old South to produce such a soldier. No other section of the country, nor of the world, could have done it. He needs no marble nor bronze tablet at Arlington Cemetery to keep his name bright, because every Southern fireside will remember him and his deeds, which grow grander as the years go by. Just Robert E. Lee, soldier and gentleman; there is no oc- casion to mention his rank. We can see him now in command of the Army of Northern Virginia; at the battle of the Wilder- ness, where his men pushed his horse back from the firing lines. We i an see him again just before Appomattox, when Grant was closing in on his great antagonist, whose genius was never brighter; no adversity could destroy it.
V the four years' struggle was coming to a close ; the gray-
*u veterans could never forget in after years the memory of Lee as he rode along their tattered ranks. Still the light winds will ever blow through the sweet pines and over the soft plowed fields of old Virginia and by the quiet battle grounds now hushed forever.
What war in history ever put such fighters in the field as Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Wade Hampton, M. C. Butler, John B. Gordon, and Pickett — who led that celebrated charge at Gettysburg, Cemetery Ridge, with fifteen thousand of Lee's veterans? We all love Dixie; out there the cotton fields are so white in the fall sunlight, and far away you can see the pale blue of the distant hills — and you feel very proud of the Old South which gave us such men.
Lee has crossed over the river to meet Jackson and the rest of his old soldiers on the other side, resting "in the shade of the trees." And we think of the old veterans of that glorious Army of Northern Virginia, after the surrender, pressing about their hero to touch his hands or the bridle of his horse, to express their sympathy as he told them "Good-by" and "God bless you." They have nearly all joined their old com- mander now.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night, Not a sound save the rush of the river, Where soft ff *'e dew on the face of the dead — The picke v forever."
France with him out on that barren isle out in the Atlantic Ocean — St. Helena — and a young Irish surgeon, to keep him company, spending six awful years on that God-forsaken is- land, whose rugged sides jutted out on the rolling surf for nearly a thousand feet, while below, in the inlet, a British "man o' war" pulled at its anchor chains, ready for action, ever watching this lictle man, just a few inches over five feet.
But when we think of Robert E. Lee and the closing years of his life, we think of the old State of Virginia and the little town of Lexington. The most beautiful part of Lee's life was when he returned home and became the president of Wash- ington College, and taught the Southern boys — many sons of those he had led in battle — encouraging them with his match- less character to go out into the world remembering the in- fluence of their college days. And when we think of Robert E. Lee in these last few years of his life, we picture him riding about the town of Lexington and far out in the peaceful coun- tryside, the little children running to the gates to wave their hands and say, " Good morning, General Lee," for the children knew he was good and great — "the man in gray on his old war horse, 'Traveller.'"
And the last scene, when this great Virginian passed away so peacefully in his native State, among the people who loved and honored him, and in the funeral procession his favorite horse, Traveller, who had carried him safely over many battle fields, was walking slowly with saddle empty.
When reading of Virginia and her wonderful history, it is always
"Virginia first, then Lee."
France hono' tragic was th' last dayg, wi
of her great Napoleon, but how wonderful soldier, how lonely his jlish guard and just a marshal of
HISTORIC WEALTH GOING TO WASTE.
BY REV. JAMES A. LYONS, GLADE SPRING, VA.
In libraries and attics of homes in our Southland there are carloads of valuable history, some of it priceless, on the road to the junk pile. Much of it in book form is never read, or even referred to for data, while periodicals are piled up in out-of-the-way corners as useless as wooden shoe pegs in a bake shop — except for rat nests.
This is not fancy, but fact of easy demonstration. There are literally thousands of our people, especially old ones, who, like myself, want to leave this literature where it will be most effective in bringing truth to the minds and hearts of our young people, who are being fed up on Confederate his- tory, so called, from hostile sources.
I suggest that the U. D. C. women, God bless them! turn their attention this way:
1. Let each Chapter canvass its immediate field, gather up the publications indicated, not omitting precious manu- scripts, and, under direction of the Historian, reduce periodi- cals to consecutive order and compile as far as possible, com- plete files of the same. Copies lacking can be secured by ex- change among U. D. C. Chapters; books also.
2. When this is done, localities for permanent libraries can be designated by official action of district, State, and general organizations. Care must be taken that large cities do not absorb an undue share to the impoverishment of far needier places. It must be remembered that an overwhelming pro- portion of our Southern folk are not in reach of library facili- ties of any kind.
The sooner our people are "Yankeeized" in the matter of historical self-defense, the better for all concerned. Even the reputation of our dead is involved. It is now or never with us to rid a host of descendants of Confederate soldiers of the slanderous suspicion that their forbears were brave, but barbarous, fighting to keep negroes in slavery.
Qopfcderat^ l/eterai).
5
TRIBUTE TO GEN. C. I. WALKER.
In the following a sincere tribute is paid to Gen. C. I. .Valker, of South Carolina, by one who fought on "the other ide," but who has ever shown his friendship for the veterans of he Southern Confederacy — Col. Ell Torrance, of Minneapo- is, Minn., former Commander in Chief, G. A. R. He writes tnder date of December 16, 1927:
"I have learned of the death of Gen. C. Irvine Walker, ormer Commander in Chief of the United Confederate /eterans.
"This news did not surprise me, as he had reached a good Id age, but I nevertheless experienced a feeling of sorrow hat he had passed on. We corresponded regularly for the ist fifteen years. His letters to me have been carefully pre- erved, for they gave strong evidence of his love for his friends nd for his country, and especially for his State.
"He rendered efficient service in making the fiftieth an- iversary of the battle of Gettysburgh a wonderful success, is chairman of the National Committee of the Grand Army f the Republic, having the celebration in charge, I was rought into very close touch with General Walker. On everal occasions we met with the Executive Committee at Washington, D. C, and also at Gettysburgh, planning for he success of the celebration. On one occasion, we stopped t the Raleigh Hotel, in Washington, occupying adjoining joins, between which the door was always open; often we rould visit together until midnight, talking over the war and ur experiences in that sad and mighty struggle. He had no pologies to make for the part he had taken in that great con- ict and firmly believed that the right to secede from the fnion was not open to question. He certainly did his full lare to make secession a success, and his record as a soldier nd colonel of the 10th South Carolina Infantry, which he Dmmanded at the close of the war, furnishes ample proof f the courage and fighting qualities of the South Carolinians, he better soldier, the better I liked him, and the finer the :cord of General Walker and his soldiers, the greater was ty admiration for them. But to me, the crown of it all was is kindly, gentle, and loving spirit.
"He suffered many disappointments and sorrows, but he ore them with little complaint and made the best of every tperience that entered into his life. I visited him at his ome in Charleston some years ago, where I met his wife, ho was one of the noblest of women. I was accompanied y my wife, and we were received by General and Mrs. Walk- ' and their friends and neighbors as though we belonged to le family and were part of 'their people.'
"I am glad that I knew him, and am glad that our ac- uaintance was so continued and affectionate, and I am sorry lat I will see his face no more.
"In preparation for Christmas and before learning of Gen- •al Walker's death, I had written this letter to send him:
"'Dear Octogenarian Comrade:
"'The fleeting years, like thistle down, Have drifted out of sight. The boys are mustered out of life; let
no man say 'Good night!' The boys in Blue and boys in Gray sleep peacefully together;
And God's own stars shine through the flag and make it pleasant weather.'
"Fraternally yours, Ell Torrance."
"Christmas, 1927." 1*
THE LEE MUSEUM.
BY WILLIAM M. BROWN, WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY.
More than two years ago, several interested alumni of Washington and Lee started a movement looking to the es- tablishment of a "Lee Museum" in some suitable place on the University campus. For many years — in fact, since Gen- eral Lee became president of the institution — many objects connected with him have been in the University's possession. In addition to these, it is well known that there are many other articles — papers, books, letters, and the like — scattered throughout the country in the hands of private individuals which should be collected in one place and put on display to the thousands who are and may become interested in the life and character of General Lee.
There is no more logical place for the establishment of such a museum than Washington and Lee University, and it is to be regretted that the collection of such relics of Gen- eral Lee was not begun in a systematic way several decades ago. There is not now in any museum or private collection extant, so far as the writer is aware, an accumulation of relics pertaining solely to General Lee and the members of his im- mediate family. In contrast to this rather amazing fact, there are several collections of Lincoln relics (or Lincolniana, as the collectors call them), one or two collections of Jeffer- soniana, and many other notables. Further, the demand for such articles among collectors, and the fact that many letters, papers, and documents become destroyed through the ig- norance or carelessness of the owners, makes it increasingly difficult to get together a collection of objects pertaining to any famous personage who lived as long as fifty or seventy- five years ago.
Consequently, the time for the opening of a Lee Museum is now, and an excellent beginning has already been made with this end in view.
At its meeting in June, 1926, the Board of Trustees con- stituted an official Committee on the Lee Museum, consist- ing of President Henry Louis Smith, Mr. Harrington Waddell, and Professors F. L. Riley and William M. Brown. At the same time a small appropriation was set aside for the pur- chase of such relics and papers as could not be obtained by gift or loan and which seemed to the Committee important enough to add to the collection. A call was sent out to the alumni and friends of the University to come to the aid of the Committee in this rather difficult undertaking. Some response was made by a few alumni, but up to this time the great majority have shown little or no interest in the matter. The Committee, however, has continued its work steadily and has added a number of articles to those already in pos- session of the University at the time this movement was begun.
During the past summer the entire chapel has been rendered as fireproof as it is possible to make it, and, upon the recommendation of the Lee Museum Committee, two basement rooms have been set aside for purposes connected with the Museum. Both of these rooms have remained in disuse for many years, but they have been made very attrac- tive as a result of the repairs recently completed. They im- mediately adjoin General Lee's office, and the smaller room will be used for the purpose of displaying books, pamphlets, and photographs of a dignified and authoritative nature, to be sold to visitors at reasonable prices. The profits from the sale of all these articles will be added to the general fund for the maintenance of the chapel and Museum. The Commit- tee also hopes to receive voluntary contributions from many of the visitors to the University, and these amounts will also be added to the above-mentioned fund.
^opfederat^
l/eterap.
In the larger room will be located the Museum proper, where the most interesting relics of General Lee, and also some connected with General Washington, will be placed on display. No admission fee will be charged to the Museum. Here, when the arrangements now under way are completed, will be found portraits of various members of the Lee family, many photographs of General Lee and other Confederate generals, household articles donated by members of his family, letters, papers, and reports connected with General Lee before and after he became president of Washington College.
At its meeting held on October 11 of last year, the Board of Trustees, at the request of the Lee Museum Committee, made an appropriation of $1,500 to provide for the purchase of a magnificent collection of Lee and Confederate relics owned by a gentleman in New York State, and also for the purchase of display cases to be used in the Museum. The collection referred to has been sold to the University by its owner, Mr. E. Titus Black, at about half its real value, and Mr. Black is also making a number of donations to the Museum since the purchase of his collection. He is a New Yorker by birth, but is much interested in Confederate history and is anxious to have his collection remain intact in some Southern institu- tion, where it will be available for historical and research purposes during many years to come.
Recently, Dr. W. P. Nye, a retired dentist of Radford, Va., and a Confederate veteran, has given to the University a very valuable collection of Confederate and Indian relics. The Confederate relics will be added to the Museum collection and the Indian relics will be placed on display elsewhere in the University. Dr. Nye is not an alumnus of Washington and Lee, but voluntarily, and without solicitation, has given his collection to the University with no restrictions, because of his admiration for General Lee and the institution over which the latter presided for five years.
Late last spring, Dr. George Boiling Lee, of New York City, grandson of General Lee and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University, sent as a loan to the Lee Museum a leather trunk which had belonged to General Lee and which contained many of the most valuable and cherished of the family relics. Many of these articles will be placed on dis- play in the basement of the chapel when the necessary equip- ment has been installed. The contents of the trunk consisted of a clock, several books, handkerchiefs, a razor, a watch, spoons, and other objects, all owned by General Lee; a linen suit worn by him, two locks of his hair, a pair of pistols which had once been the property of George Washington, General Lee's commission as lieutenant colonel in the United States army, a pair of his epaulets, etc.
At the present time the Committee needs the earnest and enthusiastic cooperation of all friends of the University especially in its work of getting donations to the Museum. There are still living a number of men who attended Wash- ington and Lee when General Lee was its president. There are others who know of the existence of relics, papers, docu- ments, and the like pertaining to General Lee and the Con- federacy, or to George Washington. Any such articles will be gladly received, either as loans or gifts, and prompt ac- knowledgment to the donors or lenders will be made.
Address the writer at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.
A Good Friend. — Sending two new subscriptions with his order for renewal for 1928, Comrade R. A. Hemphill, of Atlan- ta, Ga., says: "May you live long and prosper; yes, as long as there is a Confederate veteran or descendant of a veteran living to read your sacred pages."
THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA.
BY MRS. JANIE ADGER GLASSELL, SHREVEPORT, LA.
In the September number of the Veteran appeared an! article on the burning of Columbia which carried the statej ment by General Sherman that the city was burned by Wade' Hampton's setting fire to cotton to prevent its falling intq the hands of the Yankee army. It may be that he did burn* some cotton to save it from the Yankees, but one thing | know, and that is that General Sherman's officers set fire t> homes in Columbia.
I know of two instances where the buildings were set o fire by such officers. The first I shall mention was the horn of my grandfather's sister, Mrs. Agnes Adger Law, a widow whose lovely home was on one of the best streets in Columbia She had a niece living with her, who, with her young infant only a few days old, occupied an upstairs bedroom. As therqi were no men in the house, my aunt sent for General Sherman]] and asked him to put two officers in the house for protection He granted her request and put the officers in charge. My aunt invited them to sit down to a bountiful supper. When the meal was ended they picked up the lighted candles from! the table, and, when she asked what they intended doing! they laughed and said, "Well, old woman, we will show youl what we will do," and holding up the lighted candles they setiT fire to all the window curtains. My aunt just had time to get her niece and young baby downstairs and out of the burn ing house to safety. My aunt, being seventy-four years ol and delicate, after wandering the streets, exposed to the wind, caught a dreadful cold from which she never recovered. She finally found shelter that night in the theological seminary I will give you a few lines from her obituary which I read yes terday in my father's family Bible:
"Thus has passed from earth to heaven a mother in Israel. Her hospitable mansion, like its owner, is in ruins and dust and its mistress cruelly driven from her burning home int( the streets of a burning city, alone and sick, to find sheltei where she most deserved it, in the halls of that seminary so liberally endowed by her. From its doors, after great suffer ing borne with exemplary patience, she was carried tenderly by the students, as if a mother, and laid in her grave, the last services being conducted by a professor who had been her friend for thirty-six years."
I can tell of another instance related to me by an old lady who at that time was a girl attending school in a convent just out of the city. The Mother Superior sent for General Sher- man and talked with him, expecting some consideration, as she had been a schoolmate of his sister in a Kentucky convent years before. So General Sherman promised to send some of his officers out to protect the convent property. After having] supper — it seems they always ate before burning — they took candles up into the tower and set the building on fire. The nuns and pupils fled into the woods, where they spent the whole night.
Gen. Wade Hampton may have burned cotton, but Gen. Tecumseh Sherman and his officers set fire to the homes of Columbia, which were filled with old women, children, and helpless babes.
My grandfather lived in Fairfield District, S. C, fifty miles above Columbia, but as he was in feeble health, he, with his family, was spending some months on his plantation in Louisi- ana, so his home "Albion" in South Carolina was vacant when Sherman passed on his march to the sea. Old "Uncle Enoch," the carriage driver, was left in charge of the place, and when he learned that the soldiers were almost there, burning houses as they came, he hardly had time to take down
Qoi>federat^ l/eterai).
7
the family portraits and bury them in the woods. Every- thing else was burned with the house, and the soldiers carried the handsome rosewood piano into the yard and filled it with corn to feed the horses.
After the war my grandfather had the portraits brought to Louisiana, where to-day they hang on the walls of my home, oil portraits of three generations of the Adger family saved by the faithful old slave. The family of this old slave did not leave our plantation after the negroes were given their free- dom, but most of them lived and died on our plantation, .Carolina Bluff, and only last week a nephew of "Uncle Enoch," who was always called "Uncle Noah Adger," passed away on a neighboring plantation, after a long life of over ninety years, and was brought back and laid to rest in the old plantation graveyard, near the grave of his old aunt, who has on the marble slab over her grave —
"JANE ADGER, AGED 102 YEARS, WHO FAITHFULLY AND LOVINGLY SERVED FIVE GENERATIONS OF THE ADGER FAMILY."
..
BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE."
IN TRIBUTE TO THE GALLANT PELHAM.
Near Elkwood, Va., standing by the Lee Highway, one of Virginia's most traveled thoroughfares, is a small monument dedicated to Maj. John Pelham, of Alabama, whose glorious service in the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia brought forth General Lee's tribute to "the gallant Pelham."
This monument is the gift of George E. Douglas, a mer- chant and farmer living near Elkwood, now an elderly man, who has grown up in the heart of Virginia made historic by the battle fields of the War between the States. He has made
a a study of these fields of carnage, and his desire to honor the Southern heroes prompted him to raise this stone to the memory of Maj. John Pelham, who was killed at the battle of Kelley's Ford, which is near the site of the monument. Alabama furnished many brave men in this and later wars,
t but none braver than Pelham, a mere youth, whose name is
li honored wherever brave men come together.
The shaft stands on a corner of the grounds of the Douglas
h home, on the highway, approximately marking the spot
1 where the cavalcade bearing the unconscious form of Major Pelham reached the highway on its way to Culpeper the evening after the battle. The base of the monument was made from a bowlder taken from the battle field of Kelley's Ford, and near the spot where he fell, according to eye-
f witnesses. On this stands a granite column, six feet high,
"bearing these inscriptions:
"IN MEMORY OF MAJOR JOHN PELHAM,
BORN, SEPTEMBER 7, 1843, MORTALLY WOUNDED, MARCH 17, 1863,
NEAR KELLEY'S FORD, VA."
On another face is this:
"LIKE MARSHAL NEY, ONE OF THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE."
On the obverse:
ERECTED BY GEORGE E., AND HIS WIFE, LENORE DOUGLAS,
1926.
The Pelham Chapter, V . D. C, of Birmingham, Ala. — ■ the only Chapter in the great organization bearing the name of the young hero — was selected by Mr. Douglas for the honor
of caring for this memorial through the years to come, to whom he turned it over by deed of gift, and whose privilege it will be to see that it is ever protected and given loving care. This Chapter had the handsome bronze tablet suitably inscribed and placed on the monument.
On October 29, the dedication ceremonies took place, with the Culpeper Chapter, U. D. C, in charge of general ar- rangements. After a bountiful picnic lunch, the exercises were carried out. Hon. Henry B. Steigall, member of Con- gress from Alabama, had been delegated by the governor of Alabama to represent the people of that State on the oc- casion, and his address was most eloquent. Mr. Douglas made the speech of presentation, and the monument was accepted for the Birmingham Chapter by Hon. George Hud- dleston, of Alabama, Representative in Congress. The veil was drawn by Miss Edith Burgess, a student at the University of Virginia. Randall's beautiful poem, "The Dead Can- noneer," was impressively given by Capt. Tom Hooper, and others contributed their part to the interest of the occasion.
An honored guest of the occasion was Mrs. Emma Pelham Hank, of Richmond, with her three little daughters, and other members of the Pelham family were there from Alabama. The only survivor known of Pelham's Battery is Robert M. Mackall, who was also in attendance, and other Confederate veterans were there to pay tribute to their gallant comrade of the sixties.
John Pelham was born near Alexandria, Calhoun County, Ala., September 14, 1838, the third son of Dr. and Mrs. Atkinson Pelham. He entered the West Point Academy in 1856, from which he resigned a few days before he was due to graduate in order to join the Confederate army. Major Pelham's record in the Confederate army is one of the bright- est in a galaxy of brilliant records, and his name will grow with the years. His achievements were — and will continue to be — the subject of thought and discussion by all men who admire courage and ability, displayed to so marked an extent by Major Pelham.
"The Gallant Pelham" met a gallant death in the battle of Kelley's Ford, Va., on March 17, 1863. His body was re- turned to his native Alabama and rests in the cemetery at Jacksonville.
"His eyes had glanced over every battle field of the war from Manassas to his death, and he was, with a single excep- tion, a brilliant actor in all. The memory of the gallant Pel- ham has many manly virtues, his noble nature and purity of character are enshrined in the hearts of all who knew him. His record has been bright and spotless, his career brilliant and successful. He fell the noblest sacrifice on the altar of his country, to whose service he had dedicated his life from the beginning of the war."
Gen. Robert E. Lee said: "I mourn the loss of Major Pelham. I had hoped that a long career of usefulness was before him. He was stricken down in the midst of both, and before he could receive the promotion which he had richly won." •
"'The gallant Pelham,' and that from Lee was worth more than any rank in any army, more valuable than any title of nobility or any badge of any other," said Morris Schaff, of the Union Army, in "The Spirit of Old West Point."
The Birmingham News pays this tribute: "The sureness with which Pelham framed, the celerity with which he exe- cuted his plans, his unrivalled capacity in discerning the enemy's most vulnerable point, and his marvelous skill in smashing it, made of him, young though he was, to the Army of Northern Virginia what Desaix, the boy-general, was to the little Corsican. Like his infantry rival of the French army
8
^opfederafc^ l/eterai).
Pelham was killed in batde — Desaix at Marengo, Pelham at Kellyton.
Alma Rittenberry, State Correspondent, U. D. C, adds this for the Pelham Chapter:
"From Alabama went forth this youth. It was here that he was nurtured, here that his fine character flowered. Af- fixed to this memorial near Elkwood is a bronze table!: — the gift of the Pelham Chapter, United Daughters of the Con- federacy, of Birmingham. In his deed of gift, Mr. Douglas, mindful that Pelham was of Alabama's loins, lodged posses- sion of this Pelham Memorial in the Pelham Chapter, U. D. C, here in Birmingham. The gracious act of this Virginian awakens keen appreciation in Alabama. It will be the privi- lege of the Pelham Chapter to care for this memorial.
"In this State's inspiriting record there are few deeds shin- ing with clearer valor than are those of 'the gallant Pelham.' "
WILLIAM R. BRINGHURST— A TRIBUTE.
"He never held a high office; he did not climb the ladder of fame; he was hardly known outside the borders of his State; he did nothing to challenge first-page news stories or to provoke editorial discussion; and yet death ended for Wil- liam R. Bringhurst, of Clarksville, a life that is in every re- spect worthy of the very highest emulation. He made real contributions to society; he accomplished, during his eighty- three honorable and well-spent years, much that will survive him. He was that type of Tennesseean, American, and man whose homely virtues, whose high appreciation of man's estate, and whose devotion to the best ideals of the race have done more than history often credits them with doing for the true advancement of our civilization."
Of the many beautiful tributes which have been paid to the life of William R. Bringhurst, of Clarksville, Tenn., which closed on December 4, 1927, perhaps this editorial paragraph from the Nashville Tennessean gives a clearer picture of him who had lived and moved among us for eighty-three years, years full and overflowng with the kindly deeds and duties of a simple life; just to do his duty day by day and to reach out a helping hand to friend or neighbor or the stranger with- in his gates — that was the dominating thought of his long life, an active life almost to the very end. For fifty-four years he had been a hotel proprietor, and he was doubtless the most widely known man in that business in this Southern section, and perhaps, in point of service, the oldest in the United States. All who partook of his hospitality became his friends, for his cordial disposition and treatment of guests was never forgotten. It was not merely business with him, but an op- portunity to share a part of his home with those who were away from theirs. He was congenial with the old and the young, and thus his friends were legion.
William Rufus Bringhurst was a native of Clarksville by "coincidence," as he facetiously expressed it, his father, Wil- liam Robert Bringhurst, a native of Germantown, Penn., having located at Clarksville by accident. He met a girl from his home State, Miss Julia Matilda Huling, of Harrisburg, Pa., who was visiting friends in that section, and shortly after- wards they were married. He was then established in his business as a carriage maker, and helped to build up the town of Clarksville. His son, William Rufus, was born November 4, 1844, the day that James K. Polk was elected President of the United States. He was educated in the public schools of Clarksville and at Stewart College, which was later the South- western Presbyterian University. As a boy of seventeen, he joined the Confederate army in 1862. He was then clerking in. the hardware store of F. S. Beaumont, who had raised a
company and gone with the 14th Tennessee Infantry to Vir- ginia, leaving the business in charge of the clerks. One by| one these had enlisted until young Bringhurst was left iffl charge. One day some Confederate cavalrymen, under com- mand of Col. Tom Woodward (a Connecticut Yankee!
WILLIAM R. BRINGHURST.
who had lived in the South some years), came charging through the main street of the town, carrying a varied as- sortment of arms. They were simply on a lark, but their seeming earnestness deceived the Federals, some of whom were captured and paroled; then Colonel Woodward demanded the surrender of the force entrenched on the Stewart College property, under a Colonel Mason, who, becoming alarmed, surrendered to the small Confederate force, and he and his men were paroled, and sent back to Ohio by steamboat.
In the meantime, young Bringhurst had closed the store, rushed home for his brother's gun, joined Colonel Wood- ward's men, and participated in the capture of the Federals. The Confederates continued to operate in that section for some two months, then went out with Forrest and joined the regular army of Tennessee, William Bringhurst accompany- ing them as a member of Compan}' A, Woodward's 2nd Ken- tucky Cavalry. He thus served through the battle of Chicka- mauga, and was then with Wheeler until the fall of Richmond, when he went to Greensboro, N. C, and became a member of the escort for President Davis and the Confederate treasury. An interesting account of his experiences in that connection was given by him in the Veteran for October, 1926. His command was with those who were turned back at the Savan- nah River, and he returned home by way of Augusta, Ga., where he was formally paroled.
For some years he was engaged in business at Clarksville, then opened a hotel at Sebree, Ky., but in 1875 he returned to Clarksville and established himself in the hotel business there, in which he had since been continuously engaged. In 1869, he was married to Miss Sallie Scott, daughter of Col..
I
^opfederat^ l/eterai).
W. H. Scott, of Hopkinsville, Ky. Ten children came to bless the home, and on April 29, 1919, they celebrated their Golden Wedding with an unbroken family chain. But the youngest son and the beloved wife preceded him in death, and three sons and six daughters now mourn the loss of the revered father.
To the Veteran, his passing is the loss of a devoted friend and a loyal patron. He had been a subscriber from the be- ginning and a contributor from his store of Confederate his- tory, his knowledge of which was accurate and extensive. He had faithfully served the Forbes Bivouac of Confederate Veterans since its organization soon after the war and was a true comrade in peace as he had been in times of stress. He was an outstanding citizen of his community, an enterprising and at all times a progressive citizen, always interested in the public welfare. His courtly bearing, genial disposition, and tender consideration endeared him to all, and not only in his home town, but wherever known, he will be sadly missed. He was a true Christian, a member of the Madison Avenue Methodist Church from 1856, and served on its board of trustees; a member of the Masonic fraternity, by which the last sad rites were conducted after funeral services at the church.
It is difficult to express the sense of loss which such a life occasions in its passing, and the test of appreciation is what is said by his own people. Nothing could be finer than the editorial tribute in his home paper, which concluded thus:
"As a soldier in war, as a citizen in peace, as a follower of the Great Teacher, he measured to the highest standard of manhood. His religious faith was to those who came within the circle of his amiable life a benediction and an inspiration.
"But the real gem of his character displayed its brilliance and its beauty in his home life. No husband was ever truer to his marital vows or bestowed more love and tenderness and care on his companion. No father ever merited the af- fection and the gratitude of his children more than he. Taps for the old soldier! Good night for the father! Home at last for the Christian! God bless his memory!"
THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. Referring to the statement which has been widely published of late that the original of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession was in the possession of a man in Ohio, A. M. Barnes in Kind Words, brings out testimony to show that this valuable old paper could not be in the possession of any private individual, and quotes Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina, as follows:
"This is to say that the original Ordinance of Secession, adopted December 20, 1860, by a convention of the people of South Carolina and signed up the same day by the delegates thereto, is in this office, and has been in the custody, first of the Secretary of State and then of this office since the afore- said 20th of December, 1860."
This is testimony sufficient to show that the Ohio man could have only a copy of the original ordinance, and Mr. Barnes says that a number of these were made by request of members of the convention. This is the text of the famous old document:
"At a convention of the people of the State of South Caro- lina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to
Charleston, and there by divers adjournments to the twen- tieth day of December in the same year,
"An Ordinance: To dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and the other States united with her under the compact entitled, 'The Constitution of the United States of America.'
"We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in conven- tion assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby de- clared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention, on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the 'United States of America,' is hereby dis- solved.
"Done at Charleston, the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty."
The story of the signing of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession is told by Mr. Barnes in the following, and it has not lost interest in all these years':
"When as a result of the national election in November of 1860, Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the United States, the legislature of South Carolina, which had remained in session, awaiting the news, called for an election of delegates to a popular convention to be held in the following month. It was thus that on December 17, 1860, the Democratic State Convention assembled in Columbia. Each delegate wore a blue badge attached to his hat instead of being pinned on the lapel of his voat as was the custom later. But one session of the convention was held, however, when learning that smallpox had broken out in the city it was decided to adjourn to Charleston. There the meetings were held in St. Andrew's Hall, a building on Broad Street, belonging to the St. Andrew's Society, an organization founded in 1729 prin- cipally for charitable purposes. The building sat back from the street in the midst of a garden.
"The president of the convention was Gen. D. F. Jamison, the delegate from Barnwell County. The convention is de- scribed by an eyewitness as one of men 'of a most dignified bearing and exceeding gravity of manner.' Yet underlying this outward calm was an unmistakable air of tenseness, likely at any moment to give place to an outbreak of excite- ment. Not a man there who did not understand fully the real purpose for which the convention had been called, or who failed to recognize the crisis toward which the legislation was tending.
"It was exactly thirty minutes past eleven o'clock on the morning of December 20, as the records state, when a delegate stood up to read the Ordinance, which had been drafted by Dr. Francis Wardlaw, Chancellor of the State University. In the tense silence that ensued, as men sat with bated breath and rapidly beating hearts, the least sound was discernible. Outside, too, a great crowd had assembled that stood in massed formation to the very doors of the hall, tensely wait- ing to learn the action of the convention.
"When the ballot was called for every member of the con- vention, one hundred and nine in all, voted for the adoption of the Ordinance. Throughout the voting there was still evident that same grave demeanor that had marked the bearing of each delegate during the reading; but the moment the result of the voting was announced, the tumult of cheer- ing broke forth, which extended to the crowd without. The people outside struggled to enter the building; and despite
10
^oijfederat^ l/eterai).
the efforts of the door men, many of them succeeded. Soon the hall was filled to overflowing.
"It now having become evident that a larger hall would be necessary for the ratification of the Ordinance, the conven- tion adjourned to reassemble in Institute Hall, on Meeting Street, a building used by the State for the promotion of the in- dustrial arts. In procession, marching two and two, the dele- gates proceeded to the building selected. After prayer by the Rev. Dr. Bachman, of the Lutheran Church, the order of bus- iness was resumed. General Jamison made a few preliminary remarks, then called for a signing of the Ordinance. It was now close to seven o'clock in the evening. The bells of St. Michael's Church chimed the hour as the first three or four signatures were placed.
"When the last of the one hundred and nine signatures had been written, General Jamison, lifting the document from the table, and holding it impressively aloft, announced its ratification, at the same time proclaiming the State of South Carolina 'an independent commonwealth.'
"Following this announcement there was an outburst of cheers, and delegates and audience arose as one man, giving vent to their enthusiasm not only by voice, but by the waving of hats, canes, and handkerchiefs.
"The news of the signing of the Ordinance having been proclaimed outside the hall, the church bells began to ring; whistles blew; and shortly cannons were booming; while, as though with the swiftness of magic the State flag appeared on public buildings and private residences. Later in the evening there was a general celebration. The whole city was illumi- nated; bonfires were built on the Battery; while groups passed along the streets, bearing torches and singing Southern songs. On the following evening there was a mammoth torch- light procession, with bands of music.
"It was shortly afterwards that the 'Secession Song,' 'The Bonnie Blue Flag,' appeared. It was composed and set to music by Harry McCarthy, an Irish comedian, who with a small theatrical company was touring the South at the time. The line, 'The Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star,' had reference to the secession of South Carolina and the flag adopted by the State, a blue ground with a palmetto tree and a single star in white."
The following was contributed by Robert W. Sanders, of Greenville, S. C:
"A native of South Carolina, and one whose residence has been in the 'Palmetto State' since his birth — now over eighty years ago — I was thirteen years old when the Seces- sion Ordinance of South Carolina was adopted, December 20, 1860. More than once the erroneous printed statement has gone forth that this ordinance was passed in Columbia, S. C. That, however, is a mistake. Mr. Barnes, in the above ac- count, gives the correct history of that memorable event. Mr. Salley's account of the original document is, beyond doubt, also true. Copies of it have doubtless been referred to as being the original. I remember well when the news of the secession of South Carolina was flashed to Barnwell, S. C, my native county (district, as it was then called). There was great excitement, and also enthusiasm over it. Cleaving, as South Carolinians still do, to the State Rights doctrine as advocated and defended by John C. Calhoun, but few people in the State perhaps expected the bloody war to follow. They mistakenly thought that the State would go out of the Union and join with other States, peaceably forming the Confederacy.
"The Secession Convention held its meetings while sitting in Columbia, in the First Baptist Church edifice, which stands there yet, with its stately columns fronting Hampton Avenue.
The congregation had previously worshiped for years in a much smaller and far less imposing church building on an- other street. And I have read this story (no doubt a true one) that when Sherman's army entered Columbia, February 17, 1865, some of his men made inquiries of an old negro as to where that old building was, so they might burn it. They did burn the small old church house, believing that the Se- cession Convention had been held in it, instead of the large new building in which the convention had really met. Hence, the building in which the assembly took place, before moving to Charleston, escaped the enraged enemy's torch. This cruel torch (or rather torches) was applied by General Sherman's soldiers in many other places, however, and much of the beautiful city was left in ashes, as were homes, ginhouses, and the like, burned by that army along its relentless march from Savannah, Ga., to Greensboro, N. C.
"Misled people, in some sections of our great country, seem to have believed the false allegation against Gen. Wade Hampton that he burned Columbia by having bales of cotton fired on a street of the city. Even admitting that any build- ings 'caught fire' from burning cotton, there can be no doubt that the city was destroyed by numerous fires from the hands of Sherman's soldiers. This fact has been several times stated to me by aged, truthful, and honorable citizens of Columbia, eyewitnesses of the cruelties of Northern soldiers whom they saw set the fires a-going. Some of these old citizens made other statements to me about some shameful acts and words of some of Sherman's men that I would blush to see printed in the Confederate Veteran. The story that Hampton burned Columbia has no more truth in it than the cruelly false report that President Jefferson Davis was in women's clothes when he was captured on that memorable night while camping near a spring, a day's journey from Washington, Ga., whence he had departed that morning about nine o'clock."
THE CULTURE OF THE OLD SOUTH.
BY MRS. WILLIAM LYNE, * OF VIRGINIA.
Looking backward to my girlhood as I near my eighty- third year there is so much connected with the history of the Old South which will never be chronicled that I am often tempted to reminiscences; but those who knew my experiences have now nearly all answered the roll call of the Master's voice and gone to their eternal reward. Yet I am glad that I lived, in a sense, "when knighthood was in flower," and that my beaux were the gay sabreurs who wore the gray. I did not marry until after the war, but my husband fought with the Richmond Howitzers in twenty-seven of the worst battles and surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox. I also had five brothers in the service of the Confederacy; and my mother's home, on the Telegraph Road midway between Fredericksburg, Va., and Richmond, was the scene of many stirring events, for, after the battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse, the Yankees camped in our yard.
Mrs. Lyne was the famous beauty, Cassie Moncure, one of the belles of the sixties when Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. She is a great- great-great-granddaughter of Col. William Byrd, of Westover, and a great- niece of Richard Henry Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her father, Hon. William A. Moncure, was auditor of the State of Virginia under Gov. Henry A. Wise; and as her uncle, Chief Justice Richard Cassius Lee Moncure, was for thirty-five years president of the Supreme Court of Virginia, she used to attend the levees at the Confederate White House. Her cousin, John Moncure Daniel, was editor of the Examiner, and his caustic sarcasm wielded a great influence, for he was an experienced diplomat, having been minister to Italy. He belonged to the same family as Judge Peter Vivian, of the United States Supreme Court, who was an Associate Justice on the bench with Roger Taney, of Maryland.
Qogfederat^ l/eterai),
11
MRS. CASSIE MONCURE LYNE.
During the battle of Jericho Ford, Gen. U. S. Grant made our home his headquarters; and other Northern officers whom I recall as being there, and studying their maps in our yard under the big catalpa
tree, wire Genera! ^Ha- "'
Meade, Col. Nelson Miles, General Hum- phries, and Col. Wil- liam McKinley (after- wards President).
The Washington Artillery camped there for one winter and, being Frenchmen from New Orleans, they erected a theater and gave plays to re- lieve the tedium of the country life. This battalion was equip- ped by Mrs. Urqua- hart, the mother of the actress, Mrs. James Brown Potter. My brother, Maj.
Thomas Jefferson Moncure, having graduated at Lexington under Stonewall Jackson, early became the Chief Engi- neer of McLaw's Division; and at the Crater, at Peter- sburg, he had charge of the countermining, at the special request of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Another of my brothers, Judge Eustace Conway Moncure, was a scout for Gen. Robert E. Lee, attached to Gen. "Rooney" Lee's Brigade, and he rode with Stuart in his famous raid around McClellan, and was one of those who recognized the brave Latane when a stretcher was being borne by, covered with a blanket, for Latane's boot was showing, and my brother knew him well; but he rode on, with a sob in his heart, for our families, the Latanes, Moncures, and Peachys, are all related. Latane's burial by the ladies of Virginia has been immortalized by the painting of Washington, and it illustrated how bereft was our country, with all the men at the front.
As the war came closer and closer to us, both in privations and heartaches, we experienced almost starvation when Sheridan was tearing up the railroads and burning the bridges toward Ashland. I had to make my own shoes, and all the meal we had to eat was what my mother ground in her coffee mill, for both armies had burned our rail fences and taken all our cattle and provender.
When the seven days' battles raged around Richmond, for safety, I was sent to Georgia, betweens Athens and High Shoals, not so far from Stone Mountain, and so I saw life on a Southern plantation, where long avenues of crepe myrtle led to the manor house; and where I shall always glimpse in memory the negro women coming from the fields, riding mules; for they did not work in the evening sun, but would spin and card. We used to drive to church in a carriage with steps that let down, and it was upholstered with crimson satin; and four mules were required to pull it through the sand roads. Happy, happy days, though tidings came of terrible import to our family, for young Joe McCrae, who was a Georgia volunteer and a member of my aunt's household, was killed at Petersburg, Va. Then, news of Sherman's burning of Columbia, S. C, brought other heartaches, for my cousin, Mary Ambler Weed, was the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Convent there. She took her nuns and fled to the church and sent General Sherman word that she must
have a guard, which was furnished; but when the sacred cross of her convent fell, as the flames encircled it, she likened it to the falling of the Southern Cross and the end of our hopes for victory. She was my first school-teacher, and that brings me to the education of Southern girls in ante-bellum days.
As my father was auditor of Virginia, I was educated in Richmond, at the famous Richmond Female Institute, which was very near the White House of the Confederacy. It was founded in 1853, the year that William Makepeace Thackeray made his famous visit to the city; and though my father has told me that Thackeray's visit did not cause the enthusiasm accorded to Charles Dickens, yet the lectures by the author of "Vanity Fair" aroused a deep desire in the hearts of the Richmond parents to give greater educational opportunities to their girls and boys. So that year witnessed the establsh- ment of both the Richmond Female Institute and the Me- chanics Institute. When the doors of the Richmond Female Institute opened, over two hundred and twenty-five pupils were ready to matriculate. Most of them rode in their own carriages, driven by negro coachmen, who were pompous in manner and jealous for their young mistresses to shine in society. There were few paved streets then; and the city sprawled from Church Hill to Shockoe Hill and Chelsea, with spacious homes and beautiful gardens.
Virginia had planned for public education before the Pil- grims landed at Plymouth Rock, and that Harvard has the distinction of being an older university than William and Mary College was due to a terrible Indian massacre; for Virginia always encouraged culture and sent her sons to Edinburgh and Oxford, while the girls were taught by tutors at home. But when railroad travel made it possible for planters to send their daughters to finishing schools, Rich- mond early took a most important stand for the higher educa- tion of women, and these schoolgirls were destined to be clas- sified later as the Women of the Southern Confederacy. As I look back from my eighty years of retrospection to the years of suffering and the agony of four years of invasion of Dixie by the Northern troops, I see my contemporaries sewing for the soldiers, scraping lint and making sand bags for fortifica- tions, knitting and weaving, and nursing the sick and wounded — which they deemed their privilege and duty as they in- terpreted the Constitution.
When news came that the students of the Citadel Academy, of Charleston, S. C, had unfurled the Confederate flag over their barracks, some girls from the Palmetto State, who were terribly in earnest, made and unfurled a Confederate flag over the Richmond Female Institute, which thus became the first building in Richmond to proclaim its colors in loyalty to the Confederacy. Then tidings came that young Gordon McCabe, afterwards one of Virginia's most celebrated educa- tors and the intimate friend of the poet Tennyson, had made bold to place the flag of the Confederacy over the rotunda of the University of Virginia. McCabe was ever a daring spirit, and he and John Esten Cooke, the novelist of the Southern cause, were members of the same artillery battalion with my husband, the Richmond Howitzers. The day Virginia seceded happened to be my husband's seventeenth birthday, so he was only a gunner — though at the Wilderness, when his cannon was captured, he seized a rifle from the hands of a dead infantryman and led a charge where he recaptured his ordnance, but positively declined a captaincy, for he was devoted to driving his caisson. At the last terrible effort at Appomattox, when all seemed lost, and the cry went up, "If artillery would just come!" then McCarthy tells, in his "Story of the Army Life of Northern Virginia," that they put their ear to the ground, for they thought they detected
12
^OQfederat{ l/eterai).
the sound of oncoming cannon; and soon a shout went up, "Hurrah! It's Bill! It's Joe! Hurrah!" for slashing their horses into a furious gallop the Richmond Howitzers hove in sight. The Bill was my husband, William H. Lyne, who is named among those who surrendered with Gen. Robert E. Lee; and the "Joe" was his dear comrade, Mr. Fourquerean, of Richmond. How they loved the flag! — the flag of which Father Ryan wrote: "It is wreathed around with glory, and will live in song and story — though its folds are in the dust."
During the war, Father Ryan frequently preached in Rich- mond at St. Peter's Cathedral, and there was a deep mysticism about his sermons, for he felt the burden of war; and I shall never forget his quoting: "Far out on the ocean are billows that never will break on the beach. And I have heard voices in silence too lofty to utter in speech," which is one of his rarest pearls in the rosary of his lofty idealism and patriotism.
In making the statement that South Carolina girls at the Richmond Female Institute unfurled the first Confederate flag to float over a building in the city, I do not forget that young Crenshaw, whose father's home became the White House of the Confederacy, made a Confederate flag and put it up over the stable in their backyard; but this received no official recognition, as he was a mere lad, enthusiastic, boy- like, for his native State. However, when our governor, known as "Extra Billy" Smith, sought for a flag to wave over the State Capitol, Col. George Wythe Munford had his daughter to comply with the request; and she nearly sewed holes in her fingers making it out of bunting that had run the blockade, for the artist who painted this flag had literally dabbed on the turpentine, hence it was very stiff. At the sur- render, when our loved emblem was lowered, a soldier from Massachusetts took this ensign with him back to the North, but it has recently been returned to Virginia. Col. Munford's daughter later became Mrs. Talbott, of Richmond. The Munfords were staunch in their allegiance, and are related by marriage to the Rhetts, who were most prominent likewise in their love for the Confederacy. Truly, of our dear banners do we feel —
" Nothing but flags, yet they're bathed with tears, They tell of the triumphs of hopes and fears; They are sacred, pure, and we see no stain On those dear flags come home again."
It is not the purpose of this article, as I near the sunset of life, to rehash sectional bitterness, yet, as has been trulysaid: "The North first made money, then morals, out of slavery." I simply wish to go on record as stating that through divine providence, the bringing of the blacks in Yankee clippers and their being sold in the Southland, where climatic conditions made it possible for them to live, and where the development of the country called for labor, has worked for the Christianiza- tion and the elevation of the negro race in a manner more prolific of betterment to these Africans than all the mission- ary efforts ever sent to the Dark Continent. Confederate women all did social work in the quarters and taught the Bible in the Sunday schools held in the ginhouses and weaving rooms; where many negroes became earnest, devout Chris- tians; and their loyalty and love were exemplified in thou- sands of ways to the families of the Southern soldiers who were absent on the battle fields. Nobody ever heard of out- rages being perpetrated, though the Southern women were entirely left to the protection of the faithful slaves. This fact is a refutation within itself of the propaganda that the lash was the torture of the blacks — for the Southern negro became a gentleman in his manners, as he waited in the dining room or drove the coach. Every Southern hero, from George
Washington to Robert E. Lee, was lulled to sleep in infancy by the spiritual crooning of the old darky mammies. I have known of cannibals being brought up the Rappahanock River and sold in Virginia, who tried to eat the little negro babies in the quarters; and, of course, they had to be summarily dealc with, which meant they were sent to the sugar fields of Louisi-
WESTHAMPTON COLLEGE, RICHMOND, VA.
The Richmond Female Institute, which later merged into the Woman's Col- lege, and from which developed Westhampton College at Richmond, Va., was the first building in the capital of the Confederacy to officially fly a Confederate flag. During the War between the States, this seat of learning was turned into a hospital, and later was seized by the Federal government at the surrender of Richmond. Here many of the noblest women of the Confederacy were edu- cated, among whom may be mentioned Cassie Moncure (Mrs. William Lyne); Kate Wortham (wife of Col. A. S. Buford) ; the Thomas girls (who became Mrs. J. L. M. Curry and Mrs. Carlyle) ; and Mrs. Connelly, of Asheville — all of whom moved in diplomatic circles in Washington and abroad.
ana, remote from dwellings, where overseers had to manage them, for their voodooism was not safe for Virginia.
Lord Spotswood thanked God in Colonial times that there were no "public schools" in Virginia; but later, at every home- stead, there was a schoolhouse in the yard, just as there was a "smokehouse" and also an office, where the planter saw his business acquaintances and settled with his "factor," or the person who looked after his affairs. Even in my day, Marion Harland, who was Miss Hawes, of Richmond, afterwards Mrs. Terhune, assumed a nom de plume lest she be considered as bold if she took up the pen; and George Egbert Craddock's masculine pen name was employed for similar reasons; while the celebrated Dr. Mary Walker had, even at the North, to secure an act of Congress authorizing her male attire as a nurse on the battle field, since the sixties were not the days of knickers or bloomers, but ladies rode horse back in a flowing skirt and plumed hat, like Di Vernon.
My mother's father had been a captain of the War of 1812, and when she was old enough to wish to learn the alphabet and asked for "a book," he walked to his mahogany secretary, took out "Goldsmith's Greece, " and handed it to her, saying: " If you have a mind to learn, a book is a book! " His was the frontier spirit, which bent circumstances to meet necessities; and his death bed was solaced by the presence of that famous Ajax in strength, Peter Francisco, the herb doctor, who, with his own hand, beat off nine of Tarleton's dragoons when that Britisher was raiding Virginia. Hence, the Southern woman was tutored by vicissitudes into that deeper common sense which is the "knowledge never learned of school." It supplied the resolute spirit for the mothers and daughters of the Confederacy.
13
So let the North boast of Whittier, of Beecher, and those other preachers who took Abolition as their text, but south of Mason and Dixon's Line were men whose purity of life and whose messages of hope were equally as conscientious. There was Bishop Polk, himself a graduate of West Point; but my knowledge concerns itself with the memory of men like the sainted Rev. Moses D. Hoge, who delivered the funeral ser- mon of Jefferson Davis, reading from the text: "Unless the Lord keepeth the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." The names of Drs. Minnegerode, Jeter, Norwood, Peterkin, Duncan challenge all time for godliness of life, for truly they were the "school of the prophets." I shall never forget the memorable Sunday when the Pawnee battleship was rumored to be coming up the James River, for Bishop Doggett was taking dinner at my uncle's home and was not forgetful to remind us to "love our enemies." The chaplain of our be- loved school was a Northern man, Dr. Lansing Burrows, so when news came of the assassination of President Lincoln, the city of Richmond at once dispatched Dr. Burrows to Washington to inform the authorities that the South had no part in the crime, but deplored this terrible tragedy as the climax to a war where the South had bared its breast to in- vasion and fought on the field of honor to protect homes, but scorned assassination and the conspirators as utterly beneath the recognition of Virginia's ideals. But, in speaking of the clergy, the name of Pendleton, of the Army of Northern Virginia, must not be overlooked. He was sincere if not elo- quent; and in those trying days when Lee was confronting Meade on the Rapidan River, my husband was camped in the county of Orange, and Pendleton preached at St. Thomas's Church in the courthouse of that parish. He tried to impress his hearers with the glory of immortality and the resurrection of the soul. So, most earnestly, he leaned over the pulpit and said, "What would be your feelings and how would you act if, when going out of this holy edifice, you were to find that the graves had given forth their dead?" A pause ensued for dramatic effect, then Gen Jubal Early, who was as
HOME FOR CONFEDERATE WOMEN, RICHMOND, VA.
notoriously profane as he was brave, replied from his pew in the rear of the church: "D — it! I would conscript them every one!" The hush that followed was momentous, for General Lee was among those present, yet all realized, as did Jubal Early, that the thin gray line was growing daily thinner.
The Powell School in Richmond, through the aid of the Virginia legislature and the Daughters of the Confederacy, was the building selected as the Home for Needy Confederate Women. In this great work, the wife of the former governor of Virginia, who is now the representative in Congress for the city of Richmond, Hon. Andrew Jackson Montague, has been most efficient. She has been ably assisted largely by the Hebrew ladies of Richmond, who are noted for philan- thropy. Thanks to their noble representative in art, the history of the Southern Confederacy is perpetuated by the most beautiful of monuments in Arlington National Ceme- tery, where beneath his masterpiece, Sir Moses Ezekiel, the sculptor, rests in the eternal fame of a New Market cadet and the loving memory of his native State, Virginia. His sisters were my classmates at Mackelvoy's dancing school. They were very beautiful girls, clear of feature, with sparkling black eyes; and their children have been true to the Confed- erate ideals in assisting patriotic memorials. As I was for some time a vice president of the Confederate Home, I wish to mention that one of our dear old ladies taught Mrs. Mon- tague the "pop-corn stitch" in knitting; and on a trip down the Chesapeake, on the Mayflower, the President's yacht, she showed Mrs. Calvin Coolidge the pattern. She was a most apt scholar, and from this "kneedle work" lesson, Mrs. Coolidge wrote the directions for publication; and donated the munificent sale of the article to the Confederate Home. Though Powell's Seminary was a later institution than our Institute; yet its standard as an educational center fitted Lady Astor for Parliament and was also the Alma Mater of Edith Boiling, wife of Woodrow Wilson, our Virginia-born Presi- dent, who, as the head of Princeton University, and a law student under our John B. Minor of the University of Virginia, found in the charming notes of Mrs. Edith Boiling Gait the culture which his standards required for a helpmeet in the trying days of the world's agony of war.
After the close of the war, as the Richmond Female In- stitute had been used as a Confederate hospital, it was seized by "the Federal government, but in course of time, its doors again swung wide to receive our daughters. The school merged into the Woman's College, and has since grown into beautiful Westhampton College. But I shall always be proud to think that my diploma has on it the signature of James Thomas, of Richmond, who went on Jefferson Davis's bail bond. Be it remembered that Northern critics declared that Mr. Thomas could not write his own name and had to make his mark; but his signature represented one of the wealthiest tobacconists in the city; and as for refutation of illiteracy, he was the father-in-law of Dr. J. L. M. Curry, our Ambas- sador to Spain and great educator, ranking high in his work for 'the South. The motto of our Alma Mater read: "That our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."
In later years, at one of the commencements of the dear old institute, when Dr. Thomas Nelson Page, our author and Ambassador to Italy, was the orator of the occasion, he said: "If the women of the South did not know so very much of ethnology and philology, they knew a great deal of doxology." And that was the balm in Gilead that made the true soldier son of the South, which was learned at the Confederate moth- er's knee of our glorious Golden Age of high ideals and selfless love and noble patriotism!
14
C^opfederat^ l/eterap.
BEVERLEY UNDER ARTILLERY FIRE.
BY THOMAS J. ARNOLD, EL KINS, W. VA.
Aii expedition that proved disastrous to the Confederates, and likewise for some who were not, was that connected with the occupation of Beverley, Va., now West Virginia, during the War between the States.
At the time of the Imboden raid through Western Virginia (April, 1863), Gen. William L. Jackson, who accompanied Imboden, casually remarked while in Beverley that he was coming back there to spend the 4th of July. Of course, no one took the remark seriously. Although it was commonly repeated afterwards, as well to the Federal commander as others, it passed unheeded. Sure enough, on the third day of July, a Confederate force unexpectedly appeared south of and in the vicinity of Beverley, under the command of Gen. William L. Jackson, who dispatched a detachment under Maj. J. B. Lady on the road leading northward, west of the river to its intersection with the road leading to Buckhannon, in order to cut off retreat in that direction. He having pre- viously dispatched another detachment under the command of Col. A. C. Dunn, by a country road, eastward of the main road, with orders to occupy the road leading to Philippi, northward of Beverley, thus cutting off retreat in that direc- tion. He planted his artillery on the slope of the hill, about one and one-half miles southwest of Beverley, and opened fire on the Federals, who were hurriedly gathered within their fortification. The Confederate guns were of small caliber, and, probably due to inferior ammunition, most of the shells fell short, landing in Beverley.
Col. Thomas M. Harris, of the 10th Virginia (Federal) Regiment, and who at a later period attained unenviable notoriety, as a member of the military court that tried and convicted Mrs. Surratt and sent her to the scaffold, was in command of the Federals. Guards were stationed on all the roads leading from Beverley; and no one — man, woman, or child — was permitted to pass these guards; hence all civilians were confined to the limits of the town and were thereby subjected to the fire of the Confederate artillery. Although this firing continued for a considerable part of two days, no citizens were injured, and but few houses were struck by shells.
It has always been the understanding, which is probably correct, that the detachment Jackson sent to approach Beverley from the north and open the attack, had in the course of their march found a supply of apple brandy; and the de- tachment became so intoxicated, that they lost sight of and interest in the undertaking. Jackson waited impatiently throughout the first day for the officer in command of this detachment to make the attack, as prearranged. The second day he was still expecting it every moment, but received no intelligence. Along toward noon there appeared, advancing up the valley, west of the river, an army of mounted men, deployed to sweep everything before them. It was Averill's full brigade of Federal cavalry. It was a formidable force. There was but one thing left for Jackson to do — get out as rapidly as possible or be overwhelmed. This he proceeded to do, and accomplished with such skill that he escaped with but slight loss.
Gen. William L. Jackson, while on the bench prior to the war, had held a term of court in Beverley, knew many of the citizens, and was familiar with the country in the vicinity. Immediately following the fight, and while Averill was still in pursuit of Jackson, Colonel Harris dispatched guards through the country north of Beverley, who arrested quite a large number of citizens, all of whom were peaceable, law- abiding men — good citizens. They were marched into Bever-
ley and formed in line near the old courthouse. Colonel Harris then walked along the front of the line and put this question to each one separately: "Are you a Union man?" When the answer was directly in the affirmative, the man was passed. When the answer was, "My sentiments are with the South," or its equivalent, Harris ordered the person giving such answer to take two steps forward. Several of those in line, in reply to the question, stated that they were "Consti- tutional Union men"; of these latter were Lennox Camden, a brother of Judge G. D. Camden, and Charles W. Russell, the latter, a late leading merchant and well known through- out the county, and who was a Union man. This answer evidently, in the opinion of Harris, did not constitute suf- ficient loyalty, for in each instance where this answer was given, such person was ordered to take the two steps to the front. When Harris had finished his questioning, there were thirteen in the advanced line. The number in this instance in the course of time proved to be a frightful exemplification of all that has ever been attributed to it in the way of being an omen of disaster by those given to superstition. The thirteen were immediately sent under guard to the Federal prison at Fort Delaware. The names of those sent were: Lennox Camden, Charles W. Russell, Thomas J. Caplinger, Levi D. Ward, George Caplinger, Jr., Smith Crouch, John Crouch, William Saulsbury, Phillip Isner, Pugh Chenoweth, William Clem, John Leary, and Allen Isner.
The public at the time attributed these arrests to Harris's intense hatred of Southern sympathizers and his chagrin and anger at Jackson's having reached the immediate vicinity of Beverley without his knowledge, and especially as Jackson had made announcement of his intended coming several months in advance; all of which Harris realized constituted a severe reflection upon the commander of the post in not hav- ing been more alert, and in allowing himself to be thus sur- prised; and which, but for the miscarriage of Jackson's orders to Colonel Dunn, would have resulted in the probable capture of himself and his entire command; and also, the further fact that Jackson had succeeded in withdrawing his troops and escaping without material loss, all of which was intensi- fied by the rebuke and criticism administered by General Averill, his superior officer. Averill, being a West Point gradu- ate, had no special admiration for civilian army officers like Harris.
There is little doubt that Harris was smarting under Averill's criticisms, and especially as Averill attributed his own failure to defeat, if not to capture, Jackson's command to Harris's failure to notify him (Averill) in time. Averill, in his official report, says: "Had Colonel Harris furnished me with timely warning of the approach of the enemy, I should have killed, captured, or dispersed his entire command. As it was, he received but a slight lesson."
Later, on several occasions, most strenuous efforts were made to obtain the release of these men from Fort Delaware, where they were dying like sheep. The public generally knew they were innocent of any charge; a number of them were influential men; but all efforts were without avail until virtual- ly half of them had died in prison. When finally the survivors, seven in number, were released, one of them, Lennox Camden, died before reaching home. Another, Philip Isner, died a few days after reaching home. Smith Crouch and John Crouch died very soon afterwards. The three survivors, Charles W. Russell, Thomas B. Caplinger, and George Caplinger, were so broken in health as to suffer from the effects of their incarceration and treatment to the day of their demise.
Harris had, prior to the war, been a country doctor, prac- ticed in Ritchie County (now West Virginia) and later,
^opfederat^ l/eterag
15
located in Glennville in the same State. After he became identified with the Union cause, he became intensely partisan. In those days intense partisanship was the stepping-stone, for many, to promotion. Harris had risen to the rank of colonel of the 10th Virginia (Federal) Regiment, as stated. This regiment contained many good men, and many who detested Harris. His unpopularity was such that while sta- tioned at Beverley, he was shot at one night by some of his regiment, one bullet passing through his whiskers. Of this I was informed by one of his commissioned officers. Elevated to the rank of colonel, Harris seemed to have become obsessed with an exalted idea of the prominence that such an appoint- ment carried with it. He was stationed at Beverley a long time. Having the power of a despot, he was much dreaded, especially as he seemed ever ready to give a willing ear to the unreliable and disreputable who approached him with tales about their neighbors, and which resulted generally in the arrest and imprisonment of those so reported. It would be impossible for me to recall to memory, and I presume it is equally true of others, the number of citizens of the county, or their names, who were, during the war, arrested and sent under guard to the military prisons of the North, many of them by Harris — -generally without cause and without any specific charge being made known to them, and many of whom did not live to return to their homes.
PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF COLONEL STREIGHT.
BY CAPT. JAMES DIN KINS, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
The account of this prolonged and desperate conflict on the barren mountain of North Alabama has been handed down through several generations. The battle was one of peculiarly weird grandeur. The thunder of artillery, peals of musketry, and the multiplied reverberations from mountain to valley, mingled with sharp words of command, cries of the affrighted and wounded animals, added to which was a splendor in lurid flashes cf rapidly served artillery and the blaze of muskets, which excited admiration, even in that moment of fiercest passion.
The Confederate loss was surprisingly light, only a few wounded and four killed. Immediately the pursuit was re- newed, and for ten miles the roadway was strewn with saddles and bridles and boxes of crackers, from which the Con- federates drew a hasty ration; mingled with all this there was also crockery and kitchen utensils, blankets, shoes, and plated ware, and there were seen, scattered around, em- broidered skirts and other articles of female apparel, taken in sheer wantonness, now cast away by the fugitives or dropped from pack mules or from wrecked wagons. The Yankees were evidently demoralized by this time; they thought the devil was after them. All the romance had been knocked out of them; but they had lost no energy.
Biffle was directed to send several men to catch up with the enemy and in the darkness mingle with them, so as to as- certain, if possible, their purpose as to any other stand that night. Meanwhile the Confederates followed some four miles, when one of the men detached returned with the information that Streight stood once more at bay across the road a mile ahead (that man was Granville Pillow, of Capt. John S. Grave's Company, of Biffle's 9th Tennessee Cavalry). I remember with appreciation having been entertained in his father's house the night we crossed Duck River, December 18, 1864, on retreat from Nashville. Generals Forrest and Chal- mers had been invited by Mr. Pillow to make their head- quarters at his home. I commanded General Chalmers's
escort company, and we slept on the long gallery, holding the reins of our horses.
Moving up with the least possible noise to within a few hundred yards, General Forrest dismounted his men, de- tached his horses from the artillery, and had the pieces pushed up by hand. Biffle on the left and McLemore on the right of the road approached to within a hundred and fifty yards of the Federals before breaking the grim silence of the night with the crackle of rifle and din of artillery. The enemy broke in wild confusion, leaving many dead and wounded behind, without returning the fire. Swift pursuit was made and some1 fifty captures, but it was so dark that it was difficult to dis- tinguish friend from foe A few hours later the darkness had been somewhat diminished by the stars bursting forth after the clouds rolled on. Remounting his men, Forrest ordered the chase to be resumed. Again the way was thick with booty, equipment and abandoned animals, while the woods swarmed with negroes. Men were sent ahead again to inter- mingle with the enemy, and returned about one o'clock and reported that another stand had been resolved on by the Federal leader, who surely was not wanting in courage. The place chosen was the south bank of a deeply bedded, rugged mountain stream, and very strong.
The Confederates quickly arranged for attack. McLemore was pushed forward across the stream on the right of the road, the horses were again detached from the guns, which were moved by hand up the road to within short range, pre- ceded by skirmishers, who fired suddenly in the direction of the Federals in order to draw a return, so as to reveal their exact locality to the artillerists, who opened with grape and canister, while Biffle poured volleys of Minies into the ranks. Then McLemore on the right joined in the fight. This was more than men could stand, and the Federals again gave way, leaving numerous killed and wounded on the ground. They made off hurriedly in the direction of Blounts- ville.
It was now about three o'clock, and the terrible din had come upon the people of this isolated section unexpectedly, for the outburst and tumult of the battle storm was the first warning they had. As may be supposed the people were filled with terror. The women" with little children fled frantically from their houses and were found seeking shelter, they did not know from what dire peril. Satisfied with the work of the past eighteen hours and sure of the ultimate capture of his game, Forrest halted and awaited daylight, to water and feed and rest his fagged, foot-weary horses, and to overhaul his ammunition and refresh his men. When day- light dawned, the men had been without food for more than twenty-four hours, but cheerfully renewed the pursuit.
Forrest led with his Escort and one squadron of the 4th Tennessee Regiment, and at about eleven o'clock reached Blountsville, where the enemy had halted to rest. The pickets being at once driven in, they set fire to their remaining wagons and some stores. Streight made off due eastward in the direction of Gadsden, without offering to renew the com- bat. Extinguishing the fire, and replenishing his com- missary and ammunition supply from that abandoned by the Federals, with little loss of time, Forrest and his men were again in the saddle. Relentlessly the Confederates followed and overhauled the Federals before they reached the Black Warrior River, ten miles distant from Blountsville, and a running fight occurred. The ford was rocky, rapid, and difficult, but the miscreants, rather than risk another trial of strength, made the venture and plunged in. Before all had crossed, xthe Confederates were upon the rear and captured several of them, and caused the drowning of several pack mules.
16
Here a most remarkable circumstance occurred. About a mile before the Confederates reached the Warrior River, they met two young country girls, seventeen and eighteen years of age, leading three horses fully accoutered, and driving before them the former riders, whose guns they carried on their joung shoulders. They halted in the middle of the road and asked for the commanding officers.
They stated with much simplicity how they had captured those men. The captives, in extenuation of the situation, said: "We can't fight day and night; we want to rest." The brave girls, little more than children, dressed in homespun and barefooted, but clean and neat, said: "We will go on with you if you want us." General Forrest gave each one a horse, and they went away, smiling and proud. Those girls came from a fine womanhood, we may depend.
A halt was now ordered for five hours, so the men could get a short sleep, and to feed and rest the horses. In the meantime, General Forrest was everywhere looking after the arrangements to go forward. Soon after midnight the Confederates were again in movement, and the enemy, fully aware of the situation, were doing all they could to hamper pursuit. They destroyed a bridge over a creek, the banks of which were high and sheer and difficult to ascend. But little time was lost, and by daylight the Confederates were again in hot pursuit toward Wills Creek, fifteen miles distant, in the southern part of Wills Valley, and coming upon the Fed- eral main force, feeding and resting. Streight, without ceremony, ran away, leaving in the hands of the urgent foe twenty-five prisoners and a hundred negroes, including some who were dressed in Federal uniforms, also an abundance of forage and ten pack mules.
Forrest knew the end was at hand, selected his best horses for his most appropriate guns, and prepared to move for a final struggle, with not quite six hundred men. The other artillery and remainder of the command he sent back to Decatur.
Meanwhile, worn down by three days and nights of riding and fighting, eating little and at long intervals, the Con- federates began to show signs of flagging, and many in the last stage of the pursuit had fallen asleep on their horses. Then suddenly there came an inspiration. Several ladies, whose husbands and friends had been seized and carried off by the Federals, appeared and filled the camp with their sad wails and appeals to restore their kinsmen. The appeals had the happy effect to wake the men, and Forrest, taking ad- vantage of the circumstance, called his men in line and made them a stirring address. Few men were ever able to hold the attention and move the spirit of men as Forrest could do in such an emergency. He told them of his confi- dence and their ability to obtain the objects of their mission and the end of their hardships. Calling for all who were willing to follow or fall in the attempt, the entire command responded with cheers. The women also gave shouts of joy and encouragement.
They moved off in a gallop, the two guns following. They overhauled the Federals about ten o'clock, when Forrest called for fifty of the best mounted men, with whom he and his Escort charged headlong into the rear of the Federal column in the face of a hot fire. F or ten miles a sharp running conflict was kept up to Black Creek, where the Federals crossed and set fire to the bridge, which, being old and dry, was consumed before the Confederates could extinguish it. Streight planted his artillery on the opposite bank. Black Creek is a deep and rapid stream and its passage in the im- mediate vicinity was an impossibility. Forrest was in a predicament, but soon he was approached by a group of
women, one of whom, a tall comely, auburn-haired girl of about eighteen years of age, stepped forward and inquired: "Whose command?" The answer was: "The advance of Forrest's Cavalry." She then requested to have General Forrest pointed out to her, which being done, she advanced and spoke to him in these words: "General Forrest, I know of an old ford to which I could guide you, if I had a horse; the Yankees have taken all of ours." Her mother, stepping up, exclaimed: "No, Emma; people would talk about you." "I don't care if they do," the girls said; "I am not afraid to trust myself with a brave man as General Forrest," her face illuminated with emotion. General Forrest then re- marked, as he rode beside a log near by: "Well, Miss, jump up behind me." Without an instant's hesitation, she sprang from this log behind the great man and was ready to guide him under as noble an inspiration of unalloyed courage and pa- triotism as that which has rendered the Maid of Saragossa famous for all times.
Calling for a courier to follow, guided by Emma Sansom, Forrest rode rapidly, leaping over fallen timber, to a point half a mile above the bridge, where, at the foot of a ravine she said: "This is a safe ford." Then, dismounting, they walked to the river bank, opposite to which, on the other side, was posted a Federal detachment, who opened upon both of them with some fifty rifles, the balls of which whistled about them and tore up the ground in their path as they approached. The intrepid girl stepped in front, saying: "General, stand behind me; they won't shoot a woman!" Gently pulling her aside, Forrest led her to the roots of a fallen tree, where he asked her to remain with the courier until he could reconnoiter the ford. Returning to the posi- tion and looking back, to his surprise and regret, she was at his back.
After examining the ford, Forrest was satisfied that he could cross, and returned through the ravine with the girl, an open mark for Federal sharpshooters, whose fire sent whizzing balls about them. Forrest and Miss Sansom re- turned to the command, who received her with unfeigned en- thusiasm.
The artillery was sent forward and a few shells, well directed, quickly drove the Federal guns at the ford away, and Major McLemore was directed to take it with his regi- ment. The stream was boggy, and steep banks on both sides, so the ammunition had to be taken from the caissons to keep it dry, and it was difficult to force the horses down the steep slopes, all of which consumed time; nevertheless, the passage was successfully effected in less than two hours. In the meantime, General Forrest delivered his fair young guide back safely unto the hands of her mother and presented her with a fine horse. The legislature of Alabama, at a succeeding meeting, donated to Miss Sansom a section of the public lands of the State, as a testimonial of the high appreciation of her services to the people of Alabama, and directed the governor of the State to provide and present her also with a gold medal inscribed with suitable devices, commemorating her conduct. The writer met her at several Confederate reunions. She married the second time and removed with her husband to Texas, but passed away several years ago.
Moving rapidly forward after crossing Black Creek, the Confederates soon reached Gadsden, three miles distant. General Forrest sent a courier to Rome, Ga., to apprise the people of the approach of Streight and to urge every effort to hold him in check before the place until he arrived.
It was Saturday afternoon when the Federals had dashed into Gadsden, to the complete surprise of the citizens and the people from the surrounding country, whose horses were
17
seized and taken away in exchange for thin, exhausted ones. Here General Forrest selected three hundred of his best mounted men and went in pursuit of the enemy, who had taken the road up the west side of the Coosa River in the direction of Rome. About five o'clock that Saturday after- noon, May 2, the Federals were again overtaken at a small village, known as Turkeytown, and a smart encounter followed.
The enemy had halted to feed, and at the same time attempt an ambuscade in a dense thicket of second growth pines, through which the road ran. There was a bend in the road where the enemy placed a barricade, closing it so that the . Confederates would be forced to take across the field over a small bridge, where five hundred Federals were concealed behind a fence, while the pine thicket, through which they were to be drawn, was filled with sharpshooters. The ambush was skillfully arranged, and might have resulted in the capture of the command under any other man but Forrest. The Con- federate skirmishers were thrown out in advance of the thicket as if offering battle, and the rest of the command, led by General Forrest, galloped around the Federal force behind the fence and dashed into their flank and sent them pell- mell. The Federals scattered in all directions, leaving some fifty prisoners and as many killed and wounded.
In this engagement, Colonel Hathaway, one of their best officers, was killed, while the Confederate loss was six wounded and two killed.
In the engagement at Turkeytown, Sergt. William Haynes, of the 4th Tennessee, ran into the enemy's line and was captured, taken before Colonel Streight, and questioned as to the strength of the Confederates. Haynes stated that For- rest had his own brigade, Armstrong's and Roddy's, with several others. Streight exclaimed with a fierce oath: "Then they have got us!" During the night Hajmes made his escape and rejoined his company, and gave the story he had imposed upon the Federal commander.
It was now dark and the enemy was in full flight. Forrest ordered a halt so that the men he had left at Gadsden might come up. By sunrise, May 3, the Confederates, reduced to
I five hundred officers and men, were again in motion and, on reaching the bridge over Coosa River, found it in ashes. The men were dismounted and carried the ammunition and pieces by hand, as at Black Creek. When the chase was re- newed and the enemy overtaken, about nine o'clock were eating breakfast, which was abandoned, leaving their hot coffee, a number of mules and horses, and saddles and other spoils. The commander, however, rallied them on a ridge in an open field, but his men were greatly discouraged. De- taching Major McLemore to the left flank, and Colonel Biffle to the right flank, while Forrest threatened an advance
: in front with his Escort and some hundred men, Forrest decided to adopt the policy of crafty Ulysses, rather than the wrathful Achilles. Accordingly he sent forward an officer of his staff, Capt. Henry Pointer, with a flag of truce and the demand of the immediate surrender of the Federal force, as he declared, in order to stop the further and useless effusion of blood.
Meeting the flag, Colonel Streight, asked to communicate directly with General Forrest, and they met in a woods, where a parley ensued. Streight, however, declined to capitulate unless it could be shown to his satisfaction that he was doing so to a force at least equal in number to his own. Forrest replied promptly he would not humiliate his men by any effort to persuade "the surrender of a force that they had driven and beaten in every conflict for the past three days. At this moment the section of Confederate artillery came in sight at a full gallop, remarking which, Colonel Streight
urged that no more troops should be brought up nearer than three hundred yards. Forrest assented to the request, at the same time secretly instructed an aid-de-camp to keep the two pieces of artillery moving in a circle, so as to appear like several batteries coming up.
That was done so adroitly by Captain Ferrell that Colonel Streight inquired of Forrest how much artillery he had. "Enough," was the prompt answer, "to destroy your com- mand in thirty minutes." After some further discussion, Colonel Streight, greatly perplexed, lest he surrender to a small force, asked time to consult his officers. Forrest granted the time, but told him if he failed to capitulate, the grave consequences must rest on him.
Captain Pointer, at this, invited Colonel Streight to take a drink before separating, observing that it might be the last that he would ever take. The invitation was pleasantly made and pleasantly taken, and hands were shaken by the parting antagonists.
Colonel Streight rode back in the direction of his line, but soon met a flag of truce on the way from his command, with which he returned to the Confederate quarters. He announced that his officers desired to surrender, which he was ready to do on condition that all were to be held as prisoners of war, and that the officers should retain their side arms and personal baggage. Those terms were granted without discussion.
It was still thought to be necessary to keep the enemy de- ceived in regard to the actual force that had captured them, and Captain Pointer asked General Forrest what disposition should be made of some three or four imaginary bodies of troops. At the same time, General Forrest explained to his prisoners that as forage was very scarce at Rome, he would send only his Escort and one regiment to accompany them there. Preliminaries being arranged, the Federals lined up in the field, when one thousand seven hundred and forty officers and men and a rifle gun battery stacked their arms. Colonel Streight made a short address to his men, thanking them for their gallantry and endurance, and explained the reasons that caused him to surrender. There were two> colonels, one lieutenant colonel, and four majors. The of- ficers were separated from the men, and all were escorted to Rome, some eighteen miles distant, while Colonel Biffle, assisted by Captain Pointer, collected the arms and followed on to Rome the next day. The Confederates in line at the surrender numbered less than five hundred officers and men.
When the prisoners and the Confederate Escort were within four miles of Rome, the high hills which adjoined the place were filled with militia scouts, who evidently intended to carry out General Forrest's request to prevent the enemy from entering Rome. As the Confederates entered Rome with the prisoners, the streets were alive with its citizens, including many refugees from Tennessee, and some two thousand men in hospitals, who turned out to welcome and greet their de- liverers. Ever}' honor was given to officers and men and un- stinted hospitality, which embraced even the Federal officers to some extent.
Colonel Streight looked like a strawberry patch after the pickers had worked it over and, he must have felt as Eve did the last time she walked out of Eden. There was no more chance of getting away from Forrest than there was hope for the sea and shore to part. Forrest was like a volcano; he had an exceptional power, overpoweringly great.
Addenda.
To commemorate the wonderful achievement of Genera Forrest, the Gadsden (Ala.) Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, erected a splendid memorial on the banks
18
Qopfederat^ l/eterai).
of the Coosa River, at the end of Broad Street in Gadsden. It stands thirty-five feet high. The base is built of granite, and on top is a life-size figure in marble of Emma Sansom. On one side of the monument, in relief, is a figure of Gen- eral Forrest on horseback, with Emma Sansom sitting behind him. This relief is about one-third the natural size. On the south side is the following inscription:
"This monument was erected by the Gadsden Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 1906."
On the east side:
"Our Heroes, 1861-1865. The Confederate Soldiers."
"These were men whom power could not corrupt, whom death could not terrify, and whom defeat could not dishonor. They glorified the cause for which they fought."
The north inscription is as follows:
"In memory of the Gadsden, Ala., girl heroine, Emma Sansom, who, when the bridge across Black Creek had been burned by the enemy, mounted behind General Forrest and showed him a ford where his command crossed. He pursued and captured that enemy and saved the city of Rome, Ga."
Since the erection of the Emma Sansom statue, a magnifi- cent concrete bridge has been built across the Coosa at the head of Broad Street. The bridge cost $500,000, and has an enormous amount of traffic crossing it. The center line of the bridge, if extended, would hit the Emma Sansom monu- ment, so that the monument serves as a silent traffic cop, keeping traffic always to the right. With such a location, it is viewed by thousands of motorists each day.
Also, a bronze slab has been erected on the banks of Black Creek, marking the exact spot where Forrest crossed. All praise to the noble women who erected these memorials, which bring to us a sad but sweet pleasure, mingled with a melancholy regret for the lives lost on the field of glory. If our men were heroes in battle, every home in the South had its heroine, and every lover of true greatness in womanhood will find in their lives the highest incentive for emulation. They left a record of loyalty and devotion that will ever re- main a brilliant page in the annals of time.
The city of Rome also erected an equestrian statue of General Forrest, and the principal hotel of Rome is called the Hotel Forrest.
There should be an equestrian statue of General Forrest in every town and city in this country. The sight of it would contribute to the quality of American valor, for he was a masterful man.
Argument.
The merits of this operation are unqualifiedly very great in every respect, and nothing handsomer of its kind may be found in military annals.
In the last forty-eight hours of the expedition, Forrest marched his men, jaded as they and their horses were, fully ninety miles. The most salutary moral effect that was felt throughout the country was the capture of so many Federal soldiers by so small a force as that which Forrest led. He had averted the widespread destruction of bridges and manu- facturing and transportation resources of the State, which were of vital importance to the people.
Forrest led men to whom all honor is due — due for qualities among the least of which we place their intrepidity in com- bat; men whose acts of individual heroism can make no figure in battle reports; men whose endurance of fatigue and long abstinence from food, combined with their unbroken spirit, were indeed marvelous. The pursuit and capture of Colonel Streight will give a just conception of the distinctive traits of General Forrest both as a man and a soldier. His tactics, intuitively and with no knowledge of what other men
had done before him, were those of the great masters of tha art — that is, to rush down swiftly, thunderously upon his enemy with his whole collective strength. Fortitude, animal courage, and vitality of body gave him his energy and celerity in action, while all was guided by a judgment and conception rarely at fault.
He was essentially as daring a cavalry leader as ever gained distinction. A few years ago I met in the Pantheon in Rome the general who commanded the Italian cavalry, who was much interested when I told him I had served under General Forrest. We conversed through an interpreter. He said: "Forrest was the greatest soldier of all time except Napoleon." I replied: "If Forrest had been in command of the French army at Waterloo, the map of Europe would have been different."
I am proud to have known General Forrest, proud to have served under him, and proud and thankful to be able to tell of his wonderful qualities. I drop a tear to his memory and to the matchless men who followed him.
AT BEAN'S STATION, TENN.
BY J. W. MINNICH, MORGAN CITY, LA.
On the 14th of December, 1863, there was fought at Bean's Station, Tenn., a little battle, which was so mismanaged and devoid of any practical result that General Longstreet pre- ferred charges against a couple of his brigade commanders for "lack of energy" and failure to carry out his plan of at- tack and pushing the attack to a conclusion. As a "specta- tor" in the main event, I have always believed he was justi- fied in condemning the inactivity and "lack of energy" exhibited by the commanders involved. (See Longstreet's report on his "East Tennessee Campaign," in Official Rec- ords.) The forces opposed to him consisted of fifteen regi- ments, three of which were cavalry — the 4th, 5th, and 6th Kentucky, under Col. G. T. Shackelford (6th Kentucky), and twelve regiments of infantry, and several batteries. The whole under Major General Parke, though we were under the impression that we were opposed by Gen. Gordon Granger at the time, and until a long time after. In addition, they had as supports coming up from Blain's Crossroads, Haskell's Brigade of four regiments of infantry, but which did not arrive in time to avail them. This command was diverted to the right and took up a position of defense in a gap in the ridge known as "The Knobs," and about two and one-half miles in the rear of their line of battle. And it is with this brigade that we had to deal late in the evening, which is part of another story, but not disconnected with Longstreet's affair entirely, rather in part with it.
On the 10th we had had a brush with Garrard's Brigade, near Russellville, during a snow storm, and had worsted them slightly. On the 14th we crossed the Clinch at Evans's Ford and took the road to Bean's Station, and when near the ridge (the Knobs) heard the firing of artillery, beginning at the station. We were halted before going through the gap, and, after a short halt, the head of the column was turned to the left on a road leading along the foot of the ridge, my regiment (the 6th Georgia) in the lead. We had progressed but a short distance (apparently) when the head of the column was turned up the hill diagonally, until we reached the top of what appeared to be the highest peak of the knobs over- looking the valley, and about a half mile in the rear of the Federal battle li.ie, a part of which (the right) we could not see owing to a projecting spur of the ridge, from which a full view of the whole scene and the valley for several miles either
Q>9fe<lera(:^ l/eterat)
19
up or down could be had. Of our own line we could see little or nothing.
The Federals were lined up at a fence, which appeared to extend from the foot of the knobs to the foot of Clinch Moun- tain, cut only by the main valley road. With little labor we could have planted our battery on that projecting spur, and — well, anyone having any knowledge of a plunging fire's effects from a near rear, can form a pretty accurate estimate of what the results would have been. But nothing of the kind .was done, and I feel positive that the Federals never suspected the presence of an enemy force almost in their rear, and, at the least, two hundred and fifty feet above them, and beyond their reach, practically. The ascent from our side was easy, through open timber, whereas, on the valley side, the hill sloped down at about from fifty to sixty per cent, a hard climb for any attacking force. We missed a great chance there. Though we could see every discharge of the Federal guns near the main valley road and beyond, we could barely hear any sound whatever — and of rifle fire none whatever. Of our own guns, they were out of sight and all sound.
After probably ten or more minutes of "observation," we descended to the road again and proceeded down it to its junction with the road leading through the gap in the knobs to Byrd's Mill on the river. We were in no hurry, it appeared. Why? If the intention was to go through the gap and make a demonstration in their rear, we were very leisurely going about it. Arriving at the foot of the gap and ascending to a bench on the hillside, we found the gap occupied by our friends the enemy, a brigade of infantry, Haskell's. Dis- mounting at the foot of the ridge, two companies, A and G, were sent up to the bench, as skirmishers under Captain Lay, of G Company, in all eighty-three men. We ran up in a double quick and deployed on each side of the road, G on the left, along the lower fence of a corn field which covered the bench and extending far to the left, and to the foot of a high point on the left, along which extended the upper fence. The field was about three hundred yards wide, more or less. We found that the enemy held the upper fence, and no doubt extended into the woods on the upper side of the road. Their position was possibly twenty-five to forty feet higher than our own, a decided advantage, with an open field between us. As soon as we appeared, bullets began to whistle around us, many striking the rails, but most of them went too high to do any damage. We replied, to the best of our ability, with the advantage in our favor, firing up hill, with what ef- fect we could not judge. But soon we learned to estimate the number of our foes and to realize what we were up against. Two small companies, on the one side, and a double line of infantry extending far beyond our left behind the fence. No doubt they were there simply to hold the gap, so as to protect the rear of their force at Bean's Station. They held it, principally because we did not invite them to leave.
There was a reason for the latter course, since two of our regiments had been detached. In fact, I can recall but two regiments (1st and 6th) being present, and the force they developed and the "strong position they held would have made any attempt on our part to dislodge them presumptious, to say the least. They poured a murderous fire down on us, but we had drawn back from the fence into the edge of the timber and took refuge behind the largest of the trees; and as long as we did not expose ourselves needlessly, we were in no danger. However, we sent them back as good as we re- ceived, comparatively. But the fun of it (and it was funny) was when we heard one or two of their officers, presumably, order a "charge!" Not to be outdone, we shouted back: "Charge, 6th Georgia! charge!" to every call of the enemy
to charge. I never had heard bullets strike with such a vicious spat, spat as when they struck a tree. It seemed as though coming down hill gave them much greater velocity than if projected from the level — point blank. To have accepted their challenges, to "come out into the open and fight like men," would have been suicidal on our part. We could see what was before us, and as they could judge how many men we had behind our two hundred yard long skirmish line in the woods, they made no attempt to rush us. Their incessant firing prevented us from exposing ourselves. Not so foolish we, eighty-three men only, and four regiments of them.
The firing kept up until dark night had settled down on the hills, arid a deep gloom pervaded the valleys, and we could fire only in their direction and position, guided by the flashes from their guns. By seven o'clock, approximately, all firing had ceased on both sides, and we retired to the foot of the ridge and "lay on our arms" without fires. Although we were engaged at least two hours, and at least 25,000 shots were fired at us, we had but one man wounded and one horse killed. What the enemy's loss was, if any, we never learned.
Now comes a little adventure of quite my own. I had not had a drink of water since early in the day and was very thirsty, "dry as a sponge," so as soon as we got down into the valley, and before I had found my horse, I began to look for water — a well, riverlet, run, or creek. All canteens were empty. Starcing out on a hunt through a low-hanging mist that rose from the damp ground after a warm day's thawing, and a gloom that was almost impenetrable, I stumbled into what appeared to be a dry run. No water there, but the promise of a pool lower down. I decided to follow its course down until I came to water, if any was to be found. After stumbling along the dry course for nearly a hundred yards, as a near guess, my foot struck a very soft spot, very damp. Edging along cautiously, feeling along, I caught a gleam of water. Putting my hand down, I assured myself that it was a very shallow pool of yellow water, and thicker than the water we had waded through that morning when we forded the river. What matter of that? It was water anyhow, even if a bit muddy. Laying my rifle on the bank, I stooped down and, making a scoop of my two hands, scooped up a double handful of the "thicker than water" liquid and took in a big swallow. One swallow was enough. Ugh! I can taste it yet after sixty-four years. The mud in it was not much worse than the "Big Muddy's" (Missouri); but the taste? Ah! that was something else. But I kept it down. I had a stout stomach in those days.
The following morning early we became aware that the gap had been evacuated, that the main body had withdrawn from before Bean's Station, and had retreated toward Blain's Crossroads. We followed at a leisurely pace, and late in the afternoon came up with their rear guard pickets, with whom our advance exchanged a few shots, and they fell back on their main line, which extended across the valley and up the side of Clinch Mountain. That night they built fires along their whole line, even to the top of the mountain, which was simply a blind, as the next morning there was not a bluecoat in sight. My regiment was in reserve and not at all engaged in any of the skirmishing subsequent to our little affair at Richland Gap on the 14th — Richland Knobs. General Park retreated to Knoxville, and Longstreet retired to Rut- ledge and Rogersville, and shortly afterwards was recalled to Virginia and rejoined General Lee's army.
20
Qogfederat^ \/eterap.
THE BATTLE OF MONOCACY.
BY JUDGE GLENN H. WORTHINGTON, FREDERICK, MD.
In order to understand the significance and importance of the battle of Monocacy, it is necessary to bear in mind the situation of the two great opposing armies at that time, the Union army, under the command of Gen. U. S. Grant, and the Confederate army, known as the army of Northern Vir- ginia, under the command of Gen. Robert E. Lee. The bat- tle of Monocacy was fought on Saturday, July 9, 1864. At that time Grant was besieging Petersburg, with the capture of Richmond as his objective, while General Lee was defend- ing Petersburg as the vital outpost of the Confederate capital.
In order to gather together a superior force in the siege of Petersburg, Grant had drawn practically all the Federal troops from the defenses around Washington City to join in that siege. Those remaining to defend the city consisted of "a portion of the Veteran Reserve Corps, War Depart- ments Clerks and Citizen Volunteers," wholly inadequate to the defense of the city, as stated by Gen. Lew Wallace, in his autobiography.
"That is to say, eight or nine thousand inefficients were in the works proper, ready upon alarm to take to the guns and do the duty of forty thousand trained specialists, sup- ported by a medley so half pledged and shadowy as to be a delusion and a snare to everybody not an enemy."
The defenses of Washington consisted of fifty-three widely separated forts within the perimeter of about thirty-five or forty miles, and to properly man these defenses a force of at least forty thousand trained soldiers was deemed necessary. (See report of Gen. J. G. Barnard, 1871.) This defenseless condition of the Union capital was brought about by Grant's assurance to President Lincoln that in case of necessity he could send troops by transport up the bay from City Point, on the James River, near Petersburg, to Washington in time to repel any attack upon that city; that transports sufficient to carry an army would be kept under banked fires ready for quick movement. Prior to March, 1864, when Grant took command of the Union army, President Lincoln had always insisted upon a sufficient force being maintained around about the capital in these several outlying forts to fully pro- tect the city, but Grant's assurance that he could, upon notice, get troops to Washington within thirty-six hours, had caused him to yield to the General's request so as to gather all troops possible to the siege of Petersburg.
In June, 1864, Gen. David Hunter was threatening Lynch- burg with a considerable Union force. In order to prevent the capture of Lynchburg with its stores and supplies for the Confederate armies, General Lee sent Jubal A. Early, with a force of about 25,000 men, to attack Hunter, and if possible to drive him out of the Valley. This Gen. Early accomplished, driving him in a northwesterly direction into the mountains. Unfortunately for the Union cause, General Hunter was un- able to give battle to Early's forces because of a want of am- munition, and consequently he had "no choice of route for his return but by way of the Gauley and Kanawha Rivers, thence at the Ohio River, returning to Harper's Ferry by way ■of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A long time was con- sumed in making this movement. In the meantime the Val- ley was left open to Early's troops, and others in that quarter, .and Washington also was uncovered." (Grant's Memoirs.)
Being aware of the unprotected condition of the Federal 'capital and also of Baltimore City, General Lee directed 'General Early to march down the Shenandoah Valley, to cross the Potomac into Maryland, and to proceed against Washington. Early thereupon moved his forces across the
Potomac at Shepherdstown and Williamsport, and marched toward Washington by way of Boonsboro, Middletown, and Frederick.
On March 12, 1864, Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace had been as- signed to the command of the Eighth Army Corps, U. S. A., of the middle department, with headquarters in Baltimore. The troops under his command were not more than 2,500. and were largely inexperienced in warfare. About July 5, General Wallace received information that General Early was advancing in force down the Shenandoah Valley, headed toward Shepherdstown and Williamsport, with Washington or Baltimore apparently as his objective. Thereupon General Wallace began to concentrate his small forces at Monocacy Junction.
On the 5th of July General Wallace went from Baltimore to Frederick Junction (also called Monocacy Junction), and established his headquarters first in the blockhouse on a bluff at the eastern end of the railroad bridge. Subsequently he transferred his headquarters a short distance across the rail- road tracks to a small dwelling house on the south side of the railroad. From that place he directed the operations of the forces under his command before and during the battle.
Hearing that Col. David D. Clendenin, in command of about eight hundred Union cavalry, was scouting in the neigh- borhood of the mouth of the Monocacy, General Wallace sent a messenger to him requesting him to report at his headquar- ters. Colonel Clendenin arrived before daylight on the morn- ing of July 6, and was ordered toward Frederick and Middle- town to ascertain if the enemy was in sight, and to hold him in check as long as possible. Colonel Clendenin took his force of cavalry up the National Pike as far as the top of Catectin Mountain, from which vantage point he saw a body of Con- federate cavalry, under the command of Gen. Bradley T. Johnston, coming from the direction of South Mountain and Middletown. There was a slight clash between these two opposing cavalry forces, but Colonel Clendenin finally fell back toward Frederick, where he took a stand west of the city.
Gen. Wallace sent forward other troops to support him, and on the 8th there was an interchange of cannonading be- tween the opposing forces, and shots were also fired by the infantry. A larger Confederate force was then seen coming over the mountains west of Frederick, and on the night of the 8th of July, General Wallace ordered all his forces to retire from Frederick to the east bank of the Monocacy River. During the night he made preparations for the battle, which, he was certain would ensue on the following day.
The Monocacy River flows in a general southerly direction, with many bends and curves, and finally empties its waters into the Potomac River, ten miles below the iron bridge at Frederick Junction. On the eastern bank (above and below the iron bridge), there are bluffs of hills extending along not far from the river, and at places there are somewhat similar bluffs or hills on the western side of the river a little distance therefrom, with a valley between. Leading out of Frederick in a southeasterly direction by divergent courses, are two great highways, the one to Baltimore and the other to Wash- ington, which cross the Monocacy River about three miles from Frederick, the crossings being about two and a half miles apart. The bridge over the Monocacy on the Baltimore highway is a stone structure and known as the Jug Bridge. At the time of the battle of Monocacy, the bridge carrying the road over the Monocacy on the Washington highway was a long wooden structure, weather boarded and covered with a shingle roof. The Jug Bridge is about two and a half miles upstream or north of the wooden bridge. Besides these
21
bridges over the Monocacy there was a ford upstream from the Jug Bridge known as Hughes's Ford, another ford about three-fourths of a mile south of the bridge known as Crum's Ford. A little farther south going down stream was another ford known as Reich's Ford. The next crossing south, scarce- ly a mile away, was the railroad iron bridge already men- tioned. The B. and O. Railroad from Baltimore crosses the Monocacy westerly on that bridge, and then turns in a southerly direction and runs along about a quarter of a mile west of the Monocacy River for a considerable distance, then, leaving the river more to the south, runs on south- westerly to Point of Rocks, and then up the banks of the Po- tomac to Harper's Ferry and beyond. A few hundred yards south of the railroad iron bridge was the wooden bridge, on the road to Washington. About one and one-half miles south of this wooden bridge was still another ford that figured in the battle, which may be designated the McKinney-Worth- ington Ford. Here it was that the main Confederate army crossed just before the heat of the engagement which occurred on July 9, about 3:30 o'clock in the afternoon.
Not knowing which one of these two great highways Gen- eral Early's forces would take, nor which large city, Wash- ington or Baltimore, was his objective, but surmising it was Washington, General Wallace placed all of the forces of the Eighth Army Corps under the immediate command of Gen. E. B. Tyler, who was already on the ground, and directed him to occupy the hills and bluffs on the east bank of the Monocacy, his line facing west, and extending from the rail- road tracks northerly to the Jug Bridge and beyond, a dis- tance of two and a half miles, thus preventing as far as pos- sible any effort on the part of the Confederate forces to cross the Monocacy in case General Early should attempt to march upon Baltimore. This army under Gen. Tyler thus guarded the railroad iron bridge, Reich's Ford, Crum's Ford, the Jug Bridge, and Hughes's Ford.
Gen. Tyler sent Col. L. Allison Brown, commanding the 144th and 149th Ohio Volunteers, to the Jug Bridge to de- fend it from Confederate attack, and Colonel Brown ordered his forces across the bridge to the bank to occupy the rising ground on that side. Considerable skirmishing took place between this force and a force of Confederates sent to demon- strate against it. There was also skirmishing in the neigh- borhood of Crum's Ford, and farther down the river, but the main battle, or the real battle, occurred in the afternoon be- tween the forces of Gen. John B. Gordon and Gen. James B. Ricketts, on the east side of the Monocacy south of the wooden bridge.
In the meantime, General Grant, besieging Petersburg, Va., had ordered a division of the Sixth Army Corps under James B. Ricketts to proceed up the bay for the purpose of defending Washington or Baltimore, as the case might be, from any possible Confederate attack. Very fortunately for General Wallace, General Ricketts arrived at the former's headquarters on the east bank of the Monocacy late at night on the 8th of July, with 5,000 seasoned troops under his com- mand, consisting of the Third Division of the Sixth Army Corps.
After a conference at Wallace's headquarters, General Ricketts was ordered to station his troops on the hills and bluffs on the east side of the Monocacy, facing west and ex- tending southwesterly from the old wooden bridge, thus to hinder and impede any attempt of the Confederate forces to cross the Monocacy and march upon Washington in case that should be their objective. General Ricketts' line of battle was a mile or more in extent, his right resting on the hill close to the wooden bridge over the Monocacy River on the Wash-
ington highway. His left was some distance back from the river, perhaps a distance of a mile or more, his lines running southwesterly somewhat obliquely from the course of the Monocacy at that place past the Thomas house and barn. He had strong picket lines out across the long covered bridge, near a blockhouse which stood on the west side of the Mono- cacy close to the highway and not far from the small wooden bridge over the railroad; and squadrons of calvary were nearer to the Monocacy River farther down. Between his main line of battle and the Monocacy River was located the farm then owned and occupied by Mr. John T. Worthington. The dwelling house was of brick, with a good cellar under the whole building. The land upon which Ricketts' army was drawn up belonged at that time to C. Keefer Thomas. The dwelling house on that farm was also of brick, with a cellar under a portion of it, at least. These two farmhouses were located about half a mile apart, the Worthington house being nearest the Monocacy. The Confederate forces par- ticipating in the main fight, at the beginning of the battle, in a general way, occupied the Worthington farm, while the Union forces occupied the Thomas farm, a considerable por- tion of the two brigades of Union forces being hidden behind the division fence between the two farms. This division fence runs in a straight line for several hundred rods in a southwesterly direction, and behind this fence was concealed in part the front line of the Union army when McCausland's dismounted cavalry made its ill-starred attack. Once or twice the Confederates were forced back past the Worthing- ton house, and the attacking Union forces occupied the prem- ises for a while, to be in turn driven back by the Confederates.
On the morning of July 9, the Confederate forces under General Early were in full possession of Frederick City and the surrounding country. He sent forward some pieces of artillery toward the Federal line at Frederick Junction. About nine o'clock, a rifle gun posted on a hillock near the Cronise house, one mile east of Frederick, fired the first shot directly upon the blockhouse on the east bank of the Mono- cacy at the railroad bridge. This shot mortally wounded two men of the 151st New York Regiment, and in a little while several more men were killed or wounded in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment. A little later, certain forces of the Confederates took possession of a barn on what was known as the Best farm, located a short distance from the Monocacy River, on the west side, not far from the wooden bridge, and sharpshooters from that barn made it very uncomfortable for the advance guard, or picket line, of the Union forces sta- tioned on the west side of the Monocacy near the blockhouse, on that side. This picket line consisted of about three hun- dred men commanded by Capt. George E. Davis, of Company D, 10th Vermont Volunteers. Besides his own company of seventy-five men, there were two companies of the Potomac Home Brigade, under Capt. Charles J. Brown, and one com- pany of the 9th New York Heavy Artillery. About noon a well directed shell from one of Alexander's pieces on the east bank of the river hit the Best barn, setting it on fire and burn- ing it down, thus driving the Confederate sharpshooters from that point of vantage. About this time — that is, about noon — Gen. Lew Wallace, through his field glass, saw approaching in the distance, from toward Frederick, a considerable force of Confederates under General Ramseur, and believing that the object of this force was to cross the wooden bridge over the Monocacy, he ordered kindling and lightwood piled up against the walls of the bridge and set on fire, the bridge being completely consumed.
Except for this advance guard near the blockhouse on the west side, General Ricketts' men had not yet been engaged,
22
^opfederat^ l/eterap.
but they stood in two or three lines, about five thousand of them, awaiting the onslaught which they were sure was coming.
Meanwhile, Gen. John McCausland, commanding a regi- ment of Confederate cavalry about twelve hundred strong, at near eleven o'clock in the morning, marched from Fred- erick out the Washington road for a distance of about two miles, and then across the fields to a position on the west bank of the Monocacy, directly west of the Worthington house and about five or six hundred yards therefrom. In this position McCausland's troops were hidden from the view of the enemy by the thick foliage of the trees and bushes which grew at that place along the banks of the Monocacy. While in that position, he caused two-thirds of his cavalry to dis- mount, the one-third remaining being required to hold the horses of those who dismounted.
This dismounted cavalry, about eight hundred strong, then waded the Monocacy, which is somewhat shallow at that place, and formed in line of battle in one of Worthington 's fields, then moved forward toward the enemy's line posted along the dividing fence between the Thomas and the Worth- ington farms. The field nearest to the enemy through which the Confederate dismounted cavalry had to advance was then in growing corn about waist high all over the field. Lying down behind the dividing fence, and hidden from view by the growth of corn in the field, were parts of two brigades of Ricketts' seasoned soldiers.
The only man on horseback was General Ricketts himself, sitting quietly and soldierly on his horse a little back from the line. His officers, having dismounted, were standing by their horses. Toward these horsemen McCausland advanced his line through the cornfield, with banners waving, in a gen- eral feeling of an easy victory prevailing. Onward they went through the corn, drawing nearer and nearer to the enemy, neither side firing a shot, until the Confederate line had reached within less than one hundred and fifty yards of the division fence. Then, at the word of command, the whole Federal line of infantry rose to their feet and, resting their guns on the rails of the fence, fired at the approaching enemy a murderous and disastrous volley. Scores of men were killed and wounded, and many horses ridden by officers were shot and mortally wounded.
The whole force suddenly disappeared from view except the few officers remaining on horseback. The survivors re- treated precipitately back to the Worthington house and beyond, pursued by the blue-clad Federals. Mr. John T. Worthington, who witnessed this attack and repulse, stated that he never saw such a terrible sight as an army shocked and frightened as this one was. The men dragged their mus- kets by the muzzle, shirt collars were open and their faces depicted the greatest terror. After great effort, with many threats and oaths, the officers finally succeeded in arresting the men in their flight, but the latter declared that they had been led deliberately into a deadly ambush.
It was some time before those that were left could be gath- ered together and form line again; and finally, when this was accomplished and another second attack was attempted a little to the right of the first, they proceeded much more cau- tiously than before, not approaching so near, and retiring when they were met with the fire of the enemy again. Often and again these men demanded to know: "Where in hell is Gordon?" They had expected that General Gordon's brig- ades would arrive much sooner than they did. In fact, his forces were considerably delayed in crossing the river and getting into position for the main attack. Though McCaus- land's dismounted cavalry were twice repulsed with severe
losses, yet his attack disclosed the position of the enemy and in a manner opened the way for the real attack by General Gordon later on.
About two o'clock in the afternoon, Gen. John B. Gordon, commanding one of Early's divisions, marched out of Fred- erick along the highway leading to Washington until he reached what is known as the Sand Hole, or Buckeystown road, which branches off about one mile from Frederick in a southerly direction. He followed that road about three and a half miles to (what is known as) the McKinney farm, just across Ballenger Creek. Here he turned his division ab- ruptly to the left and, first crossing the railroad, crossed the Monocacy River at the McKinney- Worthington ford. This was not a public ford, but the water there is shallow and the place had been used at different times as a fording place. The Worthington meadow, which lies along the eastern bank of the Monocacy at this crossing place, afforded a fine field for General Gordon to maneuver his men into position. The meadow there is quite extensive and level and was well protected from the view of the enemy by the higher ground that lay between his forces and those of the enemy posted in the fields of the Thomas farm, and in the cuts of the George- town road, beyond.
Having gotten his forces across on this meadow, General Gordon disposed of his several brigades in order to make the principal and decisive attack of the day. General Evans, in command of one brigade, was directed to go by the right flank. General York, in command of two brigades (Hayes's and Stafford's) was ordered to form on the left of Brigadier General Evans, and Terry's brigade was directed to move in support of the left of the Confederate line. These disposi- tions being made, the whole command was ordered to advance in echelon by brigades from the right. Evans advanced across the fields of the Worthington farm toward the left of the Federal line, York advanced toward the center of the line, while General Terry bore up the east side of the Mono- cacy River to the left of York's line, his general direction being toward the big wooden bridge on the Georgetown road more than a mile distant. Evans's Brigade was the first to come in rontact with the enemy. It crossed two fields and came to a knoll or end of a large hill, known as Brooks's Hill, wooded on the west side but cleared on the east. The Confederate right wing marched up the hill through this woods and came out in the open in full view of Ricketts' left wing, and within a short distance of his line.
The Confederates moved spiritedly, with their usual rebel yell, but were met with a storm of bullets and shell which played havoc with their front line, General Evans himself being severely wounded and falling from his horse. I have heard it stated that as many as fifty Confederates were killed and two hundred wounded on this hillside within fifteen minutes after this engagement began. For a time this ad- vance was checked and the Confederate forces thrown into disorder. About this time, General York's Louisiana brigades,, occupying the center of the Confederate line, had passed the Worthington house and on through the same corn field in which McCausland had met such disaster, and had come in contact with the center of the line in Thomas's field. Here again the fighting was severe. York's brigade, in coopera- tion with Evans's brigade, moved forward, however, with spirit and drove back the Federal first line in confusion on its second. A spirited charge on this second line drove it back toward the Thomas house and lawn and into the cuts of the Georgetown road. Here it made a most determined stand.
Qopfederat^ l/eterai)
23
At this junction, General Gordon started a courier for ad- ditional forces, but before the message could be delivered, General Terry, moving northerly up the east bank of the Monocacy, in support of General York, came in contact with General Ricketts' right in Thomas's hill field near the wooden bridge. Here another most sanguinary engagement took place. The Federal brigades constituting Ricketts' right wing were largely concealed from view over the crest of the hill and in the depressions made by an old road that formerly ran across this field, and by a post and rail fence. The Con- federates, as they came over the crest of the hill, were met by a murderous fire from these half-concealed and protected troops. In an incredibly short time great numbers of Con- federates fell, killed outright, or mortally or seriously wound- ed. The Confederate forces outnumbered the Union, and finally the latter fell back, but they were not yet defeated. By command of General Gordon, Terry then changed front to the right and by a combined attack all along the line the Federals were at last dislodged.
General Gordon, as well as General McCausland and the other officers of the Confederate army, were unaware that the seasoned and veteran troops of General Ricketts had ar- rived at the battle field during the night of the 8th; and hav- ing been told by the people of Frederick that the only forces they had to meet at the Monocacy were the inexperienced and unseasoned soldiers under Gen. E. B. Tyler, they were woefully undeceived upon finding how tenaciously the Union forces held on.
During the battle a number of sharpshooters of Ricketts' •command occupied the Thomas house, and in the attack by Evans's Brigade upon the Federal left, Col. J. H. Lamar and Lieut. Col. Von Valkenburg, both of the 61st Georgia Regiment of Evans's Brigade, and both meritorious officers, were killed, as was supposed, by these expert riflemen, Colonel Lamar being shot from his horse as he led the charge. Several ■other regimental commanders of Evans's Brigade were also mortally wounded. In order to dislodge the sharpshooters from the Thomas house, about four-thirty o'clock in the after- noon, a piece of Confederate artillery was planted in the Worthington yard, and shells were thrown across the inter- vening fields, striking the Thomas house and making great holes in its brick walls, some shells exploding in the upper rooms, thus driving out the Federal marksmen. It was not until then that a final successful advance of Evans's and York's commands was made. It was perhaps after three-thirty ■o'clock in the afternoon when the real battle began, and it was over by five o'clock. But by all concerned it has always been considered a most sanguinary conflict.
Near the Gambrill mill (a stone structure) a Federal field hospital was set up, and after the battle forty-two dead and wounded lay around the mill and in the yard adjacent thereto. Another Union field hospital was located behind the hill near -hat is now the George Yaste property, close to where the new concrete highway to Washington runs. Dr. D. F. Mc- Kinney had charge of this hospital. A Confederate field hospital was set up near the Worthington house, and many wounded were brought here to be treated and to have their wounds dressed. A number of dead and wounded of both armies, but principally Confederates, lay in and about the Worthington yard, fields, and premises. The same was true of the Thomas yard, lawn, fields, and premises, except that the Union loss was greater there. The Thomas house was very much damaged by the Confederate shell fire. A number of Yankee bullets struck the Worthington house, one entering through a window. In the Worthington cellar during the battle were John T. Worthington and his family, also the
family of Mr. Frank Mantz, who was the B. and O. Railway agent at Frederick Junction, and also several slaves in the Worthington family, who remained faithful to the end.
The severity and bloodiness of the battle is shown in part by the fact that a stream of water which flows through the lawn of the Thomas premises down toward Gambrill's mill, was colored red for a distance of one hundred yards or more by the blood from the soldiers on both sides who fell dying or wounded and bleeding along its banks.
The loss in killed and wounded on both sides was severe. The Confederates lost heavily in officers as well as in men. According to Federal reports, the Federal killed on the field amounted to 123, and the wounded to 603: total, 726. The Confederate killed has been placed as high as 275, and the wounded at 435; total, 710. After the battle the sun was still two or three hours above the western horizon. At that time the dead were being gathered for burial and the wounded were being brought to the field hospitals for treatment. Lieutenant Colonel Hodges, of the 9th Louisiana Regiment, had his upper arm bone shattered by a leaden bullet and suf- fered great pain. The writer, then a small boy, remembers gathering sheaves out of the wheat field with which to make a pallet in the shade for the wounded men.
The dead perhaps were thickest in the field between the northern end of Brook's Hill and the Thomas house, and in the cornfield where McCausland made his ill-advised attack, also in the Thomas fields near his house, and in the hill field near the bridge where Terry contended with Ricketts' right. There were also dead and wounded on the lands of Mr. Gam- brill. The dead and wounded on the line north of the railroad held by Gen. E. B. Tyler were stated to be fifteen and sixty- eight, respectively. The Union army retreated, leaving most of its wounded on the battle field, but after the Confederate wounded were attended to, the Union wounded were also given attention by the surgeons of the Confederate army.
Although the forces of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace were de- feated at the battle of Monocacy, yet the brave and deter- mined resistance which they made to the march of General Early toward Washington no doubt saved the capital city from capture. His advance was delayed by at least twenty- four hours.
Frederick Junction is about forty miles from Washington, and not more than thirty-eight miles, perhaps, from some of the outlying forts. About ten o'clock the day after the battle, July 10, General Early moved his forces along the highway toward Rockville and Washington, but on the 11th, when he arrived in the late afternoon near the outlying fortifications around that city, he discovered that they were well manned by Union soldiers sent up the bay by General Grant from the neighborhood of Hampton Roads and City Point. He states In his report that he deemed it inadvisable to attack the city in the circumstances.
Arriving at Fort Stevens on the 11th of July, General Early says:
"I determined to first make an assault, but before it could be made it became apparent that the enemy had been strongly reenforced, and we knew that the Sixth Corps had arrived from Grant's amy, and after consultation with my divison commanders, I beame satisfied that the assault, even if suc- cessful, would be attended with such great sacrifice as would insure the destruction of my whole force before victory could have been made available, and if unsuccessful, it would have necessarily resulted in the loss of the whole force. I, there- fore, reluctantly determined to retire."
24
^oijfederat^ l/eterai).
St*iy.t.»jyiwi!irjwi«i«i5»:i¥.i«iwi*:i«i».i«l».i.«i»
[I
Sketches in this department are given a half column of space without charge; extra space will be charged at 20 cents a line. Engravings $3.00 each.
'For, wrapped in silence and in tears, And canopied by creeping years, Forever freed from fury's fears,
Our deathless dead ones sleep; While o'er their forms the flowerets twine, And mockbirds sing their songs divine, And soft and still the moonbeams shine
O'er Southrons whom we weep."
Hon. William Hodges Mann.
On the 12th of December, 1927, death came suddenly to William Hodges Mann, ex-governor of the State of Virginia, at the age of eighty-four years. He is survived by his wife and one son, with whom he had been practicing law in Peters- burg, Va., since leaving the governor's chair in 1914. His last public appearance was on July 30, when, in his gray uni- form, he was the principal speaker at the unveiling of the mon- ument to Gen. William Mahone on the Crater battle field.
William H. Mann was a soldier of the Confederacy, serving with Company E — the Petersburg Riflemen — attached to the 12th Virginia Infantry, Mahone's Brigade, and he was the last survivor of this company; he was a member of A. P. Hill Camp, U. C. V., of Petersburg, and always had a prominent part in its affairs. At the battle of Seven Pines, he was so severely injured that he could not again render active service in the ranks, but frequently was sent on dangerous and dif- ficult service in the operations around Petersburg, and this service continued to the end of the war. He was often in the Federal lines, sometimes in the Yankee uniform, and made himself so obnoxious to the enemy that he was to be executed if captured.
After the war, he returned to Nottoway County, studied law, and began to practice in 1867. Three years later he was made first judge of that county, and after twenty-two years of service on the bench he voluntarily retired. In 1899, he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1909 he was elected governor of the State, which he held four years, then retired to private life and resumed the practice of law with his son at Petersburg, in which he was actively engaged to the day of his death.
William Hodges Mann was born in Williamsburg, Va., in 1843, his father dying when he was an infant. His mother remarried, and he grew up at the new home at Brownsburg, in Rockbridge County, but at the age of fourteen he started out to make his own way in life, and while under sixteen he was serving as deputy clerk of Nottoway County, at Peters- burg. From there he enlisted in the Confederate army, and to that city he returned after the close of hostilities. He was twice married, his first wife being Miss Sailie Fitzgerald; the second marriage was to Miss Etta Donnan, of Petersburg, who survives him with one son.
Judge Mann was known as a forceful speaker, and that
talent was widely used for the benefit of the Democratic party in Virginia in the days of its greatest need, and of late years he often filled the pulpits of Churches in the city and vicinity. He was a leading member and elder of the Presby- terian Church in Petersburg. His Confederate comrades said of him: "As a soldier, a judge, a senator, a neighbor, a friend, and a Christian gentleman, Judge Mann has measured up to the full standard of all that we would require of him."
Mark T. Alexander.
Mark T. Alexander quietly passed away in Norfolk, Va., on October 30, 1927, and was laid to rest by the side of his parents in the cemetery at Scotland Neck, N. C, the day fol- lowing, attended by a host of sorrowing relatives and friends.
He was the son of Hon. Mark and Sailie P. Alexander, and was born at Park Forest, the old family home, in Mecklen- burg County, Va., on January 14, 1842. When the War between the States came on, he readily entered the struggle and fought through the weary stretch from 1861 to 1865, first as a member of Company A, 3rd Virginia Cavalry, then in Wickham's Brigade, Fitz Lee's Division, Army of Northern Virginia. On detached service he was at General Fitz Lee's headquarters, remaining there the last two years of the war.
Moving farther south, he lived in Mississippi, and at Louis- ville, Ky., where he was a loyal member of Elk's Lodge, No. 8. Eleven years ago he returned to Virginia and made his home with his niece, Mrs. J. Tabb Neblett, of Lunenburg County.
Mr. Alexander was a devout and helpful member of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lunenburg County, and gave himself in unselfish service to others. Having no family of his own, he became a true and generous provider for those less fortunate than he, and passed from the scenes of earth held in their love and deep affection.
Thus passed the last surviving member of a long and hon- orable line of distinguished Virginians and North Carolinians.
"Father, in thy gracious keeping, Leave we now thy servant sleeping."
B. C. Tarkington.
Booker Charter Tarkington died at his home in Weather- ford, Tex., aged ninety-five years. He was born in Obion County, Tenn., July 31, 1832, and moved to East Texas with his parents in 1847, the family settling at Pittsburg in what is now Camp County. In 1861, he enlisted from there in the army of the Confederacy and served throughout the War between the States. He located in Parker County in July, 1865, and this county had since been his home continuously. He engaged in the mercantile business at Veal Station, one of the earliest settlements in the section, later engaging in cattle raising, but returned to Weatherford in 1879 and settled permanently. He was elected to the office of county com- missioner, and was a member of the commissioners court at the time the present courthouse was built. Afterwards, he was elected to the office of county treasurer and served three terms in that capacity.
In 1868 Comrade Tarkington was married to Miss Sarah Crawford, who, with, three sons and two daughters, survives him.
B. C. Tarkington was one of the honored and highly re- spected citizens of Weatherford and Parker counties. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, of the order of Odd Fellows, and a loyal and devoted member of Tom Green Camp, United Confederate Veterans.
[J. M. Richards, Weatherford, Tex.]
Qo^federat^ l/eterai).
25
James Samuel Clarke. James Samuel Clarke, son of Daniel and Ednah Pepper Clarke, for the last fifteen years of his life a resident of Mil- lersburg, Ky., passed to his reward on October 23, 192o, at the age of eighty-five years. He was born in Fleming County, Ky., April 9, 1841, beingthe youngest, and, for fourteen years, the last survivor of a family of twelve children.
His father, proprietor for a number of years of one of the few inns scattered along the old wagon road which connected Lexington and Maysville, came to the State with his parents, Ben- jamin and Sarah Jones Clarke, from Fluvanna County, Va., in 1790. The family is related to George Rogers Clarke, pioneer surveyor and soldier. JAMES S. CLARKE.
Daniel Clarke, his father, was a veteran of the War of 1812. Joseph Clarke, an idolized elder brother, a veteran of the Mexican War.
At the outbreak of the War between the States, James Samuel, the youngest son, being then in his nineteenth year, was left at home with the aged parents, while a brother, Enoch P. Clarke, went with the boys in gray. His heart, however, was with the Southern army, and in 1862 he volun- teered for service as a private in Company F, Second Bat- talion, Kentucky Mounted Rifles. He was with Bragg when the latter invaded Kentucky; was on the raid under Captain Everett from Abington, Va., to Maysville, Ky.; was in an engagement with the 14th Kentucky Regiment between Olympian Springs and Mount Sterling, Ky., capturing thirty- eight men without the loss of a man; guarded the salt works near Marion, Va.; was captured at Triplett's Bridge, Ky., i and spent twenty months in prison on Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, and another in Chesapeake Bay.
After the war, he turned his attention to farming and stock- raising, being a lover of saddle horses. Residing a number of years near Mayslick, Ky., he later went to Bath County to reside, finally locating in Bourbon County, where he engaged in farming to the close of his life. He kept in touch j with the issues of the day and took a vital interest in the af- fairs of the community, State, and nation. Confined to his bed only five days, never helpless, and with no disease rack- ing his body, he "fell on sleep," simply "worn out" in body, as he was wont to say, bowing his head in submission to his Maker's will.
On November 24, 1870, he was united in marriage to Miss ' Nancy Elizabeth Clift, of Mayslick, Ky., who preceded him in death four years. He is survived by four sons, four daugh- ters, twelve grandchildren, and one great-grandson, who cherish the memory of his quiet, unassuming, yet exemplary life. Courteous and upright of person, as he was also in character, his was a familiar figure as he walked the streets with buoyant step or rode with figure erect at the age of eighty-five, as in the day when he sat in the cavalryman's saddle.
The Confederate Veteran has been a visitor to his home almost from its beginning, and it was his request that it come to the family as long as it was published. He was a member of the United Confederate Veterans, and found his greatest pleasure in later years in attending the Confederate reunions.
He was laid to rest in the family lot in Millersburg Ceme- tery, the Confederate burial service being conducted by Con- federate comrades, who also acted as honorary pallbearers, while a member of the Richard Hawes Chapter, U. D. C., of Paris, Ky., placed a Confederate flag in the casket.
Capt. James Kennedy.
Capt. James Kennedy died at his home in Kansas City, Mo., November 3, 1927, aged ninety-one years.
Services were held November 5 in the Independence Ave- nue Christian Church, which he had attended forty years. His comrades from Camp Number 80, U. C. V., of which he was a charter member, read the ritual at the close of the impressive services, and he was laid to rest, in his beloved gray uniform, in Forest Hill Cemetery, beneath the shadow of the Confederate monument.
Captain Kennedy was born in Jefferson City, Mo., July 9, 1836, and spent his life in this State, except while in Con- federate service. His forbears came to America many years before the Revolution. His grandfather, Cornelius Kennedy, fought with Gen. George Washington, in 1776. At the close of the war, he settled in Maryland near Baltimore.
At the first call of his native State, James Kennedy joined the Confederate forces, enlisting at Brunswick, Me., May 2, 1861, then going to Camp Jackson, St. Louis. He was body- guard to General Frost, serving under Commander John B. Clark, Capt. William Price, nephew of Gen. Sterling Price. Later he was captain of Searcy's Battalion, Tyler's Brigade. He was promoted to the rank of major before the close of the war.
Captain Kennedy participated in these battles: Spring- field, first and second battles of Lexington, Independence, Carthage, Newtonia, Cane Hill, Cross Hollow, Helena', Corinth, Miss.; and on October 23, 24, 1864, was on the West- port battle field as captain with six hundred men. After this battle, he retreated with Price to Red River, Ark., where he surrendered in May, 1865.
He was a bachelor. A brother of eighty-five years and a sister eighty years old, nieces, and nephews survive him.
He was a Christian, a soldier, and a gentleman of the Old South.
[Committee: Mrs. Anna Ragan Noland, State Secretary, Missouri Division, U. C. V., Miss Elizabeth Blackburn, Chairman Veteran's Committee, Robert E. Lee Chapter U. D. C]
Philip Eldridge.
On October 20, 1927, Comrade Philip Eldridge, at the ripe age of ninety-four years, anwered the last roll call and crossed over the river to join the comrades with whom he marched and fought in the days that tried men's souls. In Bienville Parish, La., he joined Company K, 8th Louisiana Cavalry, and was in the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and all of the other engagements in which his regiment took part. He surrendered and was paroled at Shreveport, La., in May, 1865. In 1867, he moved to Jefferson, Tex., and was in the mercantile business until a few years ago. He was one of the early members of the congregation of Temple Sinai, was a Mason for more than seventy years, and was treasurer of Jefferson Lodge, No. 38, for more than forty years, a good man and true in all of the relations of life. He was one of the original members of Gen. Dick Taylor Camp No. 1265, U. C. V., of Jefferson, Tex., and was esteemed and respected by all of his neighbors.
[Davis Biggs, Adjutant.]
26
^ogfederat^ l/eterap.
ABNER YARBROUGH.
Abner Yarbrough.
Abner Yarbrough was born in Hopkins County, Ky., March 26, 1844, and enlisted, October 5, 1861, in Company A, of the 8th Kentucky In- fantry , serving under Capt. I. B. Jones. He went through the war and was wounded three times in battle; was mounted in March 1861, and became an attache of Forrest's Cavalry; was paroled May 16, 1 8 65, and returned home, married, and re- moved to Paragould, Ark., where he died on Nov- ember 25, 1927, and was laid to rest in Linwood Cemetery at Paragould. He was a member of the Methodist Church.
Comrade Yarbrough is survived by his wife, two sons, five grandchildren,
and five great-grandchildren, also one brother, Robert Yar- brough, of California.
So far as records show, Abner Yarbrough's death leaves but one survivor of Captain Jones's company, George Wiley, of Hopkins County, Ky.
Simon Brown McClure.
Simon Brown McClure, born in the State of Ohio, some seven miles from Wheeling, Va. (now West Virginia), on July 10, 1843, Vent with his widowed mother and seven brothers and sisters in 1857 to St. Louis, Mo., by water, and from there into the wilderness of Phelps County by wagon. There he lived until the beginning of the War between the States, when he enlisted in Company D, 10th Missouri In- fantry, Parsons's Brigade, under General Price. He took part in all the battles of his regiment, and at Prairie Grove battle he was slightly wounded by a spent ball. He was captured at Helena, Ark., on July 4, 1863, and was for several months a prisoner at Alton, 111., and afterwards was held for twenty- two months at Fort Delaware. When released from prison in 1865, he was a staggering skeleton, but with others he made his way home, subsisting on the charity of a desolated country. At Memphis, Tenn., he received his discharge from the army, with which he had served to the bitter end.
In 1869, Comrade McClure engaged in railroad building in Arkansas, going from there to the Indian Nation, then to Wyoming Territory, where he was employed by the govern- ment in transportation work against the hostile Indians, and during the eight years of this work he endured many hard- ships. He returned to Missouri in 1879 and located on the farm where he spent the rest of his life. In 1880, he was mar- ried to Miss Virginia Sturgeon, of Lake Spring, Mo., and five children were born to them. He became a member of the Methodist Church some twenty years before his death, which occurred on December 25, 1924. He was survived by his wife, three sons, and two daughters, also five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
"Uncle Brown," as he was more familiarly known, was one of the leading citizens of his community, a kind and affection- ate husband and father, a faithful Christian, a loyal friend and neighbor.
John W. Heflin.
On the morning of October 14, 1927, at Flemingsburg, Ky. a brave private Confederate soldier, John W. Heflin, answerec the roll call of Immortals and joined the innumerable phalan> of the South's honored dead.
He was the son of Lawson Alexander and Ann Eliza Heflin and was born at Brandywine, Carter's Run, Fauqier County Va. In 1863, when seventeen years old, he enlisted in Com pany A, of Mosby's Partisan Rangers. He was captured in1 January, 1864, and immediately placed in irons, hand an foot, and so left for forty-six days at Brandy Station, Va, where he was held in a stockade, with no shelter save th canopy of heaven and exposed to wind, rain, snow, and slee both day and night without either overcoat or blanket He was sent from there to the Old Capitol Prison at Wash ington, D. C, where he remained four months. Escapin the pestilence of smallpox, of which many Confederat prisoners died at that prison, he was removed to Fort Dela ware, where he was confined until June 21, 1865.
In 1874, he went to Kentucky and located at Tilton, Flem ing County. On April 24, 1877, he was married to Miss Mildred Robinson, of Montgomery County, and of this union were born five children. Surviving him are his wife, two sons and a daughter, and five grandchildren.
In the winter of 1879 he accepted the position as cashier of the Fleming County Farmers Bank, located at Flemings- burg, to which place he moved his family in March of that year and continued as cashier of the bank until his death.
On Sunday afternoon of October 16, loving friends tenderly bore his body to the silent city of the dead, and he sleeps his last sleep on the hill overlooking the city of his adoption, loved by man and honored by all. [J. D. Pumphrey.]
William C. Groner. William Christopher Groner was born in Knox County, Tenn., February 18, 1845. His parents moved to Missouri
when he was a boy, and from there he entered the Confederate army at the age of seventeen, and served with Gen. Joe Shelby until the close of the war. After the war, he settled with his parents in Collin County, Tex. Comrade Groner was in every way a typical Southern gentle- man and a useful citizen. He was a well-informed man, though largely self- educated, since those years in which a young man usually acquires his school- ing were spent in the Confederate service. He was widely read, and could converse on almost any subject of current or general interest.
He was devoted to the cause of the Confederacy and in his library were many of the most valuable books treating of the history of the Confederacy and of the war between the sections. He was a patriot tried and true, and never failed in his devotion to the cause to which he gave three of the best years of his youth, and which to him was sacred and holy cause.
On July 2, 1927, he parked his guns of earthly warfare and crossed over the river to rest "in the shade of the trees" with his comrades of other days.
W. C. GRONER.
PERE BRUCE YOUNG.
Pere Bruce Young.
Pere Bruce Young was born at Lovingston, Nelson County, Va., on May 6, 1842, and died October 23, 1927, in his eighty- sixth year. His parents were Pere Wethered and Sarah Eleanor Perrow Young. From them he inherited many noble traits of character. De- prived of a father's care and guidance when only eight years of age, and his widowed mother be- ing left in reduced cir- cumstances with three small children, his edu- cational advantages were very meager. He attended the old field schools until he was fourteen years of age, when he had to go to work to help support
his mother and his two young sisters. He used to say he graduated in the "School of Hard Knocks."
Comrade Young was in government employ at the out- break of war in 1861, and was exempt from military duty, but, like all youth of that period, he could not be content as a civilian. He joined the 8th Virginia Cavalry, Company B, in the brigade of Gen. William E. Jones, and engaged in some heavy fighting. On June 5, 1864, at the battle of Piedmont, in Augusta County, Va., he was severely wounded just below his left knee. General Jones, who confronted a large army under General Hunter, lost his life in this engagement. Comrade Young was removed from the field to the yard of a home being used as a hospital for the Federal wounded, where he lay on the ground for ten days, when a place on a porch was provided for him. At the request of Rev. Thomas Roberts, a saintly Baptist minister of Nelson County, a good Baptist of Augusta County took the injured youth into his home, and there he lay on his back four months. Then his relatives took him home, but he went on crutches a long time. The wound never healed, and had to be dressed daily for more than sixty-three years, and was primarily the cause of his death.
After the war, Comrade Young studied law under W. C. Carrington (afterwards mayor of Richmond, Va.) and was licensed to practice in 1867. He served his county long and well as justice of the peace, land assessor, supervisor, and member of the House of Delegates. Here he had the unique distinction of having resolutions passed by the General As- sembly commending his services and asking his county to return him without opposition. He was the only Confederate veteran in the House, was honored and greatly beloved by his younger colleagues, and was called the "Patriarch of the House." He was lovingly laid to rest in the family burial ground at his home near Shipman, attended by throngs of friends, from every station in life, and many beautiful floral offerings attested the esteem in which he was held. One of his friends in the governor's office said of him: "He was a soldier, a legislator, a gentleman, and a man. He was one who brought down into the present generation that high stand- ard of honor which characterized the men of the Old South." Comrade Young was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Dr. J. K. Simmons. The death of Dr. J. K. Simmons at his home, Woodsdale, on Mill Creek near Nace, Va., April 9, 1927, removed one of the most prominent and beloved citizens of Botetourt County. He was eighty-six years old, and his death occurred on the anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. He was born December 14, 1840, at his late home, which is probably the oldest house in the county and was built by his grandfather, John W. Simmons, in 1812. With the exception of his four years' service in the War between the States and a few years residence in Rockbridge County, when he first began medical practice, Dr. Simmons had spent his entire life in Botetourt County.
At the beginning of the War between the States, he en- listed in Company A, 28th Virginia Volunteer Regiment, and served through the entire four years. He was wounded seven times and was taken prisoner twice, the last time on the 6th of April, three days before the surrender. He was a brave soldier and was devoted always to the Confederacy and the Southland. His interest in the work of the U. D. C. never wavered. His assistance and knowledge in preserving records have been invaluable, and his presence at the meetings was always an inspiration. He was made an honorary mem- ber of the Fincastle Chapter. He not only gave his time and services to his State, but he had three sons in the Spanish- American War, one of whom died in service.
Possessed of a remarkable memory, about a year ago Dr. Simmons wrote a history of the organization and service of his company, of which he was first sergeant, giving the com- plete roster and even recalling all casualties, promotions, battles participated in, and other minute details. His de- scription of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, in which he took part, is intensely thrilling. The wound which he received at Frazier's Farm was one cause of his death. He was the oldest Mason in Botetourt County and probably in the State, having been a member for sixty-four years.
At the age of four he started to Sunday school, and for many years he taught the Bible to the young men of the county. His death is a real loss to Ebenezer Sunday School, of which he was a dearly beloved member. He had a profound knowledge of the Bible and loved to teach it. He was a member of the Fincastle Baptist Church and for many years had been a deacon, clerk, and prominent member. He was ever a friend to man in his ministrations to the sick, not only in easing pain, but with his prayers.
He was educated at Virginia Medical College, Richmond, and gave his entire life to the practice of medicine. His health beginning to fail about four years ago, he gave up his practice, but kept up his interest in public affairs and com- munity welfare.
He was laid away in the family burial grounds at Amster- dam, Va., by the side of his wife. The active pallbearers were six of his nephews.
Members of the two county Chapters, U. D. C, of Fin- castle, and that of Buchanan attended in a body. The services were concluded at the grave with Masonic honors.
As the casket, draped with a Confederate flag, was gently lowered into the grave, taps was sounded and these words fell upon the crowd of loving friends as a benediction — ■
"Fades the light; and afar Goeth day, cometh night; and a star Leadeth all, speedeth all, to their rest."
Dr. Simmons is survived by one brother, Nathan Sim- mons, a Confederate veteran, three sons, and a daughter, also four grandchildren.
28 Qoi)federat^ \/etcraij.
TUniteo daughters of tbe (Tonfeberac^
"^Cova 97?a*BS 977o*tory Sterna/"
Mrs. W. C. N. Merchant, President General Chatham, Va.
Mrs. Oscar McKenzie, Montezuma, Ga First Vice President General
Mrs. P. H. P. Lane, Philadephia, Pa Second Vice President General
186 Bethlehem Pike
Mrs. Madge D. Burney, Waynesboro, Miss Third Vice President General
Mrs. L. M. Bashinsky, Troy, Ala Recording Secretary General
Miss Mary L. G. White, Nashville, Tenn. . . .Corresponding Secretary General
Mrs. B. A. Blenner, Richmond, Va Treasurer Genera
Rural Route No. 2
Mrs. John L. Woodbury, Louisville, Ky Historian Genera1
74 Weissinger-Gaulbert
Mrs. Fred C. Kolman, New Orleans, La Registrar General
4620 South Derbigny Street
Mrs. R. P. Holt, Rocky Mount, N. C Custodian of Crosses j
Mrs. Jackson Brandt, Baltimore, Md Custodian of Flags and Pennant si
All communications for this Department should be sent direct to Mrs. L. U. Babin, Official Editor, 903 North Boulevard, Baton Rouge, La.
FROM THE PRESIDENT GENERAL.
To the United Daughters of the Confederacy: It is a blessed privilege to be one of the many thousand of this organization with established descent from the most heroic soldiery the world has known. But to be the chosen leader of these women who, while cherishing the sacred memories of a glorious past, build on these memories great possibilities of the future is an honor without equal.
My heart is filled with appreciation for your confidence, and I pray that your faith may be justified.
May each one of us recall the words; and make our prayer the thought of the dear lady in Detroit, Mich., one of our beneficiaries, who wished the convention in Charleston to know that each day she prayed, "God bless the U. D. C."
A beautiful conclusion to the brilliant convention was the service at St. James, Goose Creek, November 20. The sermon of the Rev. Albert Thomas, of St. Michael's, from the text, "Wherefore seeing we are encompassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses, let us run with patience the race set before us," was most inspiring to one wearing upon her breast for the first time the jewel of her official position.
A drive to Middleton Gardens on the forenoon of Monday, as a guest of the Misses Poppenheim, a luncheon at Villa Margherita, as the guest of the Second Vice President Gen- eral, Mrs. P. H. P. Lane, and the retiring Registrar General, Mrs. J. P Higgins, was followed by an afternoon devoted to your service.
In accordance with the provisions of our Constitution, the Committee on Finance was elected by the Executive Com- mittee before leaving Charleston. This Committee consists of Mrs. J. P. Higgins, 5330 Pershing Avenue, St. Louis, Mo., chairman; with Mrs. W. E. Massey, Arkansas, Mrs. Dolph Long, North Carolina, Mrs. John W. Goodwin, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Franklin Canby, Maryland, composing the commit- tee. These ladies of " recognized business ability" will "pass upon all resolutions donating money from the general treas- ury" and "recommend investment of funds."
Mrs. L. U. Babin, 903 North Boulevard, Baton Rouge, La., has accepted the position as editor of the U. D. C. De- partment of the Confederate Veteran, and it might be well for correspondents in the various Divisions to remember that it will require a somewhat longer period for mail in transit from Louisiana to Tennessee than from Virginia, the home of the recent editor.
Mrs. Amos H. Norris, Civil Service Board, Tampa, Fla., will remain chairman of the Mrs. Norman V. Randolph Fund for Needy Confederate Women. The happiest duty of the President General has been, and will be, the signing of the monthly checks for these beneficiaries. Thirty-three of these
were authorized for December, the amount being $20 each, the regular monthly sum of $15, with an additional $5 as a Christmas token. A message of cheer and the season's greet- ings was mailed from this office to each of these ladies in time to reach her Christmas morning.
The Committee on Education will continue to function under the chairmanship of Mrs. R. D; Wright, Newberry, S. C. Mrs. Wright will have to assist her Mrs. B. B. Ross, Alabama; Miss Mary Carlisle, Tex.; Mrs. D. M. Henderson, N. J.; and Mrs. W. E. R. Byrne, W. Va.
Two new departments were created by the convention in Charleston, 1927, the Department of Reference, of which Mrs. Roy W. McKinney is chairman, and the Department of Records, Mrs. J. P. Higgins, chairman.
With these departments in operation, the registration of the U. D. C. membership will be greatly clarified, and the duties of the Registrar General, which had become most onerous, will be much decreased.
With the most profound regret, it was found impossible, owing to office duties demanding immediate attention, for the President General to be present at the ceremonies incident to the presentation of the statue of the Vice President of the Southern Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, at Statuary Hall, Washington, D. C, on December 8. In compliance with instructions from the Charleston convention, that the interest of the entire organization, U. D. C, in this historic event be emphasized, Mrs. P. H. P. Lane, Second Vice Presi- dent General, was requested to represent the organization, her committee being Mrs. Jackson Brandt, Custodian of Flags and Pennants, and Mrs. A. C. Ford, recent U. D. C. Department, Confederate Veteran, and Past President of the Virginia Division. These ladies placed the floral of- fering in your name.
In grateful acknowledgment of your loyalty to me, and with a renewal of my pledge of service, cordially youri,
Maude Merchant.
liS
live
AN APPRECIATION
In closing her two years' administration of this department, your editor wishes to thank those who have so splendidly as- sisted her in this work, and who, by their courtesy, faithful- ness, and promptness have added so much to the efficiency of this department. She trusts that the same consideration and cooperation will be given her successor, Mrs. L. U. Babin, of Louisiana, to whom all communications should be ad- dressed hereafter. Mrs. A. C. Ford.
Hani I 1 ileri'
On
besto
liar.
in
Davis « tin lor 11 -ustc
BHD!
^opfederat^ l/eterai).
29
U. D. C. NOTES. Alabama. — "Alabama, Alabama, we will aye be true to thee."
Apparently every daughter is back on the job again. From all parts of the State come reports of activity and plans for the coming year.
R. D. Jackson Chapter, Woodlawn, opens her winter's work with a brilliant program. The President's greeting closed with special prayer for Mrs. C. T. Baege, Honorary Life President, who is critically ill.
■ Upon adjournment, the official board was hostess at a de- lightful luncheon given at the Molton Hotel to the veteran's and many visitors present.
William L. Yancy Chapter, Birmingham, held their initial meeting for the season at the home of the President, Mrs. R. G. McCartys, October 12. Miss Foster, retiring Historian, presented the newly elected Historian, Mrs. Robert Erving, a scrapbook of the Chapter's activities during her term of office. New members were welcomed and a long list of names presented for membership. A floral committee was named to send a wreath of laurel at the passing of each Confederate veteran.
Fayette Chapter, on October 1, royally entertained the Confederate veterans, their wives, and widows of veterans in a most enjoyable manner by the presentation of a lovely program fitting the occasion, which was followed by a sump- tuous banquet.
General Lamkin, of Jasper, head of Alabama veterans, gave an address, mostly reminiscent, which was interesting and appreciated Seventeen veterans were present, and a number of the wives and widows.
The Stonewall Jackson Chapter, Ozark, held the first meet- ing of the year at the home of Mrs. H. L. Holman, Mrs. T. E. Edwards, the new President, presiding. Mrs. Shellie Parker was elected Treasurer and Mrs. W. H. Hunts, Historian. After an interesting program, delicious refreshments were served.
R. E. Rodes Chapter, Tuscaloosa, held the first meeting of the season in the beautiful home of Mrs. Charles Maxwell,
-Sr. There were greetings from the President after a trip to
( Hawaiian Islands, where she found no U. D. C. organization, .but was a guest of the D. A. R. at a luncheon. Mrs. George
1 Daniel gave a very interesting account of the experiences of Mrs. Elizabeth Avery Meriwether (wife of Colonel
1 Meriwether) while in Tuscaloosa during the War between the States. Certificates were issued to a number of new members. Thirty dollars was reported sent to the flood sufferers.
On Raphael Semmes's birthday two Crosses of Honor were ! bestowed on Veterans Winslett and Jennings. Two days i later, at Chapter meeting, Mr. Winslett was guest of honor, dressed in his Confederate gray to acknowledge the apprecia- tion of the bestowal. A certificate of honor was awarded Mr. Hargrove Vandegraaf for his excellent service in the World War.
* * *
Arkansas. — The Arkansas convention proved most en- couraging. Reports showed a splendid year's work and a healthy growth in both adult and junior membership, with all appropriations of the year met.
By request of Mrs. Lora Goolsby, chairman of the Jefferson Davis Historical Foundation, $100 from the balance of funds in the treasury was appropriated to finish Arkansas's quota for the year. Another $100 appropriation was granted the Custodian of Flags. Mrs. P. J. Rice, for needed flags and banners.
Several thousand essays were submitted from the public schools and twenty-six prizes were awarded. The educational work, under the efficient chairman, Mrs. Daniel Horn, showed all scholarships awarded and all available money loaned. A pledge of $100 for the year was added to our Students' Loan Fund by Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Blakemore.
The U. D. C. Chapters of Little Rock have just presented, with impressive ceremonies, to their million dollar high school, a portrait of David Owen Dodd, Arkansas's boy martyr. The picture is the work of a member of Memorial Chapter, Miss Mae Danaher, who has made quite a reputation for herself in the artists' associations of the East.
* * *
California. — Los Angeles Daughters are highly gratified by the honorable recognition given our Confederate veterans on Armistice Day. They were invited to attend the cere- monies as special guests of honor of the American Legion. They were present in unusual numbers, and, supported by a throng of Daughters representing our seven U. D. C. Chapters, filled the special section reserved for them in the Coliseum.
Our beloved Commander of the Pacific Division, U. C. V., Gen. S. S. Simmons, fittingly represented his comrades in the review stand for the parade, and later as one of the guests of distinction, being introduced along with the official heads of the various military and veteran organizations, representa- tives of foreign governments, and Commander of the Western unit of the G. A. R. He was also assigned a place of honor on the staff of Col. Harcourt Hervey, standing second in line of officers for review of "Los Angeles's Own," the 160th Regiment, National Guards.
Through the devoted interest of Lionel West, son of a Georgia veteran and one of the leading young motion picture directors of Hollywood, our Eastern friends will be afforded a screen view of General Simmons and his comrades receiving the greetings of Daughters and Sons of the Confederacy on this occasion.
Mrs. Nita V. Taylor and Mrs. L. C. Lichenstein, two visit- ing Daughters from Houston, Tex., lent interest to the picture and added to the happiness of the veterans by messages of affection brought directly to them from their Commander in Cnief, Gen. J. G. Foster, of Houston.
* * *
Illinois. — Illinois Division held a most successful conven- tion on October 12.
The reports of officers, Chapter Presidents, and chairmen of committees showed marked constructive work during the year, intense interest and loyalty, and a general advance in all the activities sponsored by the general organization.
Every pledge made in Richmond last year had been met promptly, and, in some fields, money in excess of that prom- ised had been donated. This was especially true in Confed- erate Women's Relief, Illinois Division sending to this worthy cause alone $137.80. This amount included $55 from the Dixie Chapter, Children of the Confederacy, instead of the $5 pledged for them, and $25 from the Division Treasury. This last was the prize money awarded Mrs. Henry A. Oak- ley, former Recorder of Crosses, for Illinois scoring the largest per cent, based on membership, in the bestowal of World War Service Crosses during 1926, Mrs. Oakley turning this money back into the Division treasury on October 12, when the convention voted it to Confederate Women's Re- lief, thus forming "a chain-within-a-chain " "to promote some line of special endeavor in the United Daughters of the Confederacy work."
For our book, "Women of the South in War Times,"
30
^ogfederat^ l/eterai).
another ten volumes have been ordered, although Illinois Division was quoted "as over the top" both at Richmond and at the Hot Springs conventions.
The Confederate organizations in Chicago are happy this year over the War Departments sending to the University of Chicago, as head of its Department of Military Science and Tactics, Maj. T. J. Jackson Christian, the grandson of our greatly beloved Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. On Tuesday evening, October 11, the Sons of Confederate Vet- erans, assisted by the Daughters of the Confederacy, gave a brilliant reception in honor of Major and Mrs. Christian; and on the following day, at our annual convention, Mrs. D. J. Carter, the President of the Illinois Division, presented to Major Christian, in the name of Illinois Division, the U. D. C. World War Military Service Cross.
Small battle flags of the Confederacy were presented to Major Christian, to Mrs. Carter as President of the Division, and to three other members of her Board, these flags being the gift of Mrs. Norman V. Randolph, of Virginia, who sent them, with a beautiful letter of greeting, to Mrs. Carter, for this occasion.
An outstanding feature of the convention was the election of Miss Ida F. Powell as Honorary Life President of Illinois Division, with all the privileges on the Board of an active member; and the election of Miss Mary B. Poppenheim, of South Carolina, Past President General, as an Honorary Life Member of Illinois Division. Illinois Division has long admired Miss Poppenheim for her sterling qualities and great constructive work, and loved her for her continued interest and kindness to us, and her understanding and appreciation of the difficulties encountered by U. D. C. Chapters located in the North; while for Miss Powell the Division felt that in no other way could they adequately show their appreciation of her long years of devoted service to Chapter, State, and general organization, and their pride in her having held the office of Registrar General of our United Daughters of the Confederacy.
A full compliment of officers was elected for next year, who assume their duties in December, which marks the beginning of the official year for Illinois Division.
* * *
Kentucky. — The State convention of Kentucky Division was held in Louisville, October 18-20, with the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter as general hostess.
The report of Mrs. Lucian G. Maltby, State President, showed that much constructive work had been done; a steady increase in membership, with one hundred and twenty-five certificates signed during the year, and wonderful work done along educational lines. Several new Chapters were organized and two reinstated.
Interesting reports of State officers, standing, and special committees were heard, showing that the State is wide-awake along all lines of endeavor. In the afternoon, Mrs. George L. Danforth, State Chaplain, had charge of most beautiful and impressive memorial services paying tribute to those who had passed on during the year. At that time, a flower was placed in a basket on the platform in memory of each Daugh- ter. A flower was placed for Mrs. Yager, the mother of Miss Jessie Yager, notice of whose death reached the convention only a short time before the services.
All delegates, pages, and visitors were guests of the Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter at luncheon on Wednesday, and on that evening the Chapter gave a most elaborate reception to all visitors and members of Confederate organizations.
On Thursday morning at seven o'clock, members of the Quill Club met at the Brown Hotel for a breakfast. This
ft:
was arranged by Mrs. W. T. Fowler, chairman of the Quill I Club. At that time she outlined the work she had in mind and also brought many valuable papers which members of j the club had sent her. These will be placed where they may j be accessable to those interested in historical work.
At nine o'clock, more than one hundred daughters were taken in busses to the Confederate Home at Pewee Valley, where theThursday sessions were held in the presence of the wearers of the gray. It was a joyful day for them and one f that will always be remembered by those present.
The following officers were elected for the coming year: President, Mrs. W. T. Fowler, Lexington (member of the Joseph H. Lewis Chapter, Frankfort); First Vice President, Mrs. George R. Mastin, Lexington; Second Vice President, Miss Nannie H. Clarke, Millersburg; Third Vice President, Mrs. P. B. Davis, Earlington; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Annie Belle Fogg, Frankfort; Recording Secretary, Miss Frankie Reid, Hickman; Registrar, Mrs. Stanley John- son; Treasurer, Miss Jessie Yager, Owensboro; Historian, Mrs. Gipp Watkins, Hopkinsville; Auditor, Mrs. John Streit, Elkton; Chaplain, Mrs. George L. Danforth, Louisville; Vice Chaplain, Miss Mary Moore Davis, Covington;, Custodi- an of Crosses, Miss Lila Lear, Nicholasville; Custodian of Flags, Mrs. John H. Clelland, Winchester; Custodian of Records, Mrs. George T. Fuller, Mayfield. Honorary Presidents: Mrs. Sallie Ewing Marshall Hardy, Louisville; Mrs. Russell Mann, Paris; Mrs. Carrie R. Choate, Lawrence- burg; Mrs. F. McFarland Blakemore, Hopkinsville; and Mrs. Ada Desha Rie, Paris.
Following the election, the convention unanimously in- dorsed Mrs. John L. Woodbury, Historian General, for the office of President General in 1928.
A most bounteous luncheon was served at the noon hour, when the Daughters were guests of the Home, and each had one of the veterans as her escort. The members of the Con- federate Home Chapter assisted in the hospitalities of the day.
On Thursday night, Historical Evening was observed, with Mr. Eugene Atkinson, Commander S. C. V., the speaker of the evening. His subject was: "A Great American, Jefferson Davis, Kentuckian." It was followed by the presentation of the trophies by Mrs. Lucian G. Maltby. A silver loving cup was awarded to the John Heflin Chapter, Flemingsburg, for the Chapter having the greatest gain in membership during the year. This Chapter almost doubled its number, I and the cup was presented to the representative of thef Chapter, Mrs. Ioline Hawkins. To the Children's Auxiliary™, showing the greatest increase in membership was awarded a gold bar, which was given to the auxiliary at Nicholasville, and was received for it by Mrs. Harry McCarty, President of the U. D. C. Chapter.
The Cross of Military Service was bestowed upon Maj. Hart Gibson Foster, of Lexington, World War veteran and grandson of Col. Hart Gibson, C. S. A., by Mrs. L. G. Maltby.
Mrs. John H. Cleland, in a most beautiful manner, con- ferred Past President's badges on all Past Presidents, eight of whom were present.
Mrs. Roy W. McKinney had charge of the installation of the new officers, following which the thirty-first annual con- vention of the Daughters of the Confederacy closed after one
of the most delightful meetings ever held.
* * *
Louisiana. — Early in November a successful card party was given by the Louisiana Division at the Federated club- house in New Orleans for the purpose of raising funds to further the work of marking the Jefferson Davis Highway through the State.
I)
h
!i
■
In
^opfederat^ l/eterai).
31
A very lovely reception was given at the Roosevelt on November 21, by New Orleans Chapter No. 72, in honor of Mrs. L. U. Babin, President of the Louisiana Division; Mrs. Feeney Rice, State Director Jefferson Davis Highway; and Mrs. F. C. Kolman, Registrat General. The honored guests were presented with flowers, as was Mrs. John Kevlin, Presi- dent elect of the Chapter.
The handsome medal offered by the general order for the State reporting the greatest progress in marking the Jefferson Davis Highway, won by Louisiana, was proudly displayed.
The first meeting of the New Orleans Chapter after the vacation period was honored by the presence of Mrs. J. P. Higgins, of St. Louis, Mo., Registrar General, U. D. C, who made a short address, and also presented certificates of mem- bership to sixteen new members of the Chapter.
In reporting the activities of the State Division at the recent Shreveport convention, it was announced that the Chapter had been honored by the award to its members of four State offices. Mrs. J. J. Ritayik, President, was reelected First Vice President; Mrs. Feeney Rice was reelected Custodian; Mrs. P. J. Friedrichs, beloved of Daughters of the Con- federacy everywhere, was elected Honorary President; and Mrs. C. M. Daigle, "Mother Daigle" to the Chapter, was appointed Custodian of Flags.
Mrs. John Kevlin, chairman of the Educational Committee, announced that she had secured two new scholarships — at Holy Cross College and the Ursuline Convent.
Mrs. J. J. Ritayik was unanimously indorsed for the office of President of the Louisiana Division, to succeed Mrs. L. U. Babin, of Baton Rouge, whose term expires in May. Mrs. Ritayik has been identified with the work of the organization for twenty-four years.
Shreveport Chapter is devoting its efforts to maintaining the wild beauty of Fort Humbug, a bluff below the city, now a memorial park, where, during the War between the States, some Federal gunboats coming up the river were turned back by the sight of mock soldiers with wooden cannon.
Ruston Chapter is looking forward to the next celebration of the birthdays of Generals Lee and Jackson by sending a request to the school authorities of the parish to have the
day observed in all the schools.
* * *
Maryland. — More than three hundred delegates and guests from all parts of the State attended the thirtieth annual con- vention of the Maryland Division, which convened at the Southern Hotel, Baltimore, on October 26-27, 1927, Mrs. Paul Iglehart, President, presiding.
Dr. Henry M. Wharton, Major General Commanding the Maryland Division, U. C. V., in full Confederate regimentals, addressed the Daughters briefly and, by unanimous request, sang the stirring song, "The Bonny Blue Flag."
Hon. William T. Broeining, mayor of Baltimore, extended the courtesy of the city to the convention, placing at its dis- posal the use of a steam launch for a trip down Chesapeake Bay.
Response was made by Mrs. F. P. Canby, of Hagerstown, former President of the Division. Salute to the flags of the United States and the Confederacy was led by Mrs. James W. Westcott. Flags of each Chapter were accepted gracefully for the Division by Mrs. M. Lee Holmes.
State and Chapter officers were called upon for reports. The report of the First Vice President, Mrs. Westcott, dealt with her work as chairman of the U. D. C. Seals, designed by a member of her committee, Miss Sally Washington Maupin. Almost the whole of the original six thousand printed having been disposed of at two cents each, realizing a substantial
sum turned over to the State Director and Miss Ann B. Bruin, Hagerstown, for the Mrs. Norman V. Randolph Relief Fund.
Beside the regular routine business which came before the: convention, much time was devoted to planning for the ex- tension of education and philanthropic work.
Upon historical evening a Military Cross of Service was. presented to David J. Barton, World War veteran, Artillery Division, A. E. F., son of the late Maj. Randolph Barton,, who served on the staff of General Early, C. S. A.
A pageant, "The Service of the Confederate Flag," was- presented by Mrs. S. Johnson Poe, assisted by four young men.
The following officers were elected, the four Vice Presidents, being reelected: President, Mrs. Paul Iglehart; First Vice President, Mrs. James W. Westcott; Second Vice President, Mrs. Walter Die; Third Vice President, Mrs. Frank J. Parrari; Fourth Vice President, Miss Sally Washington Mau- pin; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. William Stewart; Re- cording Secretary, Mrs. S. Johnson Poe; Treasurer, Mrs. Adalbert Mears; Registrar, Mrs. Charles N. Boulden; Par- liamentarian, Mrs. J. Frank Wilson; Historian, Mrs. Henne- berger; Recorder of Crosses of Honor and Service; Miss Martha Clark; Division Editor, Mrs. M. V. Holmes; Ad- visors: Mrs. Robert L. Burwell, Mrs. William Buchanan,. Miss Harriet Young.
On Armistice Day, the Cross of Military Service was be- stowed upon Col. John Carmichael by the President, Mrs. Leo Cahill, and the Recorder of Crosses, Miss Anne- Bruin. It was a most impressive ceremony. Colonel Car- michael, who served with the 44th Engineers, is the son of John Carmichael, who was in the Cadet Battalion of the
Virginia Military Institute at New Market.
* * *
North Carolina. — The thirty-first annual convention of the North Carolina Division was held in Asheville, October 11-14.
The opening program on Tuesday evening was featured with the presentation of the three flags — -the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy, the North Carolina State flag, and "Old Glory." Cordial greetings from the various local organiza- tions made the Daughters feel heartily welcome to this city in the "Land of the Sky." Mrs. Walter F. Woodard, Presi- dent of the Division, presided over the sessions with charm, dignity, and tact, making this one of the most harmonious conventions in the history of the organization.
The President's report for her first year of office showed constructive work in every department and testified to the fact that she is zealously upholding the high standard which North Carolina holds in the general organization. Notable in this report was the fact that the past legislature granted every request asked of it by the Daughters of the Confederacy — the securing of increased pensions for veterans and their widows, an appropriation of $50,000 for a monument at Gettysburg, and State maintenance of the Confederate Cemetery at Raleigh.
The memorial and historical work has been emphasized by commemorating with suitable markers the battle field of Bentonville, the Gen. D. H. Hill School at Charlotte, the site of the launching of the Confederate ram Albemarle, a beautiful fountain to soldiers of all wars in Wilson County, besides many other local markers. The next memorial to be undertaken by the Division will be at Fort Fisher, the Gibralter of the Confederacy.
Extensive plans for beautifying the Jefferson Davis High- way were reported. Besides the benevolent work being re-
32
sponded to most zealously, the Division had decided to adopt an endowment plan for educational work, which will insure permanent help to needy descendants of Confederate veterans.
The Asheville Chapter and the Fannie Patton Chapter were joint hostesses to the convention, and had planned many delightful social entertainments for the delegates. The Chap- ters of the First District also extended hospitality in a buffet luncheon.
The presentation on Historical Evening of a beautiful pageant was greatly enjoyed. Stirring scenes of the War between the States as they were lived in Western North Carolina were reproduced, the whole being the work of talented Asheville Daughters of the Confederacy. One of the most interesting and unusual scenes was in presenting the eight stalwart Stevens sons who returned from the war to their mother alive and unhurt. The early life of North Carolina's war governor, Zebulon B. Vance, was portrayed, as well as his inauguration.
Crosses of Service were bestowed by the President on two gallant World War soldiers — Adj. Gen. John Van B. Metts and Lieut. Thomas A. Jones, Jr. This was a most beautiful and impressive ceremony.
The program on Children's Evening was most enjoyable, and the parts were well taken by the little Daughters.
At the Memorial hour tributes were paid to the memory of two Past Presidents of the Division, Mrs. Fannie Ransom Williams and Mrs. W. Scott Parker, who had during the past year gone into the beyond. Memorials were also given to Mrs. Martha Keplar, a Past Vice President of the Division, and to other beloved Daughters.
The following officers were elected for the coming year, many of these being elected for a second term: President, Mrs. Walter Woodard; First Vice President, Mrs. Alfred Williams; Second Vice President, Mrs. J. S. Welborn; Third Vice President, Mrs. William Peck; Recording Secretary, Mrs. S. L. Smith; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. J. E. Wood- ard; Treasurer, Mrs. Garland Daniel; Registrar, Mrs. H. L. Riggans; Historian, Mrs. W. E. White; Recorder of Crosses, Mrs. H. F. Deaton; Director of C. of C, Mrs. Glenn Long; Chaplain, Mrs. T. E. Sprunt.
* * *
South Carolina.— The Abbeville Chapter, through its Se- cessionville Marker Committee, gave the contract September 14 for constructing the marker, which commemorates the first organized meeting of secession which took place in Abbe- ville November 22, 1860. It will be a very imposing me- morial, consisting of two immense granite columns, one on each side of Secession Street, leading directly to Scession Hill, where the meeting was held. On each column a bronze tablet will tell the significance of the memorial, and a small bowlder with a bronze plate will mark the spot on the hill where the speaker's stand was erected on that memorable occasion. The memorial was unveiled November 22, the sixty-seventh anniversary of the meeting, and Abbeville planned a celebraton worthy of the occasion.
The residents of the Confederate Home, Columbia, were given a very happy day recently by the members of the William Lester Chapter, of Prosperity. The Chapter mem- bers spent the entire day at the home, and took a picnic dinner with them. A musical program of Southern songs was rendered.
* * *
Pennsylvania. — The Philadelphia Chapter invited the Chapters of four neighboring States of the Northeastern section — New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massa-
chusetts, also the Pittsburgh Chapter, to send representatives to a conference on October 17. The States having single Chapters and not a Division have many common interests and problems. A luncheon was served at the Woman's City Club and a round-table conference held. It was a most en- joyable and helpful occasion. Short speeches were made by our own and visiting Presidents and questions of interest to all presented. After the luncheon, the guests attended the regular monthly Chapter meeting and were entertained by a special musical program. The suggestion that a Regional Conference be held annually met with much enthusiasm, and an attempt to arrange something of that nature will be made by the delegates of these States at the convention in Novem- ber.
* * *
Tennessee. — The Agnes L. Whiteside Chapter, of Shelby- ville, gave its annual dinner to the Confederate veterans of Bedford County, October 26, in the dining hall of the Woman's Club, which was attractively decorated for the occasion with flags and flowers. Mrs. James P. McDonald, Jr., President of the Chapter, presided, and the ritual was led by Mrs. Agnes L. Whiteside, for whom the Chapter is named. The program of sweet old songs brought up pathetic memories which were lost in the cheery strains of Dixie. An interesting talk on Sam Davis, Tennessee's boy hero, was given by William Parker.
At the close of the program, the veterans, numbering six- teen, were conducted to a special table, and seated with them were the honor guests, Chapter officers, and members of the press. A splendid chicken dinner, with "all the fixin's," gave them a delightful feast, and after this the veterans lingered to enjoy the old-time music and to swap yarns with comrades.
ijtBtnrintl Separtamti 1. 1. C
Motto: "Loyalty to the truth of Confederate History.-* Key Word: "Preparedness." Flower: The Rose. Mrs. John L. Woodbury, Historian General.
To State and Chapter Historians and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
It was a matter of much regret to your Historian General that the topic for study last year, "The Confederate Con- gresses," was not more generally studied. However, this seems to have been due not to lack of interest, but to lack of library facilities. If this is the case, will not every Chapter try to place in the local library books on Confederate history? It has never been possible to "make bricks without straw," and never will be.
The study for this year is one which may be used by every Chapter. The more strictly historical topics are alternated with some of a sort of literary flavor, and it is hoped the com- bination will be enjoyed.
It is recommended that each Chapter, at least once during the year, purchase and review, and, as far as possible, have the members read, one of the new books which deal with the period of 1861-65. This period continues to attract the historian, and we should know the current thought on the subject.
Let our aim be a wider, deeper, and more definite knowledge of the facts of our Confederate history. Cordially and faithfully,
Charlotte Osborne Woodbury, Historian General.
^opfederat^ l/eterai>
33
TOPICS FOR STUDY, 1928.
1. Contrast conditions in the North and South in 1860 — industrial, agricultural, social.
2. Folk tales and superstitions of the negroes.
3. The compromises of the United States Constitution and later compromises.
4. Ballads of your section.
5. Efforts for peace on the part of the Confederacy.
6. Stories of faithful servants.
7. Confederate money; financial policy.
8. Educational institutions in the South, 1860; 1890; 1920.
9. Confederate officers formerly in the United States army.
10. Religion in the army.
11. Confederate officers who had been in United States navy.
12. Our Confederate organizations.
C. OF C. PROGRAM, 1928. January.
The study for the Children of the Confederacy for 1928 will be "Some Southern Cities." Those selected will be some which are connected vitally with the story of the Confed- eracy. The whole history of the city is to be included.
All who made a map last year, as suggested, may use it. All who did not make a map will find it very interesting to make one now and place the citigs as they are studied. Make the map on Indian head cotton, using a blue pencil for State lines. The cities, rivers, and other features may be put in with different colors. Start a post card collection of the places studied. Any C. of C. member who is willing to exchange postals will please write to this department, and in this way all will have a nice set at the end of the year.
The first city to be studied is Montgomery, Ala. These points are to be looked up and the information put in a notebook:
1. Where is this city located?
2. What is its population?
3. Who founded it?
4. Who named it, and why was this name chosen?
5. What is its connection with the history of the Con- federacy?
6. What are its principal industries to-day?
7. What distinguished people either in State or national history were born here? What