GETTYSBURG-PICKETTS CHARGE 
 
 AND 
 
 Other War Addresses 
 
 BY 
 
 JUDGE JAMES F. CROCKER 
 
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JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 
 
GETTYSBURG-PICKETTS CHARGE 
 
 AND 
 
 Other War Addresses 
 
 BY 
 
 JUDGE JAMES F. CROCKER 
 
 PORTSMOUTH, VA.: 
 
 W. A. Fiskb, Printer and Bookbinder: 
 
 1915. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 
 
 A short Biography taken from 
 "Men of Mark in Virginia," Vol. IV, page 79 
 
 MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN TAKING 
 
 UP ARMS AND IN THE BATTLE 
 
 OF MALVERN HILL 
 
 GETTYSBURG— PICKETT'S CHARGE 
 
 PRISON REMINISCENCES 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 
 COLONEL JAMES GREGORY HODGES 
 
 OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD 
 
 APPENDIX 
 CITIZENSHIP— ITS RIGHTS AND DUTIES 
 
JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 
 
 THE FOLLOWING SHORT 
 BIOGRAPHY IS TAKEN 
 FROM "MEN OF MARK IN 
 VIRGINIA," Volume IV, p. 79 
 
JAMES FRANCIS CROCKER 
 
 "Crocker, James Francis, was born January 5, 
 1828, at the Crocker home in Isle of Wight county, 
 Virginia. His parental ancestors early settled in 
 said county; and the home at which he was born 
 had then been in the possession of his lineal ances- 
 tors for upwards of a century. His father was 
 James Crocker, the son of William Crocker and 
 Elizabeth Wilson. William Crocker was a wealthy 
 farmer and was major of militia. Elizabeth Wilson 
 was the daughter of Willis Wilson, of Surry, and 
 Sarah Blunt, of Blunt's Castle, Isle of Wight 
 county. Willis Wilson was a prominent citizen of 
 his county, a member of the committee of safety 
 of 1776, and first lieutenant in the company of 
 which William Davies was captain in the 1st state 
 regiment of Virginia, commanded by Patrick 
 Henry. He was a grandson of Nicholas Wilson 
 and Margaret Sampson, and a member of the 
 county court, sheriff, coroner, major of militia and 
 vestryman. Margaret Sampson Wilson received 
 donations from Lieutenant-Colonel James Powell 
 and William Archer as expressions of high esteem. 
 
 "Frances Hill Woodley, the mother of James F. 
 Crocker, was the daughter of Major Andrew 
 Woodley and Elizabeth Hill Harrison. Her 
 paternal immigrant ancestor was Andrew Wood- 
 ley, who settled in Isle of Wight in 1690, and, in 
 1693, bought the tract of land, which became the 
 
8 
 
 ancestral home, known as "Four Square," and 
 which since 1693 has remained in the family. 
 Through her mother she is descended from 
 Humphrey Marshall, Thomas Hill, and the Harri- 
 sons of Isle of Wight. 
 
 "James F. Crocker was only six months old 
 when his father died. He received his early educa- 
 tion in the classical schools of Smithfield, Virginia. 
 He then entered Pennsylvania college, at Gettys- 
 burg, Pennsylvania, and was graduated in 1850, 
 being the valedictorian of his class. He taught 
 school — was professor of mathematics in Madison 
 college — studied law, and was admitted to the bar 
 of Isle of Wight in 1854. In 1855 he was elected 
 to the house of delegates from Isle of Wight 
 county. In 1856, after his service in the legisla- 
 ture, at the instance of mutual friends, he moved 
 to Portsmouth, to enter upon a co-partnership in 
 the practice of law, previously arranged with 
 Colonel David J. Godwin. The firm of Godwin 
 and Crocker was eminently successful, but the 
 lawyer turned soldier in 1861, when Virginia 
 seceded from the union. He was enthusiastically 
 with his state in the resumption of her delegated 
 rights, and gave the Confederacy patriotic service 
 as a private and as adjutant of the 9th Virginia 
 infantry. He was desperately wounded at Malvern 
 Hill, and was wounded and taken prisoner in 
 Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. 
 
 "After the war was over he continued his prac- 
 tice as a lawyer, but on February 1, 1880, his part- 
 nership with Colonel Godwin was dissolved by the 
 
latter becoming judge of the corporation court of 
 the city of Norfolk. He then practiced alone until 
 1896, when he formed partnership with his 
 nephew, Frank L. Crocker, under the firm name 
 and style of Crocker and Crocker. This partner- 
 ship was dissolved January 1, 1901, when he 
 entered upon the duties of the office of judge of 
 the court of hustings for the city of Portsmouth. 
 He accepted this office at the urgent instance of 
 the bar and citizens of his city, and at the close 
 of his term declined re-election. On his retirement 
 from the bench he was honored by the bar of his 
 court with the presentation of a silver loving cup 
 with the inscription : 
 
 "To 
 
 "James Francis Crocker 
 
 "Judge Court of Hustings 1901-1907. 
 
 "Esteem and affection of the Bar of 
 
 "Portsmouth, Va. 
 
 "In politics he has always been an ardent Dem- 
 ocrat of the Jeffersonian states rights school, and 
 maintains that in making her defence, in 1861, 
 Virginia was within her right and duty. He has 
 written and published three addresses touching his 
 experience and observation in the war: "Gettys- 
 burg — Pickett's Charge," "My Experience in 
 Taking up Arms and in the Battle of Malvern 
 Hill," and "Prison Reminiscences." These may 
 be found in the 33rd and 34th volumes of "South- 
 ern Historical Society Papers." He also published 
 
10 
 
 a companion address to them : "The Rights and 
 Duties of Citizenship growing out of the dual 
 nature of our Government, Federal and State." 
 
 "Among the positions he has held are the fol- 
 lowing: Member of the city council; president 
 of Portsmouth and Norfolk County Monument 
 Association, which early erected the beautiful 
 Confederate monument in the city of Portsmouth ; 
 commander of Stonewall Camp, C. V., brigadier- 
 general of the first brigade of the Virginia division 
 of the United Confederate Veterans, state visitor 
 to Mount Vernon Association, member of the 
 board of visitors of William and Mary College. 
 Among the honors that have come to him, he 
 values most highly his recent election to member- 
 ship of the Phi Beta Kappa society of the mother 
 college of the society — William and Mary. 
 
 "He is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church, 
 is one of its wardens, and has, for several years, 
 represented it in the diocesan council of Southern 
 Virginia. 
 
 "On June 28, 1866, he married Margaret Jane 
 Hodges, daughter of General John Hodges and 
 Jane Adelaide Gregory. She died July 25, 1896. 
 Their only child, James Gregory Crocker, died 
 August 12, 1868, at the age of six months." 
 
My Personal Experiences in Taking Up 
 
 Arms and in the Battle of 
 
 Malvern Hill 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
 STONEWALL CAMP 
 CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
 PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
 FEBRUARY 6TH, 1889 
 
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN TAKING 
 
 UP ARMS AND IN THE BATTLE 
 
 OF MALVERN HILL 
 
 Commander and Comrades: 
 
 It is my turn, by appointment, to give tonight 
 reminiscences of the war. It is expected, as I 
 understand it, that these reminiscences may be 
 largely personal and that it is not to be considered 
 in bad taste to speak of one's self. In fact our 
 soldiers lives were so much the same, our expe- 
 riences and performances, our aspirations and de- 
 votion to our cause were so common to each and 
 all, that to speak of one's self is to tell the story 
 of the rest. 
 
 Let it be understood at once that no true soldier 
 can speak of himself and of his services in the Con- 
 federate Army, however humble the sphere of his 
 service, without a tone of self commendation. And 
 if I seem to speak in self praise, remember I but 
 speak of each of you. Comrades ! I would esteem 
 it the highest honor to stand an equal by your 
 side. For here before me are men — heroes — in 
 courage and in patriotism equal to those who fell 
 at Thermopylae — who with those to whose sacred 
 memory yon monument is erected, aided in achiev- 
 ing a lustre of arms such as is not recorded in all 
 the annals of the past. 
 
 The one thing in my personal history touching 
 the war which I recall with most delisrht and hold 
 
14 
 
 in my supremest pride and satisfaction before all 
 else, is the ardor with which I took up arms. This 
 ardor was not the mere ebullient force of a pas- 
 sionate excitement, but the inspiration of unques- 
 tioning conviction that our duty to ourselves, to 
 posterity, to our State, imperiously demanded that 
 we should at all hazards and whatever might be 
 the outcome, take up arms in defence of our rights 
 as a free, independent and liberty-loving people 
 and to repel any invasion of our soil by hostile 
 forces. You recall the glow of this ardor — ■ you 
 felt it — it burned in every true heart of the South. 
 May those who come after us ever bear it in hon- 
 orable memory, for it was a most sacred feeling, 
 akin to what we feel for our religion and our God 
 in our most devout moments. 
 
 It was a bitter alternative that was presented to 
 Virginia, either to submit unresistingly and uncon- 
 ditionally to the determined and persistent en- 
 croachments on her equality under the Constitu- 
 tion, or to withdraw herself from the Union of the 
 States which she had been chiefly instrumental in 
 forming and which for that reason, she, more than 
 all the other States, loved pre-eminently. She did 
 all she could to avert this alternative. She sent 
 her most illustrious citizens to Washington to im- 
 plore for adjustment, for peace and for the per- 
 petuity of the Union. Their petition was most 
 haughtily disregarded. Notwithstanding this, she, 
 through her people in solemn convention as- 
 sembled, repressing all resentment, still stood 
 majestically calm, though deeply moved, with her 
 
15 
 
 hand on the bond of the Union, refusing to untie 
 it. And thus she stood until she was summoned 
 to take up arms against her kindred people of the 
 South and to receive on her soil an advancing hos- 
 tile force. Put to this alternative, she resumed 
 her delegated rights and sovereignty. In that 
 solemn act, I was passionately with her with my 
 whole soul and mind. And standing here tonight 
 after the lapse of upwards of a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, summing up all she suffered and lost in war 
 — in the waste of property, in the desolation of 
 homes and in the blood of her sons, and also fully 
 realizing the blessings of the restored Union, I 
 still declare from the deepest depth of my convic- 
 tions, that she was right. Yes, I rejoice that my 
 whole being responded in approval and applause 
 of that act of my State. I rejoice in recalling with 
 what willingness I was ready to give my life in its 
 support, and it is the summation of the pride of 
 my life that I served humbly in her cause. 
 
 Well do I remember that memorable day, the 
 20th of April, 1861. Animated by the feeling I 
 have described, fully realizing the immediate im- 
 minence of strife, and determined to be ready for 
 it how soon soever it might come, at my own ex- 
 pense I armed myself with musket and accoutre- 
 ments, took my stand at the Ocean House corner, 
 and there with eagerness awaited the first beat of 
 the first drum that sounded in Virginia the first 
 call to arms. 
 
 You remember the profound interest and emo- 
 tion of that hour. It stifled all light feelings, and 
 
16 
 
 gave to each brow a thoughtful aspect, and to each 
 eye a depth of light which comes only when the 
 heart is weighed with great moving concern. Men 
 pressed in silence each others hands, and spoke in 
 tones subdued by the solemnity and intensity of 
 their inexpressible feelings. All knew that when 
 that long roll once sounded, it would thrill the 
 land, and that it would not cease to be heard, day 
 or night, until silenced in victory or defeat. The 
 long roll beat ; and the vulcan sounds of destruc- 
 tion in the navy yard, and the flames of burning 
 buildings and blazing ships told that an unpro- 
 claimed war had commenced. 
 
 Comrades, is it all a dream? Sometimes to me 
 and doubtless sometimes to you, absorbed and en- 
 vironed as we are by the present, the war seems 
 a mystical and mysterious thing, and we feel that 
 its reality is in some way slipping from us. If in 
 us who were its active participants there may be 
 such tendency, what must it be in those who are 
 taking our places. It is on account of this ten- 
 dency to lose the reality and meaning of the great 
 war that I have dwelt on this part of my theme. 
 And I cannot allow this occasion to pass without 
 availing myself of it — the occasion of the organ- 
 ization of "Sons of Veterans," who are now before 
 me — to say to them : Believe and know that your 
 State and your fathers in taking up arms, were 
 right. Fail never to know and learn to know that 
 the posterity of no race or people have inherited 
 from their fathers such a legacy of true patriot- 
 ism, such sublime devotion to duty, such imperish- 
 
17 
 
 able wealth of arms as you have received from 
 yours, and let the precious memory of this enoble 
 you, enrich your spirit, and make you the worthy 
 inheritors of their fame and glory. 
 
 The personal reminiscence of the war which I 
 next most value and cherish is the feeling with 
 which we made that memorable charge at Malvern 
 Hill. It was our first battle, for the occurences in 
 which we shared at Seven Pines, did not amount 
 to an engagement. It can never be indifferent to 
 note the feelings with which a soldier enters his 
 first battle. Of all things battle is the most ter- 
 rible. And to us life is the dearest thing, and the 
 love of life is by nature made the first law of our 
 being. We instinctively shrink from imperilling 
 our lives, and yet with what glad shout we have 
 seen soldiers rush into the fiercest battles. What 
 a glorious thing is manhood ! How God-like is the 
 devotion of man to duty — to a cause — in cheer- 
 fully giving up life to its service. What a noble 
 and master passion is patriotism. How it exalts 
 and glorifies man. To have once felt it propitiates 
 one's self esteem and makes us ever a hero to our- 
 selves. Shall I say it? Yes, for it can be equally 
 said of each of you who were there. I have ever 
 seemed to myself to have been a hero at Malvern 
 Hill — if to be hero is to feel the loftiest enthu- 
 siasm of patriotism — to disdain danger — to stand 
 in the raging storm of shot and shell with a glad 
 sense of duty and privilege to be there, and to be 
 unreservedly willing to meet death for the good 
 
18 
 
 of one's country. All this you felt with me on 
 that memorable charge. 
 
 It was in this spirit of devotion, the good, the 
 brave and the loved Vermillion gave there to his 
 country his life. This hero's name bids us pause. 
 How tenderly we all remember him as the warm, 
 generous, frank hearted friend. Brave and chival- 
 rous in spirit, ardent and devoted to duty, graceful 
 in deportment, manly in character, true and proud 
 in self-respect, he commanded the admiration and 
 love of all who knew him. In peace and in war — 
 at home and in camp, he was the same true, manly 
 man. He was ardently patriotic and was passion- 
 ately devoted to his State and to its cause. He fell 
 while gallantly leading his company on this charge. 
 He fell in the flush of young manhood when life 
 to him was full of high hopes and full of all the 
 sweet endearments of home. He cheerfully gave 
 his life to his country, and his blood was a willing 
 libation to its cause. As among the departed 
 braves Heaven tenderly keeps his happy spirit, so 
 may his memory be ever lovingly cherished among 
 the living. In this same spirit of devotion there 
 fell Prentis, Dozier, Lewer, Parker, Bennett, 
 Fiske, White and others dear in the memory of 
 us all. 
 
 Let us recall the part which our own regiment, 
 the Ninth Virginia, took in this memorable charge. 
 Armistead's Brigade, to which our regiment be- 
 longed, were the first troops to reach the imme- 
 diate vicinity of Malvern Hill, arriving there at 
 10 A. M. Tuesday, July 1st, 1862. On arrival our 
 
19 
 
 regiment was detached from the brigade to guard 
 a strategic point and did not rejoin it until after 
 the battle. From 10 A. M. to 5 P. M. we lay ex- 
 posed to the shells of the enemy. At this hour we 
 were sent for and conducted to a deep wooded 
 ravine which ran along the very edge of the open 
 field on which the enemy had made a stand, and 
 where they had planted many batteries and massed 
 a great body of infantry. When we took our posi- 
 tion in the ravine we found that General Magruder 
 was there in command with a considerable force, 
 all lying down in successive lines on the steep 
 sloping side of the ravine. Nearest its brow was 
 Cobb's Legion ; next to them and almost in touch- 
 ing distance was Wright's brigade ; next below 
 them was our own gallant regiment forming a line 
 by itself; below us was Mahone's brigade and other 
 forces — near us were Generals Magruder, Cobb, 
 Wright and Armistead. The day was fast declin- 
 ing. The deep shade of the majestic trees with 
 which the valley was filled and the smoke of the 
 enemy's guns brought on twilight dimness before 
 the close of day. As we lay in close rank, we 
 marked the flash of exploding shells that kissed 
 the brow of the ravine and lit it up with a weird 
 light, while the incessant firing of the massed bat- 
 teries filled the air with constant roar and deafen- 
 ing crash. At one time, as the sun approached the 
 horizon, the air seemed to change ; it gained a new 
 elasticity — a clear ring, so that from the sound of 
 the enemy's artillery you would have thought that 
 they were approaching nearer to us. General 
 
20 
 
 Magruder must have also thought so, for he gave 
 direction that some men should ascend the brow 
 of the hill and see if the enemy were advancing. 
 The enemy had not and were not advancing, but 
 from an elevation in the open field they poured 
 from their batteries a living fire and a constant 
 flow of shells. 
 
 The scene was solemn and grandly inspiring. 
 We felt that the very genius of battle was astir, 
 and the martial spirit was thoroughly aroused. All 
 waited with impatience for the order to charge — 
 that order which whenever given either fires the 
 heart or pales the face of the soldier. At last 
 Magruder gives the order. It is first repeated by 
 General Cobb, and his brave Legion with a shout 
 that for the moment drowned the roar of the artil- 
 lery, arose and rushed forward. Then Wright re- 
 peats the order to his brigade, and as quick as 
 thought his men spring forward. Then came from 
 General Armistead: "Ninth Virginia, charge!" 
 The men arose with a shout — a joyous shout that 
 rose above the din of battle and with a passionate 
 enthusiasm we rushed forward. Danger seemed 
 to be banished from every bosom. Victory and 
 glory absorbed every other feeling. We rushed on 
 and forward to within a short distance of the 
 crown of the hill on which the enemy was massed. 
 On us was concentrated the shell and cannister of 
 many cannon and the fire of compact masses of 
 infantry. It was murderous and a useless waste of 
 life to go further. Our regiment was halted and 
 it took position in line with other troops which 
 
21 
 
 had preceded us in the charge along and under the 
 slope of the field, and here held its ground until 
 the morning disclosed that the enemy had left. 
 This gallant charge immortalized the Ninth Vir- 
 ginia and gave it a fame which it was its pride ever 
 after to maintain in all the great battles in which 
 it was engaged. 
 
 On this charge there came to me a new expe- 
 rience — a common experience on the battlefield 
 — that of being wounded. When our regiment 
 had taken its position just described by moving to 
 the right, I found myself on its extreme left stand- 
 ing up on an open field in the face of the enemy 
 a short distance off with a storm of shot and shell 
 literally filling the air. I remember as I stood 
 there I looked upon the enemy with great admira- 
 tion. They were enveloped in the smoke of their 
 guns and had a shadowy appearance, yet I could 
 easily discern their cross belts, and I watched them 
 go through the regular process of loading and fir- 
 ing. They seemed to be firing with as much 
 steadiness and regularity as if on dress parade. It 
 was a grand sight and I was impressed with their 
 courage and discipline. I had not then learned the 
 wisdom and duty of a soldier to seek all allowable 
 protection from danger. I had a foolish pride to 
 be and to appear fearless — as if it were a shame 
 to seem to do anything to avoid dang-er. I remem- 
 ber that immediately on my right a soldier had 
 sheltered himself behind a low stump. While 
 silently approving his conduct in this respect yet 
 apprehending he might only shelter himself, I said 
 
22 
 
 to him, "Do not fail to fire on the enemy." I had 
 scarcely uttered these words when I heard and felt 
 that sounding thud of the minie ball which became 
 so familiar to our soldiers. My left arm fell to my 
 side and the blood streamed from my throat. I 
 staggered and would have fallen had not two mem- 
 bers of the Old Dominion Guard stepped quickly 
 up and caught me and bore me off the field. I was 
 shot through the throat, through the shoulder and 
 through the arm. And I today wear six scars from 
 wounds then received, scars more prized by me 
 than all the ribbons and jewelled decorations of the 
 kingly grant. When Moses P. Young and James 
 H. Robinson came to my relief I delivered to them 
 what was my first and what I then regarded my 
 last and dying request, for I then thought the 
 wound through my throat must soon prove mortal. 
 It was in these words which I have ever since 
 borne freshly in memory : "Tell my friends at 
 home that I did my duty." These words expressed 
 all that was in me at that moment — friends they 
 express all that is in my life. Well do I remember 
 that supreme moment, how I was without fear, 
 and was perfectly willing to die — to die the death 
 of the patriot, — and how then came upon me the 
 tender thought of home and of home friends, and 
 all my earthly aspirations concentrated into the 
 one wish that my memory might be kindly linked 
 to the recognition that I gave my life honorably 
 and bravely in duty to myself, to my country and 
 to my God. 
 
Getty sburg— Pickett's Charge 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
 STONEWALL CAMP 
 CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
 PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
 NOVEMBER 7TH, 1894 
 
GETTYSBURG — PICKETT'S CHARGE 
 
 You command me to renew an inexpressible sorrow, 
 and to speak of those things of which we were a part 
 
 It is now nearly thirty years since there died 
 away on the plains of Appomattox the sound of 
 musketry and the roar of artillery. Then and there 
 closed a struggle as heroic as ever was made by a 
 brave and patriotic people for home government 
 and home nationality. The tragic story of that 
 great struggle has ever since been to me as a 
 sealed, sacred book. I have never had the heart 
 to open it. I knew that within its lids there were 
 annals that surpassed the annals of all past times, 
 in the intelligent, profound, and all-absorbing 
 patriotism of our people — in the unselfish and un- 
 tiring devotion of an entire population to a sacred 
 cause — and in the brilliancy and prowess of arms 
 which have shed an imperishable glory and honor 
 on the people of this Southland. Yet there was 
 such an ending to such great deeds ! The heart of 
 this great people, broken with sorrow, has watered 
 with its tears those brilliant annals until every 
 page shows the signs of a nation's grief. And with 
 it all there are buried memories as dear and as 
 sacred as the ashes of loved ones. No, I have had 
 no heart to open the pages of that sacred yet tragic 
 history. Not until you assigned me the duty of 
 
26 
 
 saying something of Pickett's charge at the battle 
 of Gettysburg have I ever read the official or other 
 accounts of that great battle ; and when I lately 
 read them my heart bled afresh, and my inward 
 being was shaken to the deepest depths of sad, 
 tearful emotions, and I wished that you had given 
 to another the task you gave to me. 
 
 On the 13th day of December, 1862, Burnside 
 lead his great and splendidly equipped army down 
 from the heights of Fredericksburg, crossed the 
 Rappahannock, and gave battle to Lee. His army 
 was repulsed with great slaughter and was driven 
 back bleeding and mangled to its place of safety. 
 The star of Burnside went down and out. General 
 Hooker was called to the command of the Army of 
 the Potomac. After five months of recuperation 
 and convalescence, with greatly augmented num- 
 bers and with every appliance that military art and 
 national wealth could furnish in the perfect equip- 
 ment of a great army, it was proclaimed with much 
 flourish amidst elated hopes and expectancy, that 
 his army was ready to move. To meet this great 
 host Lee could rely for success only on the great 
 art of war and the unfailing courage of his soldiers. 
 Hooker crossed the Rappahannock and com- 
 menced to entrench himself. Lee did not wait to 
 be attacked, but at once delivered battle. The bat- 
 tle of Chancellorsville was fought — ■ the most in- 
 teresting battle of the war — in which the blended 
 genius of Lee and Jackson illustrated to the world 
 the highest achievement of generalship in the 
 management of the lesser against the greatly su- 
 
27 
 
 perior force. Again was the Army of the Potomac 
 crushed and driven across the Rappahannock. 
 
 And now there arose a great question in the 
 camp and in the council of State. It was a ques- 
 tion of statesmanship as well as of arms. The 
 question was answered by Lee withdrawing his 
 army from before Hooker and proceeding through 
 the lower Shenandoah Valley to Pennsylvania, 
 leaving the road to Richmond open to be taken by 
 the enemy if he should still prefer the policy of 
 "on to Richmond." The motive of this movement 
 was two-fold — to relieve Virginia of the enemy by 
 forcing him to defend his own country, and by a 
 possible great victory to affect public opinion of 
 the North, and thus to conquer peace. The first 
 object was accomplished ; for as soon as Hooker 
 discerned the movement of Lee, he hastened to fol- 
 low and to put his army between Lee and Wash- 
 ington. Had Lee gained a crushing victory Balti- 
 more and Washington would have been in his 
 power, and then in all probability peace would 
 have ensued. Public opinion in the North was 
 greatly depressed, and sentiments of peace were 
 ready to assert themselves. An incident illustrated 
 this. As we were marching from Chambersburg 
 to Gettysburg, I observed some ladies near the 
 roadway wave their handkerchiefs to our passing 
 troops. It excited my attention and curiosity. I 
 rode up to them and said, "Ladies, I observed you 
 waving your handkerchiefs as if in cheer to our 
 army. Why so? We are your enemies and the 
 enemies of your country." They replied: "We 
 
28 
 
 are tired of the war and want you to conquer 
 peace." I was greatly impressed with their an- 
 swer, and saw that there might be true patriotism 
 in their act and hopes. 
 
 The invasion of Pennsylvania was wise and pru- 
 dent from the standpoint of both arms and states- 
 manship. Everything promised success. Never 
 was the Army of Northern Virginia in better con- 
 dition. The troops had unbounded confidence in 
 themselves and in their leaders. They were full of 
 the fervor of patriotism — had abiding faith in 
 their cause and in the favoring will of Heaven 
 There was an elation from the fact of invading the 
 country of an enemy that had so cruelly invaded 
 theirs. The spirit and elan of our soldiers was be- 
 yond description. They only could know it who 
 felt it. They had the courage and dash to accom- 
 plish anything — everything but the impossible. 
 On the contrary, the Federal army was never so 
 dispirited, as I afterwards learned from some of its 
 officers. And this was most natural. They 
 marched from the bloody fields of Fredericksburg 
 and Chancellorsville, the scenes of their humiliat- 
 ing and bloody defeat, to meet a foe from whom 
 they had never won a victory. 
 
 But alas, how different the result! Gettysburg 
 was such a sad ending to such high and well 
 assured hopes ! Things went untoward with our 
 generals. And Providence itself, on which we had 
 so much relied, seems to have led us by our mis- 
 haps to our own destruction. 
 
 The disastrous result of the campaign, in my 
 
29 
 
 opinion, was not due to the generalship of Lee, but 
 wholly to the disregard of his directions by some 
 of his generals. The chief among these, I regret 
 to say, was the failure of General Stuart to follow 
 the order* of Lee, which directed him to move into 
 Maryland, crossing the Potomac east or west of 
 the Blue Ridge, as, in his judgment, should be best, 
 and take position on the right of our column as it 
 advanced. Instead of taking position on the right 
 of our column as it advanced, Stuart followed the 
 right of the Federal column, thus placing it be- 
 tween himself and Lee. The consequence was that 
 Lee from the time he crossed the Potomac had no 
 communication with Stuart until after the battle 
 on the 1st of July, when he heard that Stuart was 
 at Carlisle, and Stuart did not reach Gettysburg 
 until the afternoon of July 2d. Lee, referring to 
 Stuart, says: "By the route he pursued the Fed- 
 eral army was interposed between his command 
 and our main body, preventing any communication 
 with him until he arrived at Carlisle. The march 
 toward Gettysburg was conducted more slowly 
 than it would have been had the movements of the 
 Federal army been known. "t These are solemn, 
 mild words, but they cover the defeat at Gettys- 
 burg. Had Lee known the movements of the 
 Federal army he could easily have had his whole 
 army concentrated in Gettysburg on the 1st of 
 July, and could easily have enveloped and crushed 
 
 *Lee's Report July 31, 1863, War Records, Series I, Vol. 
 27, Part 2, p. 306. 
 tld. p. 307. 
 
30 
 
 the enemy's advanced corps, and then defeated 
 Meade in detail. But as it was, the encounter of 
 the advance of the Federal army was a surprise 
 to Lee. 
 
 Hill had on the 30th of June encamped with two 
 of his divisions, Heth's and Pender's at Cashtown, 
 about eight miles from Gettysburg. Next morning 
 he moved with Heth's division, followed by Pen- 
 der's toward Gettysburg. They encountered the 
 enemy about three miles of the town. The enemy 
 offered very determined resistance, but Heth's 
 division, with great gallantry, drove him before it 
 until it reached Seminary Heights, which over- 
 looked Gettysburg. At this time, 2 p. m., Rodes' 
 and Early's divisions of Ewell's corps — the first 
 from Carlisle and the other from York, made their 
 opportune appearance on the left of Heth and at 
 right angles to it ; then Pender's division was 
 thrown forward, and all advancing together drove 
 the enemy from position to position, and through 
 the town, capturing 5,000 prisoners, and putting 
 the enemy to flight in great disorder. Referring 
 to this juncture of affairs, Col. Walter H. Taylor, 
 in his "Four Years With Genl. Lee," says: "Genl. 
 Lee witnessed the flight of the Federals through 
 Gettysburg and up the hills beyond. He then di- 
 rected me to go to Genl. Ewell and to say to him 
 that from the position he occupied he could see 
 the enemy retiring over the hills, without organ- 
 ization and in great confusion ; that it was only 
 necessary to press 'those people' in order to secure 
 possession of the heights, and that, if possible, he 
 
31 
 
 wanted him to do this. In obedience to these in- 
 structions I proceeded immediately to Genl. Ewell 
 and delivered the order of Genl. Lee." Genl. 
 Ewell did not obey this order. Those heights 
 were what is known as Cemetery Hill, which was 
 the key to the Federal position. The enemy after- 
 ward, that night, with great diligence fortified 
 those heights ; and subsequently the lives of thous- 
 ands of our soldiers were sacrificed in the vain 
 effort to capture them. It was a fatal disobedience 
 of orders. What if Jackson had been there? Col. 
 Taylor would not have had any order to bear to 
 him. Lee would have witnessed not only the flee- 
 ing enemy, but at the same time the hot pursuit of 
 Stonewall Jackson. Ah ! if Stuart had been there, 
 to give one bugle blast and to set his squadrons on 
 the charge ! Alas ! he was then twenty-five miles 
 away at Carlisle, ignorant that a battle was on. 
 
 That afternoon after the fight was over, Ander- 
 son's division of Hill's corps arrived on the battle 
 field and took position where Pender formerly 
 was. At sunset Johnson's division of Ewell's 
 corps came up and took line of battle on Early's 
 left, and about midnight McLaws' division and 
 Hood's division (except Laws' brigade) of Long- 
 street's corps encamped within four miles of Get- 
 tysburg. The troops which had been engaged in 
 the fight bivouacked on the positions won. I am 
 thus particular to locate our troops in order to 
 show who may be responsible for any errors of 
 the next day. 
 
 Inasmuch as Meade's army was not fully up, it 
 
32 
 
 required no great generalship to determine that it 
 would be to our advantage to make an attack as 
 early in the next morning as possible. And it was 
 no more than reasonable that every general having 
 control of troops should feel and fully appreciate 
 the imperious necessity of getting ready to do so 
 and to be ready for prompt action. 
 
 General Lee determined to make the main attack 
 on the enemy's left early in the morning. This at- 
 tack was to be made by Longstreet, who was di- 
 rected to take position on the right of Hill and on 
 the Emmittsburg road. After a conference with 
 the corps and division commanders the previous 
 evening, it was understood that this attack was to 
 be made as early as practicable by Longstreet, and 
 he was to be supported by Anderson and to receive 
 the co-operation of Ewell. General Fitzhugh Lee 
 in his "Life of Lee," says: "When Lee went to 
 sleep that night he was convinced that his disposi- 
 tions for the battle next day were understood by 
 the corps commanders, for he had imparted them 
 to each in person. On the morning of July 2, Lee 
 was up before light, breakfasted and was ready for 
 the fray." 
 
 Can you believe it ? Can you even at this dis- 
 tant day altogether suppress a rising indignation 
 — that Longstreet did not get into line of battle 
 until after 4 P. M., although he had the previous 
 night encamped within four miles of Gettysburg? 
 In the meanwhile Sickles had taken position in 
 what is known as the Peach Orchard and on the 
 Emmittsburg road, which were the positions as- 
 
33 
 
 signed to Longstreet, and which he could have 
 taken earlier in the day without firing a gun. The 
 forces of the enemy had come up from long dis- 
 tances — Sedgwick had marched thirty-four miles 
 since 9 P. M., of the day before and had gotten 
 into line of battle before Longstreet did. 
 
 The attack was made. Sickles was driven from 
 the Peach Orchard and the Emmittsburg road. 
 Little Round Top and the Federal lines were pene- 
 trated, but they were so largely reinforced that the 
 attack failed after the most courageous effort and 
 great expenditure of lives. It has been stated that 
 if this attack had been made in the morning as di- 
 rected, Lee would have won a great victory, and 
 the fighting of the 3d would have been saved. The 
 attack on the left also failed. There, too, the lines 
 and entrenchments of the enemy were penetrated, 
 but they could not be held for want of simulta- 
 neous and conjoint action on the part of the com- 
 manders. Col. Taylor, speaking of this, says : 
 "The whole affair was disjointed." 
 
 Thus ended the second day. General Lee de- 
 termined to renew the attack on the morrow. He 
 ordered Longstreet to make the attack next morn- 
 ing with his whole corps, and sent to aid him in 
 the attack of Heth's division under Pettigrew, 
 Lane's and Scales' brigades of Pender's division 
 under General Trimble, and also Wilcox's brigade, 
 and directed General Ewell to assail the enemy's 
 right at the same time. "A careful examination," 
 says Lee, "was made of the ground secured by 
 Longstreet, and his batteries placed in position. 
 
34 
 
 which it was believed would enable them to silence 
 those of the enemy. Hill's artillery and part of 
 Ewell's was ordered to open simultaneously, and 
 the assaulting column to advance under cover of 
 the combined fire of the three. The batteries were 
 directed to be pushed forward as the infantry pro- 
 gressed, protect their flanks and support their at- 
 tacks closely." Every word of this order was 
 potentially significant. You will thus observe Lee's 
 plan of attack. It was to be made in the morning 
 — presumably in the early morning — with the 
 whole of Longstreet's corps, composed of the 
 divisions of Pickett, McLaws and Hood, together 
 with Heth's division, two brigades of Pender and 
 Wilcox's brigade, and that the assaulting column 
 was to advance under the cover of the combined 
 fire of the artillery of the three corps, and that the 
 assault was to be the combined assault of infantry 
 and artillery — the batteries to be pushed forward 
 as the infantry progressed, to protect their flanks 
 and support their attack closely. The attack was 
 not made as here ordered. The attacking column 
 did not move until 3 P. M., and when it did move 
 it was without McLaws' and Hood's divisions and 
 practically without Wilcox's brigade, and without 
 accompanying artillery. The whole attacking force 
 did not exceed 14,000, of which Pickett's division 
 did not exceed 4,700. General Lee afterwards 
 claimed that if the attack had been made as he 
 ordered, it would have been successful. 
 
 In order to appreciate the charge made by the 
 attacking force, it is necessary to have some idea 
 
35 
 
 of the relative strength and positions of the two 
 armies, and of the topography of the country. 
 Before the battle of Gettysburg opened on the 
 1st of July, Meade's army consisted of seven army 
 corps which, with artillery and' cavalry, numbered 
 105,000. Lee's army consisted of three army 
 corps which, with artillery and cavalry, numbered 
 62,000. On the 3rd of July the enemy had six 
 army corps in line of battle, with the Sixth corps 
 held in reserve. Their right rested on Culp Hill 
 and curved around westerly to Cemetery Hill, and 
 thence extended southerly in a straight line along 
 what is known as Cemetery Ridge to Round Top. 
 This line was well protected along its whole length 
 with either fortifications, stone walls or entrench- 
 ments. It was crowned with batteries, while the 
 infantry was, in places, several ranks deep, with a 
 line in the rear with skirmish lines in front. The 
 form of the line was like a shepherd's crook. Our 
 line extended from the enemy's right to Seminary 
 Ridge, which runs parallel to Cemetery Ridge, to 
 a point opposite to Round Top. Between these 
 two ridges lay an open, cultivated valley of about 
 one mile wide, and through this valley ran the 
 Emmittsburg road in a somewhat diagonal line, 
 with a heavy fence on either side. The charge was 
 to be made across this valley so as to strike the 
 left centre of the enemy's line. The hope was that 
 if we broke their line, we would swing around to 
 the left, rout and cut off their right wing, where 
 Stuart waited with his cavalry to charge upon 
 them ; and thus destroy or capture them, and put 
 
36 
 
 ourselves in possession of the Baltimore road and 
 of a commanding position. 
 
 Such were the plans of the assault and such was 
 the position of the hostile forces. Lee's plan to 
 make an assault was dangerous and hazardous, but 
 he was pressed by the force of circumstances which 
 we cannot now consider. The success of his plan 
 depended largely on the promptness and co-opera- 
 tion of his generals. Without this there could be 
 little hope of success. He gave his orders and re- 
 tired for tomorrow. 
 
 All wait on the tomorrow. And now the 3d of 
 July has come. The summer sun early heralded 
 by roseate dawn, rises serenely and brightly from 
 beyond the wooded hills. No darkening clouds 
 obscure his bright and onward way. His aspect is 
 as joyous as when Eden first bloomed under his 
 rays. Earth and heaven are in happy accord. The 
 song of birds, the chirp and motion of winged in- 
 sects greet the early morn. The wild flowers and 
 the cultivated grain of the fields are glad in their 
 beauty and fruitage. The streams joyously ripple 
 on their accustomed way, and the trees lift and 
 wave their leafy branches in the warm, life-giving 
 air. Never was sky or earth more serene — more 
 harmonious — more aglow with light and life. 
 
 In blurring discord with it all was man alone. 
 Thousands and tens of thousands of men — once 
 happy fellow countrymen, now in arms, had gath- 
 ered in hostile hosts and in hostile confronting 
 lines. It was not the roseate dawn nor rising sun 
 that awoke them from the sleep of wearied limbs. 
 
37 
 
 Before the watching stars had withdrawn from 
 their sentinel posts, the long roll, the prelude of 
 battle, had sounded their reveille, and rudely 
 awoke them from fond dreams of home and loved 
 ones far away. For two days had battle raged. 
 On the first, when the field was open and equal, 
 the soldiers of the South, after most determined 
 resistance, had driven their foe before them from 
 position to position — from valley to hill top, 
 through field and through the town, to the heights 
 beyond. On the second day, on our right and on 
 our left, with heroic valor and costly blood, they 
 had penetrated the lines and fortifications of the 
 enemy, but were too weak to hold the prize of 
 positions gained against overpowering numbers of 
 concentrated reinforcements. The dead and 
 wounded marked the lines of the fierce combat. 
 The exploded caissons, the dismounted cannon, 
 the dead artillery horses, the scattered rifles, the 
 earth soaked with human gore — the contorted 
 forms of wounded men, and the white, cold faces 
 of the dead, made a mockery and sad contrast to 
 the serene and smiling face of the skies. 
 
 From the teamsters to the general in chief it was 
 known that the battle was yet undecided — that 
 the fierce combat was to be renewed. All knew 
 that victory won or defeat suffered, was to be at 
 a fearful cost — that the best blood of the land was 
 to flow copiously as a priceless oblation to the god 
 of battle. The intelligent soldiers of the South 
 knew and profoundly felt that the hours were 
 potential — that on them possibly hung the success 
 
38 
 
 of their cause — the peace and independence of the 
 Confederacy. They knew that victory meant so 
 much more to them than to the enemy. It meant 
 to us uninvaded and peaceful homes under our own 
 rule and under our own nationality. With us it 
 was only to be let alone. With this end in view, 
 all felt that victory was to be won at any cost. All 
 were willing to die, if only their country could 
 thereby triumph. And fatal defeat meant much to 
 the enemy. It meant divided empire — lost terri- 
 tory and severed population. Both sides felt that 
 the hours were big with the fate of empire. The 
 sense of the importance of the issue, and the re- 
 sponsibility of fully doing duty equal to the grand 
 occasion, impressed on us all a deep solemnity and 
 a seriousness of thought that left no play for gay 
 moods or for sympathy with nature's smiling 
 aspect, however gracious. Nor did we lightly con- 
 sider the perils of our duty. From our position in 
 line of battle, which we had taken early in the 
 morning, we could see the frowning and cannon- 
 crowned heights far off held by the enemy. In a 
 group of officers, a number of whom did not sur- 
 vive that fatal day, I could not help expressing that 
 it was to be another Malvern Hill, another costly 
 day to Virginia and to Virginians. While all fully 
 saw and appreciated the cost and the fearful mag- 
 nitude of the assault, yet all were firmly resolved, 
 if possible, to pluck victory from the very jaws of 
 death itself. Never were men more conscious of 
 the difficulty imposed on them by duty, or more 
 determinedly resolved to perform it with alacrity 
 
39 
 
 and cheerfulness, even to annihilation, than were 
 the men of Pickett's division on that day. With 
 undisturbed fortitude and even with ardent impa- 
 tience did they await the command for the assault. 
 The quiet of the day had been unbroken save on 
 our extreme left, where in the early morning there 
 had been some severe fighting; but this was soon 
 over, and now all on both sides were at rest, wait- 
 ing in full expectancy of the great assault, which 
 the enemy, as well as we, knew was to be delivered. 
 The hours commenced to go wearily by. The ten- 
 sion on our troops had become great. The mid- 
 day sun had reached the zenith, and poured its 
 equal and impartial rays between the opposite 
 ridges that bounded the intervening valley running 
 North and South. Yet no sound or stir broke the 
 ominous silence. Both armies were waiting specta- 
 tors for the great event. Upwards of one hundred 
 thousand unengaged soldiers were waiting as from 
 a grand amphitheatre to witness the most magnifi- 
 cent heroic endeavor in arms that ever immortal- 
 ized man. Still the hours lingered on. Why the 
 delay? There is a serious difference of opinion be- 
 tween the general in chief and his most trusted 
 lieutenant general as to the wisdom of making the 
 assault. Lee felt, from various considerations, the 
 forced necessity of fighting out the battle here, and 
 having the utmost confidence in his troops he fully 
 expected victory if the attack be made as he had 
 ordered. Longstreet, foreseeing the great loss of 
 assaulting the entrenched position of the enemy 
 and making such assault over such a distance 
 
40 
 
 under the concentrated fire, urges that the army 
 should be moved beyond the enemy's left flank, 
 with the hope of forcing him thus to abandon his 
 stronghold or to fight us to our advantage. Long- 
 street pressed this view and delayed giving the 
 necessary orders until Lee more pre-emptorily re- 
 peated his own order to make the assault. Even 
 then Longstreet was so reluctant to carry out the 
 orders of Lee that he placed upon Lt.-Col. Alex- 
 ander, who was in charge of the artillery on this 
 day, the responsibility of virtually giving the order 
 for its execution. 
 
 At last, in our immediate front, at 1 P. M., there 
 suddenly leaped from one of our cannons a single 
 sharp, far-reaching sound, breaking the long-con- 
 tinued silence and echoing along the extended 
 lines of battle and far beyond the far-off heights. 
 All were now at a strained attention. Then quick- 
 ly followed another gun. Friend and foe at once 
 recognized that these were signal guns. Then 
 hundreds of cannon opened upon each other from 
 the confronting heights. What a roar — how in- 
 cessant ! The earth trembled under the mighty re- 
 sound of cannon. The air is darkened with sul- 
 phurous clouds. The whole valley is enveloped. 
 The sun, lately so glaring, is itself obscured. Noth- 
 ing can be seen but the flashing light leaping from 
 the cannon's mouth amidst the surrounding smoke. 
 The air which was so silent and serene is now full 
 of exploding and screaming shells and shot, as if 
 the earth had opened and let out the very furies of 
 Avernus. The hurtling and death-dealing missiles 
 
41 
 
 are plowing amidst batteries, artillery and lines of 
 infantry, crushing, mangling and killing until the 
 groans of the men mingle with the tempest's 
 sound. The storm of battle rages. It is appalling, 
 terrific, yet grandly exciting. It recalls the im- 
 agery of Byron's night-storm amidst the Alps : 
 
 "The sky is changed, and such a change ! * * * 
 
 -f* Sp 'T 2 -T* *T* *T* *K *T* *r» *1^ *T» H 53 T* 53 1 O n O" 
 
 From peak to peak, the rattling crags among 
 Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, 
 But every mountain now hath found a tongue, 
 And Jura answers from her misty shroud 
 Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud." 
 
 After two hours of incessant firing the storm at 
 last subsides. It has been a grand and fit prelude 
 to what is now to follow. All is again silent. Well 
 knowing what is shortly to follow, all watch in 
 strained expectancy. The waiting is short. Only 
 time for Pickett to report to his lieutenant-general 
 his readiness and to receive the word of command. 
 Pickett said: "General, shall I advance?" Long- 
 street turned away his face and did not speak. 
 Pickett repeated the question. Longstreet, with- 
 out opening his lips, bowed in answer. Pickett, in 
 a determined voice, said: "Sir, I shall lead my 
 division forward," and galloped back and gave the 
 order, "Forward march !" The order ran down 
 through brigade, regimental and company officers 
 to the men. The men with alacrity and cheerful- 
 ness fell into line. Kemper's brigade on the right, 
 Garnett's on his left, with Heth's division on the 
 
42 
 
 left of Garnett, formed the first line. Armistead's 
 brigade moved in rear of Garnett's, and Lane's and 
 Scales' brigades of Pender's division moved in the 
 rear of Heth, but not in touch nor in line with 
 Armistead. As the lines cleared the woods that 
 skirted the brow of the ridge and passed through 
 our batteries, with their flags proudly held aloft, 
 waving in the air, with polished muskets and 
 swords gleaming and flashing in the sunlight, they 
 presented an inexpressibly grand and inspiring 
 sight. It is said that when our troops were first 
 seen there ran along the line of the Federals, as 
 from men who had waited long in expectancy, the 
 cry : There they come ! There they come ! The 
 first impression made by the magnificent array of 
 our lines as they moved forward, was to inspire 
 the involuntary admiration of the enemy. Then 
 they realized that they came, terrible as an army 
 with banners. Our men moved with quick step as 
 calmly and orderly as if they were on parade. No 
 sooner than our lines came in full view, the 
 enemy's batteries in front, on the right and on the 
 left, from Cemetery Hill to Round Top, opened on 
 them with a concentrated, accurate and fearful fire 
 of shell and solid shot. These plowed through or 
 exploded in our ranks, making great havoc. Yet 
 they made no disturbance. As to the orderly con- 
 duct and steady march of our men, they were as if 
 they had not been. As the killed and wounded 
 dropped out, our lines closed and dressed up, as if 
 nothing had happened, and went on with steady 
 march. I remember I saw a shell explode amidst 
 
43 
 
 the ranks of the left company of the regiment on 
 our right. Men fell like ten-pins in a ten-strike. 
 Without a pause and without losing step, the sur- 
 vivors dressed themselves to their line and our 
 regiment to the diminished regiment, and all went 
 on as serenely and as unfalteringly as before. My 
 God ! it was magnificent — this march of our men. 
 What was the inspiration that gave them this stout 
 courage — this gallant bearing — this fearlessness 
 
 — this steadiness — this collective and individual 
 heroism? It was home and country. It was the 
 fervor of patriotism — the high sense of individual 
 duty. It was blood and pride of state — the in- 
 herited quality of a brave and honorable ancestry. 
 
 On they go — down the sloping sides of the 
 ridge — across the valley — over the double fences 
 
 — up the slope that rises to the heights crowned 
 with stone walls and entrenchments, studded with 
 batteries, and defended by multiple lines of pro- 
 tected infantry. The skirmish line is driven in. 
 And now there bursts upon our ranks in front and 
 on flank, like sheeted hail, a new storm of missiles 
 
 — canister, shrapnel and rifle shot. Still the col- 
 umn advances steadily and onward, without pause 
 or confusion. Well might Count de Paris describe 
 it as an irresistible machine moving forward which 
 nothing could stop. The dead and wounded — 
 officers and men — mark each step of advance. 
 Yet under the pitiless rain of missiles the brave 
 men move on, and then with a rush and cheering 
 yell they reach the stone wall. Our flags are 
 planted on the defenses. Victory seems within 
 
44 
 
 grasp, but more is to be done. Brave Armistead, 
 coming up, overleaps the wall and calls on all to 
 follow. Brave men follow his lead. Armistead is 
 now among the abandoned cannon, making ready 
 to turn them against their former friends. Our 
 men are widening the breach of the penetrated and 
 broken lines of the Federals. But, now the enemy 
 has made a stand, and are rallying. It is a critical 
 moment. That side must win which can command 
 instant reinforcements. They come not to Arm- 
 istead, but they come to Webb, and they come to 
 him from every side in overwhelming numbers in 
 our front and with enclosing lines on either flank. 
 They are pushed forward. Armistead is shot down 
 with mortal wounds and heavy slaughter is made 
 of those around him. The final moment has come 
 when there must be instant Might, instant surren- 
 der, or instant death. Each alternative is shared. 
 Less than 1,000 escape of all that noble division 
 which in the morning numbered 4,700; all the rest 
 either killed, wounded or captured. All is over. 
 As far as possible for mortals they approached the 
 accomplishment of the impossible. Their great 
 feat of arms has closed. The charge of Pickett's 
 division has been proudly, gallantly and right roy- 
 ally delivered. 
 
 And then, at once, before our dead are counted, 
 there arose from that bloody immortalized field, 
 Fame, the Mystic Goddess, and from her trumpet 
 in clarion notes there rang out upon the ear of the 
 world the story of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. 
 All over this country, equally North and South, 
 
45 
 
 millions listened and returned applause. Over 
 ocean Fame wing's her way. Along the crowded 
 population and cities of Europe she rings out the 
 story. The people of every brave race intently lis- 
 ten and are thrilled. Over the famous battlefields 
 of modern and ancient times she sweeps. Over the 
 ruins and dust of Rome the story is heralded. 
 Thermopylae hears and applauds. The ancient 
 pyramids catch the sound, and summing up the 
 records of their hoary centuries, searching, find 
 therein no story of equal courage. Away over the 
 mounds of buried cities Fame challenges, in vain, 
 a response from their past. Over the continents 
 and the isles of the sea the story runs. The whole 
 world is tumultuous with applause. A new gen- 
 eration has heard the story with undiminished ad- 
 miration and praise. It is making its way up 
 through the opening years to the opening cen- 
 turies. The posterities of all the living will gladly 
 hear and treasure it, and will hand it down to the 
 end of time as an inspiration and example of cour- 
 age to all who shall hereafter take up arms. 
 
 The intrinsic merit of the charge of Pickett's 
 men at Gettysburg, is too great, too broad, too im- 
 mortal for the limitations of sections, of states, or 
 of local pride. 
 
 The people of this great and growing republic, 
 now so happily reunited, have and feel a common 
 kinship and a common heritage in this peerless ex- 
 ample of American courage and American heroism. 
 
 But let us return to the battlefield to view our 
 dead, our dying and our wounded. Here they lie 
 
46 
 
 scattered over the line of their march; here at the 
 stone wall they lie in solid heaps along its foot ; 
 and here within the Federal lines they are as 
 autumnal leaves — each and all precious heroes — 
 each the loved one of some home in dear, dear Vir- 
 ginia. Now we seem to catch the sound of another 
 strain. It is more human ; it touches pathetically 
 more closely human hearts. It is the wailing voice 
 of afflicted love. It is the sobbing outburst of the 
 sorrow of bereavement coming up from so many 
 homes and families, from so many kinsmen and 
 friends; and with it conies the mournful lamenta- 
 tions of Virginia herself, the mother of us all, over 
 the loss of so many of her bravest and best sons. 
 
 Of her generals Garnett is dead, Armistead is 
 dying; and Kemper desperately wounded. Of her 
 colonels of regiments six are killed on the field, 
 Hodges, Edmonds, Magruder, Williams, Patton, 
 Allen, and Owen is dying and Stuart mortally 
 wounded. Three lieutenant-colonels are killed, 
 Calcutt, Wade and Ellis. Five colonels, Hunton, 
 Terry, Garnett, Mayo and Aylett, are wounded. 
 Four lieutenant-colonels commanding regiments, 
 Martin, Carrington, Otey and Richardson are 
 wounded. Of the whole complement of field offi- 
 cers in fifteen regiments only one escaped unhurt, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph C. Cabell. The loss of 
 company officers are in equal proportion. It is a 
 sad, mournful summing up. Let the curtain fall on 
 the tragic scene. 
 
 But there are some of those who fell on that 
 
47 
 
 field whom I cannot pass by with a mere enumera- 
 tion. 
 
 Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, the commander of 
 our brigade, is one of these. Fortune made him 
 the most advanced and conspicuous hero of that 
 great charge. He was to us the very embodiment 
 of a heroic commander. On this memorable day 
 he placed himself on foot in front of his brigade. 
 He drew his sword, placed his hat on its point, 
 proudly held it up as a standard, and strode in 
 front of his men, calm, self-collected, resolute and 
 fearless. All he asked was that his men should fol- 
 low him. Thus in front he marched until within 
 about one hundred paces of the stone wall some 
 officer on horseback, whose name I have never 
 been able to learn, stopped him for some purpose. 
 The few moments of detention thus caused were 
 sufficient to put him for the first time in the rear 
 of his advancing brigade. Then quickly on he 
 came, and when he reached the stone wall where 
 others stopped, he did not pause an instant — over 
 it he went and called on all to follow. He fell, as 
 above stated, amidst the enemy's guns, mortally 
 wounded. He was taken to the Eleventh Corps' 
 Hospital, and in a few days he died and was buried 
 there. 
 
 Another : Col. James Gregory Hodges, of the 
 14th Virginia, of Armistead's brigade, fell instantly 
 killed at the foot of the stone wall of the Bloody 
 Angle, and around and over his dead body there 
 was literally a pile of his dead officers around him, 
 including gallant Major Poor. On the occasion of 
 
48 
 
 the reunion of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg, 
 1887, General Hunt, chief of the Federal artillery 
 at this battle, who had known Col. Hodges before 
 the war, pointed out to me where he saw him lying 
 dead among his comrades. He led his regiment in 
 this memorable charge with conspicuous courage 
 and gallantry. He was an able and experienced 
 officer. At the breaking out of the war he was 
 Colonel of the Third Virginia Volunteers, and from 
 20th April, 1861, until he fell at Gettysburg he 
 served with distinguished ability, zeal and gal- 
 lantry his State and the Confederacy. He was 
 with his regiment in every battle in which it was 
 engaged in the war. He commanded the love and 
 confidence of his men, and they cheerfully and fear- 
 lessly ever followed his lead. His memory deserves 
 to be cherished and held in the highest esteem by 
 his city, to which by his virtues, character and 
 patriotic service he brought honor and considera- 
 tion. 
 
 Col. John C. Owens, of the Ninth Virginia. 
 Armistead's Brigade, also of this city, fell mortally 
 wounded on the charge, and died in the field hos- 
 pital that night. He had been recently promoted 
 to the colonelency of the regiment from the cap- 
 taincy of the Portsmouth Rifles, Company G. As 
 adjutant of the regiment I had every opportunity 
 of knowing and appreciating Col. Owens as a man 
 and officer. I learned to esteem and love him. He 
 was intelligent, quiet, gentle, kind and considerate. 
 Yet he was firm of purpose and of strong will. He 
 knew how to command and how to require obedi- 
 
49 
 
 ence. He was faithful, and nothing could swerve 
 him from duty. Under his quiet, gentle manner 
 there was a force of character surprising to those 
 who did not know him well. And he was as brave 
 and heroic as he was gentle and kind. Under fire 
 he was cool, self-possessed, and without fear. He 
 was greatly beloved and respected by his regiment, 
 although he had commanded it for a very short 
 time. He fell while gallantly leading his regiment 
 before it reached the enemy's lines. He, too, is to 
 be numbered among those heroes of our city, who 
 left home, never to return; who after faithful and 
 distinguished service, fell on the field of honor, 
 worthy of the high rank he had attained, reflecting 
 by his life, patriotism and courage, honor on his 
 native city, which will never let his name and 
 patriotic devotion be forgotten. 
 
 John C. Niemeyer, First Lieutenant I, Ninth 
 Virginia, was killed in that charge just before 
 reaching the famous stone wall. He was a born 
 soldier, apt, brave, dashing. He was so young, so 
 exuberant in feeling, so joyous in disposition, that 
 in my recollection of him he seems to have been 
 just a lad. Yet he knew and felt the responsibility 
 of office, and faithfully and gallantly discharged its 
 duties. He was a worthy brother of the distingu- 
 ished Col. W. F. Niemeyer, a brilliant officer who 
 also gave his young life to the cause. 
 
 And there, too, fell my intimate friend, John S. 
 Jenkins, Adjutant of the Fourteenth Virginia. He, 
 doubtless, was one of those gallant officers whom 
 General Hunt saw when he recognized Colonel 
 
50 
 
 Hodges immediately after the battle, lying dead 
 where he fell, who had gathered around him, and 
 whose limbs were interlocked in death as their 
 lives had been united in friendship and comrade- 
 ship in the camp. He fell among the bravest, 
 sealed his devotion to his country by his warm 
 young blood, in the flush of early vigorous man- 
 hood when his life was full of hope and promise. 
 He gave up home which was peculiarly dear and 
 sweet to him, when he knew that hereafter his only 
 home would be under the flag of his regiment, 
 wherever it might lead, whether on the march, in 
 the camp or on the battle field. His life was beauti- 
 ful and manly — his death was heroic and glorious, 
 and his name is of the imperishable ones of 
 Pickett's charge. 
 
 Time fails me to do more than mention among 
 those from our city who were killed at Gettysburg: 
 Lieut. Robert Guy, Lieut. George W. Mitchell, 
 John A. F. Dundedale, Lemuel H. Williams, W. 
 B. Bennett, John W. Lattimore, W. G. Monte, 
 Richard J. Nash, Thomas C. Owens, Daniel Byrd, 
 John Cross and Joshua Murden — heroes all — 
 who contributed to the renown of Pickett's charge, 
 gave new lustre to the prowess of arms, and laid a 
 new chaplet of glory on the brow of Virginia, 
 brighter and more immortal than all others worn 
 by her. 
 
 "Let marble shafts and sculptured urns 
 Their names record, their actions tell, 
 
 Let future ages read and learn 
 
 How well they fought, how nobly fell." 
 
PRISON REMINISCENCES 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
 STONEWALL CAMP 
 CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
 PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
 FEBRUARY 2ND, 1904 
 
PRISON REMINISCENCES 
 
 In the charge of Pickett's Division at the battle 
 of Gettysburg I was wounded and taken prisoner. 
 With some others I was taken to the Twelfth 
 Corps Hospital, situated in the rear of the left bat- 
 tle line of the Federals. I was here treated with 
 much kindness and consideration. Among other 
 officers who showed me kindness was Col. Dwight, 
 of New York. Professor Stoever, of Pennsylvania 
 College, at which I graduated in 1850, on a visit 
 to the Hospital met me, accidentally, and we had 
 a talk of the old college days. 
 
 I wore in the battle a suit of gray pants and 
 jacket. They were a little shabby. After I had 
 been at the hospital a few days it occurred to me 
 that I ought to make an effort to get a new outfit 
 so as to make a more decent appearance. The 
 ways and means were at command. I wrote to an 
 old friend and former client, then living in Balti- 
 more, for a loan. A few days afterwards two 
 Sisters of Charity came into the hospital and in- 
 quired for me. They met me with gracious sym- 
 pathy and kindness. One of them took me aside, 
 and, unobserved, placed in my hand a package of 
 money, saying it was from a friend, and requested 
 no name be mentioned. They declined to give me 
 any information. I never knew who they were. 
 There was a mystery about them. They could not 
 have come for my sake alone. But this I know, 
 they were angels of mercy. 
 
54 
 
 I made known to the authorities my wish to go 
 to Gettysburg, and while there to avail myself of 
 the opportunity of getting a new suit. The author- 
 ities of the hospital, through Col. Dwight, con- 
 ferred on me a great honor — the honor of personal 
 confidence — absolute confidence. They gave me 
 a free pass to Gettysburg, with the sole condition 
 that I present it at the Provost office there and 
 have it countersigned. I went alone, unattended. 
 The fields and woods were open to me. They 
 somehow knew — I know not how — that I could 
 be trusted ; that my honor was more to me than 
 my life. 
 
 On my way to town I called by the Eleventh 
 Corps Hospital, to which General Armistead had 
 been taken, to see him. I found that he had died. 
 They showed me his freshly made grave. To my 
 inquiries they gave me full information. They told 
 me that his wound was in the leg; that it ought 
 not to have proved mortal ; that his proud spirit 
 chafed under his imprisonment and his restlessness 
 aggravated his wound. Brave Armistead ! The 
 bravest of all that field of brave heroes ! If there 
 be in human hearts a lyre, in human minds a flame 
 divine, that awakens and kindles at the heroic 
 deeds of man, then his name will be borne in song 
 and story to distant times. 
 
 I had my pass countersigned at the Provost 
 office. It gave me the freedom of the city. There 
 were many Federal officers and soldiers in the city. 
 It was a queer, incongruous sight to see a rebel 
 lieutenant in gray mingling in the crowd, and ap- 
 
55 
 
 parently at home. They could see, however, many 
 of the principal citizens of the town cordially 
 accosting, and warmly shaking by the hand, that 
 rebel. I met so many old friends that I soon felt 
 at home. As I was walking along the main street, 
 a prominent physician, Dr. Horner, stopped me 
 and renewed the old acquaintanceship. He pointed 
 to a lady standing in a door not far away, and 
 asked me who it was. I gave the name of Miss 
 Kate Arnold, a leading belle of the college days. 
 He said, "She is my wife and she wants to see 
 you." There was a mutually cordial meeting. 
 While standing in a group of old friends I felt a 
 gentle tap on my shoulder from behind. It was 
 my dear old professor of mathematics, Jacobs. He 
 whispered to me in the kindest, gentlest way not 
 to talk about the war. I deeply appreciated his 
 kindness and solicitude. But I had not been talk- 
 ing about the war. The war was forgotten as I 
 talked of the olden days. 
 
 On another street a gentleman approached me 
 and made himself known. It was Rev. David 
 Swope, a native of Gettysburg, who was of the 
 next class below mine. He manifested genuine 
 pleasure in meeting me. He told me he was living 
 in Kentucky when the war broke out. He recalled 
 a little incident of the college days. He asked me 
 if I remembered in passing a certain house I said 
 to a little red-headed girl with abundant red curls, 
 standing in front of her house, "I'll give you a levy 
 for one of those curls." I told him that I remem- 
 bered it as if it were yesterday. He said that little 
 
56 
 
 girl was now his wife; and that she would be de- 
 lighted to see me. He took me to a temporary 
 hospital where there were a large number of our 
 wounded. He had taken charge of the hospital, 
 and manifested great interest in them and showed 
 them every tender care and kindness. I fancied 
 that those Kentucky days had added something to 
 the sympathy of his kind, generous nature towards 
 our wounded; and when I took leave of him, I am 
 sure the warm grasp of my hand told him, better 
 than words, of the grateful feelings in my heart. 
 
 I must ask indulgence to mention another inci- 
 dent. I met on the college campus a son of Prof. 
 Baugher, who was then president of the college, 
 and who was president when I graduated. The son 
 gave me such a cordial invitation to dine with him 
 and his father that I accepted it. They were all 
 very courteous; but I fancied I detected a reserved 
 dignity in old Dr. Baugher. It was very natural 
 for him to be so, and I appreciated it. The old 
 Doctor, while kindhearted, was of a very positive 
 and radical character, which he evinced on all sub- 
 jects. He was thoroughly conscientious, and was 
 of the stuff of which martyrs are made. He was 
 thoroughly orthodox in his Lutheran faith ; and in 
 politics, without ever hearing a word from him, I 
 venture to say he was in sympathy with, I will not 
 say, Thaddeus Stevens, but with Garrison and 
 Phillips. My knowledge of him left me no need to 
 be told that his views and feelings involved in the 
 war were intense. And there he was, breaking 
 bread with a red handed rebel in his gray uniform, 
 
57 
 
 giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Was he not 
 put to it to keep mastery of himself? 
 
 Happy for man that he is double sighted; that 
 there is within him a quality allied to conscience, 
 — call it charity — that enables him to choose on 
 which side to look. The venerable Doctor saw be- 
 fore him only his old student, recalled only the old 
 days, and their dear memories. If there was any- 
 thing between his heart and his country's laws, 
 there was nothing between his heart and his 
 Saviour's sweet charity. 
 
 And here I must relate an incident of those old 
 days not wholly irrelevant and inopportune. I 
 graduated in 1850. I had the honor to be the 
 valedictorian of my class. In preparing my address 
 I took notice of the great excitement then prevail- 
 ing on account of the discussion in Congress of the 
 bill to admit California as a State into the Union. 
 Great sectional feeling was aroused through this 
 long protracted discussion in the Senate. One 
 senator dared use the word "disunion" with a 
 threat. The very word sent a thrill of horror over 
 the land. I recall my own feeling of horror. In 
 my address to my classmates I alluded to this sec- 
 tional feeling, deprecating it, and exclaimed, "Who 
 knows, unless patriotism should triumph over sec- 
 tional feeling but what we, classmates, might in 
 some future day meet in hostile battle array." 
 
 Dr. Baugher, as president of the college, had re- 
 vision of our graduating speeches, and he struck 
 this part out of my address. But alas! it was a 
 prophetic conjecture ; and members of our class 
 
58 
 
 met in after years, not only in battle array, but on 
 the fields over which, in teaching botany, Prof. 
 Jacobs had led us in our study of the wild flowers 
 that adorned those fields. 
 
 Many other incidents occurred on this day deep- 
 ly interesting to me, but they might not interest 
 others. I returned to the hospital, but not before 
 leaving my measure and order with a tailor for a 
 suit of gray, which was subsequently delivered to 
 me. 
 
 It was a queer episode — a peace episode in the 
 midst of war. This experience of mine taught me 
 that the hates and prejudices engendered by the 
 war were national, not individual; that individual 
 relations and feelings were but little affected in 
 reality; and that personal contact was sufficient to 
 restore kindliness and friendship. 
 
 A short while afterwards I was taken from the 
 Twelfth Corps Hospital to David's Island, which 
 is in Long Island Sound, near and opposite to New 
 Rochelle, in New York. A long train from Gettys- 
 burg took a large number of Confederate wounded, 
 not only from the Twelfth Corps Hospital but 
 from other hospitals, to Elizabethport, and from 
 there the wounded were taken by boat to David's 
 Island. We were taken by way of Elizabethport 
 instead of by way of Jersey City, on account of a 
 recent riot in New York City. All along, at every 
 station at which the train stopped, it seemed to me, 
 our wounded received kind attentions from leading 
 ladies, such as Mrs. Broadhead and others. These 
 ladies brought them delicacies in abundance; and 
 
59 
 
 at Elizabethport these attentions became so con- 
 spicuous that Federal officers complained of the 
 neglect of the Union wounded on the train, and 
 forced the Southern sympathizers, as they called 
 them, to distribute their delicacies between the 
 wounded of both sides. 
 
 When we arrived at David's Island, we found 
 there a first-class hospital in every respect. It was 
 called "De Camp General Hospital." It consisted 
 of a number of long pavilions, and other buildings 
 delightfully and comfortably arranged, and fur- 
 nished with every appliance needed to relieve the 
 wounded and sick. It had been previously occu- 
 pied by the Federal sick and wounded. It was 
 quite a relief for us to get there. After our arrival, 
 with those already there, three thousand Southern 
 wounded soldiers occupied these pavilions. Only 
 a few of these were officers. Most of the wounded 
 were in a very pitiable condition. The New York 
 Daily Tribune, of Wednesday, July 29, 1863, had 
 this to say of them : 
 
 THE SICK AND WOUNDED. 
 
 "The sick and wounded Rebels were handled 
 with the same care and tenderness that is bestowed 
 upon our own invalid soldiers. Those who could 
 not walk were gently carried on stretchers, and 
 those who were able to stand upon their feet were 
 led carefully from the boat to the hospital 
 pavilions. They were in a wretched condition — 
 dirty, ragged, and covered with vermin — their 
 soiled and torn uniforms, if such they may be 
 
60 
 
 called, were stained and soaked with blood; and 
 their wounds, which had not been dressed from the 
 time of the battles at Gettysburg until their ar- 
 rival here, were absolutely alive with maggots. 
 Many of them had suffered amputation — some 
 had bullets in their persons — at least a score have 
 died who were at the point of death when the boat 
 touched the wharf. 
 
 "On their arrival here they were dressed in the 
 dirty gray coats and pants, so common in the 
 Southern army. Shakespeare's army of beggars 
 must have been better clad than were the Confed- 
 erate prisoners. One of the first acts of Dr. Sim- 
 mons, the surgeon in charge, was to order the 
 prisoners to throw aside their 'ragged regimentals,' 
 wash their persons thoroughly and robe them- 
 selves in clean and comfortable hospital clothing, 
 which consists of cotton shirts and drawers, dress- 
 ing gown of gray flannel, and blue coat and 
 trousers of substantial cloth. 
 
 "Their old rags were collected in a heap and 
 burned, notwithstanding the great sacrifice of life 
 involved. We looked about the island in vain to 
 find a butternut colored jacket, or Rebel uniform. 
 The 3,000 prisoners did not bring with them 
 enough clean linen to make a white flag of peace 
 had they been disposed to show any such sign of 
 conciliation." 
 
 Who were these dirty, ragged soldiers, whose 
 soiled and torn uniforms, if such they could be 
 called, were stained and soaked with blood? The 
 world knows them as the gallant followers of Lee, 
 
61 
 
 whose triumphant valor on every field, and against 
 all odds, had filled the world with wonder and ad- 
 miration, — w r ho suffered their first defeat at Get- 
 tysburg — suffered from no want of courage on 
 their part as Pickett's charge shows, but solely 
 from want of prompt obedience to Lee's orders. 
 The three thousand wounded Confederate soldiers, 
 in these pavilions, were the very flower of the 
 South — the sons and product of its best blood; 
 inheritors of a chivalric race, the bone and sinew 
 of the land, bright, intelligent, open-faced and 
 open-hearted men; including in their ranks many 
 a professional man — many a college student — 
 readers of Homer and Plato — readers of Virgil 
 and Cicero. There were among these ragged- 
 jacket wearers men who, around the camp fires, 
 could discuss and quote the philosophy and elo- 
 quence of the Greek and the Roman. These were 
 the men who bore with cheerfulness, and without 
 complaint, the conditions described; who asked 
 only that by their service and suffering their 
 country might be saved. 
 
 Yes, it was of these men, in these pavilions, that 
 the assistant surgeon of the hospital, Dr. James E. 
 Steele, a Canadian by birth, said to me: "Adjutant, 
 your men are so different from those who formerly 
 occupied these pavilions ; when I go among your 
 men they inspire in me a feeling of companion- 
 ship." 
 
 In the same article of the Tribune there is some- 
 thing personal to myself. I will lay aside all false 
 
62 
 
 modesty, and quote it here for preservation for 
 those who take an interest in me. 
 
 ADJUTANT J. F. CROCKER. 
 
 "In pavilion No. 3 we saw several Confederate 
 officers, with one or two exceptions, they were 
 abed, the nature of their wounds rendering it pain- 
 ful for them to sit up. One of these officers, how- 
 ever was sitting at a table writing a letter. He 
 was very civil and communicative. He was a 
 native of Virginia, a graduate of Pennsylvania 
 College at Gettysburg, where he was wounded — 
 a lawyer by profession, and really a man of 
 superior talents and culture. He has brown hair 
 and a broad forehead. He is apparently 35 years 
 of age. He said it was impossible for the North 
 to subdue the South. The enemy might waste 
 their fields, burn their dwellings, level their cities 
 with the dust, but nothing short of utter exterm- 
 ination would give the controlling power to the 
 North. The intelligent people of the South looked 
 upon the efforts to regain their rights as sacred, 
 and they were willing to exhaust their property 
 and sacrifice their lives, and the lives of their 
 wives and children, in defending what they con- 
 ceived to be their constitutional rights. They 
 would consent to no terms save those of separa- 
 tion, and would make no conditions in relation to 
 the question of slavery. They would suffer any 
 calamity rather than come back to the Union as 
 it was. They would be willing to form an alliance 
 with any country in order to accomplish the fact 
 
63 
 
 of separation. 'Such are my sentiments,' said the 
 Adjutant. 'I will take the liberty of asking my 
 comrades if they endorse what I have said.' Cap- 
 tain J. S. Reid, of Georgia, Adjutant F. J. Hay- 
 wood, of North Carolina, Captain L. W. Mc- 
 Laughlin, of Louisiana, Lieut. T. H. White, of 
 Tennessee, L. B. Griggs, of Georgia, Lieut. M. R. 
 Sharp, of South Carolina, Lieut. S. G. Martin, of 
 Virginia, all responded favorably as to the opinions 
 presented by their spokesman. Mr. Menwin asked 
 the Adjutant what he thought of the fall of Vicks- 
 burg, Port Hudson, Jackson, and the defeat in 
 Pennsylvania. 'We have seen darker days,' replied 
 the Adjutant ; 'when we lost New Orleans, Fort 
 Donelson, and Island No. 10. We shall now put 
 forth extra efforts, and call out all the men com- 
 petent to bear arms.' This officer undoubtedly 
 represents the views of some of the leading men 
 in the Confederate Army, but there is a diversity 
 of opinion here among officers and men. If they 
 seem to acquiesce in the opinion of such men as 
 Adjutant Crocker, who appears to be deeply in 
 earnest, and who looks and speaks like a brave and 
 honest man, they do not generally respond to his 
 views and sentiments. He says the North is fight- 
 ing for the purpose of abolishing slavery, and that 
 appears to be the prevailing opinion among the 
 prisoners in his pavilion." 
 
 The Tribune with this article came, when it was 
 published, into the hands of a friend who wrote : 
 "I saw and read with a thrill of pride that piece in 
 the N. Y. Tribune that spoke of you. I felt proud 
 
64 
 
 indeed to know that one of whom an enemy could 
 speak in such terms was a friend of mine. I shall 
 preserve it to read with increased pleasure in the 
 future." The hand that preserved it, in after 
 years, placed it in my Scrap-Book where now it 
 is. 
 
 There came to David's Island a group of ladies 
 as devoted, as self-sacrificing, and as patriotic as 
 ever attended the wounded in the hospitals of 
 Virginia. They gave up their homes and estab- 
 lished themselves in the kitchens attached to the 
 pavilions. With loving hands and tender sympathy 
 they prepared for our sick every delicacy and re- 
 freshment that money and labor could supply. It 
 was to them truly a service of love and joy. These 
 were Southern-born women living in New York 
 City and Brooklyn. 
 
 From their pent-up homes, and their close hos- 
 tile environment, within which there was no lib- 
 erty to voice and no opportunity to show their 
 deep passion of patriotism, they watched the for- 
 tunes of the beloved Confederacy with an interest 
 as keen, and an anxiety as intense, as was ever felt 
 by their mothers and sisters in the Southland. 
 Imagination itself almost fails to depict the avidity 
 and joy with which they availed themselves of this 
 opportunity to mingle with, and to serve our 
 wounded and to give vent to their long suppressed 
 feelings and sympathy. It was my great pleasure 
 personally to know some of these. There were 
 Mrs. Mary A. Butler, widow of Dr. Bracken But- 
 ler, of Smithfield, Virginia; and her sister, Miss 
 
65 
 
 Anna Benton, daughters of Col. Benton, formerly 
 of Suffolk, but who many years before the war, 
 removed to New York. There were also Miss 
 Kate Henop and Miss Caroline Granbury, both 
 formerly well known in Norfolk; Mrs. Algernon 
 Sullivan, Winchester, Virginia, the wife of the 
 distinguished lawyer of New York, and Mrs. Susan 
 Lees, of Kentucky, who after the war adopted the 
 children of the gallant cavalryman, Col. Thomas 
 Marshall, who was killed in battle. There were 
 others whose names have escaped me. If there 
 ever be erected a monument to the women of the 
 South, the names of these patriotic women of 
 whom I have been speaking, should be inscribed 
 on its shaft. 
 
 A Virginian, then living in Brooklyn, whose 
 peculiar circumstances prevented his returning to 
 his native State, Dr. James Madison Minor, made 
 me frequent visits for the happiness of giving ex- 
 pression to his feelings. He said it was an inex- 
 pressible relief. His little daughter, wishing to do 
 some thing for a Confederate soldier, out of the 
 savings from her monthly allowances, bought and 
 gave me a memorial cup which I still have. 
 
 Mrs. James Gordon Bennett came to the Island 
 with a coterie of distinguished friends, among 
 whom was General Dix. She brought a quantity 
 of fine wines for our wounded. She with her 
 friends came to my pavilion, and asked for me. 
 The surgeon in charge, Dr. James Simmons, had 
 referred her to me. When I presented myself, she 
 said: "Adjutant Crocker, I wish to do something 
 
66 
 
 for your men. I do not mean mere words." With 
 some pride of independence, I replied, "There is 
 nothing I can ask for my comrades"; and then I 
 quickly said: "Yes, Mrs. Bennett, there is one re- 
 quest I wish to make of you for them, and I feel 
 that you, as a woman of influence, can do some- 
 thing for us." She shrugged her shoulders in the 
 polite French style, and said she was but a woman, 
 with only a woman's influence. I made a compli- 
 mentary reply and said to her: "Mrs. Bennett, 
 my companions here had their clothing battle-torn 
 and blood-stained. They are now in need of outer 
 clothing. They have friends in New York City 
 who are willing and ready to furnish them ; but 
 there is an order here forbidding our soldiers from 
 receiving outer clothing. Now, my request is that 
 you have this order withdrawn, or modified, so as 
 to permit our men to receive outer clothing." She 
 promptly replied that she would use all her influ- 
 ence to accomplish the request, — that she expected 
 to have Mrs. Lincoln to visit Fort Washington 
 (her home) next week, and she would get her to 
 use her influence with the President to revoke the 
 order. The New York Herald of the next day, 
 and for successive days, had an editorial paragraph 
 calling public attention to the order, telling of the 
 exposure of the wounded and sick prisoners to the 
 chilling morning and evening winds of the Sound, 
 and insisting, for humanity's sake, that the order 
 should be revoked. Afterwards I received from 
 Mrs. Bennett the following note : 
 
67 
 
 "Fort Washington, Sept. 14th, 1863. 
 Sir: 
 
 Yesterday Mrs. Lincoln visited me at Fort 
 Washington. I embraced the opportunity to ask 
 her to use her influence in regard to the request 
 you made me. She assured me she will attend to 
 it immediately on her return to Washington. For 
 all your sakes I sincerely hope she may succeed. 
 I have done all in my power. I can do no more. 
 Floping that your prison hours may pass lightly 
 over, I remain with best wishes for yourself and 
 brother officers, 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 H. A. Bennett. 
 To Adjutant Crocker." 
 
 Mrs. Bennett conversed freely with me about 
 her husband. She said he was always a sincere 
 friend of the South ; that when, upon the firing 
 upon Fort Sumter, the wild furor swept the City 
 of New York and demanded that the American 
 flag should be displayed on every building, Mr. 
 Bennett refused to hoist the flag on the Herald 
 Building, and resisted doing so until he saw the 
 absolute necessity of doing it. She said he wept 
 over the condition of things. She spoke also of 
 her son James. She said that when Vicksburg fell 
 "Jimmy came to me with tears in his eyes, saying, 
 'Mother, what do you think? Vicksburg has 
 fallen. Brave fellows — brave fellows !' I replied 
 that it was the tribute which brave men ever pay 
 to the brave." 
 
68 
 
 Dr. James Simmons, the surgeon in charge of 
 the Hospital, was a native of South Carolina. 
 Somehow he took a great fancy to me, and gave 
 me a warm friendship. He took me into his con- 
 fidence and talked freely with me about his sur- 
 roundings, and how he came to remain in the 
 Federal service. He married Miss Gittings, the 
 daughter of the well known banker of Baltimore. 
 He became a citizen of Maryland, and while wait- 
 ing for his State to secede, he became involved in 
 the Federal service, and found that he could not 
 well leave ; and he concluded that as a non-com- 
 batant he would probably have opportunities of 
 serving our captured and wounded soldiers. He 
 himself was not beyond suspicion ; for I remember 
 his saying to me in his office, with a motion, re- 
 ferring to the writers in his office, "these are spies 
 on me." The Federal authorities, I believe, had 
 in the war more or less suspicion about the South- 
 ern officers in the army, — that they did not fully 
 trust them until like General Hunter, they showed 
 cruelty to their own people. Real traitors are al- 
 ways cruel. Benedict Arnold on the border of the 
 James, and on our own waters here was more 
 cruel with the firebrand and sword than even 
 Tarleton was. Let it ever be thus. Let infamous 
 traits be ever allied to infamous treachery. I occa- 
 sionally met Mrs. Simmons, who, I believe, spent 
 most of her time at New Rochelle. Her warm 
 grasp of the hand told me more plainly than words 
 that the sympathies of her heart were deeply with 
 us. I made a request of Dr. Simmons. His kind 
 
69 
 
 heart could not refuse it. I told him I wanted a 
 Confederate uniform, — that I had a friend in New- 
 York City from whom I could get it — that I knew 
 it was against orders for him to grant my request. 
 He answered: "Have it sent to my wife at New 
 Roehelle." I had my measure taken and sent to 
 New York. Soon I received a full lieutenant's uni- 
 form in Confederate gray of excellent quality, 
 which I, afterwards, on returning home at the end 
 of the war, wore for a while for lack of means for 
 getting a civilian's suit. 
 
 While at Johnson's Island to which prison I was 
 taken after leaving David's Island, and when the 
 exchange of prisoners had been suspended, I made 
 special effort to obtain an exchange. For this pur- 
 pose, I wrote to my brother, Rev. William A. 
 Crocker, the Superintendent of the Army Intelli- 
 gence Office at Richmond, and got him to see 
 Judge Ould, the Commissioner of Exchange on my 
 behalf. I at the same time wrote to Dr. James 
 Simmons to aid me in getting exchanged. I re- 
 ceived from Dr. Simmons the following letter and 
 enclosure : 
 
 "Medical Directors' Office, 
 
 Department of the East, 
 
 New York, Feby. 13th, 1864. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Your letter of the 11th Jany. did not reach me 
 until a few days since. I have written to Colonel 
 Hoffman in your behalf and sincerely hope that he 
 may grant your request. I am but slightly ac- 
 
70 
 
 quainted with Col. Hoffman, and can only hope 
 that the justice of the case may cause him to grant 
 your request. If I can be of any service to you 
 pray command me. I send a copy of my letter to 
 Col. Hoffman, and regret I did not receive your 
 letter sooner. Be kind enough to remember me 
 to Capt. Butler, Kincaid and others. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. Simmons. 
 Capt. J. F. Crocker, 
 Prisoner of War, 
 
 Johnson's Island." 
 
 "New York, Feby. 13th, 1864. 
 Colonel: 
 
 I enclose you a letter from Capt. J. F. Crocker, 
 prisoner of war now at Johnson's Island. The let- 
 ter which reached me only a few days since was 
 directed to David's Island, Capt. Crocker suppos- 
 ing I was in charge of that hospital. If anything 
 can be done for him not inconsistent with the reg- 
 ulations of your department, I am sure you would 
 be conferring a favor upon a gentleman and a man 
 of honor and refinement. The orderly behavior of 
 the prisoners while at David's Island was in a 
 great measure due to the influence of this gentle- 
 man. I am, Colonel, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 J. Simmons, Surg, of &c. 
 Colonel Hoffman, 
 
 Comr. Genl. of Pris., 
 Washington, D. C." 
 
71 
 
 With other officers I left David's Island for 
 Johnson's Island on the 18th of September, 1863. 
 While on the steamer going to New York City, 
 Dr. James E. Steele, the assistant surgeon of the 
 Island, before mentioned, came to me and asked 
 me if I had an Autograph Book. He said a lady 
 wished to see it. I gave it to him. He soon re- 
 turned it, cautioning me about opening it. When 
 he left me I opened it. Two names had been writ- 
 ten in it, J. M. Carnochan, M. D., and Estelle Mor- 
 ris Carnochan, and within the leaves there was a 
 ten dollar note. I took it as a token of good feel- 
 ing towards me, and as a compliment delicately 
 made. Dr. Carnochan was a native of South Caro- 
 lina. He then lived in New York City, and was 
 by far the most eminent surgeon of that city. He 
 frequently came down to David's Island to per- 
 form difficult operations on our wounded. His 
 wife, as I understood it at the time, was the 
 daughter of General Morris, of Maryland, and her 
 mother was the daughter of the famous founder 
 and editor of the Richmond Enquirer, Thomas 
 Ritchie. 
 
 In passing from New York City through the 
 great States of New York and Ohio to Sandusky, 
 one thing deeply impressed me — the great num- 
 ber of men in civilian's clothes of the military age, 
 who gathered at the railroad stations. I said to 
 myself, "War in the North is fully organized — 
 with such resources of men and war material, it is 
 prepared to conduct the war for an indefinite time, 
 and that it was with the North only a question of 
 
72 
 
 finances and of public opinion." It renewed my 
 grief at our defeat at Gettysburg. That was the 
 pivotal point of the war. A great victory there 
 would have achieved peace, and would have en- 
 abled the South, instead of the North, to determine 
 the terms of reunion and reconstruction. Had it 
 not been for the delinquency of some of our gen- 
 erals, Lee's Army would have won a complete and 
 decisive victory on the first and second days of that 
 battle, as I have explained in my address on 
 "Gettysburg — Pickett's Charge." 
 
 We arrived at Johnson's Island about the 19th 
 of September, 1863. The following officers of my 
 regiment, the 9th Virginia Infantry, had already 
 reached there: Maj. Wm. James Richardson, Cap- 
 tains Henry A. Allen, Jules O. B. Crocker, and 
 Harry Gwynn; Lieutenants John H. Lewis, John 
 Vermillion, Samuel W. Weaver, John M. Hack, 
 Henry C. Britton, M. L. Clay, Edward Varnier 
 and Henry Wilkinson. I was assigned to a bunk 
 in Block 12. This building consisted of large 
 rooms with tiers of bunks on the sides. Subse- 
 quently I with four others occupied room 5, Block 
 2. My room-mates and messmates were, Captains 
 John S. Reid, of Eatonton, Ga., and R. H. Isbell, 
 of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Lieutenants James W. 
 Lapsley, of Selma, Ala., and John Taylor, of 
 Columbia, S. C. 
 
 The first incident of personal interest to me 
 after my arrival in this prison occurred thus : I 
 met on the campus Colonel E. A. Scovill, the 
 Superintendent of the prison. I said to him : 
 
73 
 
 "Colonel, you have an order here that no one is 
 allowed to write at one time more than on one 
 side of a half sheet of letter paper. I have a dear, 
 fair friend at my home in Portsmouth, Va., and I 
 find it impossible for me to express one tithe of 
 what I wish to say within the limits prescribed." 
 He replied : "Write as much as you wish, hand 
 me your letters to your friend, and tell her to 
 answer to my care." That kind act of Col. Scovill 
 made him my personal friend, and he afterwards 
 did me other important kindnesses. I believe that 
 the surest way to become a friend to another, is to 
 do that other person a kindness. A kindness done 
 has more effect upon the donor, than upon the re- 
 cipient, in creating mutual interest. This gracious 
 favor of Col. Scovill was highly appreciated, and it 
 added happiness to me and to my dear friend. 
 
 I brought my battle-wound with me, unhealed, 
 to Johnson's Island. I had not been there long be- 
 fore gangrene appeared in it. It was a critical 
 moment. My friend, Dr. Brodie Strauchan Hern- 
 don, of Fredericksburg, Va., a prisoner, by imme- 
 diate and severe remedy arrested the gangrene at 
 once ; and soon afterwards made a permanent cure 
 of the wound, and also restored my general health. 
 The tardiness of my wound in healing was caused 
 by the low condition of my health. On our way to 
 Pennsylvania, I sat on my horse in the mid-stream 
 of the Shenandoah while my regiment, the 9th Va., 
 waded across. I did the same when it crossed the 
 Potomac. When we reached Williamsport I went 
 under the treatment of our surgeon. It was there, 
 
74 
 
 for the first time since I was twelve years old, a 
 drop of intoxicating liquor passed my lips, save at 
 the communion table. 
 
 It was owing to the condition of my health that 
 a slight injury on my lip, while at David's Island, 
 caused by my biting it, although not malignant, 
 refused to heal. Finally I was advised by Dr. 
 Herndon to have it cut off. He said, however, that 
 the operation could not be safely performed in the 
 prison on account of a tendency to gangrene. I 
 obtained permission to go to Sandusky for the pur- 
 pose. I was given a parole. I went to the leading 
 hotel in the city. There I met — strange coinci- 
 dence — with Mr. Merritt Todd and his wife, both 
 natives of my own county, Isle of Wight, Va., 
 friends of my father in their early days, with their 
 granddaughter, Parker Cooke, then about fourteen 
 years of age. Their home before the war was in 
 Norfolk. Mr. Todd had established a large and 
 lucrative business in curing hams in Cincinnati 
 where he owned valuable real estate. To prevent 
 the confiscation of his property he made Ohio the 
 State of his residence during the war, and was at 
 this time in Sandusky. Nothing under the circum- 
 stances could have added more to my happiness 
 than thus to be thrown in intimate intercourse 
 with these friends. 
 
 I reported to the Federal surgeons. They re- 
 ceived me most courteously. They seated me in a 
 chair for the operation. They asked me if I wished 
 to take an anaesthetic. It instantly flashed in my 
 mind to show these kind surgeons how a Confed- 
 
75 
 
 erate soldier could bear pain, and I answered No! 
 I sat in the chair from the beginning to the end of 
 the operation without a groan or a token of pain. 
 Their work was done skillfully, effectively and 
 kindly. The trouble never returned. These offi- 
 cers were very polite and hospitable to me. In re- 
 turn for their hospitality I had one or more of 
 them to dine with me at the hotel. Don't raise 
 your hands in horror ! Why should I have been 
 less a gentleman than they? Once a gentleman, — 
 always a gentleman — under all circumstances a 
 gentleman. No true Southern soldier ever lost in 
 war his good manners or his humanity. 
 
 I again had the freedom of a Northern city. And 
 although I walked the streets in Confederate gray, 
 no one showed the slightest exception to it or 
 showed me the least affront. But on the contrary, 
 there was one citizen of the place, to the manor 
 born, who visited me almost daily — and a very 
 clever and strong man, too, he was. According to 
 his account, he had been ostracized; his home had 
 been surrounded and threatened by mobs ; he had 
 been hooted and maltreated on the streets. Why? 
 He said because he was a Democrat and opposed 
 to the war. He was a genuine "Copperhead," and 
 either from intolerance or other cause, he was a 
 warm sympathizer with the South. The opportu- 
 nity to express his sympathy was a great relief 
 and gratification to him. He never tired of talking 
 about Lee and his battles and his successes. He 
 had reached a state of mind when he was even glad 
 to hear of the defeat of his country's armies and 
 
76 
 
 the success of ours. At the end of four weeks, I 
 returned to the Island. 
 
 When I first reached Johnson's Island I found 
 that the rations given to the prisoners, while plain, 
 were good and abundant. Within the prison was 
 a sutler's store from which the prisoners were al- 
 lowed to buy without restraint. Boxes of pro- 
 visions and clothing from friends were permitted. 
 To show the liberality with which these were al- 
 lowed, I received from my dear brother, Julius O. 
 Thomas, of Four Square, Isle of Wight county, 
 Virginia, a box of tobacco which he had kindly 
 sent as a gift to me, through the lines under the 
 flag of truce. It was as good to me as a bill of 
 exchange, and I disposed of it for its money value. 
 This condition continued until the issuing of 
 orders, said to be in retaliation of treatment of 
 Federal prisoners at Andersonville. These orders 
 put the prisoners on half rations, excluded the sut- 
 ler's store from the prison, and prohibited the re- 
 ceipt of all boxes of provisions — with a discretion 
 to the surgeon in charge to allow boxes for sick 
 prisoners. The result of these orders was that the 
 prisoners were kept in a state of hunger — I will 
 say in a state of sharp hunger — all the time. My 
 messmates whom I have before mentioned, were 
 as refined and as well bred as any gentlemen in the 
 South; and they had been accustomed to wealth. 
 We employed a person to cook our rations, and to 
 place them on the table in our room. What then? 
 Sit down and help ourselves? No. We could not 
 trust ourselves to do that. We would divide up 
 
77 
 
 the food into five plates as equally as we could do 
 it. Then one would turn his back to the table, and 
 he would be asked: "Whose is this, and this," and 
 so on. And when we had finished our meal, there 
 was not left on our plates a trace of food, grease 
 or crumb. Our plates would be as clean as if 
 wiped with a cloth ; and we would arise from the 
 table hungry — hungry still — ravenously hungry. 
 We no longer disdained the fat, coarse pork — the 
 fatter, the better. It was sustenance we craved. 
 No longer did we crave desserts and dainties. The 
 cold, stale bread was sweeter to us than any cake 
 or dainty we ever ate at our mother's table. We 
 would at times become desperate for a full meal. 
 Then by common consent we would eat up our 
 whole day's rations at one meal. And then, alas, 
 we would get up with hunger — ■ hungry still. My 
 God, it was terrible ! Yet we kept in excellent 
 health. I said it then, and I have said it hundreds 
 of times since, that if I had an enemy whom I 
 wished to punish exquisitely, I would give him 
 enough food to keep him in health with a sharp 
 appetite, but not enough to satisfy his appetite. I 
 would keep him hungry, sharply, desperately hun- 
 gry all the time. It was a cruel, bitter treatment, 
 and that, too, by a hand into which Providence had 
 poured to overflowing its most bounteous gifts. 
 
 One practical lesson I learned from this expe- 
 rience ; that a hungry man can eat any food, and 
 eat it with a relish denied kings and princes at 
 their luxurious boards. It has made me lose all 
 patience with one who says he cannot eat this, and 
 
78 
 
 cannot eat that. Between such an one and starva- 
 tion there is no food he cannot eat, and eat with 
 the keenest enjoyment. 
 
 Shall I leave out of my story a bright, happy 
 page? No. On the 13th of January, 1865, there 
 was sent by express to me at Johnson's Island, a 
 box prepared and packed by the joint hands of a 
 number of my friends at home then within the 
 lines of the enemy, full of substantial and delicious 
 things. The mail of the same day carried to Lt. 
 Col. Scovill the following note : 
 
 "Portsmouth, Va., Jany. 13th, 1865. 
 Lt. Col. Scovill: 
 
 Colonel : — Today by express I send a box of 
 provisions for my friend. Adjutant J. F. Crocker. 
 If there should be any difficulty in regard to his 
 having the articles sent, will you do me the favor 
 to use your influence with the surgeon in obtain- 
 ing his permission for their delivery? If you will, 
 I shall take it as a new kindness added to that one 
 granted by you in the past, and shall not feel less 
 grateful for this, than I did, and do still feel for 
 that. Yours respectfully, 
 
 This note was sent into me with the following 
 endorsement: "Jany. 17th, 1865. 
 
 Adjt. : — Make an application to Surgeon Wool- 
 bridge and enclose it to me. 
 
 Yours, &c, 
 
 A. E. Scovill, 
 Lt. Col. & Supt." 
 
79 
 
 Application was made, and that box was sent in 
 immediately to me. Yes, it was a new and added 
 favor from this warm, generous-hearted officer and 
 man ; and I have ever since borne in my heart and 
 memory a kind and grateful feeling towards him. 
 My messmates and I had a royal feast. 
 
 I cannot omit to notice the religious feeling that 
 prevailed in the prison, and I cannot better do so 
 than to copy here a letter written by me at the 
 time. 
 
 "Johnson's Island, Sunday, July 10th, '64. 
 
 This is the holy Sabbath, my dear friend. Can 
 I better interest you than by giving you a religious 
 view of our prison? There are many things in 
 prison life, if properly improved, that conduce to 
 religious sentiments. A prisoner's unfortunate 
 condition, of itself, imposes upon him much seri- 
 ousness, and in his long unemployed hours reflec- 
 tion grows upon him. There is a pensive sorrow 
 underlying all his thoughts, and his sensibilities 
 are ever kept sensitive by the recollection of home, 
 and the endearments of love from which he is now 
 indefinitely excluded, while his patriotic anxieties 
 are constantly and painfully alive to the wavering 
 fortunes of his country. You will not therefore be 
 surprised to learn that there is here a high moral 
 tone and religious feeling. The present campaign 
 was preceded by daily prayer meetings here, and 
 for a long time afterwards kept up. And it would 
 have done your heart good to have heard the earn- 
 est appeals that rose to the throne of the Great 
 
80 
 
 Ruler of Nations from every block. You can im- 
 agine the great burden of these earnest prayers. 
 These prayer meetings are still of almost daily 
 occurrence. We have here also our Bible Classes, 
 and also our Christian Associations, that do a great 
 deal of good. But above all we have our sermons 
 on the Sabbath and other days. Among the offi- 
 cers here are a number of prisoners who are min- 
 isters. It is one of our greatest privileges that 
 these are allowed to preach to us unmolested, and 
 with all freedom. I can scarce ever attend one of 
 these services without having my eyes moistened. 
 There are two subjects that never grow trite, 
 though never passed over without allusion in these 
 services — our country and the loved ones at 
 home. These ever elicit the hearty amen, and the 
 tender tear. These touch the deepest and strong- 
 est chords of our hearts. Ah! was country ever 
 loved as it is by its far off imprisoned soldiers! 
 Was home and its dear ones ever loved as by him 
 who sighs in imprisonment. The heart grows hal- 
 lowed under these sacred, tender influences. Shut 
 out from the beautiful green earth we learn to look 
 up to the sky that is above us; and through its 
 azure depths and along the heights of its calm 
 stars, our thoughts like our vision, rise Heaven- 
 ward. Many a one who entered these prison 
 bounds with a heart thoughtless of his soul's high 
 interests, has turned to his God; and now nearly 
 on every Sabbath there is either some one baptized 
 or added to some branch of the Church. It is a 
 
81 
 
 high gratification to make this record of my fellow 
 comrades, and I know it will be a delight to you. 
 
 Your devoted friend, 
 
 The death and burial of Lt. Henry Wilkinson, 
 Company B, 9th Va., deeply affected me; and I 
 cannot deny him a kind word of mention in these 
 pages. He was the only one of my regiment who 
 died in the prison. He was severely wounded at 
 Gettysburg, at the Bloody Angle. He was from 
 Norfolk. He was a gallant, conscientious, patriotic 
 soldier. He asked only once for a furlough. That 
 came to him after we had started or were about to 
 start on our Pennsylvania campaign. He declined 
 it. It was to him as if he were taking a furlough 
 in the presence of the enemy. There was some- 
 thing pathetic in the refusal. It was to give him 
 opportunity to meet, and see, one whom he loved. 
 He sacrificed to duty the heart's dearest longing 
 
 Well do I remember his burial. That open 
 grave is even now clearly before me, as vividly as 
 on that day. His comrades are standing around. 
 There is a tender pathos in the voice of the holy 
 man, a Confederate minister, who is conducting 
 the solemn service. There are tears in the eyes 
 of us all. The deep feeling was not from any 
 words spoken but a silent welling up from our 
 hearts. The inspiration felt in common was from 
 the occasion itself — the lowering down the youth- 
 ful form of this patriotic soldier into the cold 
 bosom of that bleak far off island — so far away — 
 
82 
 
 so far from his home and kindred — so far away 
 from the one that loved him best. Well do I re- 
 member as I stood there looking into that grave 
 into which we had lowered him, there came to me 
 feelings that overcame me. I seemed to identify 
 myself with him. I put myself in his place. Then 
 there came to me as it were the tender wailing 
 grief of all who loved me most — dear ones at 
 home. Even now as I recall the scene, the feel- 
 ings that then flowed, break out afresh and I am 
 again in tears. 
 
 EXCHANGED. 
 
 BY A LADY IN KENTUCKY. 
 
 From his dim prison house by Lake Erie's bleak 
 shore 
 He is borne to his last resting place, 
 The glance of affection and friendship no more 
 
 Shall rest on the Captive's wan face. 
 The terms of the Cartel his God had arranged 
 And the victim of war has at length been 
 "exchanged." 
 
 His comrades consign his remains to the earth 
 
 With a tear and a sigh of regret, 
 From the land he could never forget. 
 
 He died far away from the land of his birth 
 'Mid the scenes of his boyhood his fancy last 
 ranged 
 Ere the sorrows of life and its cares were 
 "exchanged." 
 
83 
 
 The clods of the Island now rest on his head 
 That the fierce storms of battle had spared 
 On the field that was strewn with the dying and 
 dead 
 Whose perils and dangers he shared. 
 From home and from all that he loved long 
 estranged 
 Death pitied his fate and the Captive 
 "exchanged." 
 
 (Copied in my Autograph Book when on the 
 Island). 
 
 The United States government had suspended 
 the exchange of prisoners so long that it had be- 
 come a general belief of the prisoners that they 
 would be kept in prison until the close of the war. 
 The renewal of exchange came as a great joy to 
 us all. It was not only personal freedom we 
 craved, but we desired to renew again our service 
 in our armies in behalf of our country. There had 
 been several departures of prisoners, when, on the 
 morning of the 28th of February, 1865, I received 
 notice to get ready to leave, and that I was to 
 leave at once. In a few moments I had packed up 
 some of my belongings — as much as I could 
 carry in a dress suit case, and joined my departing 
 comrades. We were taken by rail to Baltimore, 
 and from thence by steamer down the Chesapeake 
 Bay and up the James to Aiken's Landing, which 
 place we reached on the 3rd of March. There was 
 no incident on the way worthy of note. I recall, 
 however, the deep emotion with which I greeted 
 
84 
 
 once again the shores and waters of dear Virginia. 
 It brought back to me the impassioned cry of the 
 men of Xenophon, "The Sea! The Sea!" I recall 
 as we came up Hampton Roads how intently I 
 gazed towards this dear home city of ours, and 
 how, as we entered the mouth of the James, I 
 seemed to embrace in fond devotion the familiar 
 shores of my native county. Ah ! how we love our 
 native land — its soil, its rivers, its fields, its for- 
 ests! This love is God-implanted, and is, or should 
 be, the rock-basis of all civic virtue. 
 
 At Aiken's Landing we were transferred to our 
 Confederate steamer. "Once again under our own 
 flag," I wrote on the Confederate steamer and sent 
 it back by the Federal steamer to my home city to 
 gladden the hearts of my friends there. 
 
 We landed at Rocketts, Richmond. As we pro- 
 ceeded up on our way to General Headquarters, 
 and had gone but a short distance, we saw a boy 
 selling some small apples. We inquired the price. 
 "One dollar apiece," was the answer. It was a 
 blow — a staggering blow — to thus learn of the 
 utter depreciation of the Confederate currency. I 
 may just as well say here that all the prisoners at 
 Johnson's Island stoutly maintained their confi- 
 dence in the ultimate success of our cause. They 
 never lost hope or faith. They never realized at 
 all the despondency at home. The little boy with 
 his apples told me that it was not so in Richmond 
 I at once seemed to feel the prevailing despond- 
 ency in the very air, and as we made our way up 
 
85 
 
 the street I felt and realized that there was a pall 
 hanging over the city. 
 
 When I reached General Headquarters I found 
 out that we were not exchanged, that we were 
 prisoners still, paroled prisoners. I was given a 
 furlough. Here it is before me now: 
 
 "Headquarters Department of Richmond, 
 
 Richmond, Va., March 3d, 1865. 
 
 In obedience to instructions from the Secretary 
 of War the following named men (paroled prison- 
 ers) are granted furloughs for 30 days (unless 
 sooner exchanged) at the expiration of which time 
 they will, if exchanged, rejoin their respective 
 commands. 
 
 Adjt. J. F. Crocker, 9th Va. Regt. 
 
 By order of Lieut. -General Ewell. 
 
 J. W. Pegram, A. A. General." 
 
 The next day I went to the "Pay Bureau Q. M. 
 Department." I was paid $600 in Confederate 
 notes. I have before me the certificate that was 
 given me. 
 
 "Richmond, Va., March 4th, 1865. 
 
 I certify that I have this day paid First Lieut, 
 and Adjt. Jas. F. Crocker, 9th Va. Regiment, from 
 1 June to 30 Nov., 1862, pay $600. 
 
 Geo. A. Barksdale, 
 
 Capt. & A. Q. M." 
 
86 
 
 I took what was given me. I asked no ques- 
 tions. I made no complaint. I concluded that the 
 market would not stand a much larger issue, or 
 the boy would raise the price of his apples. I in- 
 formed the department that I wished to go to see 
 my brother, Julius O. Thomas, in Isle of Wight 
 county. I was given transportation tickets with 
 coupons to go and return. I went by the Rich- 
 mond and Danville Railroad to Danville, thence to 
 Raleigh, thence to Weldon and thence to Hicks- 
 ford. From Hicksford I was to make my way as 
 well as I could. I reached without difficulty our 
 ancestral home, Four Square, where my brother 
 lived. I shall never forget the kind and loving wel- 
 come he and his dear wife gave me. It was indeed 
 a true home-coming. The prison half-rations were 
 forgotten. I remained about three weeks. I then 
 started for Richmond to report to Headquarters to 
 see if I had been exchanged or not. I took the 
 train in Southampton county for Weldon and 
 thence to Raleigh. When I reached Raleigh I 
 heard that Richmond had fallen. When I reached 
 Danville, I learned that Lee's retreat had been cut 
 off from Danville. I then determined to go across 
 the country to see my brother, Rev. William A. 
 Crocker, who was living the other side of Camp- 
 bell Court House, and with whom was my dear 
 mother. I took the stage to Pittsylvania Court 
 House. When I reached there, I learned that 
 Lee's army was operating in the direction of 
 Appomattox. While waiting there a few days in 
 uncertainty, a section of a battery was drawn up 
 
87 
 
 in the Court House square, abandoned and dis- 
 banded. While the men were unhitching the 
 horses, I said to them that I had $100 in Confed- 
 erate notes in my pocket which I would be glad to 
 give for one of the horses. A horse was at once 
 handed to me and I gave them my last $100 in 
 Confederate notes. I mounted this horse, and rode 
 him bareback to my brother's. 
 
 On my way I met large bodies of unarmed sol- 
 diers going South to their homes. Their silent 
 walk and sad faces told of a sorrow in their hearts. 
 These were Lee's men. They had surrendered at 
 Appomattox their arms but not their honor. They 
 were heroes — but they were not conscious of it. 
 They were unconscious of their fame and glory. 
 These were they of whom the world was to declare 
 they made defeat as illustrious as victory. 
 
 When I came in sight of my brother's home, I 
 saw that his woods near the road were on fire, and 
 that persons were engaged in fighting the fire. I 
 saw that my brother was among them. I jumped 
 off my horse, broke off the top of a bush, and ap- 
 proaching my brother from behind I commenced 
 fighting the fire a short distance from him, turning 
 my back on him. I had been thus engaged for 
 some time, unobserved, and without a word, when 
 I heard, suddenly, the cry: "Brother! My 
 Brother!" I was in his arms and he in mine, and 
 we wept — wept tears of affection and joy at meet- 
 ing, and wept tears of sorrow over our lost 
 country. All was over. 
 
Colonel James Gregory Hodges, 
 His Life and Character 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE 
 STONEWALL CAMP 
 CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
 PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
 JUNE THE 18 TH, 1909 
 
X. 
 
 Colonel James Gregory Hodges. 
 
COLONEL JAMES GREGORY HODGES 
 
 James Gregory Hodges was born in Portsmouth, 
 Va., on the 25th day of December, 1828. His 
 father was Gen. John Hodges. Gen. Hodges was 
 one of the most noted citizens of Norfolk county 
 for his high character, intelligence, wealth, social 
 position and for his public services. For a num- 
 ber of years he was a member of the county court. 
 He served in the General Assembly of Virginia. 
 In the war of 1812 he, as captain, commanded a 
 company attached to the Thirtieth regiment of the 
 third requisition for the State of Virginia, com- 
 manded by Maj. Dempsey Veale, and mustered into 
 the service of the United States on the 26th of 
 April, 1813, at the camp near Fort Nelson, situ- 
 ated on what is now known as the Naval Hospital 
 Point. This regiment was engaged in the battle 
 of Craney Island. He subsequently held the com- 
 mission of colonel of the Seventh regiment of Vir- 
 ginia in militia and later was elected on joint ballot 
 of both houses of the General Assembly a briga- 
 dier general of the Ninth brigade in the fourth 
 division of the militia of the commonwealth and 
 commissioned by Gov. John Tyler on the 7th day 
 of January, 1826. 
 
 The mother of James Gregory Hodges was Jane 
 Adelaide Gregory. She was a descendant of the 
 colonial clergyman, John Gregorie, who was rector 
 of Nansemond county parish in 1680. Her grand- 
 
92 
 
 father was James Gregory, who married Patience 
 Godwin, the daughter of Thomas Godwin and 
 Mary Godwin, his wife. This Thomas Godwin was 
 a descendant of Capt. Thomas Godwin, the original 
 settler and ancestor of the Godwins of Nansemond 
 county, who was a member of the House of Bur- 
 gesses and the presiding justice of the county court 
 of Nansemond county for many years. James 
 Gregory was a vestryman of the upper parish, and 
 afterwards, by a change of the boundaries of the 
 parish, a vestryman of the Suffolk parish of Nan- 
 semond. His son, James Gregory, the father of 
 Mrs. Hodges, married Mary Wynns, the daughter 
 of Col. Benjamin Wynns, of the revolution, and 
 Margaret Pugh, the daughter of Francis Pugh 
 and Pherebee Savage. 
 
 James Gregory Hodges was educated at the once 
 famous Literary, Scientific and Military Academy 
 of Portsmouth, of which Capt. Alden Partridge, A. 
 M., of New England, was superintendent. His 
 associate professors were: William L. Lee, A. B., 
 professor of mathematics, natural philosophy and 
 civil engineering; William H. H. Davis, A. B., pro- 
 fessor of mathematics, topographical drawing, mili- 
 tary instructor and teacher of fencing; Lucius D. 
 Pierce, A. B., professor of ancient languages ; 
 Moses Jean Odend'hal, professor of modern lan- 
 guages, and H. Myers, instructor of martial music. 
 To show the high character of this school, I beg 
 to mention the names of the gentlemen who com- 
 posed the board of trustees, and who are remem- 
 bered as among the most honorable citizens of 
 
93 
 
 Portsmouth: Gen. John Hodges, president; Holt 
 Wilson, Dr. Joseph Schoolfield, Capt. James 
 Thompson, Col. M. Cooke, John A. Chandler, Dr. 
 R. R. Butt, Dr. A. R. Smith, Dr. William Collins, 
 William H. Wilson, Maj. Walter Gwynn. This 
 school had a large number of cadets. Of the 
 cadets James Gregory Hodges, of the senior de- 
 partment, and John Collins Woodley, the brother 
 of the late Dr. Joseph R. Woodley, of the junior 
 department, were by common consent elected to 
 decide all disputes that arose among the cadets; 
 and such was the cadets' great admiration and res- 
 pect for their high character and judgment that all 
 readily acquiesced in their decisions. 
 
 He chose medicine as his profession and gradu- 
 ated at the University of Pennsylvania. He gained 
 great success and eminence in his profession. Dur- 
 ing the yellow fever here in 1855 he gave untiring 
 and faithful devotion to the sick day and night 
 from the beginning to the end of the epidemic. 
 
 He was elected mayor of the city of Portsmouth 
 April, 1856, and again in April, 1857. 
 
 The Third regiment of Virginia volunteers of 
 this city was organized in 1856, and Dr. James 
 Gregory Hodges was elected colonel ; David J. 
 Godwin, lieutenant colonel ; William C. Wingfield, 
 major; John W. H. Wrenn, adjutant; C. W. Mur- 
 daugh, commissary ; John Hobday, quartermaster ; 
 Dr. H. F. Butt, surgeon, and Dr. V. B. Bilisoly, 
 assistant surgeon. At the time of the organization 
 of the regiment it was composed of the following 
 companies: Portsmouth Rifle Company, Capt. 
 
94 
 
 John C. Owens; Old Dominion Guard, Capt. Ed- 
 ward Kearns; the National Grays, Capt. John E. 
 Deans ; the Marion Rifles, Capt. Johannis Watson ; 
 the Union Guard, Capt. Nathaniel Edwards, and 
 the Dismal Swamp Rangers, Capt. James C. Choat. 
 On Saturday, the 20th day of April, 1861, when 
 the regiment was ordered by Gov. Letcher into 
 the service of the State, it consisted of the same 
 companies except the Union Guard, which had 
 been disbanded the year before. 
 
 The twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and 
 sixty one — memorable day! On this day com- 
 menced in Virginia an unproclaimed war. The 
 ordinance of secession had been passed on the 
 17th day of April, 1861. The proclamation of 
 President Lincoln calling on Virginia for her 
 quota of military forces to wage war against her 
 sister States of the South brought all Virginians 
 of true loyalty together. War was the inevitable 
 result of national and State action. Gov. Letcher 
 had sent down Gen. William B. Taliaferro to take 
 cuarge of the organized forces of this section when 
 called into the service of the State. At noon the 
 United States authorities closed the doors of the 
 navy yard and began the destruction of its build- 
 ings, its ships and stores. It was an act of war 
 and was so regarded by all. At 2 p. m. the volun- 
 teer companies of the city were called into the 
 service of the State. At that hour the long roll 
 sounded summoning our local military to arms. 
 Our military responded to the roll call with a 
 
95 
 
 unanimity and with a patriotic devotion unsur- 
 passed. 
 
 Near sunset of the 20th of April the Pawnee 
 passed the foot of High street on her way to the 
 navy yard. I see her now as vividly as I did at 
 that hour. Her officers were at their posts — her 
 men at their loaded guns and upwards of 400 ma- 
 rines and soldiers at quarters — all standing ready, 
 on the least provocation, to give and to receive 
 the order to fire. She moved with a firm steadi- 
 ness and the silent majesty of authority. She 
 seemed a living thing — with a heart beating to 
 stirred emotions and sharing the hostile feelings 
 and defiance of those whom she bore. Her power 
 and readiness to do harm inspired a kind of terror 
 in every breast. On her arrival at the yard the 
 work of destruction received a new impetus. On 
 every side were heard the vulcan sounds of destruc- 
 tion ; on every side were seen the flames of burning 
 buildings and blazing ships. Our forces were not 
 sufficient to interfere and there seemed to be a 
 mutual understanding on both sides — the result of 
 weakness on our side and ignorance on that of the 
 enemy — that the Pawnee, with the Cumberland in 
 tow, at the end of the destruction of the yard, 
 might leave without molestation. 
 
 The enemy left early in the morning of the 21st, 
 and Col. Hodges, under the order of Gen. Taliaferro, 
 entered the navy yard to take charge, to restore 
 order and to protect what was left and to turn the 
 yard over to the civil and naval officers of the 
 State. This was done, and leaving one of his com- 
 
96 
 
 panies in the yard as a guard he took the other 
 companies of his regiment to the naval hospital 
 grounds and there threw up breastworks for pro- 
 tection against any United States vessel that should 
 attempt to re-enter the harbor. It was a Sunday 
 morning. We all remember the work of throwing 
 up the breastworks. It was done with a will — 
 with patriotic devotion. I did some spading on 
 that work, citizens also helped, and the mothers 
 and daughters of our city came down and cheered 
 us in our work. All apprehension soon left us and 
 we were exuberantly cheerful and happy. Troops 
 from every quarter came pouring into our midst. 
 Batteries were thrown up at every point of defense. 
 We soon felt that the enemy could never again 
 come into our harbor by land or water against our 
 will. 
 
 Very soon after matters had become well ordered 
 at the naval hospital grounds Gov. Letcher ap- 
 pointed and assigned to the Third regiment, Vir- 
 ginia volunteers, Col. Roger A. Pryor, and his field 
 officers and assigned Col. James Gregory Hodges, 
 Lieut. Col. David J. Godwin and Maj. William 
 White to the Fourteenth Virginia regiment. This 
 was done on the alleged policy that it is better for a 
 colonel to command a regiment of strangers than 
 a regiment of his personal friends. Maj. William 
 C. Wingfield and the other staff officers of the old 
 Third Virginia regiment resigned and afterwards 
 did distinguished services under other commands. 
 
 Col. Hodges with his regiment was ordered to 
 take command of Jamestown Island, and we find 
 
97 
 
 that on the 31st day of May, 1861, he was there in 
 command not only of his own regiment of ten com- 
 panies but also of five companies of artillery and 
 two additional companies of infantry. His adju- 
 tant at this time w r as Lieut. Evans. 
 
 This assignment of Col. Hodges to the Four- 
 teenth Virginia regiment and to the command of 
 Jamestown Island took him from his home — from 
 the companionship of his wife and two infant boys. 
 On the 11th day of August, 1853, he married 
 Sarah A. F. Wilson, the daughter of William H. 
 Wilson and Ellen Keeling. His son, William Wil- 
 son Hodges, was born on the 29th of April, 1S54, 
 and his son, John Nelson Hodges, was born on the 
 3rd of May, when he was in command at the Naval 
 Hospital grounds, and he gave to his little baby 
 son the name of Nelson, after Fort Nelson, erected 
 on those grounds in the revolution. To him and 
 to his wife it was a most painful separation, yet 
 bravely and cheerfully borne in the spirit of pa- 
 triotic duty to their country. His letters to his 
 wife were ever full of the most devoted love to her 
 and of the keenest, tenderest interest in his two 
 infant children, whom he calls so dearly "my boys." 
 There was an ever intense longing to be with his 
 wife and children and always the firm recognition 
 of his duty to be ever with his regiment. 
 
 On August 1, 1861, Gen. Magruder ordered Col. 
 Hodges to take six companies of his regiment and 
 to join him in the lower part of the Peninsula. 
 Gen. Magruder with 5,000 men, made a demonstra- 
 tion of a regular line of battle before Newport 
 
98 
 
 News with the purpose of drawing out the enemy 
 at that place, but the enemy failed to appear. He 
 afterwards made a like demonstration near Hamp- 
 ton to draw the enemy from Old Point to make an 
 attack, but the enemy failed to appear. On the 
 7th of August Gen. Magruder ordered Col. Hodges 
 to report to him at Newmarket bridge. Col. 
 Hodges reached there about 9 o'clock p. m. when 
 Gen. Magruder ordered to his command two other 
 infantry companies and two companies of cavalry, 
 and directed him to proceed to Hampton and de- 
 stroy the town. He reached Hampton about 11 
 p. m. He found every thing as still as death, and 
 not a sound to be heard excepting the sound of 
 the horses feet and occasionally the clanking of 
 a sabre. He marched his men into St. John's 
 Church yard, dismounted his cavalry and sent a 
 picket guard to the bridge leading to Old Point. 
 Here the enemy's picket guard opened fire, and 
 for some time there was an active firing, but no 
 serious harm was done and the enemy withdrew. 
 Then the work of destroying the town commenced. 
 Col. Hodges, in his account of the expedition to his 
 wife, says: 
 
 "It grieved me sorely to have to destroy the 
 town; but I believe it is all for the best, as it em- 
 barasses the enemy very much and takes from them 
 elegant winter quarters whilst our troops will have 
 to suffer in log huts and tents. I went into many 
 houses which formerly had been well taken care of; 
 the furniture was broken to pieces and scattered all 
 through the house. They were filled with filth 
 
99 
 
 of every description, and most obscene expressions 
 written all over the walls. If I had lived and owned 
 a house there I would willingly have applied the 
 torch to it rather than have had it desecrated in 
 the way the whole town had been." 
 
 The regiment was afterwards stationed for a 
 while at Mulberry Island, and also at Lands End. 
 In May, 1862, it was ordered to Suffolk and was 
 there made a part of Armistead's brigade. On 
 the reorganization of regiments in the spring of 
 1862 Adjutant Evans was made Lieutenant Colonel 
 and C. W. Finley was made Adjutant of the Four- 
 teenth Virginia regiment; and Lieutenant Colonel 
 David J. Godwin was made Colonel of the Ninth 
 Virginia regiment. The brigade now marched to 
 Petersburg, where the Ninth Virginia was made a 
 part of it. It then moved to Richmond and then 
 to a camp on the Williamsburg road below Rich- 
 mond. It was at Seven Pines, but only slightly 
 engaged on the second day of the battle. The 
 brigade was at Malvern Hill and engaged in that 
 memorable charge. Col. Hodges thus speaks of 
 it: 
 
 "The battle of Tuesday, July 1, was the most 
 terrific that can be conceived of. My imagination 
 never pictured anything to equal it. I lost in killed 
 and wounded on that day about one-fourth of my 
 regiment. They all acted nobly. Men never fought 
 better. The battle flag of the regiment which we 
 carried into the fight has forty-seven shot holes 
 in it ; and every man in my color guard wounded. 
 During a charge a shell burst near me, killing two 
 
100 
 
 of my men, wounding Capt. Bruce so severely that 
 he only survived twenty-four hours, wounded sev- 
 eral others, knocked me down and burnt all the 
 beard off the right side of my face, scorched the 
 sleeve of my coat from my hand up. The shock 
 was so great that I did not recover from it for sev- 
 eral hours." 
 
 From this description you can form some idea of 
 that terrible battle in which our forces attempted 
 to dislodge the enemy from the crown of Malvern 
 Hill, defended by fifty pieces of artillery and com- 
 pact lines of infantry, raking an open field for three- 
 fourths of a mile. Brave men of this city, of my 
 own regiment, the Ninth Virginia, poured out on 
 that battle field that rich blood which even at this 
 late day brings sorrow to hearts still beating. 
 
 The Fourteenth regiment remained in the 
 neighborhood of Shirley until Gen. McClellan em- 
 barked his forces and left for Washington. It then 
 went to Hanover Junction, then through Louisa 
 county and on to join Lee's army, which it did on 
 the upper Rappahannock. It was at Second 
 Manassas and was in the Maryland campaign. 
 
 The battle of Sharpsburg was fought on Wed- 
 nesday, the 17th of September, 1862, from 3 a. m. 
 to night. The two armies held their respective 
 positions all the next day without firing a gun. 
 Lee crossed the Potomac into Virginia early on 
 the morning of the 19th. Col. Hodges writing on 
 the 22nd of September, 1862, in Berkley county, 
 near Martinsburg, says that General Armistead 
 was wounded early on the morning of the 17th 
 
101 
 
 and that he took command of the brigade and that 
 he was still in command, but expected Gen. Arm- 
 istead to be able to return to duty in a few days. 
 Gen. Early in his official report of the battle says: 
 "Shortly after the repulse of the enemy Col. 
 Hodges, in command of Armistead's brigade, re- 
 ported to me, and I placed it in line in the position 
 occupied by my brigade and placed the latter in 
 line on the edge of the plateau which has been 
 mentioned and parallel to the Hagerstown road 
 but under cover." This battle was the most de- 
 structive battle of the war for the time engaged. 
 
 In his letter last mentioned Col. Hodges says: 
 "We have had a very hard time since we left Rich- 
 mond. I have not slept in a tent since leaving there 
 and have only been in three houses. We eat what- 
 ever we can get and sometimes the quality is any- 
 thing but good and the supply scanty. This army 
 has accomplished wonders and undergone the 
 greatest amount of fatigue." 
 
 On the 15th of October, 1862, Armistead's brigade 
 was encamped near Winchester, Va. On that day 
 Col. Hodges writes : "On Monday last we had a 
 grand review of our division, by Gen. Longstreet, 
 who commands our corps d'armie. There were 
 two members of the British Parliament present. 
 We had about ten thousand men in line, and the 
 whole passed off very well. It was quite an im- 
 posing sight. I suppose the Englishmen did not 
 know what to make of such a dirty, ragged set of 
 fellows. The orders forbade the barefooted men 
 from going out. I think they ought to have let our 
 
102 
 
 army be seen just as it is. I have now some eighty 
 men without shoes, notwithstanding that I have 
 within the past ten days issued to my regiment 
 one hundred pairs." 
 
 Burnside had superseded Gen. McClellan in the 
 command of the Union army, and was now moving 
 towards Fredericksburg. When this intention 
 manifested itself, our forces concentrated in the 
 neighborhood of Culpepper Courthouse. Our 
 brigade was ordered thitherward. I remember the 
 first day's long, severe march. The first day's 
 march is always trying to soldiers who have been 
 in camp for weeks. Speaking of the shoeless con- 
 dition of the army, I remember an incident that 
 occurred under. my very eyes. I beg to mention 
 it. Moses Young, a member of my regiment from 
 this city, as he marched along the road, saw a dis- 
 carded old pair of shoes. He stopped and looked at 
 them and then at his own shoes. He took them 
 up, turned them over, and then looked again at 
 the old shoes he had on. It was evidently with 
 him a close question as to which pair had the ad- 
 vantage. He finally shook off his old shoes and 
 put on the pair which a preceding comrade had 
 discarded as worthless. The wearer of these old 
 shoes was a patriotic and gallant soldier. 
 
 When our brigade arrived at Culpepper Court- 
 house, it was in Gen. Anderson's division. It was 
 here on November 7, 1862, that Armistead's 
 brigade was placed in the new formed division of 
 Gen. Pickett and all the Virginia regiments in An- 
 derson's division were taken from it and Southern 
 
103 
 
 regiments substituted in their place. It was here 
 that John S. Jenkins, of this city, on the 17th of 
 November, 1862, entered on his duties as adjutant 
 of the Fourteenth Virginia, appointed in the place 
 of Adjutant G. W. Finley, who resigned to go 
 home to attend to the affairs of his father, who 
 had recently died. He subsequently joined Gar- 
 nett's brigade and was at Gettysburg and there 
 captured. He afterwards became a distinguished 
 Presbyterian minister and held the title of D. D. 
 On the 21st of November, 1862, Armistead's 
 brigade left Culpepper Courthouse, and reached 
 camp near Fredericksburg on the 23rd. The 
 brigade was in line of battle on the 13th of De- 
 cember, 1862, when Burnside crossed the Rappa- 
 hannock and attacked our forces, but it was not 
 actively engaged. It wintered at Guinea Station on 
 the Richmond and Fredericksburg road. In the 
 spring it was ordered to Suffolk, from there it was 
 ordered to join Lee's army then ready to com- 
 mence its march into Pennsylvania. 
 
 Col. Hodges, writing on the 9th of June, 1863, 
 from Spottsylvania county, says : "We left Han- 
 over Junction yesterday morning and have pro- 
 ceeded forty miles on our way to join Gen. Lee, 
 either in Culpepper county or beyond if he has 
 crossed the upper Rappahannock. We have now 
 been marching every day for a week, averaging a 
 full day's march of seventeen or eighteen miles 
 every day. My men are in excellent condition, and 
 I know will perform their whole duty should they 
 be required to meet the enemy. So you may ex- 
 
104 
 
 pect to hear a grand account of the regiment; and 
 I am proud to say that it has always done well, and 
 in some instances far excelled those they were 
 thrown with." 
 
 Pickett's division pushed hurriedly on to catch 
 up with Lee's advancing army. The division was 
 at Chambersburg on the 1st day of July engaged 
 in ordinary camp drill, while Lee's advanced forces 
 were engaged in severe battle at Gettysburg. It 
 left the next morning for Gettysburg, and arrived 
 in the afternoon at a camping ground between 
 Cashtown and Gettysburg. Only three brigades of 
 the division were present, Kemper's, Garnett's and 
 Armistead's. The field officers of the Fourteenth 
 Virginia were, at this time, Col. James Gregory 
 Hodges, Lieut. Col. William White, Major Robert 
 Poore, and Adjutant John S. Jenkins. Early on the 
 morning of July 3 these brigades were taken to the 
 battle line. I will not undertake here to describe 
 Pickett's charge. This was done in an address de- 
 livered before this camp on November 7, 1894, pub- 
 lished in the Southern Historical Society Papers, 
 Vol. XXXIII, p. 118. 
 
 The charge of Pickett's division, made up entire- 
 ly of Virginians, is recognized the world over as 
 unsurpassed in all the annals of history for steadi- 
 ness of march, unwavering courage, and for the 
 patriotic, calm determination to do all that was 
 possible to be done to win victory at any sacrifice 
 of life. All know the awful fatality among the 
 officers and men of the division. Of its generals, 
 Garnett was killed, Armistead fatally wounded, and 
 
105 
 
 Kemper desperately wounded. Of its colonels of 
 regiments six were killed outright on the field : 
 Hodges, Edmonds, Magruder, Williams, Patton, 
 Allen, and Owens and Stuart were mortally 
 wounded. Three lieutenant colonels were killed: 
 Calcott, Wade and Ellis. Five colonels, Hunton, 
 Terry, Garnett, Mayo and Aylett were wounded, 
 and four lieutenant colonels, commanding regi- 
 ments, Carrington, Otey, Richardson and Martin, 
 were wounded. Of the whole complement of field 
 officers in fifteen regiments one only, Lieut. Col. 
 Joseph C. Cabell, escaped unhurt. Of the field offi- 
 cers of the Fourteenth Virginia, Col. Hodges, Maj. 
 Poore and Adjutant John S. Jenkins were killed, 
 and Lieut. Col. William White was wounded. 
 
 Col. Hodges led his regiment in this memorable 
 charge with conspicuous courage and gallantry. 
 He was an able and experienced officer. His devo- 
 tion to his official duties were never surpassed. His 
 regiment was never in the presence of the enemy 
 without his being there in command. His officers 
 and men were devoted to him. He fully enjoyed 
 their admiration, esteem and confidence. Many 
 letters to him in life and after his death to his 
 widow, convey unqualified appreciation of him as a 
 man and a commander. His family made every 
 effort to ascertain where his body was buried, but 
 all in vain. He sleeps in the trenches with those 
 who made that charge of Pickett's division im- 
 mortal. He was the idol of his family, admired 
 and loved by them with an affection and devotion 
 which words fail to convey. For their sake and 
 
106 
 
 for the sake of those survivors here who knew him, 
 I make as a part of this address a touching incident 
 of the reunion of the association of Pickett's divi- 
 sion at Gettysburg on the 3rd of July, 1887, as pub- 
 lished at the time in the Landmark : 
 
 "Adjutant J. F. Crocker, of the Ninth Virginia, in 
 the course of his remarks, in receiving from Col. 
 Andrew Cowan, of Cowan's Battery, the sword of 
 the young unknown Confederate officer who fell 
 within a few feet of the guns of the battery, while 
 giving the order: "Men! take these guns," alluded 
 to the sad memories awakened by the scenes of the 
 day. In this connection, and as illustrative of 
 them, he had come to the battlefield of Gettysburg 
 bearing a sacred request from the invalid widow 
 of a gallant Confederate officer who was killed in 
 the charge of Pickett's division, asking him to 
 make a prayer at the spot where her dear husband 
 fell for his long sorrowing widow and orphan sons, 
 with the hope that God, in some way, would bless 
 the prayer to their good. That gallant officer was 
 Col. James Gregory Hodges, of the Fourteenth 
 Virginia regiment, the brother of the speaker's 
 wife. He stated that early and careful but unavail- 
 ing efforts had been made to find the place of his 
 burial and he now desired to find and have identi- 
 fied the spot where he fell. The simple story 
 brought tears to many who stood around. When 
 the speaker closed his address, General H. J. Hunt, 
 chief of artillery of the Union army, in whom kind- 
 ness and courage are equal virtues, came promptly 
 forward and gave his hand warmly to Adjutant 
 
107 
 
 Crocker and in sympathetic tones said, "I can tell 
 you something of Colonel Hodges, of the Four- 
 teenth Virginia; I can carry you to the very spot 
 where he fell." The general said that immediately 
 after the battle, hearing that General Garnett, 
 whom he knew in the old army, had been killed, 
 he went out to look for him and when he came to 
 the stone wall a long line of Confederate dead and 
 wounded, lying along the wall, met his view, but 
 his attention was arrested by the manly and hand- 
 some form of an officer lying dead on his back 
 across other dead. He thought he had seen the 
 face before, and on inquiry was told that it was 
 Col. Hodges of the Fourteenth Virginia, whom he 
 remembered to have seen in social circles before 
 the war. The spot where Col. Hodges fell was 
 identified by General Hunt and others, and is at 
 the stone wall near the monument of the Sixty- 
 ninth Pennsylvania. With General Hunt and other 
 Union officers and men standing around, uncov- 
 ered, a brief prayer was made that God would re- 
 member and bless the widow and sons of the brave 
 officer who fell at this spot, but now rests in an 
 unknown grave. It was a sad, solemn scene, full 
 of touching pathos. The sun was sinking beyond 
 Seminary Ridge, with its slanting rays mellowing 
 the sheen of the grain waving fields, while here 
 and there were groups of Union and Confederate 
 veterans, mingling in peaceful, heartfelt and fra- 
 ternal accord." 
 
 There is another incident, which I must here 
 relate. 
 
108 
 
 In October, 1903, Senator John W. Daniel, who 
 knew my relation to Colonel Hodges and that he 
 was killed in Pickett's charge, was in the National 
 Library at Washington, engaged in getting official 
 information for a future paper on "The Virginians 
 at Gettysburg," and seeing in the library a man 
 whose appearance attracted him, he said to him- 
 self — that man is a Northern man and was an offi- 
 cer in the war and I will speak to him ; and he ap- 
 proached him. His conjecture was right. It was 
 Capt. John D. S. Cook, of the Eightieth New York 
 regiment of volunteers, known, however, in the 
 service as the Twentieth New York State 
 Militia. He informed Senator Daniel that Col. 
 Hodges fell at the stone fence, within less than 
 one hundred and fifty feet of the Federal line, 
 directly in front of the said New York regi- 
 ment ; that after the struggle was ended his 
 body was discovered and identified as Col. 
 James Gregory Hodges, of the Fourteenth 
 Virginia regiment, by some papers found upon it. 
 His sword and scabbard had been destroyed by a 
 shot, but a soldier detached his sword belt and 
 handed it to him and that he had kept it as a treas- 
 ured relic of the battle to be an heirloom in his 
 family. He stated to Senator Daniel that if any 
 of the family of Col. Hodges still survived he would 
 gladly send it to them. Senator Daniel at once 
 wrote me, giving me an account of this interview 
 with Capt. Cook and his address at Kansas City, 
 Mo. I wrote him, informing him that Mrs. Sarah 
 A. F. Hodges, the widow of Col. Hodges, was liv- 
 
109 
 
 ing and that she would ever appreciate his kind 
 offer. Capt. Cook sent at once to her the sword 
 belt with a letter of noble sentiments and sym- 
 pathy. This sword belt is the same that Col. 
 Hodges wore when his picture was taken, which 
 now hangs in Mrs. Hodges' room. The noble act 
 of Capt. Cook is tenderly appreciated by every 
 member of the family. A correspondence with 
 Capt. Cook has given me a high estimate of his 
 character and ability. He moved from New York 
 to Kansas City at the close of the war, where he 
 has practiced law with eminent success and dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 Col. Hodges was handsome and manly in ap- 
 pearance. He had dark hair, bright dark eyes, and 
 a highly intellectual face. He was gentle in man- 
 ners, and he ever bore himself with kindness to 
 others. He had a generous and noble nature, and 
 he enjoyed, in a high degree, the esteem and con- 
 fidence of the community. His leading character- 
 istic to the public was his high sense of duty and 
 his strict observance of it. He illustrated this in 
 his conduct as colonel of his regiment. Under 
 trying temptations, which involved the tenderest 
 feelings of his heart, he still held that to be with 
 his regiment was his supreme duty — a duty which 
 he recognized as due to his position and to his 
 country. He was ardently patriotic and his whole 
 being, convictions and feelings were with the Con- 
 federate cause. 
 
 But the fairest, sweetest phase of his character 
 was found in his domestic life. No one can read 
 
110 
 
 those letters he wrote in every camp, on every 
 march, before and after every battle — written to a 
 tender loving wife whom he idolized and about his 
 darling little boys, without realizing that all his 
 highest happiness and interest centered in these 
 loved ones. His son, John Nelson Hodges, died on 
 the 21st day of July, 1890, and his son, William 
 Wilson Hodges, died on the 26th day of April, 
 1893, unmarried — thus leaving their widowed 
 mother now childless — an added grief, which, like 
 that other, is ever present in the heart, but bravely 
 borne with that resignation which comes from the 
 sanctifying faith that God does all things well. 
 
 Again I commend to the keeping of Heaven, as 
 I did on the battlefield of Gettysburg that saintly 
 wife and mother, whose sorrows and piety have 
 made her a priestess, and her room to all who 
 know her well, a sanctuary of God. 
 
RESPONSE TO THE TOAST: 
 
 "OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD" 
 
Response to the Toast: 
 "OUR CONFEDERATE DEAD" 
 
 Our dead need no eulogy. Like those who fell 
 at Thermopylae, their fame is fixed forever — the 
 symbol of heroism and patriotic devotion. The 
 summation of all praise, of all the glowing tributes 
 which poetry or impassioned eloquence can pay to 
 them and to their deeds is, THEY MADE DE- 
 FEAT AS ILLUSTRIOUS AS VICTORY. This 
 is the greatest of human achievements, and to the 
 full height of which the heroic of no past age have 
 ever reached. It was accomplished — it could only 
 have been accomplished — by men who combined in 
 themselves the highest qualities of the hero and 
 the patriot with the best elements of a chivalric 
 race — by men having the profoundest sense of the 
 righteousness of their cause and who believed that 
 they were serving alike the ends of their God and 
 their country. What the South, what the whole 
 country, owes to their great achievement we can- 
 not now approximately estimate. We will have to 
 leave that to time and to the observant thought of 
 History. Some of its obvious results we see. To 
 one of these I will allude. To it we owe the 
 prompt, contented, and enduring peace and frater- 
 nal accord which followed the close of the war. By 
 reason of it the South was enabled to yield cheer- 
 fully to the results without any touch of humilia- 
 tion or self reproach. The South felt that her 
 
114 
 
 armies by their splendid action, courage, and 
 prowess, had not only vindicated her honor and 
 sustained her pride, but had achieved a wealth of 
 renown that more than compensated her for all she 
 had lost, yea, compensated her for the very death 
 of her dead. And thus feeling, the South has met 
 the obligations of a restored Union with a frank, 
 open, and truly loyal spirit. To the South the 
 glory involved in this great achievement must ever 
 be a priceless, imperishable heritage, which will 
 continue to enrich the blood, and exalt and en- 
 noble the spirit of our posterity to the remotest 
 times. The production and maintenance of a 
 brave, true, patriotic, and pious race of men on this 
 globe, is the ultimate aim and consummation of its 
 creation. May we not believe that the people of 
 the South, who received the baptism and conse- 
 cration of suffering, of fire and blood, by being 
 true to the memory of their illustrious dead, and 
 inspired by their great deeds, shall be of that race 
 which shall reach the height of that consumma- 
 tion, and sway the scepter and wear the crown of 
 the ultimate civilization of the world. 
 
 I am not seeking by this line of thought to ag- 
 grandize the glory of the South at the expense of 
 the North. Far otherwise. We are one people of 
 a common race. The courage, heroism, and pa- 
 triotic devotion of the armies of the North have 
 added new and imperishable glory to the history 
 of the country, in which with equal pride we claim 
 a share. It is not a matter of subtraction. It is a 
 matter of addition of the matchless courage and 
 
115 
 
 prowess of the two armies, which sent a thrill of 
 admiration around the world and which constitute 
 today the glory of our American arms. It is the 
 inspiration of great achievements and of great sac- 
 rifices paid to the love of country on both sides 
 that we feel in common. 
 
 But what most becomes this occasion is not to 
 speak of but to be with our dead tonight. Com- 
 rades, let us have a reunion with them. Let us in 
 thought and feeling go back to the time when we 
 were by their side — by their side on the weary 
 marches, around the camp fires and in the fierce 
 charges of battle. Yea, more ; let us be ourselves 
 again. Let us enter into that community of 
 thought, feeling and aspiration that made them 
 and ourselves one. Let us catch again the spirit 
 of that lofty patriotism with which we all took up 
 arms, and of that devotion with which we bore 
 them. Let us in contact with our dead feel once 
 more that divine flame that burned like an altar 
 fire on our hearts — that master passion of our 
 lives which left to the future nothing to so move us 
 again — our all absorbing — all swaying — yet ten- 
 der, fond love of the Confederacy. My God ! may 
 it not be permitted to us blamelessly for one brief 
 moment to feel again that love, which to us was 
 as holy as our religion — dearer than our lives — 
 and in which there throbbed all that the human 
 heart can feel for home and country. 
 
 Comrades, let us go back to those scenes. Our 
 dead will meet us there. Feel you not, echoing 
 upon your hearts a spirit sound? It is a drum- 
 
116 
 
 beat from that far off, eternal camping-ground of 
 our dead. Comrades, they are falling into meet us. 
 Let us go. * * * * 
 
 Friends, pardon us, they are our brothers, dearer 
 than brothers in blood. No one knows — the world 
 cannot know — how we loved them — with what 
 tenderness we cherish their memories, and with 
 what fidelity we would keep eternal wardship over 
 their honor and over their fame. 
 
 There they sleep — on fields made immortal by 
 their valor. More than a third of a century lies 
 between them and us. What a change ! And 
 here we are tonight — Veterans of the Confederacy 
 and Veterans of the Union — host and guest, at a 
 common festive board in patriotic accord — broth- 
 ers in a common citizenship — equal — sharing with 
 equal pride the greatness and the lustre with which 
 American valor — North and South, has imperish- 
 ably crowned this great Republic of freedom — all 
 made possible, seemly, and hearty, by that great, 
 unequaled achievement of our dead, in MAKING 
 DEFEAT AS ILLUSTRIOUS AS VICTORY. 
 
 What more can we ask for our beloved dead 
 than that all America honor their memory, and 
 that the world and history acknowledge that their 
 heroic deeds have exalted the greatness, the glory, 
 and the fame of the nation. 
 
Citizenship— Its Rights and Duties 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED 
 BEFORE THE YOUNG MEN'S 
 CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF 
 PORTSMOUTH : VIRGINIA 
 FEBRUARY 21ST, 1895 
 
CITIZENSHIP — ITS RIGHTS AND DUTIES 
 
 The word "citizen," in its popular sense means 
 resident, inhabitant or person. In a political sense 
 it means one who owes allegiance to a sovereign 
 or to a sovereign power. One is a citizen of that 
 country or State to which he owes this allegiance. 
 Citizenship is the inter-mutual relation between 
 the sovereign power and the citizen, and it implies 
 protection and care on one side and obedience and 
 duty on the other. 
 
 We are citizens of a dual government, and, as 
 such, we have a dual citizenship. We are citizens 
 of Virginia and are at the same time citizens of 
 the United States. The statute law of Virginia de- 
 clares who shall be its citizens. It enacts that: 
 "All persons born in this State, all persons born in 
 any other State of the Union who may be or be- 
 come residents of this State; all aliens naturalized 
 under the laws of the United States who may be 
 or become residents of this State; all persons who 
 have obtained a right of citizenship under former 
 laws; and all children, wherever born, whose 
 father, or if he be dead, whose mother shall be a 
 citizen of this State at the time of the birth of such 
 children, shall be deemed citizens of this State." 
 Code, Section 39. The Constitution of the United 
 States prescribes who shall be its citizens. It pro- 
 vides — "All persons born or naturalized in the 
 United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 
 
120 
 
 thereof are citizens of the United States, and of 
 the State wherein they reside." Section 1, Article 
 XIV. 
 
 The United States and Virginia in their respect- 
 ive relations to us as citizens are both sovereign ; 
 and to each we owe allegiance. But our relations 
 as citizens to them respectively differ, but do not 
 conflict. To understand fully this dual nature of 
 our citizenship we must recur to the origin of the 
 United States. When the thirteen original colo- 
 nies achieved their independence, each of them be- 
 came absolutely a sovereign State, independent of 
 each other and of all other political sovereignties ; 
 and in the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the 
 independence of each was separately recognized 
 and named. 
 
 During the War of Revolution for the purpose 
 of common defense these States formed a Confed- 
 eration by the adoption of what are known as the 
 articles of Confederation. These constituted in 
 fact nothing more than a treaty of amity, of com- 
 merce and of alliance between independent States. 
 After the war it soon became evident that these 
 articles were insufficient to maintain an efficient 
 union of the States, and were inadequate to the 
 necessities of a Federal Government. 
 
 To form a more perfect Union of the States, 
 each State, in its sovereign capacity, in 1787, sent 
 its representatives to a general convention called 
 for this purpose. This convention framed a con- 
 stitution, which was submitted to the people of 
 each State for ratification and adoption. The 
 
121 
 
 people of the several States in their respective con- 
 stitutional conventions adopted the constitution. 
 This constitution was thus but a compact between 
 the sovereign States. By it the people of the sev- 
 eral sovereign States created the Union of the 
 States and the Federal Government for its admin- 
 istration. By this compact the people of the sev- 
 eral sovereign States, out of their own sovereign 
 powers, conferred on the Federal Government cer- 
 tain powers, which powers thus delegated and con- 
 ferred were a curtailment of their own powers. 
 The Federal Government was a mere creature of 
 the people of the States and made a common agent 
 for them — to exercise certain powers thus dele- 
 gated and conferred for the common welfare of all. 
 The Federal Government being thus created and 
 holding only delegated powers, can exercise only 
 those powers expressly conferred by the Constitu- 
 tion and those necessarily implied by the powers 
 conferred. All other powers are denied to it, and 
 are expressly reserved to the people of the several 
 States. But by the Constitution itself, the Consti- 
 tution of the United States and all laws made pur- 
 suant thereto, are supreme and paramount to the 
 constitutions and laws of the several States. Hence 
 all provisions of the constitutions of the States and 
 of the laws in conflict with the Constitution of the 
 United States or with the laws made pursuant 
 thereto, are null and void, and likewise all laws 
 passed by the General Government that are not 
 within the powers delegated to it, are also void, as 
 being in excess of powers granted and as in con- 
 
122 
 
 flict with the reserved powers of the States. Thus 
 it follows that while there may be conflicting en- 
 actments between the Federal and the State Leg- 
 islatures, there can be no conflicting laws. The 
 Federal Government is sovereign in all matters 
 growing out of the powers conferred on it ; and 
 the States or the people thereof are sovereign in 
 all matters growing out of their reserved or un- 
 delegated rights. Each is sovereign within the 
 sphere of its powers. In all national affairs the 
 United States Government is sovereign; in all 
 State affairs the States are sovereign. As there 
 can be no conflict in their respective laws, so there 
 can be no conflict between themselves as sover- 
 eigns. While acting within their proper powers 
 they are not antagonistic to each other. They are 
 harmonious. They are supplemental of each other. 
 The one is the complement of the other. The two, 
 in fact, make one government of the people. The 
 duty we owe, as citizens, to the Federal Govern- 
 ment and its laws is absolute : and the duty we 
 owe to our State Government and its laws is 
 equally absolute. As the laws cannot be conflict- 
 ing, so our duties to each cannot be conflicting. 
 
 We are citizens of the United States in all Fed- 
 eral matters, and as to such we owe allegiance to 
 the United States. We are citizens of Virginia in 
 all State matters, and as to such we owe allegiance 
 to Virginia. As long as the Federal and State 
 Governments move within their respective spheres 
 there is no such thing as a first and second allegi- 
 ance. It is only in the event of a great rupture of 
 
123 
 
 the relations between the two governments grow- 
 ing out of the usurpation of powers, as in our late 
 war, that this question of a first and second allegi- 
 ance can arise. And inasmuch as the General Gov- 
 ernment is the creature of the States, and holds 
 only a delegated sovereignty as to the delegated 
 powers, granted by the States, in such event, if it 
 be the General Government that has made an 
 usurpation of powers, then the delegated sover- 
 eignty returns to the State to which it originally 
 belonged, and with it returns the delegated allegi- 
 ance. On the contrary, if it be the State that has 
 usurped the powers that belong to the Federal 
 Government, and the usurpation is so great as to 
 bring on a conflict between the two. then in that 
 event our first allegiance is due the General Gov- 
 ernment. As we owe no duty to an unconstitu- 
 tional law, Federal or State, so we owe no allegi- 
 ance to either the Federal or State Governments 
 in any matters in which they transcend their pow- 
 ers. It is usurpation alone that relieves allegiance 
 and dissolves the bond of union between the 
 States. Hence I lay it down as the first, the high- 
 est and most imperious duty of an American citi- 
 zen, which term is used to denote one who is a 
 citizen of a State and of the United States, to use 
 all possible lawful means to keep the Federal and 
 the State Governments within the limits of their 
 respective powers. A citizen who does less than 
 this is wanting in patriotism. One who conscious- 
 ly seeks to induce the State or the United States 
 to usurp powers belonging to the other, is a traitor 
 
124 
 
 to the Union and to his State. Who, appreciating 
 the benefits of our solar system, would seek, if he 
 had the power, to sever any of the laws that bind 
 the planets in harmony with each other? Who, 
 appreciating the benefits of the Union, would seek 
 to weaken or break a single principle that holds 
 the States together? So long as the equilibrium 
 of rights between the States and the Union is main- 
 tained, our system of United States will move 
 along as serenely, as harmoniously, as majestically 
 and as splendidly as does our solar system through 
 the spaces of the Universe. A like essential to our 
 welfare as citizens is the preservation of the Union 
 and of the States, each in all its powers. Each is 
 essential to the other. Without either the whole 
 system of government fails. States without the 
 Union fall into weakness and anarchy. Union 
 without the States falls into empire and despotism. 
 The beneficence of our dual government is, that as 
 to national affairs we are a republic, and as to local 
 affairs we have home rule. The strength of all the 
 States is combined for the defence of the States 
 against foreign foes without, and against internal 
 foes within. To the General Government are ex- 
 clusively given the Army and Navy, the power to 
 declare war and to make peace, the regulation of 
 commerce with nations and of commerce between 
 the States, the collection of customs, the control of 
 all navigable waters and admiralty jurisdiction, and 
 courts with exclusive jurisdiction over Federal 
 matters. These are the great powers that make 
 our General Government national, and give to it 
 
125 
 
 strength, power and majesty. The reservation of 
 any of these powers by the States would have in- 
 volved them in constant confusion and conflict with 
 each other. It is the exercise of these great pow- 
 ers and others given by the Constitution to the 
 General Government that has contributed so large- 
 ly to the prosperity and happiness of the people, 
 and has made the name of the United States so 
 potent and so much respected among the nations. 
 When we look around us within the borders of this 
 extended republic and see the great and innumer- 
 able blessing that flow from the General Govern- 
 ment to each and all of us, when we regard its 
 power and resources for defence, security and for 
 aggression, when we contemplate the exalted posi- 
 tion which our country holds among the nations 
 for power and national advantages, who is it that 
 does not feel his very being glow with pride and 
 patriotism for the privilege to be called an Amer- 
 ican citizen. Go where you may; among the 
 proudest and most enlightened nations of the con- 
 tinent, or among the rude and barbarous tribes of 
 the far off lands, that name brings to you, if you 
 deserve it, respect, consideration, honor and secu- 
 rity. In these respects there has been but one 
 name in history that has been more potent. To 
 have been a Roman citizen carried with it for cen- 
 turies more potency than was ever attached to the 
 citizen of any other country. A striking and fa- 
 miliar illustration of this and of the value of citi- 
 zenship was given, when the Roman Chief Captain 
 in Jerusalem rescued Paul from being mobbed by 
 
126 
 
 the Jews, who made a great outcry against him. 
 I quote from holy writ. "The Chief Captain com- 
 manded Paul to be brought into the castle, and 
 bade that he should be examined by scourging, 
 that he might know wherefore they cried so 
 against him. And as they bound him with thongs 
 Paul said unto the Centurion that stood by, is it 
 lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman 
 and uncondemned. When the Centurion heard 
 that he went out and told the Chief Captain, say- 
 ing, take heed what thou doest ; for this man is a 
 Roman. Then the Chief Captain came and said 
 unto him : Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said, 
 yes. And the Chief Captain answered, with a great 
 sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, but 
 I was free born. Then straightway they departed 
 from him which should have examined him ; and 
 the Chief Captain also was afraid, after he knew 
 that he was a Roman and because he had found 
 him." Citizens! the time will come, if it has not 
 already come, when no government or govern- 
 mental official within the limits of this earth, will 
 dare to bind, much less to scourge an American 
 citizen uncondemned. 
 
 The privileges and immunities which belong to 
 us as citizens of the United States are under the 
 care and protection of the Federal Government, 
 and all its great delegated powers may be and 
 should be exercised in securing them to us. 
 
 To this great government thus created by the 
 States and administered by officers elected by the 
 people of the States, we owe allegiance, obedience, 
 
127 
 
 service, loyalty and devotion. It is our govern- 
 ment, and we should cherish it with patriotic 
 fervor. 
 
 We are citizens also of the State of Virginia. 
 This implies that the State is sovereign and that 
 we owe it allegiance. We have seen that the 
 United States is sovereign only to the extent of 
 the powers granted by the Constitution and that 
 we are citizens of the United States only to the ex- 
 tent and within the powers granted. Beyond these 
 delegated powers, we, as citizens of the United 
 States, have no privileges and immunities, nor can 
 the United States secure to its citizens any right 
 or privilege not placed under its jurisdiction by the 
 Constitution. All rights of citizens not so granted 
 and secured are left to the exclusive protection of 
 the State. We derive these rights of citizens from 
 the States, which retained all the residuum of sov- 
 ereignty and political powers other than those 
 granted to the United States, and as citizens of the 
 State we are entitled to all the privileges and im- 
 munities within the scope of these reserved pow- 
 ers. With these privileges and immunities which 
 we derive from the State, the Federal Government 
 cannot interfere, nor has it any authority to en- 
 large or diminish them. In the language of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States in Presser vs. 
 Illinois, 116, U. S. R. 268: "A State has the same 
 undeniable and unlimited jurisdiction over all per- 
 sons and things within its territorial limits as any- 
 foreign nation, when that jurisdiction is not sur- 
 rendered or restrained by the Constitution of the 
 
128 
 
 United States — that by virtue of this it is not only 
 the right but the bounden and solemn duty of a 
 State to advance the safety, happiness and pros- 
 perity of its people and to provide for its general 
 welfare by any and every act of legislation which 
 it may deem to be conducive to these ends, when 
 the power over the particular subject or the man- 
 ner of its exercise is not surrendered or restrained 
 by the Constitution and laws of the United States." 
 However great and many be the political pow- 
 ers conferred by the people of the States on their 
 General Government, they are not to be compared 
 in number or importance with the political powers 
 reserved by the people of the States to themselves. 
 The powers delegated to the General Government 
 are known; they can be numbered and their limits 
 are fixed. But the reserved powers of the people 
 of the State are not fully known ; they cannot be 
 numbered, and they have no fixed limits. They 
 come into being and into play with every new 
 emergency and with every new want of the people. 
 They can only be described by the general state- 
 ment that the people of a State, outside of the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution of the United States, 
 can do everything that the life, growth and welfare 
 of its people may require. So absolute sovereign 
 is the will of the people of the State within the 
 scope of their powers, that the people of the State 
 have ever deemed it expedient to place Constitu- 
 tional limitations on the powers of its own Legis- 
 lature which, in the absence of such Constitutional 
 limitations, would represent that sovereign will. 
 
129 
 
 It would be a vain attempt to enumerate the 
 manifold matters that fall within the exercise of 
 these powers of the State. They are such as are 
 embraced under what are termed municipal law 
 and police. They cover all rights of persons, all 
 rights of property, the elective franchise, the pun- 
 ishment of crimes, and everything relating to the 
 peace, good order, health and general welfare of 
 the community. These concern us in the most in- 
 timate relations of life. They secure to us the most 
 sacred rights of person, of action, of speech, of con- 
 science. They keep guard over our homes and 
 conserve the sweet relations of the family. They 
 protect us in our property, in our business, and 
 give to us the peace of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The laws of the State are made on the theory 
 of allowing to the citizen the greatest liberty that 
 is compatible with the general good and consistent 
 with the rights of others. It is evident that this 
 liberty is largest in a simple condition of society. 
 But as society becomes more and more compli- 
 cated, these rights of personal liberty become more 
 and more limited. Society is based upon a com- 
 promise or limitation of personal rights for the 
 common welfare. It is fundamental that one must 
 so use his own as not to injure others. 
 
 There are but few of the original rights of man 
 which do not become limited upon his becoming a 
 member of society, and this limitation is increased 
 by the growing complications of civilization. Much 
 has been said in glittering platitudes about the in- 
 alienable rights of man. Scarcely any of these 
 
130 
 
 rights generally so considered are absolutely such. 
 I would say only those rights are inalienable which 
 in a free government can be enjoyed under all con- 
 ditions without being required to be limited for the 
 general welfare. 
 
 As the primary object of government is to secure 
 the best welfare of all, no individual right can be 
 allowed to stand out against this welfare. In the 
 necessity of the case every such right must receive 
 modification when the general good requires it. 
 Many illustrations in the simplest affairs of life 
 readily occur to you, which show that man has no 
 right, no liberty, the enjoyment of which he does 
 not hold subject to limitations of law imposed for 
 the general welfare. All we have as members of 
 the community is regulated liberty, regulated 
 rights. All that we can require is that the regula- 
 tions placed on these shall be considerately and 
 necessarily made in order to promote the general 
 happiness . We have, however, one inalienable 
 right which has come to us as a priceless heritage 
 — freedom, political freedom, the freedom of mak- 
 ing our own laws and of being the sole judges of 
 what laws are most suitable to our own condition, 
 to our habits, manners, customs and genius, and 
 most conducive to our own welfare and happiness. 
 It is this liberty that is to us inalienable. It is a 
 heritage of which we cannot deprive our posterity 
 by any binding act. In the maintenance of which 
 no flow of blood is too costly, no treasury too vast, 
 no sacrifices too great. Perish all rather than this 
 
131 
 
 liberty should fail in our hands and be untransmit- 
 ted to those who come after us. 
 
 Seeing that in a free country the people are the 
 source of all political power, and are the makers of 
 their own laws, it is evident that their happiness 
 and prosperity must depend upon themselves. 
 Their laws and their Government must be a reflex 
 of themselves. If the people be virtuous, honest, 
 incorruptible and courageous — if they be watchful 
 of their liberties, if they maintain a high sense of 
 justice, if they be truly patriotic — then all will be 
 well with them ; their laws will be wise, their gov- 
 ernment pure, and their happiness secured. On 
 the contrary, if the people decay in virtue — if they 
 lower their sense of justice, if they become indif- 
 ferent to their liberties — then Government will be- 
 come corrupt, the judiciary prostituted, and public 
 rights will become the sport of audacious partisans 
 and of unlawful combinations. 
 
 On the citizens of the United States and of the 
 States rest the perpetuity of the Union and the in- 
 tegrity of the States ; and on them rest the grave 
 responsibility of good government and the general 
 welfare. Every consideration of self-interest and 
 of patriotism hold them to the faithful discharge 
 of this most sacred and solemn trust. Let the citi- 
 zens but be true to the General Government, to 
 the States, and to themselves as freemen, then this 
 glorious Republic of States and of the people will 
 move steadily forward to its high grand destiny 
 with ever increasing prosperity and happiness to 
 its own citizens, lending its influence to the libera- 
 
132 
 
 tion and betterment of mankind throughout the 
 world. We cannot realize the future greatness 
 and glory of this republic of ours. We know if it 
 be true to the traditions of the Fathers, it will, by 
 the beneficence of its free institutions and by its 
 conservative influence, dominate the whole world 
 — not in empire, but in the respect and admiration 
 of the nations. Already is this country of ours, in 
 its morn, the freest, greatest, happiest and most 
 prosperous on the globe. And, today, the greatest 
 political advantage vouchsafed to man is to be a 
 citizen of the State and of the United States. This 
 is yours by birth or adoption. Do not under- 
 estimate the value and honor of such a citizenship. 
 Let it inspire you with true loyalty and devotion. 
 Give to both, the State and the United States, true 
 allegiance, obedience and service, and contribute 
 by an honest, pure, industrious life and faithful 
 conduct your best to the common welfare, and you 
 will have discharged the full duties of citizenship. 
 
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