Ytilti Uinvtirsitv Lihrnry ,n)|llU'llU"10r);'HB CTIONS AND REFLECTIONS <.-'p so: 'in I 111, '¦»'k i!ii;;" WHARTON J. GREEN "Y^LIl«¥]MII¥EIESIlir¥" 1Q0 Recollections and Reflections. '^{ his command would assail from the attacking side in pursuit. Prettier plan was never devised for the annihilation of an army at most critical juncture. It was a repetition, to all intents, of Jackson's wonderful flank movement at Chancellorsville. A chance bullet prevented the full fruition of the last. Far more cul pable the misadventure of the other in the very zenith of success. Who was the responsible party for this utterly [80] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. ine;xcusable negl^t or omission? The Captain or Lieu tenant, for one or the other necessarily was. Each said the other, God pity the one that was ! Not for the baton or regal crown would I in foro conscientiae assume that dread responsibility. Scofield filed by all night in such near touch to our lines that his men would step out of ranks and light their pipes at our bivouac fires. That argues that the detached division had reached the suitable and objective point for carrying out the object designed. Certain it is, the object was not carried out. Who was to blame? In repetition, the Lieutenant said the Captain, inasmuch as he was waiting specific orders which never came. The Captain claims, and with presump tion of probability, that the other was. As he remarked to me some four months afterwards on my way back from prison : "Do you believe me, old friend, to be such a natural-born fool as to have started him on this vital mission without definite orders, as far as foresight could reach ? Or do you believe him to be one of the sort to undertake such a charge without orders ? "Besides," (he continued, almost with tears in his eyes) "I dispatched three several couriers at intervals later on to impress upon him the transcendent, the overwhelming impor tance of intercepting Schofield. They all reported subse quently that the order had been delivered in person." Rest the blame on which it may, and I repeat in all religious fervor, God pity the culpable ! It was the last chance, but a glorious opportunity for the Confederacy. The Federal legions quietly moved by the rest of the night, and within twenty-four hours thereafter were behind the impregnable ramparts across Harpeth River near Franklin. What followed was a hoUocaust, a wholesale massacre for the Confederate Army in pursuit. Without entering into close 6 [81] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. enumeration, the loss inflicted on the assailants was almost equal to the entire force within the works. Eleven of the best General Officers were killed or wounded, including Pat Clepburn, the 'Stonewall' of the West. Whatever may be thought or said of the late culpability of omission, there can be no two opinions as to the responsibility of commission here. The Commanding General must assuredly bear it. His enemies allege that this needless slaughter was the result of the miscarriage of his soldierly scheme, just referred to, prompted by chagrin, mortification, and disappointment. Be that as it may, the actuating impulse what it might, whilst it was "grand, it was not war." From there to Nashville, Schofield had a walk-over, and later on, as resultant of that wonderful fight, a walk-in to the chief command of the United States Army. A lot of desultory fighting around Nashville, devoid of sigTiificance, followed, and that glorious, but shattered, army started back to the Tennessee, a mere remnant as it was. Lucky it was that on that retrograde march that a Michel Ney turned up to save the retreat from a total rout, if not extermination. One of the phenomenal men of all ages hap pened to be on hand, as he seemed always to be at the right place and at the right time whenever serious work had to be done. It was Nathan Bedford Forrest, who, with none of the fortuitous advantages of schools or training, had risen from the ranks to the grade of Lieutenant-General, and by unvarying success refiected imperishable renown on every station. He was now a sort of independent chief of cavalry, barely amenable to any nominal superior ; actual he had none after the death of Sidney Johnson. In his sublime self- consciousness, he felt this then, and the recognized war critics of the world have since felt and conceded it, including Wolsely, Sherman, Grant, Maury, and others. I for one have an undoubting belief that if he could have succeeded the [82] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. great Johnston in command the moment he fell, the Confed erate Stateswould have been a recognized power of the nations before six months had rolled around. The crisis called for a man, and there he was ; a born soldier, not of the mere dilatory or dillettante or martinet or bulldog order, but one who always carried a head on his shoulders, brimful of native brain capa city, of far-reaching intuition, grasping the thing to do, and never failing to do it. A man of resources and expedients at critical juncture approaching the marvellous, with the single thought ever in view of success to his side, and all-sustained by powers of endurance approaching the superhuman, marked the son of the North Carolina blacksmith as a veritable son of Mars, surpassing in native, untutored genius for war all of his age, if not of all preceding ages. Tennessee owes much to her old mother — North Carolina, some of which has never been credited, but the deepest obligation of all was in the bestowal and adoption of this surpassing son of genius,- and another of kindred mould — him of the 'Hermitage,' two of the most stupendous prodigies of the nineteenth century. He saved the remnant of that army as Ney saved that from Moscow, the two grandest men in their respective armies, the imperial runaway not excepted. Next to self-assertiveness in the discharge of duty, modesty was the essential attribute of each. Each knew what he could do, but never boasted or plumed himself on what he had done. It has been one of the regrets of my subsequent life that I did not know him better, for our acquaintance was but transient. But to return to the West Point of the fifties, on the eve of war. Having now paid my respects to the boys of that day, I would be derelict to historic memoir to pass by some of the Academic Staff who became history-makers in the same momentous epoch, older boys by a few years. Brevet-Captain Gustavus W. Smith had long since caught the discerning eye of President Davis, when the latter was [83] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. at the head of the War Office of the United States Army. Recognizing his great merit, he made him one of the five full Confederate generals on taking the responsibility of organiz ing the new army on the brink of hostilities. He proved himself well deserving the confidence of his great Chief at Seven Pines later on, until struck down by paralysis. First-Lieutenant Joseph J. Reynolds was Assistant Pro fessor of Philosophy, and a philosopher he was. He it was who enunciated the great dictum collateral with the great Dean's two blades of grass truism; 'it costs less to feed two than one; I know, for I have tried them both.' Encourage ment that to a subaltern connubiality, with proviso prelimi nary of dainty appetite and Mrs. Gilpin's "frugal mind intent.' Gallant gentleman that he was, he died in front of our brigade at the deep railroad cut at Gettysburg, after inflicting a loss of some nine hundred on us. He died a Major-General, United States Army. Note corrective of mistaken identity as to the last-named. In a recent two-days drive over the field (Gettysburg) with my old friend and classmate. General 0. 0. Howard, he told me that I was mis taken in inference as to initials. Instead of J. J., it was J. F. Reynolds who died that day. As Howard was his succes sor in command the rest of that eventful day, the presumption is that he reported correctly. As Byron says : "Such is fame ! your name misspelt in a bulletin, or a bullet in your body." Long may the other live to prove his theroy of economy in duality. First-Lieutenants John M. Jones, David R. Jones, and Henry B. Clitz, were Assistant Instructors of Infantry Tac tics, and teachers and gentlemen all. The first two died General Officers in the Confederate Army, and the last attained the like rank in the Federal, and, I trust, still sur vives, for all who recall him when he was in charge of one of the military departments of the South, in the early days of [84] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. •reconstruction,' speak of him in affectionate and loving terms, as one who never took advantage of his power and position to ill-use or maltreat those then at his mercy, and a beautiful epitaph it would be for this good soldier and worthy gentleman. All who were puffed up with a little brief authority in those dark days, which gave an insight into character and inward nature, were not alwa,ys so considerate. What is said of Clitz applies with equal force to General Milton Cogswell, at the time referred to a Second-Lieutenant and Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Lieutenant Andrew J. Donelson of the Engineers, though of a later date, must not be given the go-by. His Corps indi cated his class standing; his brief graduate army record, his merit. He died at Memphis, a First-Lieutenant of Engi neers, on October 20, 1859. His brother, John S., a Yale graduate, and my very particular friend, was killed at Chick- am auga, a promoted captain after five wounds antecedent. Brevet-Major Fitz John Porter became a distinguished jMajor-General in the Union Army, and made a name for him self, until in an evil hour a ranking incompetent, much famed for modesty and veracity, became conscious that he needed a scapegoat to take off the blame and responsibility of a most ignominious defeat. And so, for twenty years, this trae soldier and unblemished gentleman had to bear the soldier's dreaded stigma of being derelict and behindhand in the hour of emergency. For twenty years he had to pay this dread penalty to graded imbecility. One of the pleasant recollec tions of my life was helping to undo this greivous wrong by a vote in Congress. That outrage is suggestive of the judicial murder by court- martial of Admiral Byng, and that, nearly a century later, of that poor lad 'Spencer' on the brig Somers. Scapegoats these to ranking incapacity, imbecility and cowardice. Ap posite to these, the most glaring instance of injustice, not to [85] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. say national ingratitude, was the virtual humiliation of a latet-on and valued friend, then Major, later on Major-Gen- ei^al, Don Carlos Buell. This grand soldier and true gentle man turned an overwhelming defeat, or more appropriate rout, of a grand army of one day into a glorious victory the next^ and such was his recognition. First-Lieutenant and Brevet-Major George H. Thomas was instructor of Artillery and Cavalry, and Porter was his assistant. A cold, phlegmatic, unimpressionable man he always seemed to me, but a born soldier, as the near future proved him to be. Had he been bom a hundred miles nearer the North Pole, it might be added, one without taint or bleinish. Unfortunately however, for his good name and historic reputation, he chose to be swaddled and cradled on this side of the Potomac, and when it came to taking sides he chose to espouse that of those on the other. At Chickamauga he struck his native section and maternal State the heaviest single blow that had fallen up to that time. It was a crushing blow to his natural and territorial instincts, and a most telling one for the side of his choosing. It was a heart-rending refiection to the embattled South that the two most terrible strokes dealt her, up to that period, were by two sons of hev own nurture, the one on land, and the other on the water. Here was one. Farragut was the other. Ought it not to be an equally mortifying refiection to the victorious side that, in spite of her overwhelming preponderance in numbers and re sources, her undersized competitor had to furnish her with the sledge-hammers to crush her ? The gratitude of the bene ficiary was fully shovni to each, both by permanent promotion and post-mortuary memorials. But 'marble shaft and monu mental brass' only impress the more indelibly the 'damned spot, which will not out.' Both have my pity with all of theiT grandeur and equivocal honors. Such as they are, let them wear them in peace. [86] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. More agreeable the task to speak of another Virginian, against whom the breath of calumny or detraction has never been heard, and in whose behalf encomium and panegyric have been so. utterly exhausted that nothing in the way of novelty or originality can be uttered. Were I called upon to designate the highest tribute ever penned in his praise, it would be that of the learned Englishman, Professor Long, if memory is not at fault. He was about to publish his life of Marcus Aurelius, whom he assumes to have been the grandest and most perfect man in the annals of time. An American friend stated in print that the work was to be dedicated to General Grant. This he emphatically denies, adding, in effect, that he had never dedicated a book to any man in his life and did not propose ever to deviate from his rule. "If I could get my consent so to do," he adds, "this life of the grand est man would be inscribed to the next grandest before or since his time, the modest unpretentious schoolmaster in the hills of Virginia, who rounds off his matchless war record by a sublime example to the young men of his land." The quota tion is from recollection, and not from text, but the substance is in it. Already he had been by concensus of the world's unbiased verdict pedestaled in the then recognized group of the five greatest captains of all time. This estimate puts him above them all, as the unmatched man in history with but a single exception. Include Saul of Tarsus, better known as Saint Paul, and the standing assigned him by this impartial critic is not extravagant. At the time of his becoming Super intendent of the Military Academy (1852), he was in the prime of life, only forty-five years of age, although he had but lately emerged from the Mexican war with the distinction surpassing all perhaps, except the two commanding Generals. He came to us at the Academy as a Captain of Engineers and Brevet Colonel. Never was brevet rank more worthily won, for by planning the campaign from Vera Cruz to the City of [87] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Mexico he made it one of the most famous in the annals of war. When he came, he was one of the finest looking speci mens of high manhood, both a-foot and in saddle, but especi ally the latter, that mortal eye ever rested upon. The first time that I ever had the honor of colloquial con verse with this man of men was on occasion herewith to fol low. In the ranks one day my friend, Archie Gracie, one of the heroes already alluded to, concluded to have a little fun, in a quiet way, all to himself, by planting his hoofs, not of the feminine Chinese pattern, upon my heels. This he persisted in doing, despite a gentle remonstrance, possibly a little emphasized. Job had patience, but he was never subjected to such an ordeal as this, and so the gentleman in the rear was quietly notified, perhaps with a slight additional infiection of emphasis, that he would get a drubbing as soon as ranks were broken. To which he impudently retorted: "not from you!" Here was a dare and a take-up that no boy of spirit could resist. It was the 'chip on the shoulder,' and he dared to loiock it off, and so in point of honor there had to be a fulfil ment of promise. This duty was being discharged with unction, when an offi cious individual of muscular proportions, Patrice de Janon by name, then master of the foils, and later on Professor of Spanish, had to interfere and break up the fun. I thought at the time it was a mean thing to do. Perhaps friend Archie was of a different opinion, for, though I say it myself, I was getting decidedly the best of it when old 'Smallswords' had to intermeddle in the scrimmage. Long years later on, when lie called on me in Washington, I reproached him for his officiousness on that occasion, and so, methinlfs, did his conscience, for both by instinct and profession he ought to have known better than to intermeddle in a good square stand-up fight between two worthy gentlemen. A fight to the finish would have done me lots of good, and Gracie but little [88] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. hurt, for he was a much more powerful man, and, besides, it would have inculcated an object lesson, or rather a moral, on his young, impressionable nature never to be forgotten: namely, never to step on a man's toes, or his heels either, without good and sufficient provocation. Be that as it may, when "the mill," to use a vulgar slang expression, was called off by the master of fence, I declined the introduction re quested, and walked off to the barracks. Not so, dear old Gracie, who, in addition to his name and surname, his patronymic and matronymic, perhaps, gave him self completely away. When asked for my name, however, he replied, like the sterling gentleman that he was, "you will have to ask him, for I'm no informer." In consequence, he got all the penalty, and a very heavy one it was, for fighting on the parade ground, and I came off scot-free for the time being. A good joke that, on dear old Gracie ! The next morning I called upon the Superintendent at his office, and the purport of the interview follows. I opened it thus : "Colonel Lee, Mr. Gracie was yesterday reported for fight ing on the parade ground, and 'the other fellow' was not." "Yes, sir," (was the reply), ''and I presume you are the other fellow." "I am, sir, and I wish to submit the case in full for your consideration. Don't you think it veiw hard on him. Col onel, after getting the worst of the fracas, to have to take all of the penalty incident?" ''Admitted, what then?" (was the reply). "Simply this, sir. Whatever punishment is meted out to him, I insist on having the same given to me." "The offence entails a heavy penalty" (he said). "I am aware of the fact. Colonel, but Mr. Gracie is not en titled to a monopoly of it." (Then he replied with that gentle, benignant smile which, [89] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. once seen, could not easily be forgotten), "No, sir; you will get neither report nor penalty for this, and neither will Mr. Gracie get the last. I will cancel his report Don't you think, Mr. Green, that it is better for brothers to dwell to gether in peace and harmony ?" "Yes, Colonel, and if we were all like you, it would be an easy thing to do." A few minutes later, while looking out of the window, I saw Gracie pass with Colonel Lee's orderly following behind, and whilst still thinking of the coincidence, the door opened and the dear old boy entered and seized my hand without uttering a word, and the breach was closed, and thence on until he poured out his heroic heart's blood, a rich libation on the altar of liberty, there was never a harsh word or an unkind thought passed between us. Is it hard to divine who was the blessed peacemaker on that occasion ? This is the same young general previously referred to, who, when General Lee ascended the earthwork in front of his brigade to make personal observation of the enemy's with a view to some contemplated strategic stroke, and would not hearken to the plaintive appeals of the men below to come down, — "For God's sake. General Lee, come dovra.!" The incident as detailed was in the closing days of the Anaconda grip about Petersburg and the last days of the Confederacy. It was then that Archibald Gracie proved himself the hero that nature moulded him. Rushing up the parapet whilst minnies were buzzing like bumblebees about the "Great Cap tain," he stepped between him and the hostile sharpshooters. "Back to the trenches, General Gracie!" came the sharp command, — and the cool reply, "After you, General Lee. I never expected to disobey an order of yours, but here I do until you first obey an order of mine. Tumble over there, General, and I'll follow, but not a step before. I can catch a ball as well as you, and better a thousand, than you one." For once insurbordination was justifiable. [90] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. As tradition runneth, in order to save that bull-headed Brigadier, there was a momentary reversal of rank, the Lieu tenant maintaining the upper hand of control, and so to para phrase the nursery rhyme: "Old Marse Bob came tumbling down, and Gracie came tumbling after !" I tell the tale as it has been told and repeated to me, for I was not an eye-witness, but it was so in keeping with the noble nature of these two gallant gentlemen that it is accepted without the usual cum grano under such circumstances. These references to a few of the recognized hbroes of that memorable epoch might be much extended were it not for fear of being thought over diffuse in laudation as well as a little prolix in recital. Others will probably appear later on. And so for three years, that is to say from 1850 to 1853, academic life flowed on in its quiet, limpid stream with but little to vary the usual routine of parades, guard mountings, and drills of various kinds, and kindred duties. True, dur ing camp season the Point was besieged by city belles and other fair harpies, who then did, and still do, congregate to whet their beaks on unsophisticated squabs simply to retain normal appetites, cultivate the lures and wiles, and keep their hands in for the winter campaign for larger game on their return to tovpn. They always seemed to relish the fun, little caring for the havoc of young hearts that they were to leave behind, as later on indicated by lugubrious looks and furnace sighs. Poor fellows; it did them no hurt in the end, and did the dear creatures lots of good. Concomitant to these love episodes and summer cooings were the cadet balls, with dulcet strains discoursed by one of the finest orchestras in the world. The dances were almost exclusively of the good old-fashioned "square" English sort, with an occasional waltz by those well acquainted, and almost always winding up with the ever-to-be honored old Virginia reel. The later-on abomination of French invention and high Dutch cognomen had not then crept in, thank the Lord. [91] CHAPTER IX. At the end of the time named I handed in my resignation, having no desire to enter and remain in the army in time of peace. My stay at the Academy was, on the whole, the most agreeable connected three years of my early life inasmuch as it brought intimate association with a band of the noblest gentlemen that I have since known., as an aggregate, with but few frictions resulting from contact. Coming from one of my unfortunately assertive nature, it is a no mean compli ment to pay to the friends and associates of that interesting period. I parted from the dear fellows with mutual pangs of regret, unless I am greatly mistaken. One little incident may not be out of place in that connection. The afternoon before leaving, while sitting on a rock overlooking the Hudson, in melancholy reflection, Phil Sheridan, later on Commanding General U. S. Army, happened to be passing, and asked per mission to join me. The request was a surprise, as he was in an advanced class and there never had been any intimacy be tween us. In fact, the poor fellow, for reasons needless to mention, had hardly an associate, let alone an intimate, on the place. He began: "I hear, Sept., that you have re signed. Is it so?" "Yes," was the reply. "Is it too late to recall your resignation ?" was his next query, with evident concern. "But I have no desire to," was my reply; and so we parted, after a few more words. If, at that time, I had been called upon to designate the man on that historic spot who would later on reach the high rank Sheridan attained, he would probably have been one of the very last to have come under consideration, and such, me thinks, would have been the almost unanimous forecast of aU who knew him. Proof that is, that the boy is not always [92] AN AUTO OF HAiF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. father of the man, gauged by the world's criterion — success. That he developed into a superb cavalry leader, doubtless un equalled by any other on the Federal side, stands confessed. That he is entitled to place on the same professional plane with Forrest, Stuart, or Hampton, is far more debatable. Whatever his status may be on that line, I for one maintain that it had been far better for his historic fame had he died in battle before the end of the struggle came. Had he done so, he would have been spared the horrible reproach, which per haps none has borne since Alva, of needlessly desolating an utterly defenseless country, occupied only by old men, women and children, wiping out every vestige of mill, granary and smokehouse, in his terrible path; and his still more brutal boast — that the crow that followed in his wake would have to carry his rations along with him — not surpassed even by that of Attila the Hun — that where his horse planted his hoof, grass never grew again. This historic march, more appropriately Hunish foray, had counterpart later on in the virtual extirpation of the en tire ti'ibe of Piegan Indians, regardless of sex, infancy, or decrepitude. The last is paralleled in recent English story only by the massacre of Glencoe, so far as reading recalls. Neither is worthy of imitation henceforth and forevermore. Allusion is made to the two incidents in his life story to show how easy is the transition from racial nobility to barbarian- ism when instinct points the way. Perhaps a more flagrant disregard of inherent rights and Anglo-Saxon liberty than his forcible arrest of five members of the Louisiana Legislature in their seats, for partisan pur pose, cannot be cited. True, the same identical outrage was attempted in the House of Commons some 250 years ago, even down to the self-same number of five, by one Charles Stuart; 'By the grace of God, etc.. King of England, etc.' But our cranky old progenitors, always serious at serious juncture, [93] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. did not laugh at this culmination of the sportive tricks of the aforesaid Charles Rex, and so they turned about and arrested him, led him to a block, and chopped off his head, and the better thinking portion of mankind have ever since ratified the regicide verdict with: 'served him right.' So should it be with those in authority, who disregard the natural, no less than the legal limitations and restrictions against abuse of power. In striking contrast this man's career to that of his class mate and immediate successor in the chief army command, John M. Schofield, of whom it can be truly said : "A soldier in war, a citizen in peace, a gentleman always." Fortunate would it be for Sheridan's immediate predecessor, as well as for himself and his successor one degi-ee removed, if they were entitled to wear the same proud badge of honor vsdthout abbreviation. Alas! due regard for historical truth, and what should be our national standard, forbids it. Schofield filled the bill. The others had their ephemeral honors and emoluments in this life. Let them pass on to their allotted place in Dante's dream ; they have had their prize rewards on this side of Charon's creek, to the cost of others. I do not forget that I am stepping on new made graves, nor have I forgotten the point of the Latin apothegm — "De mor tuis nil, etc." If so, let it be borne in mind that history has been equally oblivious in handling the post-mortem reputa tions of certain worthies with whom she had to deal, notably, Nero, Caligula, Commodus, and Domitian. She and her scribes have not been tender-footed or mealy-mouthed when ever it was necessary to call a spade a spade, or a tyrant a tyrant. When a people grow too squeamish for such good old English, pure and undefiled, they have grown to be too deli cate and refined to be fit conservators of English liberty. Leaving the Military Academy, which was done with sin cere regret at having to sever congenial ties, I next turned my [94] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. steps to the great school founded by the immortal Jefferson, and, like everything that he ever did, on the most rational basis of any other. Educational tyros and moneyed mag nates have tried in vain to eclipse his handiwork by lordly be quests of millions and tens of millions on the gorgeous mauso- lea which they reared, ostensibly dedicated to learning, but with the unmistakable tombstone inscription paramount, 'to mortuary vanity and vainglory.' Well be the motive of ground foundation what it may, they doubtless have their utility, even if learned faculties must now and then keep their tongues and thinking functions under curb in deference to foundational mandate, when trenching on to'pica-inter- dicta, as Galileo did. Jefferson's school was on the model of his State — no undue restriction on thought or inculcation. Before matriculating, I had passed the summer with my father and family at the White Sulphur Springs, Vir ginia. There I imbibed many of his beneficent precepts. Handing me one day a case of superb duelling pistols, which had been in service in the 'ould country,' where such' play things had whilom been deemed an essential adjunct to a polite education, he gave me his paternal blessing and parting admonition — "Learn to use them, my son, but be mighty careful that you never do, at ten yards off or so, without just, ample and sufficient provocation." Like a dutiful son, I have heeded his injunction in both regards. Occupying a two-room cottage in a retired grove all to myself afforded excellent opportunity for varying Chitty on Contracts with Sir Jonah on Hair-triggers. I soon became a famous expert, and although my nerves are not steady as they then were, still my right hand has not yet lost its cunning. God be praised, I never have had to use them in the man ner intimated, but, on the contrary, have prevented others domg so in my confidential capacity of 'friend,' when called on for their loan, never compromising the honor or good name [95] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. of those who did me the honor to request the unwelcome ser vice. And so I have long since had serious misgivings whether the duello is an unmitigated evil under proper condi tions, a judicious and well-selected adviser, or friend if you will, always being the primary one. Under this, and other proper limitations, both reason and recollection tell me that it might be a very salutary check on bullies and blackguards, who prefer the revolver-drop, unawares, to a fair stand-up fight where neither has the advantage. As proof of this, we have only to instance the overwhelming preponderance of foul and cowardly killings that have succeeded the old and honored mode of settling personal difficulties in the earlier part of the just expired century. The next morning, while still in bed, I was honored with a visit from my paternal ancestor. He left me not long in doubt as to the motive of such an unusual matutinal call. After due preface and preamble, he began much on the ex- cathedraic strain, which was his usual style when wishing to be excessively persuasive or rather impressive. ''My son, after getting your law license, of course you would like a year or two of foreign travel to complete your education, and such is my intention." After thanking him for this fresh proof of his fatherly regard, he continued: '"Yes, travel ex pands the ideas, but, of course, no man of sense cares to go abroad to gaze at the monuments of man until he has first be held the gToat natural curiosities of his own land, especially Niagara, the Natural Bridge, and the Mammoth Cave. Now, you have two or three weeks, before the University opens, to run out to Kentucky and take in the last, and then drop down to Nashville and pay a brief visit to your maternal kin." "But, father," I put in, "I do not care to see the old cave ; I am very well satisfied here." "Yes, a little too well satis fied," was his sarcastic rejoinder. "The stage for Guyandotte leaves at 12 o'clock. Here's your ticket on a back seat, and [96] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. here's a hundred dollars for the trip. Llave your trunk on in time." Be sure, after such an injunction, that trunk was aboard betimes, for my slight acquaintance with General G., had long since convinced me that when he imparted his orders with mai'ked emphasis, he always meant what the words im ported. But why that stretch of emphasized authority ? After much subsequent cogitation on the subject, it has dawned on me that he had gotten the idea on the brain that I was falling in love injudiciously, and he resolved to blast my incipient affection by a dose of enforced absence. The rem edy proved effective in the end, if, indeed, the malady had really set in, but its ministration made me think at the time that the General was a hard superior, and unfeeling man. As now recalled, the trip to the Ohio then took two days and nights, now as many hours ; and a most disagreeable one it proved, melting all day and freezing all night. The change in that altitude was intense, but that was not the worst of it. The recollection of that first night on the bleak mountain-top sends the cold shivers over me whenever it obtrudes itself. A hold-up by a lone highwayman, do you ask? No, nor by a dozen. Better had it been for my future peace of mind. But the story calls for full recital, after getting thus far in the blood-curdling preliminaries. No, it was not a hold-up, or a turn-over either. Worse than the combination. But, ab initio, to make a connected narrative. When the stage left the 'White,' there were two New York men of maturer years than mine occupying front seats, be sides four unmentionables, including two ladies, one of whom sat by me on the rear seat, leaving the middle seat to the three others. It was my misfortune to have that brace of Manhat-islanders for travelling companions for many days thereafter. Not that a tragedy ensued. No, owing to my for bearance and sweet disposition, neither of them died on the trip. They were, on the whole, good fellows, but a little 7 [97] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. over-given to levity and frivolity. Knowing that we were to be close-mewed up together for a long time to come, we all soon became acquainted; in fact, might be said to be on a friendly and familiar footing. At a stopping-place two or three hours from the start, an old gentleman of about seventy and a young lady of perhaps twenty got in, he taking the va cant front seat, and she the vacant rear, the other one by me. They both looked mighty spank and spruce in new duds, and with my natural precipitancy in coming to conclusions, I said to myself: the old gentleman is taking his pretty grand daughter on to a finishing-off school. The damsel was ex ceedingly fair to look upon, and so, extending the unvoiced monologue, the next remark was — here's consolation for you, my boy, for the paternal tyranny to which you have just been subjected. And so, beginning an acquaintance on platitude and commonplace, as moonshine tipped the mountaintop, I was fioating in moonshine and syllabub and spouting the love poets in her seemingly willing ear. In extenuation for such precipitancy on the amatory line, let it be said that the situa tion and the subject were conducive to it, and that I had just emerged from semi-monastic durance, during which for nine months in the year the dear creatures were regarded as curi osities, and to be caught by a bob-tail lieutenant talking to or walking with a stray specimen was out of sheer envy regarded as a dereliction almost tantamount to a visit to Benny Havens, whose acquaintance I am proud to say I never made. Furthermore, I was young, simple, unsophisticated, and since getting the better of normal and inborn dread of them, of a most impressionable nature. Besides, had not my maiden affection just been crushed by an arbitrary exercise of power ? All went merry as a marriage-bell until there came a por- tentious caution from the front. "Young man, when you get through Avith that nonsense, we would like to go to sleep." [98] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. There came a suppressed double chuckle from the New York corner of that vehicle in response to that broad ill-timed per sonality. But after such a hint, from one seeming to be in authority, all nonsense ceased for the rest of that night. At the breakfast house the next morning, two of our fellow voya gers stopped over. She did not even say goodbye to me at parting. But, oh, the scream that went up from the others as we were leaving that hashery. "Jones, that beat the Bowery aU hollow." "Well, I should say so," came the re ply; "the idea of making love to a bride of twelve-hours- standing, in the very teeth of her husband, beats bob-tail as well as the Bowery." "It's not so," I cried; "she is his granddaughter." With that, there was another wild explo sion of guffaw, in which I grieve to say the ladies were the loudest. Then followed lame imitations from Annabel Lee, Maid of Athens, Lalla-Rookh, etc., etc., all horribly mutilated and murdered. The stage was stopped and I got out with the driver, hop ing to find more congenial society, which came to wish. The scenery from the box was grand, especially the far-famed Llawk's Nest, a precipice of 1500 feet, apparantly perpen dicular. Bill was communicative without being at all offen sive. As an instance, he called attention to an over-turned stage some hundred yards down the mountain side, which had brought up against a sapling. "Was any one killed ?" I asked with bated breath. "Well, that's just what Jim asked from up here," having jumped off as he saw it was going dovm. "Well, what was the answer ?" "No, but there will be up there as soon as I get to the top," replied a Kentuckian as he started up with a revolver. "Did he wait?" "Not Jim, he was too smart for that ; he took to his heels, and left them all to shift for themselves, and they had to walk five miles to the next station." Although the river was exceptionally low, a crippled old [99] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. stem-wheeler picked us up about midnight, and in due, or rather it should be said undue time, landed us in Louisville. The New Yorkers and I called to see Porter, the Kentucky giant, during the afternoon. In bulk he was much bigger than John C. Calhoun or Andrew Jackson, but there all- comparison ended. The next day, I took stage for Nashville, via the big ca,ve. At the stopping-place, seven miles short, I tried to find out something about it from the old landlord. His reply was, "You will have to ask some one else. I have lived here all my life but have never been there." Here was curiosity for you, not to take a morning's walk to see one of the world's greatest wonders, for so I found it in all verity. The Grotto of Adelsburg, which I saw later on, may surpass it in scenic effect, but falls far short in grandeur and immen sity of dimensions. A second visit, long years subsequently, only strengthened first impressions. After a week's sojourn on old familiar tramping ground, I started back to the University, this time by steam. On the train, came up with an old cadet friend with a funny reminis cence. Daniel was of a social turn and prone to drop in on his friends, whether in or out of study hours mattered little, and he was usually a welcome visitor, for he was brim ful of Georgia scenes, far surpassing Judge Longstreet's in pith and point of narrative. Of course, no door, even of the most studious of us delvers after the unfathomable, could be closed in the face of such a one as he. Now, there is, or was, a ridiculous rule or regulation prevailing in that school, restricting social interchange of jokes and anecdotes. No visiting between certain hours, it read, and certain penalties for infraction, or words to that effect. Now, it so happened that at this particular juncture, the inspecting officer, or scooper-up of culprits, was Lieutenant Baker, who still wore his cadet soubriquet of 'Betsy Balder,' a worthy gentleman as I see him now, a veritable sleuth-hound as then. Now, Betsy [100] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. had a knack of making his tours of inspection at the most unreasonable and unexpected hours, when ingenuous youth was least on the lookout, and as it turned out, on the inaus picious occasion to follow. While Daniel was in the midst of a lovely recital of some particularly laughable incident, located of course down in Georgia, the jingling of Betsy's sabre was heard entering the opposite room. It took but a moment for Daniel to jump in the fire-place and to have the screen closed behind him. Quick as it was, however, the commotion within doubtless aroused Betsy's suspicions, as he had probably been along there himself in the recent past. After making the usual cursory and perfunctory look around to satisfy himself that we were in and everything in place, he opened the door, but closed it again, leaving the impres sion on the man in the fire-place that he had made his egress. After waiting a few moments for developments, we heard a voice from the mural tomb: "Say, Sep., hasn't 'old Bets' gone yet?" The reply came from our visitor: "No, Mr. Daniel, 'old Bets' is still here, waiting to take your name and measure." As poor Daniel emerged from the chimney, a veritable conglomerate of Santa Clans and his namesake of the lion's den, three of us exploded, but the fourth one couldn't see anything to laugh at. Arrived at Charlottesville, I at once entered on my new course of study, taking the two tickets of law and belles lettres with political economy interjected in the last. The Law School was presided over by Professors Minor and Holcombe, and the other by Professor McGuffey, the famous author of the series of school readers, which in their day were read in most of the elementary schools of the land, and which prob ably have never since been improved upon. They were erudite, not to say recondite, teachers, and all attained celeb rity in their new sphere of action, and later on. It was a standing charge in derogation by the opponents [101] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. of the institution, that few young men, and in that day they were usually such, and not boys, ever took the two courses of lectures without coming out thoroughly imbued with 'States- rights' indoctrination, and of such I was no exception, although paternal precepts had made the way easy to that rational and orthodox line of political faith. And yet, Dr. McGuffey, who was the brainest schoolmaster that I have ever known, after a somewhat varied and diversified acquaintance with the brotherhood, was decidedly Federalistic in his lean ings and line of thought — if the expression may be used — a Whig of Whigs. But, like the wise and conscientious teacher that he was, he would give the arguments pro and con dispas sionately on great governmental questions, such as the Bank, the Tariff, Internal Improvements, etc., and leave conclusions to the judgment of his hearers. The usual result of this Socratic mode of indoctrination was a brood of unfledged States-Rights Democrats at the end of the term. For all that, I owe dear old 'Guff' a grudge for forcing a class dis tinction on me in spite of myself. All three of the gentlemen named were an honor to their profession, and supplied cud to chew upon from that day to this. This was in great measure due to freedom from schoolboy espionage and insensate restraint. The sort of young men then at that school required no such juvenile res traint, curb, and oversight. They were as a body well born, high bred, and cultured to a high degree, before applying for admission into the characteristic institution. As a rule, they had reached years of ordinary discretion, and leaving their boyish tricks and sportive tendencies behind them, had come there with fixed purpose to absorb the modicum of erudition within range of reach, before entering the great arena which they saw just ahead. They buckled down to their work in good earnest, and I with them, a creditable commonwealth for an older community's imitation. [102] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Speaking of college honors, I ti-ust my vanity may be ex cused for brief reference to one which was barely missed, and which would have been most highly prized, though it came not through the Faculty. At the time of which mention is made, and presumptively ever since, there were two lit erary, or more properly speaking, debating societies at the University. In christening these, it is highly probable that the primary matriculates of two generations antecedent were as little familiar with high Hellenic as scores of country high schools have been ever since, which usually prefer euphe mistic Greek compounds at the baptismal font on such occa sions, as for instance, 'The Demosthenian," 'The Euphema- sian,' and the like, to their good old honest mother-tongue nomenclature. Not of that ilk were Mr. Jefferson's boys some hundred years ago, as the two societies were duly dub bed 'The Jefferson,' and 'The Washington,' in honor of the two biggest men that the great mother of big men had up to that time produced. There were disputants in each who would not have shamed Parliamentary bodies of a far more preten tious standard, as many have since electrified senates and shaped governmental polity, while not a few fill heroes' graves. Preferring the political tenets and tendencies of Monticello to those of Mount Vernon, I was soon enrolled in the ranks of 'The Jeff,' numerically about three to one in excess of the other. On second or third appearance in that forum, I was assigned to the discussion of the question at the next suc ceeding meeting. It was a fundamental political question, and one fraught with momentous consequences thence on for ever, as it had been from the adoption of the Federal Con stitution the most vital of all. It involved, or rather brought into bold relief, the legitimate relationship between the State and General Government, naturally trenching on the right of resumption of delegated powers. Recognizing the trans- [103] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. cendent importance of a true conception of the mighty issues involved, then and thence on to Appomattox, where the glaived hand of overwhelming force gave the 'Constitutional Federative' system its quietus forever, I was as full of the theme in preparation for that mimic senate as if the forensic tilt was destined to come off in the Capitol before one of Catos. Goodbye to text books for the week to follow. I was too full of the fate of Rome, and more especially of another great kindred Republic, to give time or thought to trivialities or puerilities. Page after page, if not quire after quire, of foolscap was spoiled to connect the line of thought. The Madison papers were analyzed and dissected by paragraph in order to give the true intent of the 'Framers,' and so the 'Resolution' of '97 and '98, the Missouri Compromise and its legitimate offspring in base bom bastardy, fitly dubbed the 'Omnibus Bill,' were torn into tatters and scattered to the four winds. Then long walks were taken morning, noon, and at nightfall, memorizing the sublimity of thought on paper. Finally, as the eventful night drew on apace, I felt confi dent of reciting my little piece with the unbroken fluency of a juvenile Demosthenes, tackling Cassabianca for the first time. Alas ! the best laid plans of mice and men, etc., etc. I was hardly twenty words deep in a telling exordium before floundering- beyond mental depth. In this initial effort on any stage, that terror of the tyro or debutant, known as stage fright, had hit a stunning blow between the eyes. All con nectedness of preconceived words and phraseology vanished. I felt very much like our imported French riding-master did at West Point when he lost his saddle in an incipient charge, or the General commanding the ai-my when he imitated the trans-Atlantic charlatan by falling off his horse the other day in the presence of the Presidency and the other assembled magnates of the nation. The business of each was to ride, and not to fall, and each doubtless objected to being the [104] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. special spectacular of a reversal of the program. 'Frenchy' confessed as much in saying : 'Gentil-hommes, I did vish that the gi-ound vould open ven I fell off that tarn horse!' Probably, so thought too the Grand General of the U. S. Ar my (Miles) as he felt himself doomed to such ignominious exit from tlie admiring gaze of that grand assemblage on that giand occasion. If such was the thought at that terrible moment, it is safe to say that if it had been put in words, it would today meet a hearty 'Amen' response in the past pre dicate, from an overwhelming majority of his countrymen, inclusive of the best element of those under his immediate command. Be that as it may, there was a new-fiedged as pirant for histrionic distinction about that time, who may be supposed to have felt as the Count felt 'ven he was falling off that tam horse!' Of course, it goes without question that the transplanted master of horse was a count and grand le gionary, or something of that sort, as Uncle Sam has as little use for untitled pretension of the foreign sort as have our moneyed belles of the shoddy variety. At the awful juncture referred to, when vainly essaying to catch on to the connection in the manuscript, and when being guyed unmercifully by some three or four hundred new-made friends, scarcely a dozen of whom were known by sight, it became evident that a crisis was imminent and a change of base essential. Grasping at the traditional straw of the drowning man, there was a hurried colloquy held in another debating society whose hall was in the garret of an individual cranium. The question fiashed with electric thrill : Why con tinue to make a ninny of yourself by trying to recite your memorized parroty lesson word by word ? You are reason ably master of the subject and know what you wish to say. Say it. And so I did, and made the hit of my life on the oracular line, as then felt, and ever since known. Before pro ceeding five minutes on the new line, gibes and sneers had [105] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. given way to pretty continuous applause and cries of 'Go on,' when time was up. But higher proof was forthcoming at the next succeeding assembly when a President for the year had to be chosen. To my extreme surprise my name was placed in nomination for that high and much coveted distinction, as tradition averred that at least two years membership was in dispensable to justify a presumptuous eye on the Chair. I failed to reach the goal by a single vote, the successful com petitor being the grandson and namesake of America's most famous orator and himself not one of a common order, being the acknowledged champion disputant of the society, a claim which he made good on the wider arena for the few eventful years preceding his untimely end. He had been at the Uni versity, as I was told, six or seven years battling for that recognized highest academic prize. Master of Arts of the University of Virginia. That year he was one of the half- dozen aspirants who won the coveted degree of A. M. Recurring to that adverse majority of one, it has been a fateful numeral for me in many, if not most of my electoral contests. By one vote I lost the colonelcy of the Twelfth North Carolina Regiment in the early part of 1863 ; by one vote, failed to take seat in the North Carolina State Senate, although conceded even by my opponent to be entitled to it by two or three hundred majority. (Note. In the first of these I was not aware that an election was pending. The other was in war times, when not hankering after political prefer ment. ) Nevertheless, it was a remarkable coincidence, which has never probably befallen another with my limited appetite for promotion. ' It has been a standing regret in later life, that I did not prtfit more from the obvious teaching of this maiden effort, namely, that in all subsequent ones I had not placed less reli ance on 'the letters Cadmus gave,' and attached more impor tance to clothing ideas in less finished phrase, and in more [106] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. honest, manly, homespun garb. Or to change the metaphor, that manuscript had never been relied upon as crutch to help a treacherous memory, if not a lame and halting argu ment. No, take my advice and follow example mentioned, oh! sophomores; first master your subject and then get mad and go it blind, regardless of meliferous phrase or stilted ex pression. I have seen many a self-complacent sophomore (Anglicized 'wise fool') fool a crowd of bigger fools with words only, barring a due infusion of rant and fustian. After a scholastic year at this model institution, during which let us hope a due proportion of intellectual pabulum fell to my share, the spirit of change or unrest came over me again and prompted fresh pastures green for omniverous browsing. In my boyhood town in Tennessee, there had lately sprung up a law school which, for the time, had grown into celebrity overshadowing all the others. Although only the adjunct of a country high-school, modestly dubbed Uni versity, it became almost from its birth a recognized foun tain-head of legal lore throughout the land, rivaling, if not eclipsing, the older and far more famous schools of the East. This phenomenal development was doubtless due to its being under the auspices of three of the most learned judges in that State or any other, namely, Greene, Caruthers, and Ridley, whose personal and professional repute gave their school name and fame far and wide, suggestive of that of the famous Abelard, most renovnied teacher of his time. I was prompted to give up the University for this new- fledged candidate for forensic fame by the refiection that the succeeding course of lectures would in the main be but a repetition of those just heard, and the hope of imbibing a fresh infusion of thoughts and ideas by a change of in structors. Without the slightest reflection on the others, can dor compels the admission that to the best of belief, I was not mistaken. A two-mile walk before and after was perhaps [107] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. conducive to reflection and inward digestion of the truths enunciated in previous lectures. Here I continued about flve months, when it occurred to me that enough of my life had been spent in class rooms, then in my twenty-fourth year. [108 J CHAPTER X. A few days later I was back with my father and family at the old St Nicholas Hotel, New York, then the leading caravansary of the New World, which goes, without saying, of the entire world. What a wonderful transformation has since taken place in this field, as in every other. Gorgeous as it was in its time, it would still hardly be ranked today as fit intermediate halting place on the stage-road of time be tween old Sam Johnson's revered taverns and the palatial publics of the close of the century, rivaling the homes of roy alty in their get-up and. concomitants of splendor and mag nificence. A few days later, after having been admitted to practice before the Supreme Coui-t of the United States upon appli cation of the Hon. George E. Badger, perhaps at the time the leading practitioner before that august tribunal, I was duly inducted into the office of Walker and Janin, to which reference has already been made. Well do I recall a remark of the great North Carolina jurist at the hotel that night: 'Young man, I have made a novitiate of you ; you'll have to make a lawjer of yourself.' Perhaps, had home manufacture been left to myself, the outcome might have turned out a fairly reasonable success, for I would have put the bottom rung in the ladder before putting in the topmost one. My judgment would have enjoined an initial before a village Dogberry, like other legal aspirants in the chrysalis state, instead of taking the remote and improbable chance of riveting the attention of America's greatest Chief-Justice, for so I hold Roger Taney to have been, despite a world's pre conceived opinion. Not so my father, who believed that altitude in start would be conducive to prolonged flight, oblivious to the fact that not every year or century can turn out a Tom Erskine. My progenitor was of far-reaching ideas [109] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. end comprehensive grasp, but withal somewhat visionary in evolution. I once laughingly told him that if he had antici pated Fulton's great problem, he would have required a new bom ocean-liner to demonstrate its utility. That perhaps was a fraction far-fetched as well as unfilial; but still I be lieve that he had a lurking hope of springing a full-fledged jurisconsult before the eyes of an astonished world by favor of adventitious beginning. Feeling myself wofully handicapped from the start in being thus entered unheralded in an arena of world-known legal gladiators, it was not calculated to inspire confidence, but still feeling a well-grounded reliance at bottom of being reasonably well posted in the rudiments, I strove on in the hope that Erskine's opportunity might repeat itself in order to show the world what a mass of erudition and legal light was being hidden under a bushel. All speculations on that score, however, were brought to an abrupt conclusion of self and friends, supported by high medical authority, that my mundane career was about to be brought to a sudden termina tion by a brief winter's sojourn at the Federal Capital, which was confirmed a few days later by the celebrated Dr. Stone, of New Orleans, who prescribed horseback, ten-pins, and active out-door exercise generally, to the exclusion of drugs, nostrums, and medicated cure-alls of every kind. Believing that he knew what he was talking about, I took the first boat for Shreveport, bought a horse and began an extended ride through Texas, which with the branch-offs to the right and left covered according to note-book at the end upwards of 1,500 miles, and consuming nearly two months in making it. The first two or three days out were slow progress, scarcely averaging fifteen miles a day, ovring to weakness and physical breakdovm. In fact, had it not been for Dr. Stone's forecast to that effect, it is probable that after the second day I would have gone back, laid down, [110] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. and died. But pride was aroused and I kept on, soon over lapping thirty or forty miles a day with less and less tax on the powers of nature. Later on I told the dear old gentle man, whom I have since regarded as one of the brainiest of his profession, and despite his rough speech and at times uncouth mannerism, one of the best of men, that nothing but that prediction kept me in the saddle with face to the setting sun, and thus saved a life of but little intrinsic value. To the end of his, we were friends and cronies whenever chance brought us together. Perhaps identity of political faith had something to do with cementing the tie. Though bom and reared in the heart of New England, it was not in him to espouse the political opinions of that dogmatic section. He had well-matured convictions of his own in diametrical clash to his immediate surroundings. 'States-rights and Strict- Construction' was the shibboleth of his creed ; Jefferson and Calhoun its exponents. It was a bleak and dreary ride with not a traveling com panion a mile of the way, and most of the distance not the sight of habitation between the morning start and the evening let-up. The unvarying bill of fare was substantial, but grew to be slightly monotonous after the first month, namely, corn bread and fat middling drowned in its own gravy (so called) and a bowl of coffee black as Tartarus, sans milk, sans sugar, and almost sans the berry that gave it name. Still, know ing that it was the daily diet of the entertainers, the inva riable charge of one dollar for man and beast was paid after breakfast without cavil or complaint ; but the thought forced itself, why, in a country replete with game and the streams with fish, and no scarcity of cows in milk with fattening calves attendant, can there not be a little diversity in the menu by way of variety? Reckon they never thought of it. Still, a good appetite after a long day's ride rarely failed me at table, and perhaps that was one of the most efficacious in- [111] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. gredients in old Stone's prescription. Be that as it may, at the journey's end I had left an ugly graveyard cough far in the rear, and was some twenty pounds plus in avoirdupois. The recipe is given for the benefit of others like inclined, or rather predisposed. But despite the monotony of the journey, there were occa sional interludes of variety, amusing it may be to the reader, if not always agreeable to the writer, or rather the rider. A few such episodes are given by way of variety. One day about noon I watered and staked old Jim, ate the usual lunch of fat bacon and corn-dodger, stretched out and took the usual hour's siesta, saddled, and resumed the road. Let it be premised, it was a cloudy day. Towards the close of it, half familiar landmarks began to appear in view, and soon the countenance of my late host was seen over the fence. Then the awful truth became manifest that the mid day nap had lost a day by turning me on the back track, and cost me a laugh. Jim was an equine of unusually amiable traits, but he was not cut out for the cavalry, for he had an unconquerable aver sion to the detonation of fire-arms, and a jaw that a Mexican curb could scarce control when once aroused. I had a kindred aversion to rattlesnakes, and whenever I came across one of the vile creatures coiled up and sunning himself on the roadside, the temptation to try a shot was too great to be withstood. On the instant, 'James' was off like a cannon-ball, and lucky it was if he could be brought to a hold-up under a mile. Then followed a more deliberate ride on the retio- grade to recover lost possessions, a hat here, an overcoat be yond, next a saddlebag, and perhaps Jim's obnoxious revolver near the starting point. After two or three runaways for like needless cause and provocation, I came to the conclusion that the game was not worth the cartridge, and did my best to call a truce by withstanding temptation, but it took time to [112] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. eradicate a settled conviction in the head of that idiotic quadruped, namely that rattlers got in the road on purpose to be shot at, and so, for a long while, he was off as soon as he saw or scented one of the vile things. A couple of days later on, Jim's pyrotechnic nerves were near being tested on larger and ignobler game. After a lone some day's ride with scarcely a cabin in sight on the route, I struck a fence enclosing an improved plantation. My mouth watered at the prospect of anticipatory good cheer for the night, and suitable the time and occasion for just about that time an 'incipient 'Norther,' as it seemed, put in an appearance, accompanied by the most terriflc rainfall that I have ever known, with one exception and that on the Nile, where a drop of water was reputed not to have fallen for seven years antecedent. Commend me, or rather com mend some other, to those arid lands where it rains only with the advent of the census taker. Following the fence for a mile brought me in front of a neatly framed house, whose piazza was almost on the road. I had heard of a drowned rat; I felt like two, with' icicles trickling from collar to boots. Almost without waiting to ask permission I proceeded to dismount, and then came the ominous veto: 'Don't get dovwi; you can't come in.' Almost dumbfounded with surprise and indignation, I reached over and unbuckled the right flap of the saddlebags, and proceeded to read the cur a moral lecture, more emphatic than unctious, on the recognized laws of hospitality. Before the lesson was well und.er way, he remarked, with a profane preflx, that he had heard enough and that I had better move on, adding, by way of stimulus, perhaps that double-barrel behind the door may expedite your movements. Now that, under the circumstances, was more than my grandfather, 'the man of Uz,' who was reputed one of monumental patience, could have borne without losing his equanimity. It can not be 8 [ 113 ] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. truthfully alleged that I, who came by descent into possession of much of that commendable trait, preserved it unscathed under such a threat with preliminary provocation. I was mad from the start, and kept on getting madder until he dared this cowardly bombast. Then he was admonished not to move out of his tracks until he heard a homily on courtesy and good breeding, under penalty of never laying hands on a double-barrel again. Am glad to say he heeded the fatherly counsel thus given, and so obviated the necessity for a more heated altercation. In re sponse to his platitude that a man's house is his castle, as much was graciously conceded, but a counter claim was in terpolated, namely, that the king's highway is common to all men, and for the time I held the highway. The use of the ambiguous term may have induced the belief on his mind that he was having to do with one of Dick Turpin's sort. Be that as it may, it gladdens an old man's heart to report that the claim to respective suzerainty was mutually acfc[uiesced in. During the interesting colloquy Jim was remarkably quiescent for one of his restive nature, and seemed to say as plainly as a horse could say 'If you would like to take one shot at the thing, old man, I'll try and stand it.' A mile or so further on we reached an unpretentious cabin, whose occupant was an inborn gentleman. He put me in front of a rousing fire, gave a drink of new corn whiskey to thaw me out, went out and groomed Jim, and then came back and did the same for me, rubbing me down in no gentie currycombing, for well he realized that I was on the verge of physical collapse. Then he wrapped me up in his old over coat, made me take another stiff drink of the best tipple he had to offer, and then ushered me into the next room, where I sat dovm to the most enjoyable meal that has ever passed the lips of man, and that is a no small compliment from one who has since eaten hash at many of the most renowned hos- [114] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. telries on the civilized globe. Imprimis, a queenly welcome from the lady who had prepared it, then a venison steak prop erly gotten up, supplemented with biscuit, fresh butter and buttermilk, and to cap the climax, a cup of good honest hot coffee with concomitants of milk and sugar. Rest assured that, like 'Dalgetty of Drumthwacket,' full justice was done to a spread like that after a month of unwelcome deglutition. That dear dame had evidentiy spread herself on that get-up, and I have loved her ever since, platonioally, for doing it. It was evidently designed as a pure charity entertainment to a half frozen, half droMmed, half starved poor devil, who had been unexpectedly cast upon their bounty. They were people who had evidently known better times, but, better far, knew how to adapt themselves to the reverse of fortune. While discussing his neighbor's contemptible conduct over the after-supper pipe, I remarked that I offered to bet him ten dollars to a postage stamp that he wasn't bom and bred in our Southern regions. "And you would have won the wager if he had taken you up," was the reply, 'for he saw first daylight nearer the St. Lawrence than the Potomac." A good night's rest, a hearty good-morning, and a good breakfast, gave me a morning start in a good humor, en hanced by the parting injunction — "Call again and stay longer, whenever you are in these parts." Falling into a meditative mood, I said : Why the antipodal dissimilarity between these two men living within a stone's throw of each other, the one churl, pure and simple, and the other the chevalier, fresh, refined, from nature's mould ? The answer came : the better kind, like the poet, is bom, not made ; the baser sort is ubiquitous and ever reaches his legiti mate level in spite of birth and fortune. Here in this sparsely settled country was illustration. But there is too much thought wasted on the churl. A little later on I arrived in the historic and picturesque [115] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. town of San Antonio, destined to be my abiding place for many months thereafter, most of which was agreeably, if not always profitably, spent. Even at that early day, it gave promise of soon becoming what it has since attained to, a populous and elegantly built and beautiful city, in place of the straggling village of a few thousand inhabitants, as it then loomed up. Still I do not think I would enjoy denizen- ship within its gorgeous borders now, as then, when composed in the main of modest two-story structures and Mexican adobes. It was then the most unique, whole-souled and interesting place that I have known before or since, and like an honored avuncular of mine, some three or four generations anterior, Natt Macon by name, I have never taken much stock in big to"RTis, holding with him in an expressed opinion in Congress, to all intents, that they foster a greed of pecuniary gain conducive to selfishness and subversive too of patriotism and most other heroic virtues, and thanking Heaven that he rep resented a State that was not blessed, or cursed, accordingly as viewed, with any big towns. Query : Does that fact account for his State having the lowest criminal record up to the war, and the highest war record for the four years to follow ? Or may not those two blessed deterring agencies, the gallows and the whipping-post, have had a hand in the first, and in herent love of liberty, due to pure and unmixed cradle milk from Anglo-Saxon fount, have had much to do with the last statistically esta,blished fact? But I am anticipating. To come back. This primitive tovm, even then surpassing in natural at tractiveness any within memory's recall today, was suggestive of and conducive to the Italian's 'dulce far niente' or Lethean dream life. Mere respiration in such a climate and such surroundings was such a luxury that it was prone to make one, and especially one barely out of the jaws of the [116] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. grim monster, supremely oblivious to all sublunary things beyond. The two chiefest charms of this ideal spot were the San Antonio and San Pedro Rivers, two lovely pellucid streams, having' their source a short distance above the town from immense springs, and rushing through it almost with the velocity of mountain torrents. The population was of a heterogeneous type and varied character, itinning through all gradations, from the lowly 'greaser' to the refined and cultivated gentleman, with the intermediate interstices filled in with a motley crew of professional horse thieves, swagger ing ruffians, and riff-raff generally, whose constant study seemed to be to bully their betters, as far as a discreet regard for their own precious carcasses would permit them to go; a class sui generis. One of this last-named sort had attained to State celebrity in the annals of crime and blood-thirstiness before my arrival. His name, unless mistaken, was Bill Johnson, and he enjoyed the enviable repute with his fellows of having killed seven men in street brawls before reaching the voting age. Bill was a hero in his own conceit and proud of his early acquired honors and incipient fame, as subjoined illustration will show. It is almost a verbatim sketch of a preliminary trial in which he was the principal party and I an interested looker-on. It was so imique and peculiar that it is reproduced in full as to essentials. It took place in the court-house in Seguin. The charge was petit-larceny, brought by a little Irish bar-keeper, who alleged that Mr. Johnson had made over-free with his 'till.' "Have you counsel ?" the magistrate asked. "No, and I don't want any," was the impudent reply; "I always attend to my ovsm law business." Continuing, he added with insolent bravado, walking about the bar in his shirt sleeves, "This is not the first time, your Honor, that I have had to stand trial at the bar of my country; but I am proud to say, it is the [117] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. first that I have ever been called upon to answer contempti- ible, lying charge of that dirty Irish rascal. Heretofore, it has always been for killing my man in fair and honest fight. I have laid out seven of them, and there stands the eighth, as soon as I am out of the clutches of the law." "Sui-e, and it's meself will look after that," was Pat's cool rejoinder. That night a revolver was emptied into Bill's sleeping apartment in the county's free boarding-house; but the fellow's time had not yet come. The next night he was out and off again. A few weeks later he "laid out' his num ber eight (not Pat) in Waco, and the citizens concluding that he had had his full complement of fun, tied a rope around his neck and dropped him out of second story window, and so final exit of this unmitigated young demon. Another incident, a little later on, showing the efficacy of assertive right in checking unsanctioned wrong, and I give the go-by to the whole brood of law-breakers of the most villainous class, believed to be an organized gang of mu> derers, horse-thieves, etc. Indictments, arrests, and legal trials, were regarded by the culprits with comparative indif ference, knowing the saving grace in packed juries with one or more of their pals ever in the panel. Such was the state of affairs at that time, when the cor respondent state followed, usually termed self-protection. Events had culminated to the point of clash, law or no law, and none of our blood can doubt, when reduced to that fine point, what the rendition of verdict would be. Immunity from control had made the law-breaking class presumptuous and ovei'-bold, until one fine day they saw themselves con fronted by a published black-list, containing a few score names of their number, with due caution to keep out of the corporate limits of the town thence-forward, under penalty for infraction. The next day about half their number, armed to the teeth, rode through the streets and with whoops and [118] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. yells bade defiance to all authority. The preconcerted signal soon brought the better elements together, and a squad of volunteers quickly dislodged them from a house of low repute, in which they took refuge behind barricades. Four or five of their number, I believe, paid the penalty of their fool- hardiness. The next morning seven more were found sus pended from a live-oak, just below the town, the coroner's verdict being, "did it themselves ;" probably the most remark able instance of infections felo de se on record. Thence on during my stay, at least, San Antonio was virtually the synonym of law and good order. Comment : Nothing like drastic remedies for deep-seated disorders. In those days it was not deemed a prudent thing for a man to pay an evening call without his faithful revolver, as I had reason to know on more than one occasion. But rele gating the class to which reference is had to the rear, I come now to speak of a different order of beings, men who in the next half-a-dozen years had made and were making imperish able history. San Antonio was at that time the headquarters of the Department of Western Texas, and such a brilliant galaxy of high-toned educated men and lovely and accomplished women has rarely, if ever, been congregated in a frontier town of the same proportions. There was Irvin McDowell, a little later on Commanding General of the Army of the Potomac, where he was overmatched and sent to the rear in hot haste, as was his successor later on, the redoubtable John Pope, of veracious memory, almost on the self -same spot. John was not a fixture on the Staff, being engaged at the time in boring wells on the "Llano Estacado" ; but, to relieve the tedium of such dry monotonous work, he would occasionally run down to the city, where he was always welcome, owing to his geni ality and gift of gab. It will be recalled by some that he usually began his bul- [119] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. letins to the War Office with the grandiloquent caption — "Headquarters in the saddle," until a witticism of old Jubal Early made him the butt of both armies. "Old Abe," quoth that man of emphasis, "must be getting to have a low opinion of our fighting qualities when he sends down a prefixed fool to whip us, one who locates his headquarters where his hind quarters properly belong." Up to that time he had placed General Lee and his army hors de combat two or three times over, according to his own reliable reports. The whole North went wild over his marvellous achievements, and he to well- deserved destruction for trying to scale an insurmountable "Stonewall," which had mysteriously appeared to the rear of his "hindquarters." For all that, he was not a bom soldier in the broad acceptation of the term; he was a fellow of in finite jest, and quaint conceits ; probably, the only man who ever attended his own funeral as a frolic. In his days of drink and youthful indiscretion, (both of which he bravely overcame,) the odd fancy struck him to see how big a mor tuary turn-out his death would call forth. With the assist ance of a brother officer, not exempt from the like amiable weaknesses, all of the ante-mortem preliminaries were duly arranged and the corpse and the chief -mourner were duly in stalled in the hearse, minus the two boxes, vrith curtains down, before the other carriages began to arrive. By precon cert with the final officiate, the procession began to move on time, and tradition (from which veracious chronicled facts are collated) doth aver that it was one of the grandest affairs of the sort ever seen in St. Louis up to that time, but the line of march set at naught the geometrical definition of a straight line. Right angles were made every square or two, for John wanted to see the town and he wanted the toAvn to see him. After pursuing this zig-zag course for some time, a halt was called in front of a saloon by the occupants of the dead-wagon for a little refreshment. As soon as it [120] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. leaked out that the whole thing was a sell and a put-up job, the question was raised amongst the pall-bearers and chief mourners whether it would not be a pity to spoil such a beautiful burying ground for the lack of a real dead man or two. The story continueth that the two funny-fellows came very near supplying the desideratum, and no small amount of diplomacy on a matter of fact, old fellow in Washington, to prevent the removal of two pair of epaulettes from their shoulders. So ran the story five and forty years ago. Major Don Carlos Buell was another member of that staff, and doubtiess one of the brainiest of them all. He it was who, at critical juncture, did the Confederacy most grievous hurt of any other. It has persistently been claimed by one side, and generally conceded by the other, that Grant's army was utterly routed and demoralized when the great Confed erate commander fell at Shiloh at the moment of supreme and decisive victory, thus devolving the command upon an utter incompetent, who obligingly called a halt and awaited the arrival of Grant's indispensable reinforcements during the night. These under Buell, then a Major-General, duly re ported before daybreak and in a trice undid the magnificent work of the previous day, turning a glorious victory into an ignoble defeat. Wellington might have finished his work at Waterloo without Blucher. The possibility of such an out come for Grant on the sequel of Shiloh without Buell is an over-tax on human credulity, even overweighted as the Con federates were in their new Commanding General. Weighed by results, it was the most portentous night march in the an nals of war. Imprimis, as given above, resultant effects, the conversion of the badly beaten general of one day into the over-towering hero of the next, as he continues to be, judged by results. Lieutenant Kenner Garrard, adjutant of the post, as he had been of the corps of cadets in his graduating, and my ini- [121] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEl-LEGTIONS. tial year, was one of the finest specimens of physical develop ment that I have ever seen. Standing bare-foot above six feet in stature, and duly proportioned, he seemed of a verity a modem descendant of Mars or Apollo, or a combination by transmission of inherent traits. His internal organism seemed to be in entire accord with the physique, suave, gran diose, gentle, straight, and straighforward. Our relations on the Hudson were barely of the speaking order; on the San Antonio, they soon grew into intimacy, owing perhaps to a kindred soul. He loathed pretension and sham, as I have always tried to do. As his next friend, I required him to cane his man in public, in order to place the onus of challenge where it properly belonged, and like a man he did it, thus reversing an overwhelming popular sentimental verdict, and better still, eliciting the commendation and approval of the great war secretary of that day, Jefferson Davis by name. Hesitancy in decision would have given the other party choice of weapons, which owing to his mastery of one was tantamount to one-side shooting. The sequel to the story is given in the annexed excerpt from General Johnston's biogra phy of his son. Colonel W. P. Johnston. He became a Major- General of Cavalry, U. S. A., as he would in C. S. A., had he been born a mile southwards. Albert Sidney Johnston, Colonel of the Second Cavalry and in command of the Department, Western Texas, was even at that day a recognized soldier of the highest order of merit. In face, physique and mental acquirement, rarely matched in his awn or any antecedent age. Mild, modest, gentle and reserved, he was, to a degree almost phenomenal in one of his transcendent worth. A fuller synopsis of my estimate of this superb, or to make it stronger, almost matchless character, was published twenty-five years ago in the great biography by his worthy son. Colonel William Preston Johnson, then and to his death, the President of Tulane University, which is herewith reproduced. [122] & AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. It was my proud privilege to be the friend, or rather to be repeatedly befriended by such a man as he was. I loved and revered him next to a father in life, and the admiration grows continually since his heroic, but most unfortunate and ill-fated death. I can but repeat as undoubting what was written a quarter of a century since, that had his priceless life been spared one brief hour longer the Confederate States would have taken their place at the Council Board of nations. Almost as much can be said of the greatest of all lieutenants, Thomas J. Jackson. If tiie end of these two irreplaceable men was ordained above, let us not repine, but who can know until the dark river is crossed and shadows are commingled. [123] CHAPTER XI. EXCERPT FROM BIOGRAPHY WRITTEN BY HIS SON, COL. WILLIAM PRESTON JOHNSTON. "General Johnston's influence with young and ardent men was very great. Two illustrations of this are given by a de voted friend and admirer, whose terms of laudation I have sometimes omitted, though 1 have naturally accepted them as genuine and just. He was the son of a friend of General Johnston, and having settled at San Antonio as a lawyer while the latter had his headquarters there, was at once put upon-f amiliar terms with him and his family. He says : "I regard the hours spent with them as among the happiest and best improved of my life. I have long since recognized that his interest was purely the result of a desire to guard the son of an old friend against the temptations of youth incident to a frontier town. During the two years that I was a con- stemt visitor under his roof he could not have been kinder or more considerate if I had been his ovm. son, as the incidents alluded to will go to show." The writer goes on to narrate how, a personal altercation having arisen between an officer of the Second Cavalry and another person, he was engaged to act as the friend of the former. Unfortunately the correspondence passed to such a point that he felt constrained to advise his principal that, in the event of an anticipated contingency, he must kill his an tagonist on sight, pledging himself to do the same to any other man who should interfere. "That night between ten and twelve o'clock. General Johnston entered his room, and enquired whether he had given such advice. Before answering, my informant asked General Johnston whether he proposed to take official action in the premises. On his replying that he did not propose to [124] GENERAL ALBERT SYDNEY JOHNSTON. AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. avail himself of his position to interfere officiously in the affair, he was told that such had been the advice given. Gen eral Johnston then asked whether he had counted the cost and weighed the possible consequences; and was told that he had, and that he had advised the course that he himself would have adopted if principal, though he knew it must lead to a bloody street brawl. To General Johnston's expressed hope that he might convince him that his action was, to say the least, precipitate, he replied, that he feared the task was hopeless. 'But,' to use the language of my informant, 'he did, at length, succeed, by the mathematical argument of honor and the inexorable logic of the code, in inducing me to withdraw my counsel and leave my friend free to act after a plan which he. General Johnston, suggested. I now know that it was the wisest and best that could have been adopted, and that by its substitution for mine I have been saved a life long term of remorse and self-reproach. . . Not for world's now, would I have had my advice followed. General John ston was probably the one man in the world who could have prevented it, and his arguments were the only ones that could have proved effectual.' Both of these young men at tained high rank and distinction in the Civil War ; the writer of the above in the Confederate Army and his principal in the Federal Army. "The other incident occurred at the crisis of the Nicara gua f illibustering fever, and is narrated as follows by my in formant : " 'A battalion was raised in and around San Antonio to go to General Walker's assistance, and I was waited upon by a committee to know whether I would accept a command. Nothing could have been more consonant to my, feelings at the time; but, for some reason, I demanded until the next day before returning an answer, suggesting, in the mean time, to swell the numbers by additional recruits. [125] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. While that was going on that night quite briskly in the plaza. General Johnston came along, and, taking me by the arm, asked me to accompany him out of the crowd. " 'Then turning to me, he desired to know whether it was true that I proposed going on such a wild-goose chase. On being told that such was my intention, he replied : 'My young friend, think tvrice, and think seriously, before taking this step; because, in all likelihood, it is the turning point in your life.' " Admitting that in youth the impulse was natural, and re ferring to analogous cases in his own career, he continued: "The days of Quixotism are past, and with them the chance for name and fame in all such enterprises as this. The age is materialistic, and he who goes about in search of windmills and giants is apt to be considered a fit candidate for Bedlam. The question, however, wears a moral aspect, which should be duly weighed and considered. Is there any material dif ference between the filibuster and the buccaneer? Tell me not of philanthi'opy as a plea. I say of it as Roland's wife said of liberty : 'Alas ! how many crimes are committed in thy name !' Beside, if you are pining for adventure, you will not have long to wait. Liberty and Philanthropy are at work and in a broader field than yours. Fanaticism will soon bring on a sectional collision between the States of the Union, in which every man will have to choose his side. When it comes there will be no lack of blows, and may God help the right ! Then give up your present project, and wait. Go to Austin and enter on your profession there. "I will give you letters which will insure you advantageous business connec tion there." By these arguments, here given almost in his very words, and similar ones, he again induced me to defer my wishes to [126] AN AUTO OF HALF A OENTUEY AND MOEE. his judgment and I have never regretted the decision. The letters I have now. "Permit me to say, in conclusion, that I have never known the man who held in such nice equipoise qualities akin and yet in a measure antagonistic — the genial and reserved, the gentle and the grand, the humane and the historic. He would have gone a day's journey to reclaim an erring brother, and would have turned out of his path to avoid crushing a worm ; and yet he would have sacrificed his life and all he held dear in it rather than deviate one hair's breadth from the strictest line of right and duty. "There was no cant in his composition, for he was a cava lier of the straightest sect ; but I have never met the man who combined in himself more of the elements of a follower of the Unerring Teacher. In his company the humblest felt at ease, and yet a crowned head would not have ventured upon a freedom with him. In the course of an eventful life and ex tensive travel, I have come in contact with many of the his toric personages of the day ; and yet I scruple not to say that of them all, but three, to my thinkingj would stand the test of the most rigid scrutiny.* Of these by a singular coinci dence, the Colonel and lieutenant colonel of a cavalry regi ment in the United States Army, afterward respectively the ranking officers of a hostile army, Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee, were two; the third was Mr. Calhoum *" 'No time-serving or self-seeking entered into their cal culations. Self-abnegation at the bidding of duty was the rule of their lives. Could our much maligned section lay no further claim to the consideration of mankind, the fact that it produced almost in the same generation, such a triumvirate, typical of their people, is enough to place it among the fore- * Ex-President Davis being still in the flesh, prevented this number being extended into a quartette. [127] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. most nations of the earth in the realms of thought, honor, patriotism, and knightly grace. "Colonel Wharton J. Green, of North Carolina, some an ecdotes from whose pen have already been inserted in this memoir, in a letter to the present writer says, in regard to General Johnston: " 'Portray him as he was — great, good, single-minded, and simple. He was the devotee of duty, but disposed to soften its asperities to others. His was a character with few counter parts in ancient or modern story. It has been said that the noblest eulogy ever written consisted of a single word — 'the just.' All who ever knew General Johnston will confirm that he was as well entitled to that epithet as the old Athenian, and, coupled with it, to another, 'the generous.' "Talleyrand's saying, 'No man is a hero to his valet,' is true in the main; but General Johnston would have been a hei'o to his very shadow. Those who knew him best admired him most. His peerless, blameless life was long enough for glory; and but one brief day, perhaps one hour only, too short for liberty. One hour more for him in the saddle, and the Confederate States would have taken their place at the council board of nations." [128] CHAPTER XII. One of the most marked and remarkable characters of that time and section was my honored old friend, "Bigfoot Wal lace." The presumption is that that was not his Christian or baptismal cognomen, if he ever had one, but it was the only one by which he was known throughout western, if not all, Texas, and universally respected wheresoever known. Peculiar and sui generis he was, above all men that I have known in life. Uncouth in garb and oft in speech, his simple word was more than tantamount to hosts of sworn witnesses in rebuttal. Get drunk he would occasionally, it grieves me to say, but drunk or sober, he could not tell a lie, or act one either. Essentially peaceable by nature, there was not a blus tering' bully in all those parts who would venture to encroach upon his inherent rights. Living ten or twenty miles from other habitation, hostile savages would give his cabin twice that space to shun its lone occupant, for well they knew bv hearsay that in it hung a score or more of their scalps as wit ness of his prowess and unerring aim with the finest make of rifie then known. They soon learned to regard him as the bearer of a charmed life, as the wiliest of their tribe laid down theirs to compass it. He was as foreign to fear as to false hood, avarice, or duplicity. He was one of my father's old campaigners, and ever held him in special regard, which was transmitted to the son upon first acquaintance. A distinguished legal friend of the place, Hon. John A. Wilcox, told me repeatedly that from extended correspond ence with parties in Virginia he was absolutely convinced that "Old Bigfoot" had a fortune awaiting him in that State, ranging from fifty to a hundred thousand dollars, only requir ing proof of identity and a few technical formalities to place him in possession, and yet for the life of him, he could not 9 [129] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. induce the bull-headed old fool to go out and take it. Intimat ing that perhaps I could succeed better, I tried my powers of persuasion on old "Bigfoot" but with like result. Here is the purport of his reply : "Yes, I know it was there, waiting for me to go and take it, long before Colonel Wilcox told me about it. Why don't I go and get it? Simply because I don't want it. What use would it be except to make me miserable 'I I'm tolerably well satisfied over yonder, be yond the Medina, by myself. My rifle and traps furnish all I need for meat, and the peltries my other little wants, such as powder, lead, coffee, salt, and a little dram when I run down here every month or two to see you town fellows. What more does a man require to make him happy ? And yet you and Jack Wilcox, both my friends, would have me break up a life that suits me and take to one that I hate and despise. A big house, a big drunk, and a big fool all combined, with lots of pretended friends as long as the money held out. Wouldn't I be a pretty d n fool to make the swap ?" I was compelled to assent Let others regard him as an unadul terated fool, to me it seemed then, as it does now, that he had in his mental make-up many of the essential elements of the true philosopher — a true copy of Byron's Boone, one of the gems of tiue poetry. Of all men, saving Sylla the man-slayer, AVho passes for in life and death most lucky, Of the great names in which our faces stare. The General Boone, back-woodsman of Kentucky, Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere ; For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he Enjoyed the lonely, vigorous, harmless days Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze. Crime came not near him — she is not the child Of solitude. Health shrank not from him, for Her home is in the rarely trodden wild. Where if men seek her not, and death be more Their choice than life, forgive them, as beguiled [130] AN AUTO OF HALF A CEUTrTUEY AND MOEE. By habit to what their own hearts abhor, In cities caged. The present case in point I Cite is, that Boone lived hunting up to ninety. And w^hat's still stranger, left behind a name For which men vainly decimate the throng, Not only famous, but of that good fame. Without which glory's but a tavern song — Simple, serene, the antipodes of shame, Which hate nor envy e'er could tinge with wrong ; An active hermit, even in age the child Of nature, or the man of Koss run wild. And so on through four or five additional stanzas. Such was "Old Bigfoot !" It was current report about that time that, single-handed, he once took the trail of a band of hostiles returning from one of their periodical forays in the white settiements, and after following it for days like a sleuth-hound came up with and panicked their bivouac at the dead of night, killing and scalping, the last a point of conscience with him, three of their braves and capturing a half grown buck, whom he tied to himseK, dos a' dos, on horseback, and took home with him, assigning as motive that he needed a young nigger to "tote" wood and water for him in his old age, but was too poor to buy one. On being cautioned as to the risk he ran in sleeping in the same room with a young rattlesnake, he quietly replied : "Yes, I know the vermins never go to sleep ; but I always do with one eye open and my "bowie" for a bed fellow." Wonderful to tell, this implied claim to superiority of race was tacitly admitted by the improvised "nigger" be fore he gave Marse Bigfoot the slip and went back to his own people, probably to exploit his educational progress in civili zation. The thought has forced itself both then and since that this simple, confiding soul, who, to my honest belief, had never done aught to injure either, had himself in early man hood been victim to over-confidence in man or men, or most [131] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. likely to woman, and so in sheer distrust of all had resolved, from over sensitive and high-wrought nature, to cut aloof from mankind and betake himself to the wilderness. Church history leads to inference that if so, he was not the first to seek heritage under kindred impulse. A word by way of explanation or apology. It has been in timated that when my old friend came to town, which was usually every month or two, he sometimes forgot himself by taking an extra potation or two during his brief sojourn, but he never forgot that he was the inborn gentleman that every body believed him to be. But once in the saddle, and his face turned homewards, and after getting there, no powers of persuasion could induce him to touch the bottle. To all such solicitation, his invariable reply would be: "No, Big- foot's got a scalp on his head, and he's got to keep a level head to keep it there." That argued that he carried a well-balanced head. The last I have ever heard of this eccentric, but most remarkable man, was his presence as an honored guest at a banquet of his old San Jacinto comrades and compatriots, al most in the shadow of the Alamo, I think about fifteen years ago. He must even then have been hunting up to ninety. If, since then, he has passed over the river into the happy hunting-grounds beyond, let us trust that he and his life-long foemen of this side, the Comanches and Apaches, left their animosities behind them, and are now smoking "the pipe of peace" together over the river. Without any intimation to bear it out, it is my belief that he was a trusted scout of that congenial spirit and highest type of the natural soldier in all history — Bedford Forrest. It would have been a suitable culmination for loftiest heroism to have had Bigfoot for his ferret on the trail and movemeiiw of hostile leaders, whom he utilized as stepping-stones for the attainment of his heroic ends. [132] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. Apropos, an anecdote of that phenomenal leader of heroes, which comes well authenticated. In Wilson county, already mentioned, there lived in war-times a worthy old lady by the name of Whitehead, who, gauged by the Napoleonic standard, was probably the greatest woman in the world. She had nine teen sons under the greatest of cavalry leaders, and would have made the twentieth of the tribe by her own voluntary enlistment had she not been debarred by age and sex. On being asked by the parson, on her thought-to-be death-bed, if she didn't want to meet her Saviour, she replied with honest simplicity : "Yes, I don't mind to, but I'd rather meet Old Forrest." That evidenced the hold and confidence he had upon the people of his State. It has ever since been one of my regrets that our acquaintance was but casual. A hunting excursion on which we were together, just be fore quitting Texas, calls for a passing notice. Lieutenants Chambliss and Van Camp, old acquaintances, who were sta tioned at Camp Verde, a frontier post some hundred miles northwest, were in the city for a brief visit on official duty. They insisted on my returning with them, holding out as inducement a big hunt and good fishing . Of course, there was no resisting such arguments. So one fine morning we started betimes, the two dragoons in ambulance and I in the saddle on old Jim, of rattlesnake and run-away recall. We were hardly on the road before Chambliss, who was a superb horseman, began insisting on our swapping locomotion. Of course, the fear expressed that he couldn't ride Jim only made him the more pertinacious for display of his horseman ship. At last, the wished-for and suitable time for gratifying the young man arrived. In the dim vista ahead a long dark moving line appeared in view, like a wounded snake drag ging its slow length along, and sympathy went out forthwith toward that ambitious cavalryman, for well I knew that it was one of Mr. Secretary Davis' camel trains returning to the [133] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. post with supplies, but Jim didn't take it in, and neither did the- man in the wagon. Waiting for it to come up, I told Chambliss that out of pity he should bestride Jim for a few hours. Easier said than done, for that equine kept peer ing up the road as if looking for a mighty python, all the time snorting like a porpoise, and like that would-be amphib ious fish, trusting that its name and attributes are correctly catalogued, making constant and futile efforts to quit his nor mal element by repeated plunges into the one above. "What's the matter with the fool ?" came the inquiry. "He thinks, old boy, you do not know how to ride one of his mettle." "Well, I'll undeceive him," came the reply, as he at last got in the saddle and drove the spurs up to the rowel. "Keep a taut rein, Cham, but give him his head," was my parting injunction as the noble animal darted off like a Congreve rocket. Horse and rider had nearly all reached the tail end of the caravan, imited as one, when on the instant came a halt which came near dissevering their mutually repugnant and enforced connection. Each was covering himself with glory until such proximity was reached, and Jim's organs of eye, ear, nose, brought him to a full and momentous stop. Fortunately, his long mane saved his upper-story companion from a fall and enabled the equine to take in a momentary survey of the sit uation, and plan his sequent course of action. With a loud snort and a fresh accession of crazified panic, he darted off at right angles to the road, and made such time over that prairie as Flying Childers the Godolphin, or Timoleon, could not have matched over the same course in their palmiest days. Those uncouth creatures with jingling bells and waddling locomotion, and their attendants, no less strange and more weird when singing one of their monotonous love-songs in chorus, were too much for Jim's nerves, and hence the sequel preliminary. [134] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. In fact after much reflection on the subject, I have come to the conclusion that that animal was subject to fits of tem porary emotional insanity, as the lawyers call it, and hence was in no wise responsible for what he did at such times. Chambliss was evidently of the same opinion, barring the extenuating clause, and further, that this was a very acute and aggravated attack, for when Van and I came up vrith them an hour or two later, he had dismounted and was read ing Jim a moral lecture on immoral depravity, or vice versa, savoring more of the reputed emphasis to which our army in Flanders' was addicted, than of the euphonic modulations of Attica. His last remark of expostidation that reached us as we came in ear-shot to that interesting colloquy between him and that hard-mouthed, self-willed brute,, was, in effect, if not in words, as foUoweth: "You are the blankedest blank fool that I ever saw in my life," which showed that he too regarded Jim as non-compos. In response to protest against his having overtaxed poor Jim in his mad ride over the prairie, he replied with acerbity: "Well, unless Van is fool enough to try him, you'll ride him yourself from here to Verde. I wouldn't back him again if you'd give him to me as inducement for doing it." In due time we arrived at our destination, eind were warmly welcomed by Major Innis Palmer, commandant, then Major by brevet, and later on a Major-General of "the blue," and his accomplished wife. Subsequently I rented his lovely home for a year or two while in Congress. In hot haste a big lump of cold substance was unblanketed from the wagon. Palmer had a green vegetable in his garden and the other concomitants in his closet. Surgeon Smith was as high au thority on juleps as on jalaps, and for long had filled the learned professorship of intermixture in that quiet, secluded institution. No vile new-fangled heresies, such as crushed mint, lump ice, shortage of "poteen," found favor in his eyes [135] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. or place in his brew. Like Father Tom, of blessed memory, he held with autocratic tenacity, "that after the other compo nents of a hot punch were duly compounded, you add the wather, and, may it plaze your Riverence, every drop of superfluous wather you add spoils the punch." Perhaps we youngsters, Chambliss especially, didn't relish that Olympian potation, see N. P. Willis for origin of the adjective, and North Carolina for its nativity, after our long, dry, hot ride. A replica, however, failed to evoke a health to his John Gilpin charger referred to. One day as we were all sitting on the piazza, one of the Arabs came up and announced with the nonchalance of a canine obituary : "Doctor, me kill Yuseff." The tour of in spection which we made with the Doctor to the camel-yards showed that the swarthy Ishmaelite was not yet "kilt entirely" by his numerous and well meant knife thrusts. Whether he lived to see the sands of Syria again is more than I can say, as we started on our big hunt next day — big in preparation, but little in results. Besides the officers of the post, the party embraced Major Beall, the paymaster of the department; a man laconic of speech he was, but far-famed for emphasis of expression, with a liberal admixture of causticity when excited, as the younger members of the party soon found out. Two four-horse ambu lances supplied transportation, with an escort of a dozen troopers at a reasonable distance to the rear, and Bigfoot as gTiide and provider of fresh meat. The first day out, near the ford of a little creek, he rode in and remarked that a big fight was going on some where near between a king snake and a rattler. Of course, that had to be investigated as none of us had ever seen the two in conflict. Although it was fully one hundred yards off, one of the combatants made such a racket with his tail in the dry leaves that we were easily guided to the baltle-field. It was indeed a sight worth seeing. [136] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. The gentleman of the castanets, an immense fellow, whom we estimated later on to be over five feet long, was in the death grapple of his puny foeman, not over half in length, and in girth about the size of my digit finger, and seemed as satis fied with the situation, coiled around the neck of his big an tagonist, as a modem mercenary belle might be supposed to show when hustled about the shirt collar of a spindle-shanked, vacuous million-dollar dude ; or, to amplify the intensity of crushing devotion, a millionaire title-huntress dawdling over the frills of a blase Cossack or Italian count, a Dutch, French or Spanish baron, or a Turkish vizier with three tails and thirty antecedent spouses. Such attachments are, doubtless, intense until cut short after closer union in the divorce court, or by the tongue of scandal. But here was an absolute em brace for life, on the part of the king-snake at least, regardless of the wishes of the would-ba divorce. Even now I regret to say that a ball from my revolver involved them both in a common fate, after enjoying the performance over half an hour. It is my deliberate . opinion in recalling that combat, that the king-snalie, man's self-constituted little champion, ought never to suffer harm at his hands. Bigfoot told us that night over our pipes that the most interesting part of such fights, one of which he had seen, is the preliminary preparative. "All venomous reptiles," he ad ded, "have an instinctive terror of the 'king,' while he, regard less of under-size and weight, like a bull-terrier, the gamest thing that walks, is all the time on the lookout for a big fellow to knock the chip off his shoulder, or otherwise provoke hos tilities. Well, one day when after a buck, I heard a rattle near my big toe and stepped back to shoot the 'critter,' when a little 'king' darted fonvard and gave me to understand that it was his fight and he didn't want any outside interference. So I turned it over to him, and quietly awaited results. I have heard of you soldier fellows before a battle trying to [137] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. get the advantage of 'posish' over each each other before hit ting out, but here was what you call strategy of the native sort, unlearned from books. It was easy to see that the big one was badly hacked from the start, as he raised his head about six inches and kept his eyes on the other no matter where he'd go. It was no less evident that the 'king' was play ing to throw him off his guard for an instant in order to glide upon him at the right moment and take him in his deadly embrace before the other could strike. Finally, after making repeated circuits about him just out of his reach, now at a dead-march gait, and tben with lightning speed as if try ing to make him twist his own neck off. In due time the opportunity came, and the 'king' seized it and his big enemy at the same time. You have seen the battle that followed up to the finish, or rather just before the big fellow was finished." That evening our camp was pitched on a little stream where trout and deer each had the repute of normal habitat, but it grieveth me to say that neither the vesperal or matuti nal board gave evidence of either. Milk and fresh butter we did have in abundance, and a bit of quiet and perhaps equiv ocal fun supplied by the pay department. Its representative prognosticated a dearth of catch and kill and declined to go with us, remarking that Bigfoot had told him that a couple of old ladies lived hard by, the last on the line of civilization, from whom he could procure milk and butter ; but he had for gotten to add that they had two large ferocious dogs, their sole protectors. As the good Major approached the cabin these bounded out at him, and before they could be called off one had bitten him through the left hand. Like the true man that he was, he resisted the natural impulse to shoot his as sailants out of deference to importunities of the poor old woman. He returned to the camp laden down with the lac teal products that were showered upon him, but likewise with [138] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. ill concealed anxiety for the consequences. Somehow, after his wound had been cauterized and dressed, and supper eaten, conversation seemed to take a hydrophobiac turn or trend, much to the disgust of the man of Uncle Sam's money-bags. Each had a gruesome story to tell of the dormant vitality of the detestable microbe, or latent mad-dog germ, keeping quiescent for months and years before ulterior development. Perhaps that paymaster did not anticipate time and go mad off-hand. It was a thoughtless cruel jest, and should not have been indulged. Of course, though, his madness was only metaphorical. Heaven forefend that the last kind has ever developed for it has been my bete noire through life, more dreaded than upas-dipped arrow, or the tooth marks of a rat tler, cobra, or tarantula, a pitiable admission that — for a bom dog-lover. In due time we returned to Camp Verde, and I, a day or two later, on to San Antonio, where letters were awaiting me urging a family reunion for the summer at the White Sul phur Springs, Virginia. [139] CHAPTER XIII. Taking steamer at nearest point, Indianola, if memory is correct, two days later we landed at New Orleans, and the next day started up the river on the famous old "Eclipse," which then eclipsed every inland steamer afloat. It had been virtually chartered by a gay and rich young party of Mississippi planters with a corresponding number of young ladies with their chaperons and fine band of music, likewise on their way to the White Sulphur. Chancing to know two or three of the crowd as old University friends, I was soon brought en rapport with the entire party and the time passed in dancing and jollity all the way to Memphis, where I had to leave them, while they kept on to some point farther up the river before taking rail to our mutual destina tion. In disembarking an unfortunate mishap befell me in full sight of my late compagnons du voyage. Taking a seat m an omnibus already crowded to repletion, when it turned around, it came near spilling us all into the Mississippi river after rolling over two or three times. Perhaps the accident did not afford merriment to the merry-makers aboard when they saw me emerging from the buss all covered vrith mud. Arriving at the "Old White," I was considerably taken back on discovering that my father and family had not put in their appearance, especially as I was on my last ten dollars. I found a letter, however, directing me to join them at the North Carolina "White Sulphur," or famous old "Shocco." After the summer season was over, my father engaged the famous old ]Montmorenci, belonging to a particular friend, Mrs. Mary K. Williams, where the intervening cold seasons were passed until my wedding day rolled around on the 4th of May, 1858. My bride-to-be was the only daughter of my honored step-mother by a previous marriage with Mr. John [140] AN AUTO OF HALF A OENTUEY AND MOEE. S. Ellery, of Boston, as I was the only representative of my side of the house. It was a home affair, and if not a brilliant one, it was certainly numerously attended, for father, unbe- knowing, had given informal word invitation to all our friends and acquaintances around about us, and mother had been busy in the culinary department preparing roast turkeys, barbecued pigs, etc., so that when the eventful day rolled around, we saw Warren County roll up. So, if it was not a brilliant wedding, it was one long to be remembered in old Warren. After the ceremony my wife and self at once took the train for New York, with her cousin. Miss Addie Currier, accompanying us. A month later we took a steamer, "The Africa" for an extended tour abroad. After doing, as the modem phrase runs. Great Britain, France, Germany, Aus tria, and Italy, it was determined in family conclave to take in the land of the Pharaohs, and so we took steamer at Naples for Alexandria, and on arrival, a Nile boat for the Nile trip, then something to be talked about, and the most agree able one that I have ever passed. The old monuments, tombs, and other reminders of the long-forgotten past, are left to other and abler pens. The day we started there came a down-pour of rain, such as I have never seen before or since, and the concentration of the seven years proverbial drought, to which this country is subjected from the Hebrew boy Joseph dovm. to that identical day, for I was told before starting that there had not been a rainfall in Cairo for seven years preceding. As our Nile boat had been exposed during that entire time to the scorch ing rays of a tropical sun, it may be supposed to have leaked. No ! leak is not the word. It poured down as if there had been no sham protection over our heads, and during the entire day we were like a pack of drowned rats. I shall not undertake to describe the pyramids, obelisks, [141] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. tombs and other monuments of that wonderful ancient land, as they have been better portrayed by tourists of a previous age and by guide-books of the present. Suffice it to say, that all of these were of the cyclopean order, and nothing puny except the present. The banks were lined with the villages, composed of miserable mud hovels of the fellahs, scarcely rising to the dignity of dog-kennels in more favored coun tries, and all along the shore could be seen the poor creatures drawing the water with swoops to irrigate the land. My crew consisted of fifteen half -clad Arabs, including the reis or captain ; their gibberish was incessant, and with their monotonous songs utterly unintelligible. Let it be here pre mised, that before starting I had observed on the upper deck a pile of some twenty or thirty bushels of coarse brown bread, and upon inquiry was told by my dragoman that it was for the use of the Arab crew. Upon asking what they had to eat with it, the answer came: "Nile water." And do the poor things never get meat ? "Only when their employers give them an occasional sheep." As that animal could be bought for only thirty or forty cents, I directed. him to give them one at the next halting place, and every other place thereafter when we tied up for the night. "Senor," came the reply, if you do, we will soon be left without a crew, for in a week the poor devils will eat themselves to death." Well let us begin at the next tie-up. On returning from the village, with an Arab leading a full- grown sheep with one hand and carrying a large kettle in the other, he told the reis that it was a present to the crew. He then told me to take out my watch, and see how long it would take them to eat the sheep. What ! You do not mean to say, was my reply, that they are going to devour it at a single meal ? "Si, senor, and if you had not tasted meat for half a year, you would probably consume your full share at the feast." Upon the signal being given, the animal was [142] AN AUTO OF HAEF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. killed and stripped of his fleece in a trice and thrown into the kettle, and shortiy after pulled out, and before it was well cooled off they began tearing off the flesh in great chunks by the handful and devouring it like hungry dogs. To the best of my recollection, the perfonnance was over within one hour and a half from the time the sheep was stuck, and not a vestige of it remained except the bones. But it was not over yet, for every one of them, with their faces all smeared with grease, had to come up and kiss my hand in token of gratitude. This was but one of a dozen of like votive offerings that cemented our friendly relations before getting back to Cairo. A dollar back-sheesh effectually sealed it. It should have been premised, that before separating seven of the poor creatures petitioned through an interpreter for me to buy them and families as slaves. Surprised at the strange request, I inquired the motive in preferring it, and this, in substance was the answer : First, to escape the army, of which they stand in mortal dread; second, to have a protector; and next, to have something to eat. We hear that you own slaves in your own country, and we naturally assume that if you will give us meat, who are entire strangers to you, every two or three days, you will do as well or better by us if we be longed to you. Nothing but dread of the penalty attaching to a breach of the African slave traffic prevented my closing their voluntary contract for voluntary life servitude on the spot at a scudo, a head. After the war, I had a correspondence with the State War Department, through the Assistant Sec retary, Mr. Fred. Seward, on the subject, and while he admit ted that it would have been no infraction of the slave traffic to have brought them over as represented, still there was no telling how soon I might have been required to have retrans- ported them, and so he advised against running the risk. I thought then, and am sure now, that it would have been to our mutual advantage had the trade been consummated. [143] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. To show their dread of the conscription, or forced service in the army about every third young man that I met while in the land of the Pharaohs was deficient of either their right eye, the dexter finger of the right hand, or two or three front teeth, each of which barred the use for fire-arms in the army, and had been infiicted by their ovm. mothers to keep them out. The horrible mutilation had reached such a point that Mehemet Ali took a very effectual way of preventing it in the future by organizing a corps of lancers who, he jokingly re marked, did not require the eye to take aim, the finger to pull the trigger, or the teeth to bite the cartridge. It is needless to say that the foresight of this illustrious semi-savage had the desired effect. In due time we reached Karnak, the seat of ancient Thebes, and spent a week in exploring the place, making our excur sions on the little donl?;eys of the country. The heat was so intense that although it was only February, starts had to be made by day-break, and once upon reaching the necropolis we were compelled to take refuge in one of the tombs, Ben- zoni's I believe, until near sundown before starting back to the boat. These tombs, by the way, cut out of white calca reous limstone in the sides of the mountains, and some of them running back for over a hundred yards, are one of the great attractions of the whilom himdred-gate city. The grand hall of the great temple with its one hundred and twenty stupen dous columns, each carved out of a single piece of granite, is another great sight, an imperishable monument. Giving the vocal statue of Memnon and its companion of the plain the go-by, we made preparations for the return of our trip. Before starting a young English nobleman. Lord Rendlesham, I think the name, who was traveling with his tutor after leaving Oxford, and vrith whom we had got ac quainted, came aboard and said that he was going to return next day, and proposed that we start at the same hour; and [144] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. to make the trip a little more exciting, further proposed that we lay a wager of ten guineas upon who should first reach a designated point below, Aziout, unless mistalven. To which, upon my assenting, he came on my boat the next morning and handed me the amount lost, proposing at the same time that we double the bet down to Benisoef, I believe, the next prominent point below, to which I again acquiesced. On reaching there, I had to wait an hour or so for his Lordship to come up. Again he handed me the amount he had lost, and and asked, somewhat in a spirit of bravado, "Do you dare double the last bet, on first arrival to' some point lower down ?'¦" naming it. Upon my consenting to do so, he requested that we delay the start for a couple of hours, as he wished to go up into the village for a short while. Upon his and the parson's return, they had a dozen new Arabs at their heels. Seeing which, my dragoman advised me to cancel the last wager, as it was evident he had a relay of rowers to tire us out. Not consenting to this, I went on board his boat and gave him to understand that I was cognizant of what was going on, but would, nevertheless, consent to the last wager standing — on one condition, and that was that regardless of winner or loser, it was to be the last bet between us, which he agreed to. Again he consented, and again I had to await his coming up. I should have said that before starting yesterday, I went to my crew and gave them an insight of the whole matter, praising their fortitude and endurance, and promising each a scudo extra if they should win the race, and a glass of Cognac each to brace them up. To a man, they responded with alacrity, only requesting, through the interpreter, not to pass the grog until the old reis went on the upper deck to say his prayers, thus proving that despite the Prophet's mandate against strong drink some of his followers are not averse to disregarding it. I believe that when my Anglican arrived the next morning 10 [ 145 ] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. he had to write his name on a slip of paper, to be presented at the bank of Cairo, and so the cost of my excursion on the Nile was virtually defrayed by a stranger. I do not commend my example to others, and especially to young men, for I have always detested gambling, and despised gamblers, but, like Harry Warrington, I was here betting, as it seemed to him and to me, for the honor of the country. Upon arrival in Cairo, I went to our Consulate and was handed a large batch of letters from home, including a letter of credit from the Messrs. Baring in renewal. Upon return to the hotel, we made inquiry for Captain Marshall, formerly of Boston, and were told that he was quite sick but desired to see me. Going to his room, he remarked with the languor of a dying man : "I have been quite sick since you left for jour trip up the river, and the doctors tell me that unless T can get out of the country before the simoon sets in a week hence, my life will be the penalty, but unfortunately I am out of funds. Could you, without inconvenience to yourself, cash my check for fifty pounds ($250) on Baring Bros., which will be paid on presentation ?" As he had previously given me satisfactory references as to his identity, I cheerfully acceded to his request, and furthermore asked him if he would not like to have me sleep in his room on a cot, in order to attend to his wants dm*ing the night. "No," he replied, "no, I will not put you to that trouble, but if you wake up during the night I would like for you to look in to see whether T am dead or not." This I promised to do, and did. On arrival in Paris, I enclosed his check to the Barings. "No funds with us, and if he is the man we take him to be, while he is of a good family he is, nevertheless, one of the most unmitigated and systematic swindlers on either continent, liv ing on the credulity of his countrjTnen." Such I found him to be and here hold him up to the scorn and execration of the traveling public as a rogue void of shame and of conscience. [146] to AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. Shortly after arrival in Paris I had ordered a set of expen sive diamonds for my wife, but as the day of departure of the steamer drew near, not receiving a renewal of my letter of credit, I felt in an awkward dilemma. The first thing to do was to wait on the diamond merchants and state the tiue condition of the case, adding that I was expecting funds by that mail, and asking if they could not turn the jewels over to me in Lon don, offering to pay the traveling expenses of their agent and, if necessary, the English customs dues. To my surprise and extreme delight, they made not the slightest objection to the proposition, but promptly replied that the casket would be handed to me at my address in London three days from that time, and free from customs duties, as was done. Thereupon I telegraphed my old friend Major Leon Dyer, a retired banker of large means, living in Frankfort-on-the- Main, requesting him to meet me in London the next day and let me have a requisite amount, in case of delay in remit tance. His answer was: "Your telegram found me on a sick bed, but I will join you in London as requested." This he did but was put to needless trouble, as a letter from the Barings was awaiting me at my hotel, stating that they had ascertained my identity and that I could get the amount requested by calling at the bank. This I mentioned to Major Dyer, but he remarked that he had taken the needed securities from deposit and that it would be an accommodation if I would take them at their market value, which I did and so reported at the bank. By the way, a word about this good friend and accomplished gentleman. As a boy he had headed the mob which tore dovm Reverdy Johnson's house in Baltimore a few years previously. Being compelled to fly to escape arrest, he turned up in New Orleans, and although then a man of large wealth he en listed in the army, in order to avoid further trouble vdth the authorities, and vrith his detachment went to Florida in the [147] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Seminole war of that day, where he quickly attiacted the notice of that gallant old soldier. General Gaines, then in command of that department, who gave him the highest non commissioned rank at his disposal. When my father was raising his brigade in New Orleans for the Texas army. Gen eral Gaines requested him to give him an appointment on his staff, which he did, and thereby made a fast friend of the young man to the end of his life, as the following incident will show. Computing the interest on his advance and likewise travel ing expenses, with a view to making a draft at thirty days to cover the same, I handed it to him for his approval. "What is this ?" he said. Upon being told, he tore it up, remarking : "I will have you know, young man, that your father's son cannot pay me interest. He found me an enlisted man in the army and gave me a commission, thus giving me recognition among gentlemen, and I have loved him as a father from that day to this." He further said that he had brought along a landscape gardener whom I had engaged on my way through Frank fort, as his body-servant, as he had to smuggle him out of Germany because the Franco- Italian-Austiian war was then going on and all German subjects were liable to immediate conscription. Shipping him to my commission merchants in New York, I directed them to express him to me dovra to Warrenton. This they did by sewing a large placard on his back. Being at the White Sulphur vrith my family, on his arrival my fatiier turned him over to the 'Duke of Glouces ter,' an old beneficiary of mother's whom she had bought out of charity on the death of his old master, Dr. Brodies, met amorphosed from a driver into a gardener. As illustration of the old maxim — two of a trade never agree — Gloucester was working up in one comer of the garden, and the Dutch man in another as far removed as it was possible to be. First [148] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. addressing Gloucester, I asked him what he thought of the new gardener that I sent down to help him. Looking around suspiciously and putting his hand up to his mouth, he re plied dogmatically: "Marse Wharton, he is the damnedest fool tiiat I have ever seen. Why, sir, he can't talk; I hol loas at him as loud as I can bawl, and he don't understand a word I says." In extenuation for Dutehie's colloquial pow ers, be it said that when he and I were signing a life contract the previous year, I voluntarily increased his price $50 a year on condition that he would never attempt to speak Duteh while on my place. But came the reply : "I can't talk any thing else." "Then keep mum until you have picked up a littie good old-fashioned English." As a consequence, probably no son of the 'Vater land' ever made better progress in our ex pressive tongue than did Heinrich. It grieved me much at the end of the year to have to cane and dismiss him, on being told that he threatened to shoot me if I did not mend my ways to suit him. I heard later on that he had gotten to be a professor of modem languages in some learned Northern college. As he claimed to be a graduate of a famous German University, his dismissal was probably tantamount to pro- motiom It should have been said that before leaving Cairo, we took a day to run out to Suez to see the spot where Moses and his cohorts made their famous passage across the Red Sea. In the middle of the desert, and at a one-room station, a young man, apparently about twenty, got in the compartment with us, and spoke to me in orthodox English. On my ask ing where he was from and what he was doing out there all by himself, he replied : "I am from Marengo County, Ala bama. When sixteen years of age my father thrashed me, as I thought without cause, and I ran away from home ; went down to Mobile and shipped before the mast. On arrival in London I found employment in the telegraph office, and a [149] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. little later on, when it was determined to send a number of us boys to do service in Egypt, I was selected to fill out the com plement Shortly after, I fortunately attracted the notice of the Khedive, who appointed me superintendent of all the tel egraph lines in Egypt." Expressing doubt by a look of in credulity on my countenance, "Indeed," said I, "and what is your salary ?" "Five-thousand dollars for the first year with a promise of increase at the end of that time, if my work is satisfactory." On reaching Suez, he was met at the train by about a score of young fellows of his own age, who treated him with the greatest courtesy and deference. My doubts as to the truth of his story had about vanished. After get ting dinner, he and some of his comrades came around to the hotel to escort us to the return train to Cairo, on reaching which I ask my landlord 'Who is in charge of the telegraph lines in this country ?' "Why," said he, "a young countryman of yours who is but a mere lad." I have frequently wondered what was the future outeome of that precocious youngster, for that he had a future in store I did not doubt. The return trip was far from agreeable, for although there were double panes of glass on the windows, a heavy wind storm filled our compartment so full of fine sand that it was almost impossible for us to breathe. Before reaching the journey's end, a beautiful gazelle jumped up and went bound ing over the sandy waste. We were ensconced on board one of the 0. & P. steamers bound for Marseilles, after touching at Malta. After reaching that place, our vessel was ordered into quarantine as it was claimed it was from au infected port. While waiting, there was ample opportunity to admire the beautiful harbor, including the Chateau d'lf, from which State Prison Dumas' hero — Monte Christo — made his in credible escape. The thought of all was that we were in for a confinement of thirty or forty days, but we little reckoned [150] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. of what was supposed to be an idle boast on the part of an English Baronet, who was on his way home from his regiment in India, He persistently said that he would have us admit ted to "Pratique" as soon as he could communicate with the Emperor, for he added, while the Emperor was in exile in England, he used to pass days and weeks with me at my country home, and all who know Louis Napoleon will attest that he never forgets a friend or a Idndness." Most of us had retired when there was a great uproar on deck, and the cry spread that the Emperor had admitted our vessel to 'Pratique,' which meant that we could go ashore whenever we pleased. There was no more jest or ribald laugh at the Baro net's expense. He had suddenly become a hero. With the rising sun there was hasty disembarking. After two days' stay in that city, we turned face to Geneva where a week was passed in and aroimd Lake Leman, and then back to' Paris, which was in a state of frenzied French excitement, as the Emperor was to start the next day to take command of the Allied Army in Italy. He passed just below our window on the first floor with his lovely wife, the beautiful Eugenie, by his side, and the procession halted for a minute, which gave good opportunity to study his inscrutable face and char acter. It was an intellectual physiognomy, and almost pre pared me to believe what the Hon. William C. Rives told me just after his return from Paris, where he had been serving as the American Minister at tlie Imperial Court, that he re garded the then head of France as the brainiest hearl in France, if not out of France, he added. Unfortunate, he doubtless was, but never a weakling. A few days later we saw Her Majesty, good Queen Victo ria, going' in royal state to open a parliament of her great country. Having previously had, unsolicited, the blessing of [151] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Pio Nono, it may be said that we had seen the three Govern ing Rulers of Europe. A few days later we were on board the "Persia" in the Mersey (a vessel of 3,000 tons) then accounted the largest steamer afloat, with one exception. How it pales in the shadow of the 15,000 tonners of this day. A pleasant company and a delightful passage home we had. Verily, as Parson Jas per so forcibly expresses it, "the sun do move," and he might have added — and so do the earth. On reaching New York we proceeded the next day to Bos ton, where the oldest child, Sarah Wharton, now Mrs Pem broke Jones, was bom at our country place in Jamaica Plain on the 19th of July, 1859, whom, when she was a month old, we brought to our North Carolina home, "Esmeralda," in Warren County. Everybody seemed glad to see us back after a fourteen-months absence, and glad enough we were to get back. We all had had a surfeit of foreign lands and foreign customs. The next two years gave unmistakable portents of the great political storm which was brewing. While every one felt the gravity of the occasion, few cared to avert it by truck ling submission to dangers more to be dreaded than war. Still our fields were cultivated, and the social amenities like wise, as if not realizing that the brink of revolution was im pending. The summer of 1860 was passed at the White Sul phur, Virginia, and never was there a larger or gayer crowd at that far-famed resort. It seems wondrous strange, in view of subsequent events, that the South should have been appar ently so callous. A strange eventful period it was, on the eve of the most momentous epoch in the world's history. For the next few months, the South throughout its borders was organizing, arming and equipping, for the inevitable conflict. With scores of others of Warren's yo'ung sons I was enrolled as a high private in the Warren Guards, and [152] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. I am proud to be able to state that the gallant company was one of the first three to report at the camp of organization in Raleigh. Three companies unanimously expressed their preference for me for the Colonelcy of the First North Caro lina Regiment, for which I am, and always will be, duly proud and appreciative. Colonel, afterwards General D. H. Hill, than whom a braver, more skillful and tactical offi cer figured not in the war to follow — a few at the top alone, perhaps, excepted — received the coveted honor. Resuming my place in the ranks, I went with the com mand down to Norfolk, then daily threatened by overwhelm ing odds. While drilling and preparing for the coming clash at Camp 'Misery,' as the boys familiarly dubbed it, news reached me that I had been designated by General Henry A. Wise to be a colonel in his Legion, as then known. The appointment was not only unsought but entirely unex pected, yet nevertheless appreciated, for regarding General Wise as one of the foremost political thinkers of the time I was simple enough to give him the credit of being a great incipient soldier. The outcome, like that in many other political appointments, proved the prognostic to be rather illusory. But straighway getting my discharge from the twelfth North Carolina Regiment, I set to work to raise one of my own. The last official act of North Carolina's initial great war Governor, John W. Ellis, was to give me an order for seven hundred and fifty Enfield rifles, the only ones that re mained in North Carolina, if not in the Confederate States, and, of course, their possession was much sought by com panies throughout the State. I soon had seventeen tendered me from which to choose my ten, but while organizing at the new fair grounds in Richmond, news came that his successor, Henry S. Clark, had arbitrarily taken my guns and given them to another. The announcement fell like a thunder clap, [153] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. for there is no concealing the fact that his action was a death blow to my fondest aspirations. There was no resisting the impulse of going to Raleigh and telling him, face to face, what I thought of his high-handed act. This was done in his office, in language more emphatic than diplomatic. There upon appeal was made to the Legislature for the redress of the grievance. Not having other guns to give me to supply the place of the Enfield's taken, that body unanimously voted me $50,000 to purchase arms wherever they could be found. The finding, unfortunately, was the chief difficulty, for they could not be found. Resolved, however, not to be kept out of the unpleasantness by the want of shooting utensils, I at once set to work to sup ply the deficiency with double-barrel guns. Fortunately, glo rious old John Leteher, the then war governor of Virginia, came to the rescue and gave me an order for three hundred old-fashioned flint-lock muskets, which were quickly altered by the Government into percussions. So that, if we were not armed and equipped after the most approved fashion, we, nevertheless, had guns that would kill, and trusted that after the first battle our friends, the enemy, would supply us with better. I am proud to say that there was no higgling or com plaining on the part of my gallant command on the score of indifferent equipment, and furthermore that, after supplying each man with a warm overcoat, over one-half of the amount advanced me was later on returned to the State treasury. Before the regiment was completed, I was ordered to Wil mington to await the arrival of the other three companies, hav ing only seven, numbering in the aggregate about seven hun dred and fifty men. The accomplished gentleman. General Anderson, was in command at that place. Shortly after arrival I received a long, rambling letter from General Wise, telling me to report at once with my command at Roanoke [154] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. Island, as he was convinced that that would be the next point of attack, Hatteras having already fallen. On asking Gener al Anderson when I could proceed to obey the order, he re plied : "If you attempt to do so at all, I will put you under arrest. Inasmuch as you came to me by direct order of the Secretary of War, no less a power has any right to diminish my force by taking you away." I then requested permission to despatch my next in command. Major Mark Erwin, to Richmond to get the requisite permission to move at once to Roanoke Island. His reply was: "Yes, Major Erwin can wait on the Secretary of War in regard to the matter, but he will take my protest against your being moved away from here, as my force is totally inadequate as it stands." I then asked him if I might not prefer a personal request to the War Office, to go as directed by ,General Wise, to which he assented. On the third day Major Erwin returned from Richmond with an order from the Secretary to proceed at once to the designated point. Breaking camp on Masonboro Sound, where we were stationed, we proceeded at daybreak the next morning to Wilmington to take a special train to Weldon, which was as far as could be supplied. Arriving there, I was under the necessity of impressing transportation to Norfolk, where we reported to General Huger who assigned us quarters, remark ing that it would probably be a day or two before we could proceed, owing to the scarcity of transports. On the second day we did, the General cautioning me to keep a sharp lookout on the captain of the tug, as he was suspected of being in sympathy with the enemy, and might give me the slip and run over to Fort Monroe and impart dangerous information. To keep him in touch and my eye upon him, I went on board the tug with Lieutenant B. P. Williamson, now of Raleigh. About midnight on the night of the 7th of February, while [155] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. a cold drizzling rain was in progress and the waves run ning high, he rushed into the cabin to tell me that the enemy's boats were approaching, having previously called a halt on the pretext that he had lost his bearings, was in shallow water, and was liable to run aground at any minute, advising me to anchor where we were until day-break, and pledging him self to land us on the island in three hours thereafter. His fright, real or pretended, called to mind General Huger's cau tion to keep an eye on him, and I exclaimed: "Yes, you traitor, and you have signaled them!" As I said so, he jumped to the door and made a hasty retreat around the side. Grabbing my revolver, I started in hot pursuit, re solved to shoot him as soon as within reach. He rushed into the pilot house, and pulled the door after him as I grabbed the knob to pull it open. I, fortunately for him, stepped on a round stick of wood and fell baclavard into Croatan Sound. The night was dark as erebus, the waves running high, and to make matters worse, I had on a thick blanket overcoat and a pair of heavy alligator shoes into which I had hastily pushed my feet. It seemed as if there was no escape, and no bottom to the water. Rising to the surface I dropped my revolver and kicked off my shoes as I looked around to catch a glimpse of the little steamer, but not a sign of it could be seen as I had ordered all lights to be put out on it and the seven trans ports in tow. Then came the rapidity of thought, of which we are told, in a moment of extreme danger. Reasoning that inasmuch as I went over backwards, the boat must needs be in the opposite direction, I struck out at haphazard to try and reach it, and was just about exhausted as I did. Throwing up my hands, I barely managed to get the first joints of my fingers over the sides, but was utterly unable to pull myself aboard. Calling for help, the man whose life had been saved by the mishap, camo to the rescue and took [156] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. hold of both my wrists, after inquiring spasmodically where was the revolver. On being told it was at the bottom of the ocean, he still evinced no intention of pulling me aboard. Con vinced he was debating in his own mind whether to drown me or not, I called to Williamson: "Hurry there, as that Yankee dog is about to drown me !" Of which purpose he dis claimed the slightest idea. Gretting me on deck, he exclaimed, "There is no cause for alarm. Colonel, for they are Confed erate boats." Upon asking how he knew, he replied — "They are burning wood, instead of coal," as proved to be the case when some six or eight little gimboats passed within hailing distance, but showed no disposition to stop or to heed my ap peal for a pilot, when told who I was and my condition. The thought has more than once obti'uded itself since, was the mishap a providential interposition or otherwise ? It probably protracted the creature's worthless life, and saved me a lifelong term of self-reproach, but cost the young gov ernment millions of dollars in invaluable stores and muni tions when the evacuation of Norfolk began, as he then desert ed oni his little boat and carried tlie much coveted news to the Fort., which necessitated the loss by fire or capture of said stores. Still, it would have brought misery home to have shot him under prematm-e misapprehension. As I learned afterwards, they kept on to Elizabeth and burned their boats. After drawing off and begging or buy ing a pair of old shoes from one of the men, I was delighted to see daylight appear, and immediately got under way, reach ing the island in the time the fellow said we would. Throw ing the horses overboard to swim to the shore, the men jumped in and waded out, when ammunition was at once distributed, preparatory to my reporting to General Wise, as was sup posed, but he was over on the mainland at Nagshead, while Colonel Shaw, of the Eighth was in immediate command. On reaching his quarters he said everything had been [157] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. lost. Asking how many men had been killed on our side, he gave a ridiculously small number. Upon my asking him if he was going to surrender the most important point on the Atlantic Coast and send in such an insignificant mortuary list, he replied: "What do you advise?" I then told him I had seven hundred and fifty fresh troops just landed, and pledged myself to hold the advancing foe in check if he would collect the scattered troops and come to our assistance, which he promised to do, and sent Major Webb as guide to point out the road thiit they would be likely to come on. Before proceeding a half mile we came in full view of their advanced regiments, which were driven back on their main support, with heavy loss, as we later learned, and the Sec ond Battalidn in that brief space sustained a heavier loss than any other regiment had in the twoi days' fighting. While in the line of battle awaiting their return, and looking back ward in expectancy of the promised succor. Lieutenant Col onel, afterwards Governor, Daniel G. Fowle, went by at a fu rious pace, waving a white rag and bawling back, "Don't fire any more, the island is surrendered !" Indignant at the needless loss to which I had been subjected under the promise of reinforcements, I marclied my command back to headquar ters and demanded permission to return to my boats with a view to escaping to the mainland. The reply came: "If you do so, it will be at your peril, as I have sent word to General Hnrnside that the island and all on it was surrendered to over whelming odds." A few days late.r with all the other troops on the island, we wore marched on board the steamer "Spalding," to be carrif^d, as was supposed, to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, but General Bumside, whom I have ever found a courteous gentleman, determined to keep us there in the hope of in ducing his government to consent to a release on parole until [158] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. an exchange could be effected, which was done some week or two later. Just before leaving the camp a laughable incident occurred at my expense. My body-servant Guilford, who had belonged to me for years before, and has been with me ever since, be gan blubbering on a high key. In reply to the question of some of the Federal officers: "What are you crying about?" he said: "You are taking Marse Wharton off to jail where he will have to take care of himself, and the Lord knows that he never did know how to take care of himself." A few days after that he was a party to an exchange, probably the first and last in which two of his race participated. Bum- side coming on board one day, sent for me, remarking : "Col onel, your negro man is bothering me to death to let him go with you to prison, and to get rid of him I have brought him over with me and turn him over to you. I will take it as a favor if you will induce your War Secretary to give me up mine, who was captured at Bull Run." The arrangement was duly effected. I venture to give another anecdote of this faithful sersant and devoted friend, who was afterwards cap tured with me in the wounded train on the retreat from Gettysburg. After General Bumside had returned to shore, Guilford requested me to move to the rear of the vessel out of earshot of others, which was done. Coming up, he looked around suspiciously to see that no one was near by, and then began mysteriously : "Marse Wharton, I have a piece of infor mation that might be of great service to our folks if you are exchanged before going to prison.'" He then proceeded to tell me that the day before, on his daily visit to the Command ing General to press his request to be allowed to go to prison with me, the latter said he couldn't see him then as he was busy, but to come back later and we would hear what he had to say. Then the following: "As it was rather warm I tocik a seat on the ground, at the back of his headquarters, [159] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. and soon saw a number of big generals coming up and, as I supposed, entering. My curiosity was aroused to know what was going on, so, shutting my eyes as if asleep, I kept my ears open and on the stretch, for I soon gathered that it was a counsel of war, as I believe they call it, and were talk ing about where to strike us next. General Foster, as I took him to be, was for moving on Norfolk at once and taking it on the land side, while their ships should make a pretense by water from Old Point. All the small-fry generals thought that a good plan, but General Burnside upset it, when he up and spoke and said: 'Gentlemen, we have got to starve these people into submission, and here's how I think it can be done. Eastern North Carolina is the corn-crib of the so-called Con federacy, and if we hold the key, they cannot get into it. Therefore, my advice is, let us take Newborn and hold it as the base of operations.' It is needless to say his counsel pre vailed." Commending him for his connected story, I told him that when we were sent home on parole, as was now pretty well settled would be the case, my hands and tongue would be tied, but that his would not, and gave him this command : "When you get to Norfolk, call on our old Colonel, Sol Wil liams, of the Twelfth, and repeat to him in confidence what you have told me, and ask him to take yoti to General Huger and vouch for your reliability ; or if he is not there, to our old Captain, Ben Wade, of the Warren Guards." This was done, and General Huger praised him highly for his report, saying that he would send it at once by special messenger to the War Office. I am unadvised if tliis was ever done, but do know that the battles at Newborn and above were fought a few days later on. He passed into my possession by purchase from my cousin. General M. W. Ransom, who he has ever believed, and will die believing, was the biggest man that ever set foot in our State, "always excepting Marse General Jackson, who everybody knows was the best judge of good horses, good [160] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. hounds, game cocks and game men, that ever lived, Marse Jeff Davis, Marse Robert Lee, and General Forrest, coming next." Such was the report given long afterwards by one of the best men that ever lived in the world, Dr. Frank Patterson, as the two old night owls would sit over the midnight camp fire discussing men, measures, and metaphysics, when the rest of the camp would be wrapped in slumber. It is need less to say that his pre-eminent hero was not he of the foot cavalry, but the one of the cotton bales, both being of kindred taste and proclivities, that is, he and Guilford. The cham pion of the valley would never be accused of any or either of the enumerated weaknesses, always barring the last, for he ever held in highest admiration game men, especially if they were fleet of foot on the approach of a fight. Therein 'Hick ory' and 'Stonewall' were in such close touch and unity of ac cord, that they might easily have been confounded as double first cousins, owing to the identity of family name and the significance of nickname. These and other stiiking traits in common were so marked that I can't help believing that they must have had a close common grand-father in the 'ould country.' Observe, a common nationality and a common re ligion, hard-shell, hard fighting, imperious, self-wdlled Presr byterians, both as brave as Caesar, as alert as the leopard, but self-restrained self-counsellors, each permeated by the same instinctive love of fight that possesses the bull-dog or the game-cock, but holding native instinct in subordination to reason, both imbued with the same sublime love of truth, respect for women and love of children, and utter detestation for falsehood, hypocrisy, or double-face. -I tell you, gentle men, that these two great soldiers, sagacious citizens, and good men, must have been close aldn. God shrive the sins of each, and bless them both. Selah! To recur to the transfer of ownership, let it be said that it was the outeome of simple charity on both sides. He had 11 [161] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. inadvertently, fallen in love with Melissa, my wife's dress ing maid and needle woman, and as the two plantations lay in separate counties, it was a more difficult feat than Leander's for man and maid to get a glimpse of each other until the Gordian knot was cut in manner stated, and eight or ten grown up and well-to-do children attest the honesty and sin cerity of their devotion through near half a century. By such change of proprietary possession, a faithful servitor and devoted friend fell to my lot, while my honored kinsman could but feel well content that he had received as equivalent the biggest purchase money in all probability ever paid for 'the brother in black' in our State, if not in any other. Another little anecdote illustrative of the fidelity of some of that race, and which has its humorous as well as pathetic side, and we pass on. Major Erwin had as attendant a strong able-bodied man as black as the ace of spades, who had been raised with him, and who held him in heart love and proof against wrong or ill doing. Reaching Norfolk in a drenching rain on our way to the island, we found an aide of the General awaiting to pilot us to our quarters. The Major was exceed ingly sick, and I told him to remain on the ferry-boat until I could send down a conveyance for him. This, however, was unknovsm to faithful Jason, who, when he saw the com mand moving off, concluded that "Marse Mark" was being left, and wouldn't be able to take part in the approaching fight. So, shouldering him bodily, he came trudging on with his load of love and duty at the rear of the column. After the surrender, Jason hit on a novel expedient for replenishing his master's wardrobe, as will be seen. Just after reaching Elizabeth City on our return home, and after the prelimi naries of parole had been complied vrath, Jason, who by some means, best known to himself, had slipped through on one of the exchange transports, beckoned the Major aside, while unwrapping a newspaper package which he had car- [162] AN AUTO OF HALF A OENTUEY AND MOEE. ried with fond tenacity under his left arm. "Marse Mark," he began, "see what I have fooht you," as he displayed a splendid broadcloth overcoat, fresh from the hands of "Snip," and which had evidently seen very little rough service up to that time. Anticipating fulsome coinmendation on his 'cute- ness,' poor Jason was utterly surprised and nonplussed to hear his beloved master explode in a cyclone of oratory for which he was State wide famous, modulating emphasis, as here given. [163] CHAPTER XIV. After being duly paroled at Elizabeth City, we took up the line of march to our respective homes as prisoners of war, pledged not to take up aims again until duly exchanged, Nor folk being the first objective point to respective destinations, where transportation was furnished. There we were com pelled to remain in inglorious ease until called to Richmond a short while afterwards to take place in line again, a cartel of exchange between the two governments having been agreed upon. During those days events of greatest moment were trans piring. Great batties were being fought and won, and great men dying. Well do I recall my father's coming into my room one day, and remarking: "My son, we have won a great and glorious victory in the West, but it has been a dearly purchased one for us, for the price we paid for it was the incomparable Sidney Johnston, who fell in the veiy zenith of decisive victory." Like Mr. Davis, my father had a due appreciation of that illustrious man, and thought that his loss was tantamount to twenty-thousand men. Apropos, an anecdote which Mrs. Davis gave to me herself shortly before the President's death : "My husband," she said, "having heard that General Johnston was on his way to Texas from California, had grown most restive and impatient at his non-arrival in reach. Confined to a sick bed, he had constantly exclaimed: 'Why don't he come, why don't he come? Finally, the news reached Richmond that he had arrived, after incredible hard ships in his perilous ride from the Pacific, in San Antonio. It found my husband on a sick bed and grown very petulant by reason of anxiety, which was relieved on the instant by [164] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. the welcome news of his having reached our purlieus. For the next day or two he was exceedingly cross and, as I thought, unreasonably so, crying out continually: "Why don't he come, why don't he come?" I was inclined to think it the outburst of delirium, when suddenly springing up in bed, he exclaimed : 'There he is ! there he is ! Let him in at once ! Why don't you go and open the door ?' Taking in the drift of his thoughts, I rushed down stairs to the front door, and there stood General Johnston. His first ex clamation was 'How is he ? how is he ?' And the next instant he was making his way up stairs, two or three steps at a time. On my reaching our room, there the two stood, clasped in loving embrace in each other's arms." Call it prescience, instinct, or what you will, it was cer tainly wonderful that the almost imperceptible footfall on the front piazza had imparted to his Chief the news of his arri val. He was at once nominated to the chief command of the Confederate Army and assigned to the Department of the West, whither he started after due deliberation and in structions from President Davis, Bowling Green, I think, being his destination. It is now knovra that his force and resources were totally inadequate to meet the enemy in his front. Forts Henry and Donelson fell in quick succession, thus necessitating our falling back into Tennessee. On reaching Nashville with a remnant of his improvised force, he found the whole country in a state of clamor against his retention in command, every one, from the Legislature down, being in a state of outery against his being kept in command. Such wasi the condition of affairs as he moved on south to place the Tennessee River between himself and the ad vancing enemy. Such was the condition of affairs whilst reorganizing his force, when the enemy, under command of [165] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. General Grant, also crossed the river and halted near the bank, little dreaming that the fugitive Confederate chieftain would, at the opportune moment, turn and give him a crush ing blow, as he did, but, unfortunately for the young gov ernment, as the price of his priceless life. It is now a matter of historic record that the Federal com mander and his cohorts were utterly routed, demoralized, and in flight, seeking refuge under the banks of the river, when that unfortunate event happened. The sequel followed, as a matter of course, when his successor called a needless halt in the rich camp of the enemy instead of pushing him to a final finish, as Sidney Johnston would have done had his priceless life been prolonged for a few brief hours, and as Bedford Forrest would have done had the command de volved upon him as his successor. Before morning of the next day General BueU, vrith over whelming reinforcements, arrived on the opposite bank, and by sunrise had his command transported over and himseK placed in touch with the lately routed Federal commander. The result was, as might have been seen, the relinquishment of all of the advantages, gained the day before and a total reversal of the situation. Such was the most momentous and ominous event that transpired in those days of our brief, but enforced, inaction. I here repeat, as my deliberate conviction, the statement pub lished by his illustrious son. Colonel William Preston John ston, that had he lived for one brief day, aye, an ho-ur only, the Confederate States would have taken their place at the council board of nations. Not to have had the honor of being his successor would I, for one, be willing to shoulder the res ponsibility of that extraordinary and needless outcome sequent upon the fall of that great commander. As Presi dent Davis said to the Committee of the Tennessee Legisla- [166] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. ture, that waited upon him to insist upon his displacement as being unfit for the command: "If Sidney Johnston is not a soldier, God help us; if so, I am fully persuaded that we haven't one." During the interim alluded to was fought a naval battle which may be said to have revolutionized marine conflicts ever since — the famous fight between the "Merrimac," on the Confederate side, and the "Monitor," on the Federal. The Confederate government took an old hvJk of one of their war vessels, which was burned on the evacuation of Norfolk by the enemy, and improvised it into a rough iron-clad. Even before completed, it steamed out in Hampton Roads in full view of Fort Monroe and grappled with three or four naval vessels of the enemy, destroying two of them — the "Consti tution" and the "Congress," and would doubtless, have in flicted much greater damage had not a strange looking craft, at this particular juncture, hoved in sight and compelled a cessation of the havoc, compelling the other (the "Merri mac,") to haul off and return to Norfolk. It was, doubtless, a novelty in marine conflict, that momen tous struggle between these two odd-shaped crafts, which has left its impress upon all subsequent marine conflicts from that time to this. But for the opportune, or inopportome, ar rival of the "Monitor," fancy is left in doubt as to what would have been the ultimate damage that would have been in flicted by the old 'turtle,' as it was facetiously dubbed, owing to its unique and peculiar appearance. A short time later on, it was deemed advisable to blow it up owing to an insuffi ciency of water to take it up to Richmond, and thus another of the fondest dreams of the young government went up in smoke. On being exchanged and reporting with my command iu Richmond for orders, 1 was told to piteh camp at Drury'^ [167] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Bluff, a most important defense point, owing to the pre cipitous bank overlooking the James from the south side, and to report to General Junius Daniel who was in command at that place. Here I was doomed to undergo another griev ous disappointment, as on the reorganization I was defeated for command and one of my captains was elevated, for brief space, to' my place. Returning home, I prepared at once to return to the ranks, resolved to do my duty in some capacity in the mighty con flict. Before doing so, a strange coincidence took place fo? me. I was nominated for the State Senate, and, without counting the soldier vote, which was cast a day after the ap-* pointed one, was defeated by one vote; but, counting the other, was elected by some two or three hundred majority. Resolved to remain in no civic position during the struggle, I voluntarily relinquished the election to my competitor, Dr. Drake, and proceeded to Goldsboro to enlist again as a pri vate soldier. General Daniel, however, insisted upon my taking an hon orary appointment on his staff, preliminary to providing for me in a more substantial manner. It should have been said that during the same time an election was held in the old reg iment, for Colonel, the Twelfth North Carolina, and I was placed in nomination, without my knowledge, and again came within one vote of an election, making the third time up to then that I had been beaten by a single vote ; the other in stance being, as stated, for the Presidency of the Jefferson Society at the University of Virginia — 'a remarkable coinci dence, it be confessed, to have thus lost promotion on three different occasions by a single individual vote. During those days troops were moving in all directions, full of hope and enthusiasm, and long before, the commonest necessaries of life had run out, to be supplied by that mother [168] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. of invention termed necessity. From the Government down, it was illustrated in full. In the beginning, everything had to be improvised, from a percussion-cap to a constitution, powder works and ordnance factories, and those for small amis had to be gotten into shape on the spur of the moment, and well the deficiencies were supplied. Homespun was the universal wear for our women, and they wore it with pride and uncomplainingly, and never looked more lovely in the eyes of the men. Sorghum was the only substitute for sugar ; all sorts there were for coffee, with no complaining from any one. Patriotism and enthusiasm supplied the place of lux uries. It was imdoubtedly an epoch of the grandest self-sacrifice for what they believed in that any age or any land ever knew. Glad I am to have lived in that era and played my little part, for it was one of glorious patriotic self-sacrifice for opinion's sake. The remark is applicable only to the South ern contingent, for at the North never were wants more readily supplied, and in greatest abundance, thus opening the door to the inconceivable fortunes and boundless luxuries that have followed in that quarter. Shortly after reporting, our brigade was ordered and moved on to Little Washington, then threatened by the enemy, camp ing just below Greenville. The next day General Daniel and I went dovsm to General D. H. Hill's headquarters. Be it understood that Little Washington was then in pos session of the Federals and running short of provisions and munitions, and our movement was to prevent these being thrown in from New Bern. To do this, we had erected a little fortification at a narrow point of the river (known as Fort Hill) to prevent the passage of their gunboats in rein forcing the town. Generals Hill, Daniel, and Beverley Robertson, Colonel [169] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Bridges and myself, rode down to see how the garrison were deporting themselves. The enemy's gunboats, some seven or eight in nmnber, were lying just out of reach of our little popguns, but placing us in easy range of theirs, and they were shelling us at their leisure and to their hearts' con tent. Up to that time, however, none of our men had been wounded, but we had not been inside over ten minutes before one of their large shells exploded just to our rear and a ten- pound piece of it knocked me over. After being carried to a farmhouse a mile to the rear, the other gentlemen passed me on the return, and General Daniel promised to send my old surgeon (Dr. Patterson), then his brigade surgeon, down to look after me that night, which he did some three hours later. The next morning I was re moved back to headquarters, where I found an indefinite fur lough awaiting me from General Hill, he supposing that I would not be fit for duty for a long time to come. On reach ing home the next day, I went into ordinary for three or four days, but fearful that the town would fall during my absence, started back on crutches, allowing just one week after having left camp, much to the surprise of my friends. In the meantime. General Foster had passed our obstruc tive point with reinforcements and munitions, thus rendering abortive the object in view of keeping them out. Each com mand was then ordered to return to their respective starting points, Kinston being ours. Nothing of interest occurred uiitil a combined movement was made for the capture of New Bern, where the enemy were entrenched in force. As the country surrounding is of a low, marshy condition, and there had been continuous rains for many days anterior, the men were up to their middle in water most of the time. By misadvertence on our part, the Federals were able to concentrate their gunboats and be prepared for the attack, which was to have been a surprise, and so, like the King of [170] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. France and his ten thousand men, we had nothing to do but to march back again, the difficulty being to find a dry spot upon which to lie down. General Hill was the only one in the command who had tent and camp equipage along, and he kindly invited General Daniel and myself to share it with him, which was most gladly accepted. Shortiy after, the brigade was ordered to move up to the Rappahannock and report to General Lee. Daniel, who was an old West Point friend, remarked to me at dinner: "It must be close on to a hundred miles between here and your house. Arei you willing to make the journey for the privilege of staying one night at home, and report day after tomorrow in Richmond ?" My reply was an immediate command to Guilford to sad dle the horses at once, which he gladly did, as his wife, as well as mine, was back on the plantation. That afternoon we made some thirty-odd miles and were kindly entertained by a vridow lady and her daughter, starting the next day by sunrise. We reached home the next day about dusk, much to the surprise of all the family, having made, by close compu tation, ninety-three miles from the start. My mount was the finest animal that I have ever seen under saddle, and made his five miles an hour throughout without breaking a walk, whilst Guilford's was kept in almost a continual trot in order to keep up. The next morning we were again on the road for the Warrenton depot en route to Richmond. Rejoining the Staff there, we pushed on to Hamilton's Crossing, a few miles short of Fredericksburg, where the command lay inactive until the order came to take up the line of march, for what destination no one knew with cer tainty, but some surmised that the Potomac, if not the Fed eral Capital, was the point in view. It being the latter part of June, and the hottest spell of weather that I have almost [171] . EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. ever seen, the troops suffered intensely on the march, faint-, ing in numbers by the roadside. On reaching Winchester we were advised that the enemy were in force at tlie little village of Berryville, a few miles farther on, aud General Rhodes, the division commander, was ordered to push on and intercept tlieir retreat This was near being accomplished, but the officer in command at that place, the notorious Milroy, one of the three generals who were outlawed by President Davis for their brutal and unsoldierly conduct (Butler and Turchin being the other two) , was able to effect his escape. On entering tiieir camps, a fine young New Foundland dog became my property by capture until both he and I were recaptured on the night of July fourth, on the retreat from Gettysburg in the wounded and ordnance train. Crossing the Potomac the next day, we moved on to Hagerstown and went into oamp for two or three days to enable the scattered commands to concentrate as directed. A laughable incident might be recorded upon our entering the toAvn of Front Royal, the people of which were frantic with delight at seeing "the boys in grey" onice more. General Gaston Lewis and myself were riding near the head of the column when we saw two ladies vdth pails of buttermilk at the front gate, who asked us to talce so^me of it Every old soldier knows that such an invitation could not be refused, and whilst partalcing of their generous hospitality our brig ade passed by, and some fellow in line sang out: "Come out of that, you know you have got a wife and , baby at home; and if you don't, I'll tell on you." The vile outery was taken up and continued until the last man of Daniel's brigade had passed, much to my confusion, one of the young ladies remarking — "I need not ask which one of you it is, for your coun tenance has fastened it on you" (pointing to me). [172] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. While halting in Hagerstown an old friend and connection of mine. Judge Alvey, gave me an invitation, to be extended to the rest of my immediate friends, to come and take dinner with him and his family the next day, Sunday. He was just back from Fort Warren, where he had passed an en forced sojourn owing to his strong Southern proclivities, and his good wife was much concerned lest our hobnobbing with her illustrious husband would not send him back there as soon as we should leave. "But, my dear madam," was my rejoinder, "we have no idea of taking a back track across the Potomac; we have come to stay." And such was the feeling of the others. Alas! in some two short weeks her appre hensions were verified, and that superb army was re-fording the river back into Virginia ; but it was not permitted me to be of the number, as I was unavoidably detained and held in durance vile for nearly two years thereafter. Greencastle was our next halting place, for a day or two, where it seemed that all of the Pennsylvania Dutch for a hundred miles around about had come to look glum at our audacity in venturing so far in their midst. Riding into town with my old friend. Colonel Mercer, we stopped at the house of one of these and called for a littie liquid refresh ment, which, on being produced in a wash pitcher, Mercer poured himself out a bumper, and was about to toss it off when I cautioned him to hold up, remarking I had heard that when in the enemy's country and partaking of his hos pitality it is advisable to make your host drink the first toast, concluding with the invitation: "My friend, kindly drink to the health of President Davis, General Lee, and the Confederate cause!" The poor Dutehie's countenance fell at once as he replied: "I have not drank the viskey for twenty years or more!" Mercer's suspicions were at once aroused that he had put a sweetening in it not conducive to sanitation. Taking out his revolver, he said: "If you have [173] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. not drank the 'viskey' for one hundred years, you shall drink that toast!" To which the poor fellow rejoined: "Oh, do not shoot me ; I vill drink the toast" ; and after inviting the Colonel to join him in a stirrup-cup, gave us each a bottle to take back to camp. Mercer and I were, doubtless, the avant couriers in that hostile crowd, and felt no compunction at the enforced hospitality to which our Pennsylvania friend was subjected. The next day Ewell's corps moved on to Carlisle Bar racks, then a Federal post, but which had been evacuated upon news of the approach of unwelcome visitors. The next day being Sunday, it was resolved that the Stars and Stripes, which had been cut down from the fiagpole, should be re placed by the Stars and Bars. The pole was replaced with the young fiag floating at the masthead. It would seem that if there was ever opportunity to let fall a flow of elo quence, it was on that auspicious occasion, but there was no adequate response from any of our distinguished leaders to calls made upon them, thus showing that heroism and oratory do not always go hand in hand. During the night courier after courier was delivering mes sages in hot haste to General Ewell to move back in the direc tion of Gettysburg, as the enemy were concentrating in force in that vicinity. This was done without needless delay, a halt being called for the night at the little village of Heidlers burg, located some ten or fifteen miles from another village, about to be made immortal in the conflict then to follow. As illustrative of the futility of dreams, visions, and por tents, I was aroused by a dream or premonition that a mighty battie had been fought and that I was one of the earliest vic tims. Shaking off the fancy as a baseless fabric of a vision, I turned over and went to sleep again, and again it was brought home in renewed force, and so, I think, a third hallucination followed. My eyes were strangers to sleep the [174] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. rest of that night, and when the next morning we were told by our Brigadier that probably the decisive battle of the war would be fought that day, the dreams of the night before were brought home most forcibly, intensified by each rever berating gun as we neared the field of conflict. The brigade was drawn up in line at a no remote distance from those of the Federals, who at once began to shell us. The order was given for the command to lie down, and here exploded perhaps the most destructive single shell fired dur ing the war. While General Daniel and I were holding our horses some six or eight paces in front of the line, it fell just to our rear. My recollection was that it killed and dis abled eleven of my old command, but Dr. H. T. Bahnson, then perhaps the youngest boy in the battalion, now one of the leading physicians of North Carolina, corrected my recol lection by saying that thirteen were rendered hors de combat. After an interchange of an artillery duel for a short while, the command was deployed preparatory to a charge. I was ordered to go with the right wing of the command, and when we were about half-way to the enemy's line the order came for us to lie down so that our guns in the rear could play upon them; then came the command "Up and charge !" Suddenly we were on the brink of a chasm in the railroad since knovtm as the Deep Cut, when the enemy opened on us with both field pieces and small arms, and before it could be prevented the men were jumping down into the Cut with the view to scrambling up on the other side, which was found to be impracticable owing to the pre cipitous sides encountered. To make matters worse, some masked guns opened an enfilading fire, which was most de structive. It has been stated that Daniel's brigade lost more in that death-trap in fifteen minutes than was lost by any other brigade in the three days' fighting. Advising Colonel Brabble, the senior officer, to face to the [175] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. left, clear the defile, fall a few paces to the rear, reorganize, and then charge, it occurred to me that then was my oppor tunity to offset my own loss, which was deemed inevitable. Taking up a musket, I managed with difficulty to crawl to the top of the embankment, and saw the enemy drawn up in line about a hundred yards in front, behind an old Virgina worm fence. They soon began to advance, but with no alacrity for the work. Seeing a field officer in front, urging them on whilst waving his hat, the thought occurred that his loss might be of considerable advantage to us in checking the advance. He fell on the instant, which occasioned a momen tary halt, and letting myself aloose at the top, recovered an upright position at the bottom, but in a dilapidated plight. A jutting root or jagged rock caught in my breeches' leg and tore it from the bottom to the top, losing hat also in the fall. On recovering an upright position, I was knocked down again almost immediately afterwards, either by a minnie or piece of shell, when my old Adjutant, Austin Green, rushed up and supported me to the rear, advising the field hospital as soon as it could be reached. Reaching my horse, which had been left in the reai', I mounted and started back for it, arriv ing some twenty minutes later. Already the ground was covered by the wounded and mangled, while three of the Medical Staff, including Dr. Frank Patterson, the brigade chief of that department, were hard at work, their coats off and sleeves rolled up, to stem the torrent of death, having a couple of impromptu tables for operating purposes. They were an honor to the profession, those three noble gentiemen. For two or three days ensuing there was no relaxation, or let up, in their gruesome work, if even a slight snateh of sleep. The pile of amputated limbs were rapidly increasing in size, but still they persevered in their glorious work. At the height of the terrific artillery duel, in which some [176] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. three or four himdred guns were belching forth destruction on opposing sides. Bill, one of the General's body-servants, who had been sent back for provisions for his master, came up to me and upon my asking him if he wasn't scared down there amongst all those big guns, replied: "No, sir; Mars June's dovm there, and if he can stand it I reckon I can." On the fourth day of the hell carnival that was going on, the great Captain, after his terrific loss to gain possession of Round Top hill, and running short of ammunition, deemed it essential to order a retreat so as to place the Potomac be tween himself and Meade. Those who were able to stand the trip on wheels proceeded to do so, including Captain Bond of the Staff and myself, our friends having impressed a little one-horse team for the occasion. Bond had received an ugly wound in his body, while I had one in the back of my head. The weird procession started on the back track, and about sunrise on the morning of the immortal fourth making a train of vehicles some eleven miles in length, including wounded ordnance as well as men. Towards nightfall, on en tering a defile in the hills, desultory firing in the front broke on the ear, growing more frequent upon every step of the ad vance.' It was soon learned that Kilpatrick had been de tached with his division to intercept the retreat of the train, for failing to do which he should have been courtmartialed for utter incompetency for command, as that long train had but three squadrons of cavalry for guard to oppose his thousands. From time to time a horse or mule would be knocked down from the opposite sides of the road, thus occa sioning delay by a halt to detach him from the harness and drag him to one side. Things were in this condition when the defile was cleared, and the little mounted guard left the rear and went forward in hot haste. It was a bright moonlight night, about ten o'clock, when it occurred, and a heavy ordnance wagon loaded with 12 [177] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. damaged guns, in attempting to pass our little wagon took off a wheel and dropped us in the middle of the road. On the instant, a score of blue-coated cavalry were upon us with their revolvers leveled almost in touch. Then it was that the utility of gab was made manifest for once, for Guilford spoke with a fluency of tongue rarely, if ever, surpassed by any of his race : "Don't shoot, gentlemen, for God's sake, don't shoot. We surrender. We are prisoners;" and so we were. Being then ordered to get up in tiie old gun-wagon, which was not the easiest ambulance conceivable, the twenty or thirty vehicles which had been captured by the doughty Ma jor-General, were ordered to move forward, but soon made a detour, going to the rear, as the rumor ran that Jeb Stuart, with his entire command, was waiting for the other to come up. After moving at a rapid gait the rest of the night, about sunrise the next moming we passed the identical spot where the mishap befell us the night before. This was impressed upon the mind by seeing my Berryville pup sitting down in the broken dovim wagon and to keep guard over it. On stopping for dinner, an old friend. Major C. C. Black- nail, came up and asked how I was off for transportation, and upon being told, he remarked : "I am pretty much in the same plight, and don't propose to stand it 'any longer." This was said with some difficulty of articulation as he had had a pretty rough operation of dentistry two days before, a musket-ball entering one side of his jaw, taking out a half- dozen of his teeth, and coming out on the other. Continuing, he remarked: "I see a very neat little turnout under those trees thera Let's go and take possession;" which was done. Soon an aide-de-camp rode up and demanded to know what we were doing in General Custer's carriage. The reply came ¦ — '"We are wounded prisoners, and demand the right of trans portation." He went back to his commander and reported, and soon returned to us with the gratifying message: "The [178] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. General says you may ride in it the rest of to-day, but he will be damned if you haven't got to look out for other accommo dation to-morrow." His decision proved that he was a gen tleman, as little Powder Horn showed later on that he was a hero, falling into a trap of hostile savages, and losing his own life and that of every man in his command. Shortly after starting on the evening march and reaching the top of a high hill, a courier came dashing in in hot haste and reported that Stuart was near by and then advancing. The head of the column was at once turned and we went down that hill faster than we came up, reaching the village below (Smithfield, I think the name). Everything was in a state of confusion. Blacknall remarked to me in an under-tone: "Now's our opportunity. These fellows are thoroughly panicked, and if old Jeb would only drop a few shells over here, they would take to their heels in hot haste. Now, let's go out and lie down on the sidewalk there and groan as hard as we can." We did, and simulated broken bones as well as could be. The Duteh ladies came around, but evinced no sympathy for our woeful condition. One of them remarked: "Served them right. I wish it had taken off their heads instead." Just then the order came to continue the march, but our vehicle having disappeared in the confusion we continued to groan and wait for Stuart's shells. The last wagons were disappearing on the retreat when a Federal surgeon came up and asked us what we were doing there. My reply was that we were wounded men and if he expected us to keep up with the procession he must send a vehicle back to take us up. This was done, the occupants of one of them being hustled out in a hurry to make room for the wounded prisoners. The march was continued in double-quick time until about ten o'clock at night, and a halt was called, and we went into camp. The next day the wounded were left at the hospital [179] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. in Frederick, and were well cared for. A dear little Sister of Charity took me in hand and dressed my wound most care fully. When breakfast was brought in the next morning and I had partaken of mine, I remarked to the hospital steward: "I wish you would give my boy something to eat." He in stantly replied: "I see no boy about here." "Well, sir, if you prefer the expression, my man." "Why didn't you let him eat with you?" was the saucy reply; and mine was: '"Guilford, tell this fellow why you didn't eat breakfast with me." And his answer was: "I would as soon have thought of sticking my head in the fire as to- sit down to a table with Mars Wharton." "Mars/' he said, "there are no masters around here, nor men either." To which I rejoined: "Hark ye, sir, I have had enough of your insolence. I know your master. Colonel , who was an old friend of mine, and if there is any more of it, you vrill be reported to him and reduced to the ranks again." The threat had the desired effect on the creature, and he quieted down after bringing Guilford his breakfast. The next day we were moved dovra to Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, a change for the worse, and from there to Fort Delaware, below Philadelphia, the next day. The officer in command there was one General Schoepff, as it leaked out — lately a waiter in the dining-room of Willard's hotel, and a more pretentious, overweening upstart I have never seen. The Field and Staff were quartered inside of the Fort, while the other prisoners had to rough it on the outside as being more accessible to the General's emissaries who were trying to induce them to take the oath. In going out for an edter- noon swim. Colonel Baxter Smith and Major Jack Thomp son got an opportunity to speak to a squad of our men and urged them, under no circumstances, to take the oath as we would probably be exchanged. The circumstance was duly reported to the doughty Dutehman in command, who had [180] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. them both marched off to the dark prison, where they were confined and fed on bread and water for a day or two there after. On the fact being reported to Major Burton, an officer of the old army and second in command at this place, he waited on General Schoepff and denounced his conduct as cruel, un soldierly, and unjustified, threatening that if the two gentle men were not immediately sent back to quarters, he would throw up his commission and report the case in person at the War Office in Washington. The worthy Major's threat had the desired effect and our two friends were ushered back into their old quarters, not in most 'amiable mood as might be imagined. Major Thompson, who was of a fiery nature, took his seat on the side of his bunk, and remained silent for some time, when he suddenly burst forth with: "When we get back to Richmond, I will wait on President Davis and tender one- half of all that I am worth for the privilege of keeping Castle Thunder for one week." To which a little chaplain replied : "Major, if you got it, you would treat the poor fellows better than you think you would." Jack rejoined, in high dudgeon: "If you think so, parson, you don't know what a damned bad heart I have got," which caused the whole room to ex plode with laughter. Another laughable little incident occurred when Schoepff came around to tell us that we were to be transferred from his custody to another's elsewhere, but said he was not at liberty to divulge the place, adding: "You will be well grati fied with the change, and all I ask is that you give your pa roles not to attempt to escape whilst on the road." Some of us protested against doing so as it was a novel proceeding to put prisoners, under guard, on the word not to escape if op portunity is offered. His rejoinder came: "Those who re fuse to do so will be placed in condition where escape vrill be [181] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. impossible, for I will have handcuffs on all who do." Captain Surrat, of a Mississippi regiment, was in a room with us, hatless, coatless, and barefooted. The General, thinking he had gotten inside surreptitiously and that he was a private, who should have been on the outside, asked him insolently: "What are you doing in here ?" and the Captain replied : "I joined the Tishimingo Invincibles to fight for the lib erties of my counfa-y, and they made me Commissary of the regiment. On the march one day I was sent off with a squad in search of forage, and as the weather was mighty hot I took off my coat and shoes, and was loading my wagons with com at a crib when a company of your calvary dashed up and seized us all. As we were going along, and I was mounted behind one of your men, my hat fell off, and I told the gen- tieman in front to please let me get down and pick it up, but he refused to do it, saying, 'If you get off this horse I will blow your rebel brains out,' and I didn't do it. I was brought here with other prisoners, and turned over to you, and that's what I'm doing in here." The impression was that the Tishimingo Invincibles got the best of that fight In due time we reached Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, a prison for officers, where some two thousand were already confined and the number continually increasing. On the whole, it was a decided improvement over the last two prisons, as it was more commodious and roomy. There were eleven or twelve two-story blocks in two parallel rows, extending the length of the prison yard, the two upper ones being cut up into small rooms for the Field Staff, into one of which I was fortunate enough to gain admittance. These rooms were about fifteen feet square for the accommodation of eight pris oners each, three tiers of bunks being allotted for sleeping purpose. Here the next twenty-two months of our unevent ful lives were passed to little purpose. The prison guard consisted of a regiment of 'home guards,' who had enlisted [182] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. for that special duty with the understanding that they were not to be sent to the front. As might be expected, they were not as considerate for our comfort as old soldiers would have been, as the following anecdote will illustrate : After a six-months sojourn under their supervision, a badly decimated brigade under General Shaler, who had lost an arm, was sent on from Virginia to relieve Major Pearson in command. The improvement in our condition and treat ment became obvious from the very first. One day an alterca tion took place between a member of each command, the home guard fellow remarking to the old soldier : "You fellows treat these rebels with as much politeness as if they were some of our folks;" to which Shaler's man replied: "And you fellows, who have never smelt powder, treat them as if they were dogs. If you had helped to oateh them as we have, you would have more respect for them, for we know what they are." There was no more needless shooting of prisoners after their coming, as there had been under the redoubtable 'stay- at-homes', who enjoyed, of all things, some slight excuse for making a target of some of us. There was one young rascal especially who took a special delight in shooting a rebel. The change was so marked in our treatment under the two com mands that there soon came to be a better entente cordiale between us and Shaler's boys than there was between us and Pearson's. For one, and I think for all, we felt grateful to these old war veterans for their marked courtesy and civility. Eight of our number resolved to attempt an escape, the plan being to dig a hole or well some three feet deep through the dining-room floor of Block No. 1, and then to strike off at right angles until past the fence on which a guard was sta tioned, and then come up on the outside, all precautions being taken to conceal their work. In due time the tunnel [183] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. was finished, and it was decided by lot which of the work men should go first, and in rotation. There had been heavy rains for a day or two when the eventful night came, and the cavity under ground wasi almost half filled with water. Two had gotten through when it came to the lot of an Arkan sas Bayard to talvc his turn. He was Captain Cole, a large and powerful man, and his frame was too huge for the little hole. On emerging his head and shoulders from the outside aperture, he found it was impossible to pidl himself through. Calling, in subdued tone, to the man next behind, his con dition, and telling him to go back and warn the others. Cole remained there in a cold drenching rain until after reveille, the next morning, when he called for assistance and had himself drug out more dead than alive. He was taken to General Shaler's headquarters, and the facts reported. The General asked him: "When you found that you were stuck in a hole. Captain, why didn't you call for relief sooner?" To which came the noble reply : "Because it would have been dishonorable ; two of my comrades were already through, and if I had sounded the alarm, they Avould have been recap tured." Shaler's reply was: "Captain Cole, you are a hero and a noble fellow, and I guess the best thing you can do is to take a stiff drink of whiskey in the plight you are in, and to have yourself rubbed down with the same;" which was done by the General's orderly, Shaler giving him a bottle to talce btick to the prison-pen for his own exclusive use. One of the A'oung officers of tlie Hora(^ Guards remarked, in sur prise, to QUO of the scarred veterans: "It's well for that fel low that you all came before he fell into the hands of Gen eral Shaler, for Major Pearson would havo had him in the dark prison and fed on bread and water, if he had been in command." The reply came "Your whole command could [184] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOBE. not turn out one such m'an as that noble fellow, who has just been sent back into the prison yard." One of Shaler's superb works of charity was to' permit de tails from each mess to go down to the banks of the lake and get buckets of fresh water for the use of the others. Up to that time, our wants in that regard had to be supplied from shallow wells or, more properly, seip-holes, not over six or eight feet deep and, of course, only surface drainage. A pretty fat graveyard was left behind when that island was vacated, but had it not been for that thoughtful kindness on his part it would, doubtiess, have been much greater by many fold. And so the first summer passed in dull-fretting monotony, and winter came ouy and what a vrinter it was! For days, and even weeks, the mercury ranged between 25 and 30 de grees below zero, and as these structures were of weather board and vrithout plaster, and a totally inadequate supply of fuel to keep us from freezing, the suffering was intense. At night the bedding would have to be doubled, and the men compelled to sleep by reliefs or installments, one-half under cover while the other was sitting around a steve to keep from freezing. But we were living in daily hope that the cartel exchange would soon be ratified and that we could go back and resume places with our comrades in ranks. But still another summer came and went, and the delu sive hope failed of fruition ; and so, another winter too, whilst our numbers were being constantly repleted and depleted, the first by capture, and the last by deatii. The hospital was kept filled to repletion, as I can attest from actual experience, for a month or more, being on the sick-list during that time and forced to take refuge within its limits. And here I propose to pay humble tribute to three as noble fellows as it has been my privilege to meet in all life — the [185] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. hospital nurses. One of them was named Carpenter, a native son of the Emerald Isle, who had enlisted in an Alabama regi ment He and the two others seemed to be ubiquitous amongst the sick and wounded cots. If Carpenter ever slept, it is more than I can teU; but certainly, I never called him, in daytime or night, that he was not instantly at my side to know what was wanted. When convalescence set in for me, I asked him one day : "Carpenter, what do you get for this ?" The noble fellow seemed hurt by the question. "Get ?" says he: "Colonel, I hope you do not suppose I am doing this work for pay." "If not, what for?" was my reply. "Because," quoth he, "it is my duty." Says I: "My friend, there are three thousand other men on this accursed island who do not seem to regard it as their duty." "No, but mine is a peculiar case ; you see, tliat when it was known that we had to fall back after the three days fight at Gettysburg, my brigadier called for volunteers to look after the sick and wounded until the enemy should come up and take charge of them. Volunteering M'asn't A^ery brisk that day, and I too held back in hopes that others would anticipate the call ; but as they didn't, I told my colonel that I would be one of the number. And so you see. Colonel, that having volunteered for the work, I have no right to shirk or give it up now." "My friend," I said, "that may be a strained view to take, but to my thinldng you are not only a hero but a self-sacrificing philanthropist. Let me thank you from the bottom of an overflowing heart, my friend, for your attentions to me, and, from my observation, to otliers. On returning to my room, I set to work to raise some little token in recognition of their noble work and succeeded in col lecting nearly two hundred dollars in greenbacks. On hand ing the money to him, his voice became choked and he re marked in the rich brogue of his land: "The devil of a cent [186] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. of it will I take." "And if the two others are like-minded," was my reply, "what is to be done with it?" "Set it aside for a hospital fund," he replied; "relieve these poor gentle men who need it more tiian we." "Well, then, my noble friend ; you must consent to take it and act as their almoner." I regret that the names of the two others have escaped me, but to'ust that the world has since been good to all of them. When it is taken into consideration that they were undergoing all the drudgery of the pesthouse, even carrying out the re mains of tliose who died, tliere is no denying that here was heroism and sense of duty surpassing that of a deadly charge on the battlefield. As said, various expedients were resorted to to secure escape, even to attempted escapade of the sentry's beat by a few bold and determined spirits, in which a gallant hero, Captain Bowles, of Kentucky, lost his life in mounting the scaling ladder. Another project which came near being successful was when Colonel Thomas, the cidevant "French Lady," with a dozen secret volimteers, took passage at Detroit on one of the large lake steamers for Buffalo, an understanding being that on preconcerted signal they were to overpower the officers of the boat, reduce the crew and passengers to subjection, land ing the last at the first convenient point, and push in to Johnson's Island, where it was understood we would rise, overpower the guard, secure their arms, and take passage for Canada. Things worked to a charm up to the point of cap- turning the boat and landing the passengers, and whilst a few of us were on the lookout for the rocket-signal that was to tell of their coming, including Generals Trimble and Archer, it became manifest by another signal given that the scheme had miscarried, it having become known that the Government war [187] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. vessel "Michigan," had anchored the day before off the island, which would naturally make the attempt abortive. As the scheme is now recalled, the correspondence between General Trimble, the ranking officer on tiie island, and Colo nel Thomas, strange as it may sound, was carried on through the columns of a New York daily, the 'Herald,' I believe, and was after this wise, Thomas representing a Lothario under an assumed name proposing to run off with his sweet heart whom we will designate as Mary, for short, and who was impersonated by that one-legged old veteran. General Isaac R. Trimble, of Baltimore. Thomas's message would run : "To Mary. The carriage will be at your gate on such a night. Be ready and prepared to meet it." The answer, in due time, would be: "Your notice of coming has been re ceived, and Mary will be ready as directed." The sequel to have been, as intimated, was that the few who were in the plot were to rush from block to block and impart tlie information that help was at hand, and that all that was necessary for us to do was to overcome the guard on the island, capture their boats and steam away to the Queen's dominions. The plot was not wddely divulged for fear of its reaching the outside before time, and when it became obvious that there was some miscarriage in its development the hearts of all sank vrithin them. The papers, in due time, gave an outline of the failure of the attempt, and General Trimble's visitors retiimed to their respective rooms much cast down and heavy at heart. Tt may be added, in this connection, that an under officer of the "Michigan" dropped a note to the engineer of that boat, giving a hint of the plot on foot The confusion of the last one on reading it excited the suspicions of the captain, and taking the communication from the hands of the other his [188] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. suspicions became verified, and counter arrangements were made to intercept the arrival of the "French lady." Thus failed another well-conceived scheme to restore the officers on the island to their respective commands across the Potomac. One other, perhaps, to the same intent, and I have done on that line. During that awfully cold spell, when the ice was about two feet thick around our prison pen, the thought was conceived that if the frost only extended across to the Canadian border we might rise and disarm the guard, as already set forth, and steal a march on them for the other side. The only ques tion was to determine whether the ice extended all the way across in order that the attempt might be made. In our then condition, it was impossible to tell without outside informa tion, and this was suppressed by an embargo on all papers for a few days thereafter. It was later known that Lake Erie was frozen from shore to shore. The rescue of the denizens on Johnson's Island might have given a different issue to the ultimate struggle. "Alas ! the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee." A word additional regarding the hospital. It was in charge, by courtesy, of three Confederate surgeons, namely. Major Stedman, Colonel Maxwell, and Captain Sessions, men eminent in their profession, but who were enrolled on the line of killers instead of ourers. Active and efficient they all were in their new assignment to duty. The Federal surgeons who had supervision of the establishment were Drs. Wood ward, a kindhearted and thorough gentleman, who did all in his power to alleviate the sufferings of those with whom he was brought in contact, and one Eversman from the vater land, as the name imports, who would have been a concentration of the bully and blackguard had he possessed the first requisite for that position. Cruel and overbearing he was by nature, [189] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. and delighted in giving needless offence. There was a natural repugnance between this last-named pill-maker and myself, and deeming that my days were numbered I was not back ward in giving him my estimate of his true character on the occasions of his daily visits. The first-named of these is still held in grateful remembrance by every prisoner with whom he was brought in contact, the last, in utter loathing. Com mentary: It matters not how exalted may be the position of those in power, it is far better for posthumous fame that they prefer the roll of gentleman to that of the bully. Before quitting the medical staff, it is perhaps apposite to the occasion to speak of another of the Eversman order, a kind of orderly, hospital steward, or something of the sort, by the name of Foster, the most universal petty rogue within my knowledge. He had the distribution of certain packages sent through the express, and in the beginning of his duties was content to appropriate about twenty per cent of the con tents; but immunity from discovery prompted him by de grees to extend his stealage. He rose to 30, 40, 50, and finally to 70 per cent, when my patience became thoroughly exhausted, and I told him that his cupidity, to call it by a mild name, would be reported to General Shaler if his con duct was not corrected. Thereupon he put on the air of a much injured man, and remarked in high dudgeon: "I would have you know. Colonel Green, that I am an officer of the United States Army, and no man shall twit me with steal ing." My reply was: "Then leave it off, Foster, and no man will do it" Am glad to say that after my littie moral lecture to the fellow and threat of exposure, he let up some what on his avarice of appropriation of others goods. One of the most popular of our jailers was Lieutenant- Colonel Scoville, who for the life of him couldn't say "No." He had charge of approving all papers emanating from the [190] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. inside on the powers that be, and never failed to affix his sig nature to each and every one, which amounted to little in the end. As his amiable weakness had long been seen through, a wag from Florida resolved to have a littie fun out of him, and made a formal requisition on the Secretary of War, embracing six field-pounders with grape and other suit able ammunition for the same, one thousand muskets, and ten thousand rounds of ammunition, one hundred sabres well sharpened, and ten thousand rations. The worthy colonel, without running his eye over the novel document, signed it, and promised to deliver to his chief. Colonel Pearson, who was in high dudgeon when he saw that Scoville had approved the requisitiom Suffice it, that none of these essential ar ticles looking to a severance of enforced connection ever came to hand. Let it be added that Scoville was another to whom the proud old prefix 'gentleman' might be applied. He strayed down to Nashville after the war, and he and his old friend, Fite, became great cronies. Whilst many thought him more profuse of promise than perfonnance, they, never theless, made allowance for the prompting impulse at the bot tom, which forbade his hurting the feelings of others. Having thus given a brief glimpse of the character of our jailers, perhaps brief allusion to some of the jail-birds would not be out of place. First of all, of glorious old Isaac Trim ble, one of the early graduates of the Military Academy, and the engineer-in-chief of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. After espousing our side, he rapidly reached the rank of major-general, and caught a musket-ball in his leg at Chan cellorsville. "Cut it off. Doctor, cut it off," was his impera tive command to the surgeon in charge. "No, General " came the reply; "I can save your leg." "And prevent my taking part in the campaign next across the Potomac, which I am convinced will not be far off." In Pickett's historic [191] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. charge he was second in command after Pender fell, and was picked up by the Federal ambulance men and carried back to an improvised hospital, when amputation of the previously wounded leg became imperative. Later on his own surgeon received permission to come and wait upon his chief, when, to his surprise, the old man opened upon him in language far from loving. "If, sir, you had obeyed my orders at Chan cellorsville and taken off this leg, I could have kept on in that glorious charge up that hill. Let it be a lesson to you, sir, hereafter to always obey the orders of your superiors." I knew the old hero before and later on, and ever found him that kind-hearted, courtiy gentieman; that he was bom and died. John R. Fellows, a boy-lieutenant in General Beall's room, just opposite, was one whom it pleased me to study and honor. He was known in his adopted State of Arkansas as the Little Giant, in imitation of Stephen A. Douglass, the Little Giant of Illinois. His readiness of speech and flow of oratory were almost phenomenal. Although a Northern man by birth, he had run away from home when twelve years old, and developed in the wild woods of Arkansas. A single anecdote of his readiness of speech will illustrate the man. When, in due time, the 22d of February came along and our friends on the outsidewere making agreat jubilee overthe day, it occurred to some of us on tiie inside that we had as good, if not better, right to enthuse over George's natal day than they had; and a committee was appointed to wait on the Little Giant, who was asleep in his room, and demand that he come out at once and give us a counter blast on patriotism. He tried to get around it, but was forced down, vi et armis, and mounted on the platform of an upper floor around which a crowd was assembled, and for half an hour I have never heard such a burst of oratory as escaped his lips. The [192] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. crowd by this time had been augmented by almost every prisoner on the island, who vied with each other in outburst of applause. This became so great that the authorities on the outside concluded that we were premeditating an out break, and marched in a detachment of troops to quell or dis perse us. Owing to our close-wedged mass, it took the officer in command some time to get to the foot of the stair-case, and just before he started to ascend the band on the outside struck up "The Star Spangled Banner," under which they were playing. Then it was inborn genius rose to the superla tive. "Yes," he exclaimed, as if in rejoinder to the tune, "the Star Spangled Banner, yon flaunting lie; long may it wave over the land of the thief and the home of the knave." Perhaps the exordium did not bring down the house. As the Federal captain reached the top of the stair-case and tapped him on the shoulder, he said : "Look here, sir, this thing has got to stop." "Certainly, sir," said Fellows, in his suavest tones, "I had just finished as you came up," and we dispersed vidth three-cheers for the Littie Giant of Arkansas. Later on, he married a young lady in Memphis as deficient in this world's gear as he was himself, and carried her on to New York vrith hardly the wherewith to pay passage, but his genius was infectious and soon he was made first assistant district attomey of the city of New York, and a little later full official of that position. Then it was determined that he would better fill the position of Member of Congress of the United States Legislature, and so they sent him to Washing ton by an overwhelming majority, and sent him again, in each of which positions he left a name behind. Am glad to say that I have had one visit from him after his exaltation, and he was on the way for another, which decrepitude cut short. 13 [ 193 ] CHAPTER XV. Finally the auspicious day came. The prisoners were be ing sent home by alphabetical list, and the last batoh before the surrender chanced to include my name, the last on the list, thus bringing in the fateful "No. 1" again. Nothing of inci dent occurred until going down Chesapeake Bay in an over crowded cattle-boat in a drenching rain. Seeing no better place for sleeping quarters, 1 concluded to straddle a water- barrel just under the eaves of the boat. It was not a very comfortable accommodation as the water was trickling down my back all the time, but still it was the best that could be had. While trying to catch a moment's respite of slumber, it became obvious that some one was fumbling in my front pocket Rousing myself, I saw that he was one of the guard, and grabbed him by the throat with my left hand while planting a full-aimed blow in his face with the other. On reaching Aiken's Landing, Virginia, the point of ex change, we were compelled to walk a mile or two over to where the Confederate boat came dovra., namely, "Varina." The Federal Commissioner of exchange planted a number of negro troops between us and the boat that we had to take, with orders to allow no one to go aboai-d until the order was given. The poor fellows, however, in their great anxiety to set foot on Confederate soil once more, made a rush for the gangway, when the darkey in charge of that particular point conunenced backing with the outcry : "Keep back, white folks, keep back! If you don't keep back, how can I keep you back?" To my conception, the exclamation on his part was an admission of the value of that sort of material in war. The return from there to Richmond was a sort of tender foot affair as it was known that the river was planted with [194] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. torpedoes and the slightest deviation from line would prob ably occasion a blow-up. Arriving in the Capital city, things wore a gloomy look indeed preliminary to the final crash. Going to the Spottiswood Hotel with my friend General Rucker, a one-armed soldier of old Forrest's, who started into the breakfast-room, Rucker wearing a fancy hat with an ostrich feather which I had given him at Cumberland, Mary land, and which he proceeded to hang on a peg at the door. In reply to my caution that he had better take his head-gear in with him, he said: "No, Green, we are back in God's country now, where folks don't steal hats." On getting a very indifferent breakfast, after the Confederate menu, we saw only three or four capital coverings and lo ! Rucker's was not of the number. They were to all appearances old cam paigners with brims gone and holes through the tops. The poor General looked aghast, and remarked: "I don't know what has become of my hat" "Why," I said, "there it is," pointing to the most dilapidated specimen of the lot. Said I: "Recollect, Rucker, we are back in God's country, where folks don't steal hats." According to recollection, I had to shell out fifty dollars additional (Confederate, be it under stood) for him to go down Main stieet in search of another head-covering. Two days later my home was reached on Shocco Creek, which I had left two years previously. It was a gala return all around, including white folks and negroes. After waiting ten or fifteen days, I proceeded to order another mount for myself and Guilford, and was about starting in search of the grand army when stragglers began dropping in, who with one accord reported that General Lee had surrendered. On this fact being established beyond doubt, my heart sank within me, and I am not ashamed to confess that I broke out blub- "bering and kept it up for an hour or two, for it was the great [1951 EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. disappointment in my life, the reflection constantly recurring - — and all for naught. The success of our cause had been for long years the dream and hallucination of life, and the out come was blank despair. Such, I presume, was the experi ence of most others who had staked all on the issue. Our friend, Mrs. William Polk, and cousin, Miss Currier, having made up their minds to go north in search of additional outfit, it became incumbent on me to go with them to Raleigh to secure passports for the trip, which was effected through two old West Point friends. Generals Schofield and Ruger. The two Confederate dames had gotten themselves up re gardless for their re-advent into the fashionable world, but on making their entiance into the parlors of the old St Nicholas Hotel there was an explosion of laughter at their uncouth appearance. My consolation to them, on their return was: "Well, it is some satisfaction to you to know that you created a sensation on your re-appearance." The next two or three years were a period of political un certainty for the entire South, for no one knew what to morrow would bring forth. At that period I was selected as one of the delegates to the National Democratic Convention, which was to assemble at New York. We met replete witii foolish hope that something would be done to obliterate recent by-gones. Governor Seymour, than whom a purer, abler, more gifted man could not be found in the entire country, was the presiding officer, and later on received the nomination for President under his most earnest and strenuous protest. Two days later I met him on the boat going up to Saratoga, and his hopes for Democratic success seemed entirely to have vanished. He remarked just before reaching Albany, "You gentiemen from North Carolina forced my nomination upon the convention and thereby excluded all possibility of suc cess at the polls." As I now recall his idea, policy enjoined [196] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. that a soldier should be off-set by a soldier — Grant by Han cock. As now seen, in retrospect, there was no name or com bination of names that could have prevented the success of the North's great idol, Ulysses S. Grant, and so it appears in a subsequent convention, in which his name led the ticket of his party. I was made the nominee of my party for elector shortly afterwards, and made an active canvass in furtherance of the object, knowing all the time that it was a hopeless endeavor. The year succeeding I was out in nomination for Congress in the old Third District of North Carolina, composed of the strongest negro counties in the State, and although the normal majority was considerably reduced, it was not cut down suffi ciently to give any showing of an election. All of thisi time I was raising com and tobacco and the other et ceteras incident to farming, making a reasonable sup port. Later on my attention was attracted to the Tokay vineyard, near Fayetteville, North Carolina, said at the time to be the largest one this side of the Rocky Mountains. It was purchased and improvements begun upon an extensive scale, and it has been a source of solace to me, saying nothing of profit, ever since. A year or two after moving here I was put in nomination for CongToss and elected by an even five hundred majority. Thence forward my residence was chiefly in the Federal Cap ital, and my associates mainly with members of Congress. The flrst session, with two of my daughters, I was domiciled at the Ebbitt and was brought in contact with numbers of congenial spirits, amongst them being William McKinley and his wife. The duties of the House, while not arduous, re quired pretty constant attention, and some of the most agree- able acquaintances followed ; amongst these may be mentioned S. S. Cox, commonly knovra as Sunset Cox; Governor [197] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Curtin, Benton McMillin, John Ballentine, William Hatch, Hilary Herbert, James Blount, Robert Davidson, Charles, O'Ferrall, Charles Crisp, George Cabell, William Forney, Otho Singleton, John Reagan, William Springer, Seaborn Reese, William Oates, William Ferry, James Richardson and John O'Neill. Apropos, of the last-named follows an an- necdote. He and I were appointed as representatives of our respective States to attend the opening of the New Orleans Exposition, which was to be done by the President, Grover Cleveland, touching a button. I was about to attend in or dinary dress, when meeting the Speaker, (Mr. Carlisle,) who told me it was to be a full-diess affair and that I had better hurry home and put on my swallow-tail. Shortiy after I en countered O'Neill, and told him what I had just heard, and he too rushed to his room and ensconced himself in one. At the auspicious moment, to my surprise and mortification, Johnny and I were the only two fellows in swallow-tails, and I over heard one of those ubiquitous individuals known as reporters, remark to another : "What fool is that over there in evening dress ?" pointing at Johnny. I took the hint, and not wishing to appear in the papers in that connection, dropped dovsm into a big arm chair near by and covered the nether ends of the obnoxious garment with my arms. The next day Johnny appeared in full print with the sole honors of war, as the only gentleman present arrayed in evening dress, and commenting upon his dignified appearance in that hateful garment worn chiefly by imdertakers and headwaiters. Due discretion, doubtless, prevented my showing off in the same connection. Whilst in the other house, besides our ovra. Senators, Ran som and Vance, may be named primarily those of our sister State on the south. Wade Hampton, whom, in the post-meri dian of life, I loved first and foremost of all men, and M. C. Butler; Joe Blackburn, commonly called "Old Joe," for [198] AN AUTO OF HAI.iI' A CENTUEY AND MOEE. short, although he was the youngest man in that body ; George and Walthall, of Mississippi ; Jones and Berry, of Arkansas ; George Pendleton, of Ohio, Brown, of Georgia, and Vest and Cockrell, of Missouri. Wishing to master the duties of the position, I gave very little attention to social calls, but devoted the evenings almost exclusively to work. And here let it be remarked, in passing, that new members are of very little use or utility to their constituents in the first term or two. Men of mediocre ability often make a mark by long continued service. During my first term I framed and introduced bills, and supported them by set speeches, which I deemed of utility to the country at large. Among these may be mentioned a bill against food and drug adulteration, the first, I believe, looking to that end, although the subject is now receiving most serious considera tion from both Houses of Congress, including the President and his Cabinet. Another, a bill for an appropriation for a public building in Wilmington, which passed, and with some accretion from the Senate gave that city the most ornate struc ture in the limits of the State. Also a bill for an inter-inland waterway between Norfolk and Beaufort, looking to extension later on to Jacksonville, Florida, which is also receiving due regard at this time from the present Congress. Upon the expiration of my first term in Congress my name was brought before the nominating convention for re-election, and won through without difficulty ; election followed by some twenty-five hundred majority, or five times what it was two years previously. On resuming seat for the second term, I rented a private residence at the corner of Sixteenth and Q. Streets, belonging to my old friend, General Innis Palmer, of the United States Army, where with my children and serv ants I lived a very quiet life for the two years to follow, and where my oldest daughter, then Mrs. Pembroke Jones, kept [199] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. house for me. Other measures followed in the way of pre sentation, some with ultimate success, but not worth recapi tulation. In the second session of the same (the Forty-ninth Con gress) I broke up housekeeping and moved down to the old National Hotel, where the rest of the term was passed. My next door neighbor, in rotation of rooms, was Captain Joe Blackburn, then United States Senator, with whom a strong friendship sprung up, which has lasted ever since, and upon whom a good joke comes in apropos. One night when he and a number of other friends were assembled, I put the question direct: "Captain Joe, what do you think of General Jack son ? Not Stonewall, but the other." "Oh," says he, "You mean 'Old Hickory.' " And upon acquiescence, he replied: "A great man, sir, a grand man, who has had few equals in this or any land." To this my rejoinder came: "Did you ever see what he said of his Kentucky contingent in the great bat tle?" "No, but it must have been a glorious tribute to those noble fellows," was Joe's reply. "Judge for yourself, my friend. He said, for some unaccountable reason the Kentuck- ians on the other side of the river became panic-stricken and ran like wild turkeys." "Where did you get that ?" was his in dignant rejoinder. "From his original dispatch just after the great battle which was published in a Washington paper a few days later on, and a copy of which is now posted up in Han cock's saloon where you may at some time have strayed in." "Well," the Senator remarked, "it only shows him what I have always known him to be — a first-class d — fool." I had early become the possessor of a fine Kentucky thor ough-bred saddle-horse, and my afternoons after office-hours were spent on his back frequently in company with my old friend, General Hampton, who likewise owned one that he thought incomparable. On the eve of purchase he and Gen- [200] GENERAL WADE HAMPTON. AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. eral Ransom were called upon to pass judgment upon the merits of the Kentuckian, and Ransom mounted him to show off his gaits. "Only a pacer," was the great cavalryman's con temptuous criticism: "I wouldn't have him as a free gift." A few days later his one-legged lieutenant, Butier, asked me if I wouldn't take a turn with him out in tiie country, remark ing that General Hampton had loaned him his horse and that he would meet me up at Naillor's stable, where my own was kept, at four o'clock. On coming up he was in a state of fer ment, remarking, "Old Hamp. thinks he is a judge of horse flesh, but I would not have this thing if he would give him to me;" adding, "he only has one gait, and that is a pace." "Singular coincidence that, Butler," was my reply, "as it was precisely the condemnation he put on mine a few weeks ago." He rejoined : "He hasn't heard the last of it, for I will ring it on him." As he did, much to the older General's dis- gruntlement, eliciting the remark: "Butler knows nothing more about a horse than you do." Be it understood, with out possibility of mistake, that the Butler referred to was of South Carolina, and not North. In this, nxj second term, be it understood, I was up at the head of the Committee on Agriculture, next to the Chairman, my old friend. Bill Hatch, and Chairman of the Committee on Ventilation and Acoustics. One of the first committee was a muti-millionaire, but one whom I never took to. He took it into his head to die one day, and Hateh did me the honor to invite me to preach his Congressional funeral, which I re spectfully declined, remarking: "You know, Hateh, that he and I bore each other no love in life, and for me now to get up and lavish eulogium upon him would be the sheerest hypocrisy." He smilingly returned: "I was afraid you would decline the honor, but thought it due you, being the [301] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. senior member of the committee tO' give you the chance of so doing." Hateh, be it understood, was Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, and did his best to effect one for me, but found it a fruitiess effort as favors at that time were not going by kissing. A glorious fellow he was, but he shortly afterwards passed out of Congress and over the river to rest in the shade with Stonewall and the others who had gone before. On the expiration of my second term I returned home to take my chance for a third nomination, and it was evident from the start that it would come with my permission. The district was hampered with the two-thirds rule and my friends urged its abrogation, trying to get my consent to its being done. This was refused on the ground that if two-thirds of my district did not wish me to continue as their representa tive, it was immaterial whether I was selected or not. The record wiU show that through 330 consecutive ballots, lasting all night, my majority was overwhelmingly large and within a small fraction of the requisite two-thirds, which could not be reached, however, owing to a combination of opponents and their adherents, who had attended with the avowed purpose of securing my defeat. At the hazard of having "sour-grapes" thrown in my teeth, be it candidly said, that the result occa sioned but little regret at the time and still less since, not caring to be a mere figure-head as nine out of every ten in the House usually are. Returning home I found, and have found since, that satis faction in my library and fish-pond, which the House of Rep resentatives failed to bring, which was shortly afterwards augmented, and has since continued, through the fellowship of my second wife, and the visits of a few well selected and honored friends, at the head of whom, as stated before, is ranked Wade Hampton, noblest Roman of them all. A short [202 J AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. while before his death he stopped by on a visit of a few days, passed mostly with me at the fish-pond. He soon stated to Mrs. Green that his object was to get her consent to my going down to Charleston with him where he was booked for a speech to the old soldiers, and then to continue out to the Pacific coast on his private car on a tour of official inspection, he being at that time United States Commissioner of Rail roads. [203] CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. A TEIP TO THE PACIFIC HOME AGAIN. Arriving in Washington on the 28th of May, 1895, General Hampton observed that he had an invitation for me to con tinue on with himself and invited party to Chicago to attend the unveiling of a monument to the Confederate prisoners who had died there during the war. The party consisted be sides himself of Generals Heth (and daughter) Lomax, (whom I had not seen before since we were boys at West Point, and his wife,) Butier, French and Hunton; Col onel Erwin; Majors Conrad (and wife), Hunter and MiteheU; Mr. Robinson; Captain Littlepage (and wife); Mrs. Akers, and the two Misses Washington, an agreeable and congenial party, and having the coach to ourselves had a most delightful trip to the City on the Lakes, where we arrived on the morning of the 29th of May and found a com mittee of city officials and others at the depot with twelve or fifteen open carriages to receive and escort the party to the Palmer House where elegant apartments were prepared for them. In the afternoon a largely attended reception was given in the parlors of the hotel, other distinguished Confederates hav ing arrived from different points, including Lieutenants-Gen eral Longstreet and Stephen D. Lee. At night a superb banquet of some three hundred covers was given the party with a fine band of music in the gallery. As a rule, the after- dinner speeches on the occasion were good, far above the average. On the 30th of May we were escorted to the cars in open carriages as before with a company of cavalry. Took the [304] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEJE. train and went out to the World's Fair grounds, where other carriages took us out to the cemetery. An immense crowd, estimated at from 30,000 to 40,000, was present, and the best of order and considerable enthusiasm prevailed during the exercises. General Hampton made an eloquent speech upon which he was much complimented. In the afternoon of the 31st we were escorted in carriages tiirough the parks, I being assigned to the carriage containing General French, and Mrs. Akers and Mrs. HoUenberg. In the evening all of the party, except General Hampton and myself, started back to Washington, taking my trunk with them by mistake. A telegram, however, overtook it on the road and brought it back the next moming. On June 1st, passed the day in sight-seeing. Senator Mc Pherson, who was to accompany us, having arrived. Met a very pleasant acquaintance in Mr. A. B. Meeker, who was exceedingly polite and attentive. At 11 p. m., started west with General Hampton and his Secretary, Mr. Thomas, and Senator McPherson, on the General's special car, well adapted to comfort and convenience, and with a capital cook and steward. After a pleasant night's rest and a good break fast, arrived in Saint Paul and laid over until the afternoon. Took advantage of the stop to see the town, and a very pretty one it is. June 3rd, continued west at forty miles an hour, passing a good part of the day in playing euchre, McPherson and 1 beating the General and Thomas. Good appetite, good cook ing and sound sleep, made me feel better on the morning of the 4th' when we reached Livingston and were switehed off to Yellowstone Park, arriving at the outskirts about 11 :00, and took stage for the Mammoth Springs Hotel. Passed the rest of the day there, visiting the famous fountains, and so forth. The wonders of this wonderland begin here, which [305] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. words are inadequate to describe. Captain Anderson, of tiie Army, who was stationed tiiere with his company in charge of the park, passed the evening with us, intending to go our way in the morning for forty miles. He told General Hamp ton that he had boat ready for him to fish in up at the geysers, and would send it up there in the morning. Engaged a coach and four good horses and started tiuther the next morning, passing various objects of interest and curiosity through some of the wildest and most sublime scenery in the world. Among these may be mentioned tiie Obsidiam, or natural glass cliffs, a quarter of a mile long and rising perpendicularly hundreds of feet, and numerous boiling, or rather seething, springs of great magnitude. The lake is as blue as indigo, and there were springs of arsenic, soda, and ApoUinaris. Stopped at a large tent half way and got a good dinner of Yellowstone trout. As we were nearing our destination, the fountain, stopped over and fished for a while, and were j'oined by Cap tains Anderson and Scott, of the U. S. Army, who met us on horseback with a couple of cavalrymen and refreshments, and made us stop over at their camp a mile or two beyond and partake of more refreshments. After supper they called and passed the evening with us. Shortly after reaching the inn, the fountain-geyser, a quarter of a mile in front of the hotel, began playing after numerous premonitory throes, which gave time to see the whole of it and also the soap caldrons, an excellent imitation of two immense soap kettles boiling different colored muds. The whole plain in front of the hotel is covered with geysers and hot springs, the stream from which could be seen in all directions. There were good rooms but ordinary table at both of our hotels. On June 6th, started up to the great geyser basin, eight miles above, but left General Hampton and Thomas half-way [306] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. up on the Fire-Hole River to try the trout, while the Senator and I kept on to the geyser basin. Some forty or fifty of them are in view at the same time besides hundreds of hot springs of immense size. The guide books obviate the necessity of stereotyped descriptions of these great curiosities, taken as an entirety, perhaps the greatest in the world. When within half-mile of General Hampton's halting place, the Senator and I alighted and fixing up our rods, fished on down the river until we overtook him half-mile below where he was left. Our entire catch was forty superb tiout, of which the General killed much the larger number. It was a cold bluster ing day, blowing at times almost a blizzard, and taking my new hat off into the river and almost taking the head after it. Retired hoping for better weather and better luck on the morrow, a hope doomed to disappointment as the ground was covered with snow and the mercury down to freezing point. Owing to that fact, it was decided to start back. On arriving at the tent of two days before, found some twenty tourists waiting to go further inwards, a few like ourselves, however, returning. On reaching the Mammoth Springs Hotel, at the entrance to the park, it was decided to keep on farther to the railroad depot and cateh the train, which we did at Y :00 p. m. June 8th, made some seven hundred miles passing through the bad lands of Montana, the most desolate and God-forsaken country that mortal eyes ever rested upon, composed of high hills on every side without the vestige of vegeta,tion and almost void of animal life, but the most grotesque and pic turesque shapes. Later on passed Bismarck, Helena, and other mining places, having entered a more inviting section of the country. Senator McPherson left us last night at Liv ingston, and returned to Washington, leaving us to continue the journey westward. June 9th, Sunday: Traveled all day through a mountain- [307] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. ous, picturesque country, but without material incident. In the afternoon had a long visit from General Kautz, an old West Point acquaintance of mine and an old adversary of General Hampton. Passed Lake Pend d'Oreille, the most beautiful sheet of water that I ever saw, and also had Mount Hood, Mount Tacoma, and other famous peaks in view, all covered with snow. Arrived at Portland at 7 :00 p. m., and moved from our car up to the Portland hotel and set about seeing the city, a very pretty one of some hundred thousand inhabitants. Went up on the heights overlooking the town by cable-car at the heaviest gradient ever yet achieved. The view from the top was superb in the extreme with the famous mountains, already named, in the background. The General had numerous callers, and after they had left he and I sat up and talked until bed time. Gave up our old car and had another assigned to us for to-morrow. June 11th: Started at Y :00 a. m., and ran down to Oregon City, a manufacturing place of about five thousand having the famous falls of the Williamette River just above, a min iature Niagara, fully as wide and one-third as high. Here we were side-tracked and took boat for the falls to try the salmon, for which the were famous. Had no luck in the morning although saw hundreds of big ones trying to jump the falls, the river being a perfect torrent Went back to the car and lunched, and I took a stroll on the plain above, a pre cipitous bluff reached by long flights of stairs two or three hundred feet high. On the summit, a level tableland, is a lovely village full of fruits, flowers and vegetables. On de scending, went back to the falls where I had a strike that took out nearly fifty yards of my line and bumed thumb and fingers sharply. After playing him two hours and his carry ing the boat over a mile, the General succeeded in gaffing and getting him aboard, berating me in the meanwhile for not [308] APPENDIX. killing him sooner so that we could go back and cateh a bigger one. He weighed fifteen pounds, and was the gamest fish that I have ever tackled. Passed a quiet evening on the car after a julep and a capital dinner. June 12th: Colonel W. G. Curtis, General Manager of Southern Pacific R. R., and wife arrived with his special car from San Francisco to meet and take us back with them later in the day. Will have more to say of this amiable couple. The General took breakfast with tiieon and then went bade to the falls, they continuing on to Portland, twelve miles further on, but all meeting about 12 :00 m., the General with a nineteen-and-a-half pound salmon. Our car hitehed on be hind Colonel Curtis's special engine, and his car to ours, and we started on a seven hundred and fifty mile ride to San Francisco, passing through an extensive and beautiful valley along the banks of the Williamette. It was hard to realize that this beautiful and well-developed land was a wild region described by Captain Bonneville less than a hundred years before on his famous tour of exploration. Stopped over in the afternoon and fished in the Umphpual River. While standing on the saw mill above saw large salmon trying every instant to jump the dam just below us, but were not prepared for them as we were only tiouting. Later returned to our little train, had an elaborate dinner on Mr. Curtis's car, played euchre until bed time, and then retired. The follow ing afternoon moved on to the headwaters of the Sacramento, a kindred stream, and tried that with like success. Ran back a few miles to Castle Craig, a precipitous rock, said to be a mile and a quarter high vdthout the slightest sign of earth or vegetation on it, and halted for the night on the cars. After a fine dinner, preluded with a julep, played euchre until bed time and then retired for a good night's sleep, with the raging river just beside us for our lullaby. 14 [809] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. June 14th: This being the anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis' wedding day, it was voted to pass it where we then were, than which a more picturesque place could not have been found within the borders, nearby the lofty rock of Castle Craig and Mount Shasta, one of the highest peaks on the Con tinent, seventeen thousand, flve hundred feet above sea-level, and covered with snow, and the Sacramento rushing below in a perfect torrent; while on the other side of the road, tow ering above, was an almost perpendicular bluff over a thou sand feet high. After breakfast Colonel Curtis and I walked over to the Castle Craig Tavern, half a mile off through beau tiful grounds and flower gardens. This is an elegant summer resort, capable of accommodating some six or eight hundred guests, with extensive walks and drives. June 15th: Followed the Sacramento down until dark, stopping to fish wherever any spot looked inviting for that purpose. During the morning came to a bend in the road by which four-and-a-half miles brought the train back to within half a mile of the starting point and some five hundred feet below, at a famous spring much like the Deep Rock water which we had been using on the train. There was an at tractive little hotel added by the railroad, and an exceedingly high water jet natural, from the mountains above, which was made to play for our edification. Mrs. Curtis and I walked dovsm from the halting place above by a narrow path through the woods, passing numerous large springs whose flow unites further down, forming a lovely moss-covered cascade just be low the spring. Nature did her level best to make this an ideal spot, the grounds of which belong to the railroad. The river runs right in front of the hotel. Dined and flished until sundown, moving on along the stream (Sacramento). Then gave up our engine and hitehed on to the express train which came along for San Francisco. [310] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. June 16th, Sunday: Passed through one of the most fertile sections of country on the globe — the Sacramento Valley — every acre of which seemed teeming vrith luxuriant ripe wheat as far as the eye could reach. This continued for f uUy three hundred miles, interspersed here and there with orchards, small fruits, vegetable gardens, and hundreds of miles in ex tent, shade trees and flowers. Entered San Joaquin, a kin dred valley, at right angles, lower down. About 5 :00 p. m., reached the town of Oakland, opposite San Francisco, and leaving our cosy accommodations with a tinge of regret, took an immense ferry-boat and passed over to the last-named place. We were driven up to the Palace Hotel almost without a rival as a city hostelry, and assigned to elegant apartments with every convenience. The next day Thomas and I took the electric car out to the Cliff, a bold eminence looking out on the Pacific. Felt something of a Balboa's exultation on first seeing this grandest of all oceans; the shores were crowded with bathers, and the rocks with seals. Farther on is an immense bath-house, fed from the ocean and capable of seating twenty thousand lookers-on. On the way out took a hack and passed an hour in the park, nothing to boast of except in its flora, unique and diversified. Much has been done in developing it however, as it was but a succession of barren sand hills and banks only a short while ago. Passed the evening quietly with General Hampton, who was com plaining much of a pain in his shoulder occasioned by an old accident Met his medical attendant there, Dr. M. Gardner, a very entertaining man, cousin of General Gardner, C. S. A., the Port Hudson, celebrity. Some of the gradients on the electric and cable street railway are fearful to ascend and descend until used to them, suggesting angles of 30, and even 45 degrees. Dined with Bill Foote, Captain Brice, of the Navy, Major Schofield, of tiie Army, and two young men, [211] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. the sons of Clans Spreckles, the sugar king of the Sandwich Islands. After' dinner the first three named volunteered to show me the slums of Chinatown under the escort of Colonel Crowley, Chief of Police of the city, and tiiree of his subor dinates. Such squalor, filth and degradation, it is impossible to describe or even to conceive of as we saw here huddled to gether in this seething hive of forty thousand Mongolians; closets ten or twelve feet square furnished sleeping rooms for as many htunan beings, if such wretehes can be so called, and frequently two and three stories under ground, reached by ladders, and not ten feet in dip. And yet we were told by the other two gentlemen, who had been there before, that we did not begin to see the worst phases of it, the police ser geants fearing to let the chief into their vilest dens and secrets of these horrible purlieus lest he should call them tO' account for being cognizant of them. Went to one of their theatres and sat half an hour on the stage, not the slightest elevation of tone or change of facial muscle marked either of the actors during the performance. Apparently it was all pure hum drum repetition. The next day Mrs. Curtis, by a]>pointment, took me through the shopping district, and better part generally of Chinatown. Bad enough this even under a noonday's sun, but what a contrast for the better to last night's horrors. Cannot blame these Pacific coast folks for insisting on keep ing these people out. They may excite our pity, but there is contagion in their touch. Passed the rest of the day in stioU- ing through the city and talving in the sights. Was surprised to see so little shipping of the better sort at the wharves. At night accepted an invitation of General P. M. B. Young, the then Minister to Guatemala, to accompany him and two ladies to the theatre, where he had secured a private box; an agreeable party and a most interesting comedy. After [213] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. the performance we all took a light supper at the Palace Hotel restaurant. June 21st: Met a number of agreeable acquaintances and passed a very pleasant day. Took dinner with Judge Foote in company with General Young at the University Club, an enjoyable affair. By the way, have been honored with invi tations and the freedom of all the leading clubs of the city for two weeks. After dinner General Young and I called on Mrs. Catherwood, the daughter of Chief Justice Hastings, of California, and an old friend of my father in the early days of the State, and, if report be true, a million heiress many times told. She was certainly a highly gifted and intellectual woman. June 22nd : By invitation General Hampton and I passed the day at Palo Alto, the princely home of Mrs. Leland Stan ford and about two miles from Mono Station. Our car was tacked on to the express train and switehed off at Menlo, where we met carriages sent for us and likewise for Judge Field and family of the United States Supreme Court. He failed to arrive, but his sister-in-law, Mrs. Condit-Smith, and daughter did. After an elegant breakfast, were driven out to the stables containing seven hundred superb specimens of horse-flesh, for one of which the late ovraier refused $150,000, and a four-w^eeks old colt, his son, was now under considera tion on an offer of $7,500. The flnest specimens of the stable were put through their paces for our inspection, includ ing the kindergarten or juvenile samples of the lot. They were put through their paces with the precision of the circus although only one and two years old. From there drove out to the Leland Stanford University, the noblest monument ever erected by man to commemorate an honored relative, twenty millions of dollars, the bequest in memory of his son. Cecilia Metella is here far outelassed in lavish display. Took [313] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. an early dinner with our hospitable entertainer, and then took train for Monterey, arriving at the world-famed Del Monte at 6:00 p. m., where elegant apartments were awaiting us. Taken as a whole, it surpasses all of the caravansaries that I have ever seen, and that imports the finest on two continents. The building proper, it is true, does not come up to the Ponce de Leon and its surroundings, but the grounds were an immense flower garden, far transcending it or any private or ducal home that I ever saw in Europe. Our being the invitedi guests of the establishment, with best quarters, was not calculated to lessen appreciation. After breakfast Colo nel Curtis and myself took an eighteen-mile drive around Monterey Bay, an adjunct of the hotel and most pictur esque one it is, alternately overlooking the ocean with the breakers lashed into fury at our feet, and then branching off into primeval tropical forest. Passed through the old town of Monterey, which looks as if it had not undergone the slightest change since first laid off and turned out by the old Mission Fathers. The first legislature of California was held here in 1849-50, my father being a member of the then State Senate. On the way back to the hotel examined the famous salt-water baths, enclosing perhaps half an acre in space and artificially heated, with three or four large swimming pools. After strolling through the gTounds and enjoying a superb dinner, took train for Santa Clara, on the other side of the bay, where our car was side-tracked, remaining aboard until Monday moming (to-morrow) in order to try the salmon in the bay, now in full season. June 24th : Was up bright and early and soon several miles out on salt water from the shore, the sea running high. I hooked a ten-foot shark and brought him alongside, but he snapped the line and escaped. It should have been premised that while tiiere we were the guests of the California Fish [214] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. Commissionsioner. We had boats, tackle and boatmen, placed at our service. June 25th: Started about 7:00 a. m., with face turned homeward, much to my satisfaction, for notwithstanding the past month had been one of the most enjoyable of travels that it is possible to imagine, I was beginning to feel most terribly homesick. Am sure I was not cut out for a circum navigator or globe-trotter. The home instinct is too strong in me. Passed over to Oakland, enjoying the magnificent bay and splendid view. The return trip was monotonous, with nothing worth chronicling excepting the immense snow-sheds miles in ex tent, and constructed to guard against snow avalanches which are liable to crush trains in their downward rush. At Marshalltown, Iowa, had a brief interview with my wife's sister, Mrs. Heitshu, living in that place, who came dovsm with her husband and son to insist upon my stopping over and paying them a visit, which had to be disregarded owing to the strong home-impulse which had taken possession of me. On reaching Chicago, was brought in contact with the autiior of a book that I had been reading on the way, which was then creating a sensation throughout the country, termed "Coin;" found him an exceedingly interesting and well informed man. After reaching home, passed the next few weeks in a hum drum, monotonous sort of life, mainly spent in the library and in reminiscence. Two years later my daughter (Sarah) and son-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke Jones, having gone off to Europe on one of their periodical jaunts, insisted upon our going. down to their country-place, near Wilmington, known as "Airlie," and passing the summer by the sea. This was done with the addi tional incentive that General Hampton agreed to join us there [215] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. and pass it with us, and with the further inducement that my youngest daughter, Mabel, lately married, was living near by with her husband's parents. Colonel and Mrs. Warren Elliott. My health beginning to fail, a little later on, we determined to pass the summer at Lincoln Lithia Springs, near Lincoln- ton, North Carolina, with General Hoke and his agreeable family, and this brings a dull story to near an end, the sub sequent time having been spent on our home place 'Tokay' with my wife and second daughter, Carrie, who has never married. Frequent visits from agreeable friends have served to while away the tedium of country life, if tedium could be associated with such. Odd half -hours of the time have been devoted to putting my lucubrations on paper with the view of having them consigned to printer's ink. Many of these have been preserved in huge scrap-books by my devoted wife, some of which will be given by way of appendix in the present volume. A projected visit in the recent past was from four of my old West Point classmates, namely. Generals G. W. C. Lee, Stephen D. Lee, O. O. Howard, and Henry L. Abbott, whose average age had passed the three score and fifteen mark, and whose rank, age and historical record are remarkable. Cir cumstances precluded the coming of all save General Abbott, who passed a couple of days under my roof in most interesting converse of our school boy days. And such is my little life's story as recalled, one full of petty vicissitudes and much to be thankful for. The world has been most kind and indulgent to me, overlooking my faults and shortoomings. The general tenor of my life has been to reciprocate in kind, and has been comparatively free from; bathos, hypocrisy, affectation and duplibity, though I [316] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. say it myself. If in its course I have ever wantonly injured any man, it is with deep regret that I recall it. I have been unusually blessed with two loving and consid erate helpmates, and with amiable and devoted children and grand-children, the comfort and solace of declining age. Never having been of a grasping mind, I have had a modest sufficiency of this world's gear. My self-imposed task, begun in whim or caprice on the dawning day of a new bom century, over six and a half years ago, and resumed at spasmodic intervals of months, and even years, is done, and let me hope that it will prove more satis factory to a few valued readers, than it does to the writer. Fate, good fortune or blind circumstance brought me in con tact, if not friendship, with many of the historical characters of a most historic epoch, for which I am duly thankful, and to lay my little sprig of immortelle upon the biers of such, was the actuating' impulse of this impotent undertaking. Charla tans and pretenders, who have attained ephemeral notoriety have likewise fallen within the range of vision and been scored or ignored, according to the prominence of assinine claim and assumption. My nature has ever been a mosaic or composite of oppo- sites. The amiable, counterbalanced by the assertive, the conciliatory by the combative, unswerving faith in the teach ing and dicta of the infallible Master with lax conformity to the precept. Per contra and as partial offset, I have never designedly injured my fellowman, but tried to do him an occasional service in a quiet, simple way. The post-bellum millenium, so discernible to the eyes of others, has never reached my optics. For forty years the day has never dawned OL which my preference coitld be given, ''in foro cons cientiae," for the new order of things over those of early remembered days; for fortune surpassing conception over [317] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. those of handgrasp measure, with attendant substitution of vulgarity for gentility, of concentration for diffusion, of ar rogance for civility. No, I am not sufficientiy complacent yet, to sing paeans to so-called prosperity, which is loathed, despised, detested and accursed, over the finest civilization that the world has ever known, or can ever know. Let that patriotic assumption be devolved on those more ambitious to wear it. For one it is not prerogative of mine, nor is it craved. If I know myself, there never was a drop of hypoc- ricy, duplicity or double dealing in the blood of my mother's son. Not that any claim is made to apotheosis after death on that score. It is simply an innate preference for the cotton field over the cotton mill and its concomitants: for a simple and natural order of things over a gigantic artificial, which with its varied appliances for absorption and concentration, has according to high statistical authority, placed it within the power of three and thirty thousand individuals, within three and forty years to amass over one-half of the aggregate wealth of the entire republic numbering fidly three and eighty millions of inhabitants. To my pessimistic forecast, granting the correctness of Mr. Sherman's figures, even in the proximate, the fate of the great modern republic is as infallibly sealed as was that of the great ancient, when six hundred plutocratic nabobs came to own Rome, which meant to all intents the world. How can patriotism and love of country, without which free states are but as eggshells, sur vive for long such an abnormal condition of affairs ? When it supervenes, a thousand Catos and Bruti cannot long post pone the inevitable fall. More appalling this than all of the other dangers combined, colonization included, that can un dermine free states by covert assault ; the condition that faces us: "where wealth accumulates, and men decay," with such unprecedented rapidity is the sure precursor of the impend- [318] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. ing downfall. Let Sir William Jones speak his grand apos trophe: "What constitutes a state?" Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, Thieli wall or moated gate: Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; Not bays or broad, armed ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Not starred and spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No: men, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued, In forest, brake, or den. As brutes excel cold rocks and brambles rude: Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain. Prevent the long-aimed blow. And crush the tyrant; while they rend the chain; These constitute a state. Yes, it is the facility of acquisition and the facility of di vorce that has sapped so-called society, made it a stench in the nostrils of the better sort, and forced them to despair of the fate of the Republic, as God help me, I cannot help doing. Who can help being pessimistic ? The few millionaires of that day being reckoned by the thousands, or tens of thousands of the multi-kind sort in this. Old Cornelius, usually known as Commodore, was one of the three or four of the first kind, who were reputed to be the possessors of two, or three or four millions each on the broad American continent, as the follow ing incident will go to show. He and my father were friends and cronies during the latter years of their lives. One evening on going to an entertainment in Washington with the two, and Mrs. Cross, the daughter of the first. General Green remarked, "My son, here is the luckiest man in the world ; the father of about a dozen grown children, and able to leave each one of tiiem a million of dollars." To which came the [319] AN AUTO OF HALF A CENTUEY AND MOEE. reply, "Not so, nor the half of it" At the time of his death, it was generally supposed that the head of that Medicean house could have bequeathed each one of a dozen, a half-a- dozen millions, and left them all far removed from penury, or the residuary legatee either. The incident is simply men tioned to illustrate the ease of acquisition under our paternal idea of protection, when once the foundation is laid by a man of sense and long outieach. Heaven help the herd, the special breed is getting to be a fraction a little over-prolific. Whence that reverberant call for fodder just ahead ? Another littie incident pertinent to the same, and notwith standing his countless and constantly increasing millions, professing contempt for superfluous wealth. One afternoon at Saratoga, Commodore Vanderbilt invited me to take a drive with Mrs. Vanderbilt and himself out to "the lake" and on the road remarked in his brusque, off-hand way : "Before you fellows down south played the fool, and tried to kick out of harness, you ought to have been the happiest and most contented people in the world." "And so we were. Com modore," came the reply, "until you fellows up north, re solved to kick us out." "And do you really think," my young friend, "that we are to blame for that needless shedding of blood ?" "If I did not," was the reply, "conscience would never cease to reproach me for having shouldered a musket in support of what was professed, an undying regret at having to lay it down before the dream was dreamt out." "Yes," he continued, "you lived in peace, plenty, and con tent, like rational folks, and as your fathers did before you, without breaking your necks, like a pack of idiots, by striving to double needless possession." Here was a high compliment, and a sad commentary in juxtaposition, over the impending and inevitable doom of Free Government, through aggrega tion and concentration of hoard, by him whose siim total of [330] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. accumulation to-day for his house, less than a generation after he, the old ferryman across to Staten Island, had paid his obelus to a predecessor in the trade, Charon by name, who has pulled the oars from the birth of time across a murky stream yclept, THE STYX, and will continue to ply them till time shall be no more. Which of the two amassed most of this world's dross, the man of Syndicates or he of the Oboli, let others determine. Socially and individually, it's a matter of little consequence. Politically and in boundless ag gregation, it imports, as said, the death-knell of free govem- ment Perhaps both long since reached the conclusion of Israel's wise king, and another who shall be nameless, VANI- TAS VANITATUM. For a few other data, reliance must be had on the historian and the poet, to describe a few of the surviving monuments of the past. Says Byron after Bede: "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall: And when Rome falls — the world. ******* Rome and her ruin past redemption's skill. The world the same wide den — of thieves, or what ye will. ******* Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime — Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods. From Jove to Jesus — spared and blest by time; Looking tranquility, while falls or nods Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods His way through thorns to askes — glorious dome ! Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and tyrant's rods Shiver upon thee — sanctuary and home Of art and piety — Pantheon! pride of Rome." And thus says the stateliest of historians to one of the greatest of poets over the grandest of antiquities. [331] APPENDIX. Having been all my life long a scribbler for the public prints, I venture to add a few of these by way of appendix. During my European tour I was a pretty regular contribu tor to the Boston Herald by request of the editor. Most of these letters have passed out of reach; some few, however, have been preserved and, by way of contrast in style between the boy and the man, are here inserted. The first was written from Venice, the next from Rome, the third from Naples, and the last from Thebes. They are given, as said, simply as samples of early style and impression, and are, perhaps, a little fulsome and bombastic on that account. Divers articles on other subjects will be added as near in categorical order as it is possible to recall. The views ex pressed may be crude, but are positive, for my nature through life has been a strange combination of the amiable and the assertive, and every utterance ever put on paper is the natural expression of heartfelt feeling. [333] APPENDIX. [Ex-President Davis' last paper of a public nature, written from a sick bed just flve weeks before his death. The occasion — The Centen nial Celebration of the Ratification, by North Carolina, of the Constitu tion of the United States, at Fayetteville, November 21st, 1889.] Beauvoie, Miss., Oct 30, 1889. Messrs. Wharton J. Oreen, Jas. C. McBae, C. W. Broadfoot, Neill W. Bay, W. C. McDuffie, Committee : Gentlemen: — Your letter inviting me to attend North Carolina's Centennial, to be held at Fayetteville, on the 21st of November next, was duly received; but this acknowledg ment has been delayed under the hope that an improvement in my health would enable me to be present as invited. As the time approaches, I find that cherished hope unrealized, and that I must regretfully confess my inability to join you in the commemorative celebration. It has been my sincere wish to meet the people of the "Old North State" on the occasion which will naturally cause them, with just pride, to trace the historic river of their years to its source in the colony of Albemarle. All along that river stand monuments of fidelity to the un alienable rights of the people — even when an infant success fully resisting executive usurpation and in defence of the privileges guaranteed by charter, boldly defying Kings, Lords and Commons. Always self-reliant, yet not vainly self-asserting, she provided for her defence, while giving ma terial aid to her neighbors, as she regarded all the British Colonies of America. Thus she sent troops, armed and equipped for service, into both A7"ii.ginia and South Carolina, also dispatched a ship from the port of Wilmington, with food for the sufferers in Boston, after the closing of that port by Great Britain. In her declaration that the cause of Boston was the cause of all, there was not only the assertion of a community of rights and a purpose to defend them, but self-abnegation of the com mercial advantages which would probably accrue from the closing of a rival port. Without diminution of regard for the great and good men of the other colonies, I have been led to special veneration for [324] -:?'t_--:^^ APPENDIX. the men of North -Carolina, as the first to distinctly declare for State independence, and from first to last to uphold the right of a people to govern themselves. I do not propose to discuss the vexed question of the Meck lenburg resolutions _^of May, 1775, which, from the similarity of expression to the great Declaration of Independence, of July, 1776, have created much contention, because the claim of Nortii Carolina rests on a broader foundation than the resolves of the meeting at Mecklenburg, which deserve to be preserved as the outburst of a brave, liberty-loving people, on receipt of news of the combat at Concord, between British soldiers and citizens of Massachusetts. The broader foundations referred to are the records of events preceding and succeeding the meeting at Mecklenburg, and the pro ceedings of the Provincial Congress, which met at Hills- boro, in August, 1775. Before this Congress convened. North Carolina, in disregard of opposition by the Governor, had sent delegates to represent her in the General CongTess, to be held in Philadelphia, and had denounced the attack upon Boston, and had appointed committees of safety with such far-reaching functions as belong to revolutionary times only. The famous Stamp Act of Parliament was openly resisted by men of highest reputation, a vessel, bringing stamps, was seized and the commander bound not to permit them to be landed. These things were done in open day by men who wore no disguise and shunned no question. Before the Congress of the Province had assembled, the last royal Governor of North Carolina had fied to escape from the indignation of a people, who burdened but not bent by oppression, had resolved to live or die as freemen. The Con gress at Hillsboro went earnestly to work, not merely to de clare independence, but to provide means for maintaining it. The Congress, feeling quite equal to the occasion, proceeded to make laws for raising and organizing troops, for supply ing money, and to meet the contingencies of a blockade of her seaports, offered bounties to stimulate the production of ar ticles most needful in time of war. On the 12th of April, 1776, the Continental Congress being then in session, and 15 "[235] APPENDIX. with much diversity of opinion as to the proper course to be pursued under this condition of affairs, the North Carolina Congress resolved, "That the delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the dele gates of the other colonies in declaring independence and forming foreign alliances, reserving to this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a constitution and laws for this colony, &c., &c." This, I believe, was the first distinct declaration for separa tion from Great Britain and State independence, 'and there is much besides priority to evoke admiration. North Caro lina had, by many acts of resistance to the British authori ties, provoked their vengeance, yet she dared to lead in de fiance, but no danger, however dread, in the event of her iso lation, could make her accept co-operation, save with the reservation of supremacy in regard to her ovm constitution and laws, the sacred principle of community independence and government founded on the consent of the governed. After having done her whole duty in the war for Independ ence and become, a free, sovereign and independent State, she entered into the Confederation with these rights and powers recognized and unabridged. When experience proved the articles of Confederation to be inadequate to the needs of good government, she agreed to a general convention for their amendment. The convention did not limit its labors to amendment of the article, but pro ceeded to form a new plan of government, and adhering to the cardinal principle that governments must be de;rived from the consent of the governed, submitted the new plan to the people of the several States, to be adopted or rejected as each hj and for itself should decide. It is to be remembered that the articles of Confederation for the "United States of America" declared that "the union shall be perpetual," and that no alteration should be made in the said articles unless it should be "confirmed by the legis latures of every State." True to her creed of State sover eignty. North Carolina recognized the power of stich States as chose to do so to withdraw from the Union, and by the same token her own unqualified right to decide whether or not [336 J APPENDIX. she would subscribe to the proposed compact for a more per fect .union, and in which it is to be observed the declaration for perpetuity was omitted. In the hard school of experience she had learned the danger to popular liberty from a govern ment which could claim to be the final judge of its own powers. She had fought a long and devastating war for State inde pendence, and was not willing to put in jeopardy the price less jewel she had gained. After careful examination it was concluded that the proposed Constitution did not sufficiently guard against usurpation by the usual resort to implication of powers not expressly granted, and declined to act upon the general assurance that the deficiency would soon be supplied by the needful amendments. In the meantime State after State had acceded to the new Union, until the requisite number had been obtained for the establishment of the "Constitution between the States so rati fying the same." With characteristic self-reliance, North Carolina con fronted the prospect of isolation, and calmly resolved, if so it must be, to stand alone rather than subject to hazard her most prized possession. Community Independence. Confiding in the security offered by the first ten Amend ments to the Constitution, especially the 9th and 10th of the series, North Carolina voluntarily acceded to the new Union. The 10th Amendment restricted the functions of the Federal Government to the exercise of the powers delegated to it by the States, all of which were especially stipulated. Beyond that limit nothing coidd be done rightfully. If covertly done, under color of law, or by reckless usurpation of an extraneous majority, which, feeling power, should dis regard right, had the State no peaceful remedy ? Could she as a State in a Confederation, the bed-rock of which is the consent of its members, be bound by a compact which others broke to her injury ? Had her reserved rights no other than a paper barrier to protect them against invasion? Surely the heroic patriots and wise statesmen of North Carolina, by their sacrifices, utterances and deeds, have shown what their answer would have been to these questions, [337] APPENDIX. if they had been asked, on the day when in convention they ratified the amended Constitution of the United States. Her exceptional delay in ratification marks her vigilant care for rights she had so early asserted and so steadily maintained. Of her it may be said, as it was of Sir Walter Scott in his youth that he was "always the first in a row and the last out of it." In the peaceful repose which followed the Revolution all her interests were progressive. Farms, school-houses and towns rose over a subdued wilder ness, and with a mother's joy she saw her sons distinguished in the public service, by intelligence, energy and persever ance, and by the integrity without which all other gifts are but as tinsel. North Carolina gTOw apace in all which consti tutes power, until 1812, when she was required as a State of the Union to resist aggression on the high seas in the visitation of American merchant vessels and the impressment of Ameri can seamen by the armed cruisers of Great Britain. These seamen generally belonged to the New England States; none probably were North Carolinians; but her old spirit was vital still; the cause of one was the cause of all, as she announced when Boston was under embargo. At every roll-call for the common defense she answered, "Here." When blessed peace returned she stacked her arms for which she had had no prospective use. Her love for her neighbors had been tried and not found wanting in the time of their need : why should she anticipate hostility from them ? The envy, selfish jealousy and criminal hate of a Cain could not come near to her heart. If not to suspect such vice in others be indiscreet credulity, it is a knightly virtue and part of an honest nature. In many years of military and civil service it has been my good fortune to know the sons of North Carolina under circumstances of trial, and could malve a list of those deserving honorable mention which would too far extend this letter, already, I fear, tediously long. Devotion to principle, self-reliance and inflexible adher ence to resolution when adopted, accompanied by conservative caution, were the characteristics displayed by North Carolina in both her colonial and State history. All these qualities were exemplified in her action on the day of the anniversary [338] APPENDIX. which you commemorate. If there be any not likely to be found with you, but possibly elsewhere, who shall ask: "How then could North Carolina consistently enact her ordinance of secession in 1861 ?" he is referred to the Declaration of Independence of 1776 ; to the Articles of Confederation of 1777, for a perpetual union of the States, and the secession of States from the union so established; to the treaty of 1783, recognizing the independence of the States, severally and dis tinctively ; to the Constitution of the United States, with its first ten amendments; to the time-honored resolutions of 1798-99 ; that from these, one and all, he may learn that the State, having won her independence by heavy sacrifices, had never surrendered it nor had ever attempted to delegate the unalienable rights of the people. How valiantly her sons bore themselves in the War between the States the list of the killed and wounded testify. She gave them a sacrificial offer ing on the 'altar of the liberties their fathers had won and left as an inheritance to their posterity. Many sleep far from the land of their nativity. Peace to their ashes. Honor to their memory and the mother who bore them. Faithfully, JEFFERSON DAVIS." [339] APPENDIX. Hotel de la Ville, Venice, October 14, 1858. Dear Herald : "The Queen of the Adriatic," and "the bride of the sea," has been mine hostess for upwards of a week. Venice, proud Venice, magnifique of other days, the dignity of whose elective chief once outshone that of the first hereditary magnates of the world, and whose power was alike feared and respected wherever her name had penetrated, is at present our abiding place. All my life long 1 have had a longing desire to see the city of the doges, the commercial republic which rose for a day, like a brilliant meteor, to sink into an utter night and insignificance. At length I am gratified. In front of my window is the Grand Canal, in sight the Rialto; the house in which I lodge was the palace of one of her best and wisest chief magistrates, Loredano by name. Yes, I stand in the midst of Venice and ponder over a host of historical recol lections, of which she was the stage. My reading had in vested it with a supernatural charm and almost induced me to believe it as rather the conception of poets and romancers than the bona fide city built with marble, brick and mortar. In perusing the thrilling chapter of the world's history, de tailing her splendor and magnificence, her victories, mys teries, and crimes, I have been all but tempted to pronounce it a hoax, and the very existence of such a place a myth. Her constitution, more wonderful even than our ovm, inasmuch as it was a greater deviation from all precedent, I regarded it as the cunningly concocted phantasma of some political lunatic, and unhesitatingly pronounced the "Giunta" and the "Ten," the great council and the small, the doge and the dun geons, "canards" of undoubted authenticity. But since visit ing this extraordinary place and seeing with my ovra. eyes the relics of the state of things implying the existence of the foregoing, my doubts have vanished like a moming mist be fore a meridian sun, and I can now gulp the whole, and aye, even more. On every side palaces of regal magnificence arise, the abodes in days of "republican simplicity" of the patrician nobles and royal merchants, her Foscaris and Morisinis, Bas- aros, and Antonios (the last, of course, by poetical license. ) Today "I stood upon the bridge of sighs" and dived deep into the loathsome dungeons of accursed tyranny, from [330] APPENDIX. which it leads. Yesterday, the hill where sat the "Council of Ten" (with the aperture in the wall through which were inserted through the "Lion's mouth" those infamous anony mous accusations which many of her best and bravest sons answered vrith their heads), the Senate Chamber, the apart ments of the doge, the giants, and the golden staircases, all submitted to our scrutiny. The first -named room interested me most, as being that in which accustomed to assemble that dread mysterious tribunal (so secret in its operations that the very members who com posed it were unkno-^vn to the outside world), instituted as a curb upon overweening ambition, a check upon "those haught traitors who would by treason mount to tyranny, but which, in course of time, itself merged into the most odious of tyrannies, the most heartless of despotisms ; thus conclusively demonstrating, as did the "Thirty of Athens" and French "assemblee nationale" of '91 and '92, that tyranny exists irrespective of the form of government — in republics as in monarchies, in parliaments as in individuals. Aye ! power is indeed a dangerous thing by whomsoever wielded. When tolerated, it is ever used ; when used, al most invariably abused. Ought not we then of Constitutional America be pardoned, nay more, applauded, for our prover bial jealousy of strong government to the extent, in fact, of denying or canvassing those powers in our representatives absolutely essential to the ends of government ? In my opin ion, where that jealousy ceases, tyranny begins ; when it ceases, it ought to begin. For reflection teaches that there is a natural proneness in the human mind to usurp all powers granted, and where naught is granted, not guaranteed by fun damental law, the people are untrue to themselves and unde serving the boon of freedom. Such concessions constitute dangerous precedents which, like the Grecian horse let in, may open the gates to others. Therefore, I would say, let our motto be "States rights and strict construction, now and for ever," and to that standard will I pin my faith and resolve that stand or fall, sink or swim, survive or perish, I'll know no other political creed. Let no silvery-tongued political Jesuit persuade us to adopt that vile heresy that the "ends justify the [331] APPENDIX. means," and the attainment of a great good justify a slight dereliction from the strict letter of the law. That belief has in all ages proved the very best pavior to anarchy and des potism, or, to use a more strong and emphatic figure, the most efficacious battering-ram against paper bulwarks and constitutional barriers. Let us repudiate it and its counsel lors as we would a summons to commit parricide. I know of no subject so fraught with serious reflection as the birth and death of states, and will, therefore, presume a moment further upon your time in pursuing it. To what owed the defunct republic of Venice its rise ? Any schoolboy can answer. Commerce was her tributary and slave of the lamp. She made it her pet paramount for a couple of cen turies, and then without seeming to vrithdraw her support permitted it to pine, wither, and die. There is material for the historian in the decadence of Venice, and a future Gibbon would not be unprofitably em ployed in tracing its origin, progress, and finale. Such a story would apply to Genoa as to' Venice; to Florence as to Genoa ; to all of the Italian medseval republics as to either. It is the old story of the decline of men and the sub sequent decline of states. In my humble judgment, it was not the loss of her Indian trade, as most supposed, which sent her toppling from her giddy height like a drunken giant. The loss of that, which has proved the making of every state that ever possessed it, was the consequence, not the cause, of her declension. The possession of it, in her case, was a doubtful good. It was Bacon, I believe, who said that "In the infancy of states arms flourish, then commerce, then art, then the three." Venice is an exemplification of this truism. Like an unbidden guest, she made her entree un'announced into the council of nations, so sudden was her coming. In her begin nings, as in those of most other great empires, arms were respected and the knowledge of their use held most honorable. This sentiment called into existence her invincible citizen soldiery, her Dandolos and Falieros, her Orsinis, and Pisanis, and men of kindred stamp, who held the proud Moslem in check, and their country in esteem. [388] APPENDIX. But this race gave place to another ; the soldiers made way for the merchants, the merchants for the artists, the artists for the foplings, and her ruin was complete. Commerce to which she owed her rise, she likewise owed her fall. Her good turned to be her evil genius, her comforter her curse. It opened the channel through which flowed that luxury and voluptuousness of the Orient which sapped her ancient virtue and blasted her quondam greatness. Yes! That luxury, which has proved the destruction of more states than saltpetre and all the engines of war combined, undoubtedly subverted Venice. May not other republics profit by the warning ? And now, having devoted so much space to a disquisition of the Venice of other days, what shall we say of the Venice of the present? Nothing; for the simple reason that nothing good can be said except that she wears well the yoke. The same black, funeral-like gondolas and rascally gondoliers, the same narrow, filtliy alleys and squalid beggars ; the same horde of priestly drones and hosts of Austrian soldiers — all are here as they have been time out of mind. And now, adios, adios, for the porter is at the door and we are off for Padua. From Florence, you may, perhaps hear from me again, and receive a description instead of a disquisitional letter. In haste, Yours truly, Naples, Febmary 13, 1859. Dear Herald: My last was from Rome, postmarked De cember 25th, and in spite of its volume, the time and place, contained little in the way of general news and gossip, less of stereotyped recital or description, and nothing of interest. Af ter consigning it to the post, regret at having so stultified my self induced me to half resolve that that last should be the last — but somehow this mania scribendi having fastened itself upon me, I find it as impossible to resist its impulse as it was for the Cumaean sibyl of old (whose den by the side of the terrible Avemus is distant hence but an hour's ride) the proclivity to prophesy. So make up your mind to the in fliction of another, but relieve it of all apprehension that my [333] APPENDIX. thoughts and reflections will again take the tone of the trans cendental, or seventh-Heaven school, as embodied in my last Fifty leagues intervene between this and the Eternal City, and fifty thousand in point of historical interest. To-morrow we sail for Egypt, and as time and tide and ocean-steamers wait for no man, I must now to the task vol untarily assumed vrithout more of prophecy or ado. On the 10th ultimo, having tarried a couple of months with the Pope, we turned our faces southward, and vrith a good and commodious carriage and five fat horses (the last- mentioned for the nonce, as ordinarily the bones of the "cavilli vetturini" may be guessed with as near precision as the pence in Paddy's pocket) were soon rolling past Saint John Lateran and through the dreary Campagna. The road, the "Appia nuova," which soon merges into the original "via Appia," was unsurpassed, the day serene, the scenery lovely. LTnder such auspices the drive of course, could be but pleasant, especially as I had taken the precaution to dispense with pos tillions, those pests of the Italian highway, in comparison to whom Turpin and his confreres of Hounslow heath were a set of civil, honest gentlernen. The first night we slept at Veletri, a "city built on a hill," a favorite idea of the Italians by the way, and one of the few worthy of commendation. The second day descending to the plain, we entered the once much dreaded "Pontine marshes," dined at the "foro Appio" or Three Taverns," a solitary little inn where Saint Paul met the brethren from Rome, as recorded in the 28th Chapter of Acts, and slept at Terracina, on the southern limit, and on the frontier between Rome and Naples. On the third day we had to run the gauntlet by some three or four custom-houses, that bugbear smugglers in petticoats all the world over, but no where so needlessly as in Germany and Italy, for the custom officials in those countries are proverbial for their "itching palms," and the traveller acquainted with this amiable national wealcness has no one to blame but himself if he is subjected to the annoyances of an examination. In Mola di Gaeta, where we stopped for dinner, many travelers would see but a romantic village and a good loca tion. In my eye it possesses an intrinsic attraction far be yond its narrow streets, its frowning castle, its beautiful [334] APPENDIX. bay, and picturesque background of hills. It is the last rest ing-place of two of the most remarkable men of their respec tive eras. In close juxtaposition repose the mortal remains of Marcus TuUius Cicero and the Constable Bourbon, who appeared at wide intervals upon this world's stage and with no trait in common save the "sacra fames auri," which was the moving principle of both, each became in his own way a prime mover on its chess board. The bold Bourbon with scarcely a redeeming virtue as a set-off against a host of vices, villainies and crimes, with the exception of his courage and self-reliance, yet possessed those in so eminent a degree that they almost atoned for the absence of all others. He was the type of a class which the nature of the times called into ex istence^ and which, happily for mankind and civilization, died out with the struggles of Guelph and Ghibeline. With out country and without home, discarding friendship and disdaining enmity, there was something in the isolation of the Great Company's man which elicits our pity, whilst his reckless bearing and indifference to consequences involun tarily extorts our admiration. It is my belief that, had the life of Bourbon been spared, Rome had likewise been, that dreadful nine months of pillage which supervened that event and its capture, and which for unheard barbarities threw in the background all the stories of Goth, Vandal, and Visigoth, which she had learned by experience. The brave are never cruel; the world never beheld such a paradox, and the Con stable was superlatively brave. On the fourth day we dined at Capua, a modern city in the immediate vicinity of that ancient Capua whose blandish ments proved more fatal to the hopes of the Carthagenian hero than Bow, javelin, or catapult of the Romans. It is needless to mention scores of other villages and towns through which our journey lay, remarkable for nothing save the public spirit of their sons, legions of whom we saw play ing the gentleman of elegant leisure in every market-place and public square, with not a sufficiency of rags on their backs to cover their nakedness, discussing grave questions of state, politics, theology, or literature perhaps, and certes macaroni. In all these, and in fact in all from Piedmont to Cape Spar- [235] EECOLLECTIONS AND EEFLECTIONS. tivento, and on every object from Saint Peter's to a plough share, the word stagnation, or worse still, retrogression, is as indelibly written as those of life, progress and vitality are with us. Everywhere is seen the want of that glorious "middle-class," which constitutes the pride and bulwark of England, and than which, according to a distinguished Eng lish author, Bulwer, none other is known in America. May the day be far distant when any other will be ! When our land will be encumbered by those incubi of energy, a privil eged and pampered aristocracy and a disfranchised pauper million. In Italy, as I have remarked, these extremes em brace the entire population to the exclusion of the more ma terial mean. It is the peasant and the prince, the last the unit, che first the million ; and as long as it is so, her redemp tion or regeneration is a chimera by whomsoever attempted. In the afternoon of the fourth day we reached Naples, where we have been ever since prosecuting our mission of sight-seeing and luxuriating in a climate, perhaps, the most equable under the sun. Since our arrival the thermometer has constantly ranged between 60 and 80 Fahrenheit. Think of that, ye denizens of an iceberg who, during the same inter val, venture your noses into the open 'air at the peril of frost bite. After becoming settled, a trip to Pompeii was one of the first excursions that attracted us. A two-hours drive brought us to the only city extant which, literally speaking, can boast an antiquity of two thousand years. Entering by the street of the tombs, which contains many elegant mortuary monu ments, the first dwelling which arrests the attention is the so-called house of Diomede, one of the most sumptuously magnificent which has yet been uncovered. There is such a similitude in all of the houses that one might suppose tiiem to have been designed by the same architect and after the same model. The open quadrangular court, surrounded by the inner portico of the house, and containing a fountain in the center, is the same in all. Fountains, in fact, and miniature cascades seem to have been an universal hobby, as they are found in every patrician house. The houses are invariably low, rarely [236] APPENDIX. exceeding one story, and in no instance, I believe, more than two. This might be for the double purpose of avoiding heat and the effect of earthquakes. The sleeping apartments are close and cramped, according to our notions of comfort, and might readily be mistalicn for china closets of the present day. For more than five hours we pursued our investigations through the deserted thoroughfares of this once populous city, as perfect and entire in all external respects as it was on the ill-fated moming of its destiuction, 1780 years ago. During this entire time the only living beings that we encountered were a party of English who, like ourselves, were intent on studying the past from the palpable present; with the ex ception of these all betokened the grave. "No watch-dog's honest bark," no prattling urchins or rumbling wheels or merry bells were heard. On every side a silence and desola tion absolutely appalling — graveyards are proverbially solemn places. In my younger days I so regarded them, but this visit to Pompeii has dispelled the illusion and will, doubtless, make me regard a nectropolis henceforth a very pleasant abiding place. Why this oppressive sense of soli tude? Simply because the contrast between life and death is nowhere so strongly presented. We enter a noble mansion, and at the first glance mistake it for the abode of a prince, "or greater still a Roman;" on every side is seen the evidence of an elegance which in our country is rarely seen; mosaics and marbles, and statues and frescoes and fountains, and all the appliances which wealth and luxury and art contribute to beautify and adorn this mundane existence. But look again, and lo ! the illusion has p'assed away, and we stand in a tomb! Another, and another, is entered with a like result. The temples are closed, where burned the fires of the "false gods," and walked in immediately the priestly impostors whose duty it was to enslave the mind. The amphitheater, which once teemed with expectant crowds awaiting with hushed delight the revolting spectacle of a hand to hand con flict unto the death, or the equally disgusting struggle of man and beast, is emptied. Old Romans once occupied those vacant seats and lovely women (who the more shrinking and [237] APPENDIX. timid, the more dear they are to man) were reckoned among the spectators, aye, and revelled in the brutishness of the arena. Where are they now? Gone! many thousands over whelmed by one common ruin, swept as by an avalanche from the face of the earth, and if fiction, the handmaid of history, is to be credited, in the self-same hour that the city was emptied to fill this enclosure. The buried cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum, afford parallel to thq "Cities of the Plain." Like Sodom and Gomorrah, they have passed away by the action of an agency higher than man's, but, un like them^ after the lapse of long, long years, they re-appear as if to mock the mutations of time. It may not generally be known that, though excavations have been going on upwards of a hundred years, not one- fourth of the city has yet been disentombed; neither have and buildings of a poorer class been brought to light : so it is an open question whether or not there were any poor in Pompeii, or if so, whether they were not shut up in a quarter by themselves like the Jews in Frankfort, Prague, and other German cities. Most of the articles found have been removed to the Museo Borbonico, and that at Portici. In the former we saw a collection. Last week we made an excursion to the crater, and a tedi ous one it proved. We proceeded almost as far as the hermit age by a carriage, when our further progress was cut off by an immense field of burning lava, which for the last two weeks had overflowed and blocked up the carriage road. By climbing a foot-path, however, half an hour's walk brought us to the last human habitation on the hill, far above the surrounding country and half-way up to the summit. Here my wife and her maid gave out, unable to proceed further up the mountain ; leaving them under the care of the old priest, who inhabits this outof-the-way and dangerous spot, my cousin and myself resolved to persevere. Having omitted the precaution to take donkeys at Resina, we were necessitated to foot it to a spot called "Atrio del Cavalli," at the foot of the cone, and about two miles further on. It was a rough walk, and by the time it was finished we were pretty thor oughly fatigued. On reaching the place alluded to, all the [338] APPENDIX. chairs by which the ascent is usually made had been taken by first comers, and so, dispensing with that luxury, we had to climb, as another party now were also doing. So we started, but the order of progression was slow indeed, two paces for ward and one back, owing to the crumbling nature of the soil, which is entirely volcanic, composed of ashes, black sand, tufa, and small lumps of lava. Frequently it was necessary to pull up by straps fastened around the waists of the guides, whilst we were pushed up by others. After struggling on thus for upwards of an hour, and finding it absolutely indis pensable to rest every five or ten minutes, we finally attained the summit. On every side was ruin and desolation as forbid ding and repulsive as chaos itself. All around lay spread immense masses of volcanic matter, accumulation of thousands of years. Among these could be traced almost every color and shade of color. Here and there little tongues of flames were discernible through the crevices, giving evidence that the mountain on which we were standing was pregnant with a force as potential for mischief as the black sand in the magazine, composed of carbon and saltpetre. The thought crossed me, what if the match should be applied I and my insignificance came full to me. I felt that the chances were a thousand to one that, in that event, I would not be so fortunate as the aspiring Empedoeles, whose old boot robbed him of the immortality he craved. Scrambling over the intervening space, about two hundred yards, and we stood at the mouth of that mysterious aper ture from which were issuing huge volumes of smoke and steam. Producing a black flask, we drank to "the old folks at home," and then consigned it to the apparently bottom less pit in order that it might never know a meaner toast. If the ascent was up-hill work, the descent was easy enough in all conscience. All the exertion requisite was to let yourself loose at the top and pick yourself up at the bottom. But seri ously, it is accomplished almost without any act of volition on the part of the pilgrim. Query : If Virgil had not this in his mind when he penned "descensus facilis averni." On return to the hermitage night had already set in, now the ocean of burning lava which, under the glare of a noonday sun was [339] APPENDIX. hardly perceptible, was lit up with a brilliancy rivalling a burning village and producing a grandeur rarely excelled, if, indeed, ever equaled. Altogether it looked decidedly in fernal, prepared as the mind was by an insight into the crater to receive such impressions. And the effect was further heightened by a number of wild and weird looking fellows who were engaged in running the molten mass into salt-cel lars, medals, and other small articles. I had intended in this sheet to furnish a brief description of the principal objects of interest, not only in and around Naples but also at Salerno, where dwelt Tancred and the fair Sigismond; Paestum, 60 miles south of this, famous for some of the most remarkable ruins extant, especially the temple of Neptune; Amalfi, once the first commercial power of the Peninsula, which claims the honor of the invention of the mariner's compass, now an insignificant village; Baiael, once the most elegant and luxurious summer resort that the world has yet seen, now nothing. These and others did I have in view, but my limit is already transcended. The Dul?:e of Calabria, the heir apparent to the Neapoli tan throne, has just taken a wife and brought her home, and the city as a consequence is filled with titled strangers met to congratulate the happy pair and participate in the fetes. The prince of this and the grand duke of that are dancing attendance upon their future majesties. Illuminations, bon fires, fetes and frolics, ad infinitum, were prepared in honor of the event, but lo and behold ! in the midst of all this prep aration that unceremonious old fellow, with a scythe and hourglass, steps in and takes off one of the royal visitors, Her Highness of Tuscany. Consequentiy, everything is in definitely postponed. A little morceau, exemplifying American simplicity as an antidote against all this sententious parade and mountain-in- labor tom-foolery. A few days ago, having occasion to call for a friend at the Hotel Vittoria, in glancing over the list of names, titled and untitled, I chanced to see that of Mr. Franklin Pierce and Mrs. Pierce, United States. On in quiry, I found they had left a day or two before for Capri and Sorrento, but that they had been here off and on for a [340] APPENDIX. month previously. In this quiet unostentatious gentleman few foreigners recognized the ex-first magistrate of the first nation on the globe, raised to that proud eminence by the suf frage of a larger majority than ever combined — indeed, it would be a "letting down" and condescension for this re publican potentate to take rooms at the Palace Royal and mingle with the regal herd "whom the King delights to honor." The tour of President Pierce strikes me as characteristic of our glorious institutions, the genius of which is opposed to consequentials, which recognize in every individual, high or low, but a component of the "eternal people," and in that people the source of all the importance and power and glory of the nation. In no country is the individual so small — ^the people so great. And now the "wee sma' hours" warn me to bid you good night. Be not surprised to receive my next from the hundred gated city of the Nile. Adios. Rome It was my impression that I had preserved a letter written from Rome, but it is now impossible to put hands on it. One extract, however, remains in my mind, which is as vivid now as it was when penned. To me the most hallowed spot in the Eternal City, not ex cepting gorgeous cathedrals, baths and temples, was a spot not now marked by the slightest memorial, which will explain itself in the following paragraph: "To-day I stood on the spot where stood the bridge defend ed by the Coccles (the brave Horatius). Well do I recall the day when, as an unsophisticated country schoolboy, I first perused the enchanting story, and I thought then, as I thinlc now, that I would rather have been that bold plebeian with naught to recommend him of which we are aware than a bold heart, a strong arm, and a free unfettered spirit, backed by patriotism paramount to every other consideration, than all of the Alexanders and Attilas, Totilas and Tamer- lanes, Caesars and Bonapartes, who have cursed mankind, combined and consolidated in one grand legitimate cut throat" 16 [341] APPENDIX. Ancient Thebes, March 23, 1859. Dear Herald: My last wasi given in charge to a passing boat, on nearing this place, to be carried to Cairo for the post. Since then we have been prosecuting the purpose of the trip with such ardor and celerity that the major part of the principal objects of interest in this vicinity have undergone our scrutiny and submitted to an examination. The results of this survey I am now about to communicate, coupled with such refiections as naturally suggest themselves to my mind: for I can no more content myself with a succinct matter of fact recital, unaccompanied by those valuable concomitants, than could the verbose kinsman of "Cousin Sally Dilliard," when on the witness stand, refrain from similar surplusage. We reached this, Luxor, about 10 p. m., on the evening of the 18th, catching the first glimpse of its mossy monuments by a moonlight almost as bright as that of day. Never did I more fervently realize that obscurity is an element of the sublime ; never did I more felicitate myself on the concurrence of time and circumstance of arrival. Approaching the land ing, its columns and colossi, its pylon and obelisk, stand forth in bold relief and loom up large when beheld for the first time by Cynthia's dim light. Having slept on first impressions, we arose at an early hour, and with patriotic pride beheld "the Stars and Stripes" waving from two of the four other masts at the landing be sides our own. To those acquainted with the mercurial pro pensities of our ovm kinsman, Mr. Bull, it is needless to add that "the Union Jack" of old England floated from the other two; that bunting of all others, after the first named, which possesses most of my respect and partiality. Crossing the river, we proceeded first to inspect the wonders of the western bank. Half an hour's ride on our diminutive donkeys brought us to the grateful shade of the "Colossi of the Plain" (the vocal Memnon, and another of lesser note), looking in the distance like two Cyclopean sentries seated on posts to guard the approaches to the Sacred Enclosures be yond. It was with a mingled feeling of disappointment and re gret to discover them composed of many instead of being cut out of a single block of stone, as I had always supposed. They [343] APPENDIX. are much mutilated, "the human face divine" being almost effaced, and every day diminishing the resemblance, owing to the puerile desire in the minds of most visitors to carry away a piece. Were it not that the age of miracles is still existent, it would be incredible at the present day that even the ductile faith of primeval ignorance could be gulled by such a prepos terous imposture as that associated with one of these statues. Did we not every year see tangible proof of the contrary, we might boldly assert that the common sense and skeptical in stinct of the age would not require the assistance of acoustics to induce them to reject with derision this priestly imposi tion. But knowing this, let us be chary of a presumptuous comparison between the credulity of the two eras ; for in all probability could the priest of Isis, Crisis, or Ammon, start to life and be made to comprehend the statutes of the old and its theologies, he would smile with scorn at some of the most cherished mysteries and delusions of the superstitious herd of the present day, and certainly the periodical liquifaction of the blood of an old saint (the Neapolitan miracle), the holy fire of Jerusalem, and the table-turning and spirit-rap ping of our country, are inventions inferior in merit and dig nity to the more sublime and practical of their own, which made the creature of man's hands salute with an exclamation of joyous surprise the advent of the King of light, the most rational and respectable of all the emblems and figures of heathen adoration. With the exception of these colossal effigies of man, noth ing in the shape of his creation encumbers the plain from the Nile to the Menmonium, half., an hour further inland; a plain where once stood a city, the wonder of the world; a city from each of whose hundred mouths could be poured simultaneously twice that number of chariots with their due proportion of infantry and horsemen. How changed the scene! The ploughshare now passes over the spot. The serried hosts and life-destroying legions of that epoch have passed away and been replaced by the life-sustaining cereals of another. In a word, all that wealth and power could call into existence; all the vile and jostling competition of a [343] APPENDIX. populous community; all the hustling magnificence which usually betokens the site of the world's metropolis has dissolved And like an unsubstantial pageant faded Left scarce a wreck behind. To give even a brief outline of the Mcmnonium and tem ples would require an amount of space which you were as loath to accord as I to take. To describe them by a word, I know of no more fitting epithet than Dominie Sampson's "prodigious." Tho Egyptian order of architecture was never home-like, nor have my prejudices been materially mollified by immcdiiitc contact with 11i(\ho, the nobhsst specimens of it extant. There is too much of thc^ funereal, something too solemnly grand, if you will, to suit my fancy. But inde pendently of preconceived bias, f am, not a sufficiently com petent judge of the merits of the sfience to institute an equit able comparison between that and its more polished rivals, or offspring rather. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that in the solidity of its parts, thx; justness of its proportions^ its simplicity and j)owcr of durability, there is much to recom mend it even whcin weighed in the balance against the unpre tending Grecik or more graceful Gothic; much to palliate its more glaring defects, and to (enlist our wonder and astonish ment, whilst unqualified admiration is rardy conocdcul. It is the order of all the others which seems best calculated to mock the mutations of time and the vandal malevolence of man. "Time's Hcythc and tyrant's rods shiver upon them," to plagiarize* the noble apostrophe to the Pathcon, of Eng land's noble bard. The pyramidical t^owers facing the gateway, the pylon and columns, are the parts invariably in the best state of preser vation. The lotus-shaped capital was evidently the favorite design, and justly, although in the same building, and even in the samo chamber, a coujunction with others is no unfre- quent occurrence. By the way, respecting the lotus which furnished them the idea, it may not be generally known to the supporters of prophecy that, in conformity to the predic tion of Isaiah, this, the bulrush, and all other water-plants which once abounded in the Nile, have entirely disappeared. [344] APPENDIX. Prostrate in the court of the Menmonium or Remeseum rather, is the granite Colossus of Remeses II, so stupendous even in its fallen grandeur that its demolition without the agency of gunpowder has astonished the savants of our time as much as the construction of another monument. It is cut out of a single block of the hardest Egyptian granite and is the largest of that description of which the annals or tradi tion of the country make mention. The erection and trans portation of these tremendous blocks of stone has surpassed the world's comprehension almost from the day upon which the last was elevated. In transporting one of the two obe lisks which formerly stood at Luxor, and now ornaments the "Place de la Concorde," Paris, the French Government em ployed several hundred of its own subjects and thousands of those of the Pasha, all of whom were engaged at the work a year or two, and had finally to await an extraordinary over flow of the river in order to get it afloat. The second day was devoted to the wonders of Karnak, dis tant from our boat perhaps a couple of miles. As you are probably aware, Karnak, Luxor, Kodrheh, Medeemel Haboo, et cetera, all occupy parts of the ancient capital; and from their remoteness from each other and with a river inter vening, ample evidence is afforded that its importance and immensity were not overrated by the historian and geogra pher of the time. Having already applied my strongest ex pletive to express appreciation of the temples of Medeemel Haboo, what adequate term can be applied to the great temple of Karnak? None in my vocabulary will serve the turn. Suffice it that the impression of superlative astonishment, pro duced by the Colosseum in Rome, was eclipsed in the self same hour that my mind received that of the other ; and I am disposed to think, that had it flourished simultaneously, the great temple of Solomon had not come down to us as standing isolated and alone, the architectural prodigy of the world. The statement of Diodorus, ascribing to its walls a circumfer ence of one mile and a half English, a thickness of 25 feet and an altitude of 45 cubits, is certainly entitled to more credence than the generality of readers are disposed to con cede it Although these dimensions are necessarily much [245] APPENDIX. abridged by lapse of time, there is still enough left to con vince the pilgrim that more time, labor, stone, money and mortar were required in its completion that that of any other edifice that can be pointed out at the present day. In the grand, or columnar, haU, 270 by 329 feet, I counted 134 pillars of 66 and 42 feet, respectively, exclusive of the pedestal, and a circumference of 40 and 27 feet. Nine out of ten of all these are as perfect as if the building were still in the course of construction. In another part are two beau tiful obelisks of 98 feet each. In its finished state it stood forth to the world in all its resplendent glories, the work of many monarchs and different dynasties, extending through an interval of a thousand or two years, and consequently ex hibiting within itself the successive gradations of the birth, rise, progress, and perfection of its proper order of architec ture. Like all other works of the period, its walls are crowded with hieroglyphics, those rude symbols of ideas, which may be considered as embodying the first principles of that divine science subsequently introduced into Europe by Cadmus. Llaving mentioned the great attraction of the local ity, the inferior sights consisting of the smaller temples and hundreds of mutilated Sphinxes, Colossi, et cetera, which were as tame in recital as they were in review, we will leave Karnak and return to our boat. Not less wonderful and more enduring are the abodes of the dead than the palaces of the living, or the fanes of the false gods. The entire chain of hills on the western bank, as far as the eye can reach, is one vast necropolis abounding in tombs as thick as a native with fiftii and vermin. The care which this ancient people bestowed upon its dead argues unmistakably their belief that the future happiness or misery of the deceased was materially affected thereby. This con viction seems to have been transmitted unimpaired to their posterity, and to be shared in common by all the nations pro fessing the Koran. Two hours' ride on the third day, under the most oppres sive sun that I have ever experienced, brought us to Belzoni's tomb, so-called from its modern discoverer. A description of this will apply with some variations to dozens of others which [346] APPENDIX. are visited. Descending by a precipitous staircase some fifty or sixty feet, a wide passage at the bottom leads into a number of commodious apartments decorated in the highest style of Egyptian art. Retracing the way partly, and turn ing a comer at right angles, a second fiight of stairs leads further down into other chambers similar in all respects to those above. At the farther extremity of these, that is, 342 feet from the entrance, is an inclined plain, at an angle of 43 degrees, leading, I should imagine, some fifty or sixty yards farther down. The whole of this immense cavity re minds me more forcibly of the Mammoth Cave, or Grotto of Adelsburg, than an artificial excavation that occurs to me. It is cut out of solid stone (a white calcareous limestone), in no part of which could I detect the slightest flaw of imperfec tion, and admits of as high a polish as marble itself, thus obviating the necessity of cement for purposes of mural dec oration, every part of it as well proportioned as if the whole were the work of a master m-ason, led by line and plumb, and with brick and mortar for materials. On the entire surface there is not a spot as large as my hand untouched by fresco or hieroglyphics. You may think this is a remarkable sepul chre, but in no essential point does it differ from scores, per haps hundreds, of others, in its vicinage, such as those of the Harper Amundph, the kings and queens. The tomb of the Scipios in Rome was evidently borrowed from the Egyp tian, but in treading the ashes of that illustrious family there is a sensation of oppressiveness and difficulty of respira tion, owing to the low, narrow and contracted space, and con sequent confined atmosphere. Here, however, there is noth ing of the kind, and the antiquarian might pass a twelve month in deciphering its inscriptions (than which I had rather undertake the disentanglement of a Chinese tea-chest) more comfortably than in any dwelling-place between this and Cairo. This moming, having examined the antiquities of Luxor, which elsewhere were well worthy of a circumspect examina tion, but here are commonplace (except its obelisk, whose dogs, oats, crabs, crocodiles, orang-outangs, and animals, hon ored with an effigy, are more deeply cut and consequently [247] APPENDIX. more legible than on any other known), I called on the Con sular Agent. ' I have heard of sinecures; our list affords a few such, and its great merit is that the number is more limited than that of any other. But certainly a more com plete sinecure and more profitless than that worthy man, can not be found. If his fees reach five dollars per annum they exceed my guess. Nevertheless, he is studiously courteous, attentive and urbane in his bearing towards Americans, thus setting an example worthy of imitation by some of our pther representatives in the East. He is a native, a Mussulman, and as far as I could judge, a gentleman ; a compliment I would feign extend to his confrere of Cairo could I in justice do so; but who, if my estimate be correct, is emphatically "the wrong man in the wrong place." It was Louis XIV, I believe, who said of Churc hill, — ^that he ought to be a general commanding or — a cap tain, but that he was unfit for a regiment. So of this indi vidual ; he ought to be a king or a constable ; as the republi can consul is evidently tmable or unwilling to bring to Vear, in the discharge of his duties, those qualities essential to a worthy fulfillment of the office. Our system of rotation in office, with all its abuses and abuse, has its advantages as well as the life-tenure or indefinite system so lauded by our friends, the English, not the least obvious of which, perhaps, is the necessity it imposes upon the place-man of "affecting a politeness foreign to his nature in order that he may retain his post." Another homely truth that it brings home to his comprehension is that, with us, the office honors the man, and not the man the office ; and this, "though all the blood of all the Howards," yea, of all the "conquerors" that encum bered the world from Cain downwards should flow in his veins. Knowing this-, I would respectfully suggest the retir acy of those "illustrious foreigners" unwilling to admit this leveling axiom. I deem it needless to say, in conclusion, that whenever I see fit to overhaul the official conduct of any man in the col umns of a public print, my name and address are patent to all applicants ; for if I claim the right of a Junius I disclaim his nonentity, and so, Mr. Editor, apologizing on the score of haste for all imperfections, T bid you a goodnight. [3 48] APPENDIX. Sketch of the Second N. C. Battalion — Wises', Later on in Daniel's Brigade. If any apology is necessary for the oft recurrence of the pronoun personal in the following report, the writer hopes it will be found in the peculiar make up of this gallant com mand, organized mainly through his instrumentality, com posed of companies from three different States, and as inci dent to such composition mustered directly into the Confeder ate service instead of primarily into that of either State. North Carolina supplied two-thirds of its numerical strength and gave it name and designation. The fate of war decreed that its initial hostile move was to a point where capture was inevitable, and before the arrival of the two last companies requisite to complete its regimental organization. In the first days of April, 1861, the telegraph left no room for doubt that the United States Government was re solved to try and revictual Fort Sumter, then beleaguered by the young government just springing into being. Each fully realized that that meant war. The next train carried the writer to Charleston as a would-be volunteer gun ner, anxious to see the beginning of what he deemed the in evitable struggle, and hence nowise loth to see it begin. In this he was disappointed, as orders had just been issued for bidding any additional recruits into the batteries. He heard, however, the opening gun of the mighty drama to follow, and a day later the final one which preceded the surrender of this almost impregnable fortress, as subsequent events proved it to be, when besieged and besiegers were reversed. It was a dramatic sight replete with patriotic enthusiasm, even as witnessed from the city battery. A thrilling one when "the old flag" was hauled down in token of evacuation and "the new one" run up. With hundreds of others our little boat was just below the walls when it was done, an explosion of cartridges killing three of the garrison while saluting the first. A few days later my company, that is, the one in which I was an enrolled private, was in camp at the State Capital. The very first I think to go into the camp of instruction there was the "Warren Guards," Capt. Ben Wade. Certainly one [349] APPENDIX. of the three first After a short space* of preliminary drill it was assigned to the First Kcgiinent, CVd. D. II. Hill. This company and two others had done me the honor of giving me their unanimous vote (all voting) for tho Ijleuten- ant-Colenolcy of this the initial rcgimout from our State. For some unexplained cause, all thrcH' of these were rele gated to the next succeeding' regiment, the Second, laler on numbered the Twelfth, to avoid ambiguity with what was known as State troops. This regiment was organized al Garysburg by the election of Lieutenant Sol. Williams, lately resigned from the United States Army, as Colonel, a,nd was straightway moved to Richmond. Shortly nfter arrival there, it was ordered to Norfolk. Whilst in camp there ex-Govei'uor Wise, then a Brigadier General, sent me, unsolicited on my part, nuthority to raise a roginiont and join his command, known iis the Wise Legion. It is a matter of no little satisfaction that, upon its being known, the last official act of North Carolina's first great War Governor, John W. Ellis, was to give ine au order for some six hundred Enfield rifles, the only ones at the State's disposal. Unfortunately for me, however, before all my com panies could reach the camp of formation (and there were eighteen from which to select), and requisition be made for my guns, this glorious son of North Carolina had breath(vl his last, and almost the first official act of his successor was to revoke his order and to give wm/ guns to another, no cause* being assigned and none but favoritism presuinable. In view of this gross injustice the Legislature, only three dissenting, voted me fifty thousiind dollars to arm and equip my com mand. Ordinarily such a sum would have' far more than suf ficed, but in those days weapons of approved pattern were' above money and above price, simply because they were not to be had. Luckily my command was composed of the right sort of men, not finnicky or over-fastidious as to outfit. Though cheated of our "Enfields," to the front we would go with squirrel substitutes and double-barrel shot guns of divers calibre. Every man was afraid that he couldn't get a hand before the game woidd be ended. And so these honest work- [350] APPENDIX. men took the best tools that they could get, and there was no grumbling. We all expected better after our first fair field and an honest fight. Fortunately our uncouth armament was supplemented by some 350 old flint lock muskets which Governor Leteher, of Virginia, generously turned over to me, because his foUis wouldn't touch such tex)ls. After being percushioned by the Government, they made very respectable killing implements, especially when each double barrel man carried beside a two-foot carving knife of the heft of a meat axe in lieu of bayonet. After such an elaborate outfit, not counting a good, warm overcoat all aroun'd, it will hardly seem credible that within a year thirty-two thousand and odd dollars were returned to the State Treasury, to the surprise if not disgust of sterling old Mr. Coates. "Why, Colonel, this thing is without prece dent," was his only comment. In the fall of 1861 was ordered by General Cooper, Adju tant and Inspector General, to proceed to Wilmington and report to Gen. Joseph R. Anderson, commanding the Depart ment of North Carolina. By him was assigned to the duty of guarding the coast above and below Masonboro Sound, some seven miles to the east of that city. We continued in the discharge of that duty until the 30th of January, 1862, when I was ordered by General Cooper, A. and I. General, to proceed at once to Roanoke Island, then threatened by the Federal force under General Burnside. At this time the Second North Carolina Battalion consisted of the followina; eight companies, averaging about eighty-five men to the com pany. My two last companies necessary to a regiment had not then reported. (Owing to the loss of my papers when captured, necessity frequently compels the use of proximates. ) FIELD AND STAFF. Wharton J. Green, Lieutenant-Colonel commanding; Mar cus Erwin, Major ; Dr. Frank Patterson, Surgeon ; Dr. Sam uel Young, Assistant Surgeon; McNutt, Adjutant; Capt. A. H. Shuford, Quartermaster and Commissary; Rev. H. E. Brooks, Chaplain. [251] APPENDIX. Company A, raised in Stokes County, N. C. Captain, Mil ton Smith; Lieutenants, J. B. Tucker, N. G. Smith, Edwin Smith. Company B, raised in Surry County, N. C. Captain, D. M. Cooper; Lieutenants, L. J. Norman, J. Sayars, J. Gordon. Company C, raised in Mecklenburg County, Va. Captain, R. C. Overby; Lieutenants, B. P. Williamson, Henry S. Wood, B. R. Williamson. Company D, raised in Pike County, Ga. Captain, Ed ward Smith; Lieutenants, W. H. McClure, R. M. Julian, David T. Harris. Company E, raised in Merriwether County, Ga. Captain, DuBose; Lieutenants, J. J. Tucker, W. J. Hudson, J. N. Lee. Company F, raiseei in Randolph County, N. C. Captain, T. W. Andrews ; Lieutenants, John M. Hancock, Z. J. Wil liams. Company G, raised in Forsyth County, N. C. Captain, W. H. Wheeler; Lieutenants, J. S. Swain, H. C. Wheeler, R. GorriU. Company H, raised in Madison County, N. C. Captain, S. F. Allen; Lieutenants, Van Brovsm, Condell. There may be a mistake in lettering two of the companies, which, however, is not material. As has been said above, the order from the War Depart ment to proceed to Roanoke Island (the only one under which I could venture to move), reached me on the evening of Jan uary 30th. Some ten or twelve days anterior thereto, how ever, the following order was received from General Wise to the same effect: "NoEFOLK, Va., January 15, 1862. Col. Wharton J. Green, Commanding, etc. : Sie: — ^You will, as early as practicable, move your whole force from Wilmington, N. C, to Norfolk, Va., and there report to General Huger for transportation to Roanoke Island. Bring with your men all the outfit which you can pre>cure at Wilmington, and make requisitions at Norfolk for defi ciencies. Prompt movement is necessary, as the enemy are near in large force. Henet A. Wise, Brigad/ier- Oeneral." [252] appendix. I waited at once on General Anderson and asked for per mission to start the next day. This he peremptorily refused, threatening arrest if the attempt was made. "You are under my command," he said, "by order of General Cooper, and no less authority is going to take you away from here." He, however, consented that Major Erwin might go to Richmond and lay the matter before the Secretary of War for final arbitrament. The Major carried request from me to obey General Wise's order, and protest against it from General Anderson. After the interval stated, and after General Wise had written the Secretary of War under date of "January 26. Please order the forces of my Legion under Colonel Greene, at Wilmington, N. C, * * * to be forwarded to me," the desired permission (order) arrived. Within the shortest possible time that transportation could be obtained, about thirty-six hours after receipt of order, we went on way to destination. On reaching Norfolk, was again detained two or three 'days (needlessly, I thought, and still think), awaiting water transportation, starting on February 5th. The sequel is sufficiently set forth in my report of opera tions of the next three days ensuing, of date February 18th, herewith reproduced from the War Records, Vol. IX, Series 1, to which should be added that tliis command was the only one under arms outside of the water batteries at the time of the surrender. Am thus explicit in details concerning this first great dis aster to the Confederate cause in order to refute the unjust insinuation of General Wise that I was needlessly dilatory in starting from Wilmington in obedience to his orders. In plain words, that those issued direct from the war office were not subordinated to his. The absurdity of the assumption is not deserving of comment. If any were needed, it is sup plied in the Report of the Congressional Investigating Com mittee, and the personal encomium therein contained to myself. His absence from the island, and presence on the mainland during the entire fighting, should have made him more cau- [253] APPENDIX. tious in his reflections, not only in this case but against almost every other regimental commander there present It grieves to say as much of one who had presumptively done a favor. A brilliant talker, a fiery orator, a pungent writer, and withal, a patriot, all this he was, but like some other political gen erals, a very indifferent soldier. Querulous with superiors, captious to equals, insolent to subordinates, and opinionated in the superlative degree, to tally unfitted him for command at a most important point and at a most critical juncture. Had this not been said in effect before the Investigating Committee relative to the fall of Roanoke Island, and in refutal of the baseless aspersion above referred to, it probably would not here appear. No less is due to my gallant command as well as to myself in the proposed emboeiiment of historic regimental sketehes of the various commands of our State. Immediately after exchange the Second Battalion was upon my application transferred to the brigade of that superb soldier, Junius Daniel, and after his death at Spottsylvania, commanded by his worthy suc cessor, General Bryan Grimes. Recurring to report alluded to, let it be premised that the Second Battalion was most needlessly included in the list of prisoners that day. After the fall back of the troops en gaged, and the resolve to surrender, an official order to re- embark and strike for the mainland would have saved every man in it No. 28. REPORT OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WHARTON J. GREEN, SECOND NORTH CAROLINA BAT TALION, ON BOARD STEAMER S. R. SPAULD- ING. Off Roanoke Island, N. C, February 18, 1862. Sie : — I herewith submit a report of the skirmish in which my battalion (Second North Carolina) was engaged on Sat urday, the 8th inst. : In obedience to orders from Adjutant-General Cewper, re ceived on the evening of January 30, I struck camp in the vicinity of Wilmington on the morning of the 1st inst., and [354] APPENDIX. proceeded hither with all possible dispatch. Owing to the want of transports we were detained two days and upward in Norfolk, leaving that place on Wednesday, the 5th inst, in tow of the canal tug-boat White. On Friday, when about thirty miles distant from the island, continued discharges of artillery informed us of the progress of a fight between the Federal fleet and Confederate batteries. Being entirely ignorant of the topography of the island, and not knowing where or to whom to report, I left our transports about twenty miles hence and came on in the steamer for information. Having obtained which, I returned to my men and crowded them on the smallest number of transports that would contain them, and then started. The night was very dark and stormy, with the wind against us, consequently our progress was slow. After beating about until midnight our pilot declared that he had lost his reckoning, and as we had only a fathom and a half of water thought it safer tO' wait for daylight. About 2 a. m. Saturday a number of Confederate gunboats passed us from the eiirection of the island, one of them run ning into the schooner Beauregard (one of our transports) and seriously injuring her. In reply to our challenge and statement of our condition, all the answer we could get was that one of the boats was the Beaufort, the other the Had they stopped in their flight long enough to exchange pilots with us, or even to give our's the necessary instructions as to his course, my battalion would have reached the island in time to have participated in the entire action. Failing to do so, it was 10 a. m. when we reached the island, and 12 o'clock before the men, arms and ammunition could be got on shore, ovring to their having to be taken on lighters. Having distributed all of my ammunition I started for the scene of action, but soon met scores of stragglers, who re ported everything lost and the Confederate forces entirely dispersed. Notwithstanding these discouraging reports, my men kept in good spirits and pressed on vrith animation. On reaching your camp, and having the worst reports confirmed, I called upon you for orders, and was told to proceed to a point some [355] APPENDIX. mile or two distant, under the guidance of Major Williamson, and take position. After proceeding about half a mile we came suddenly upon a Federal regiment, which I have since learned was the Twenty-first Massachusetts. The two advanced companies of the respective commands were about seventy-five paces apart, I being some twenty paces in advance of mine. I gave the command, "By company into line," when the officer in com mand of the Federal regiment threw up his hand and cried out, "Stop, stop. Colonel; don't fire; you are mistaken!" Be lieving it to be a trick, I repeated my command. Thereupon the Federal officer gave the commanei, "Fire." My advanced cemipanies returned the fire, firing at vrill after the first vol ley. Finding that there was some confusion, and not know ing the ground, I soon became satisfied that I could not form my men in line of battle to any advantage on the ground that they then occupied, so I ordered them to fall back a short dis tance, and from behind the log houses occupied by Colonel Jordan's regiment as quarters. This they did in g(x>d order. The Federals fell back immediately after. Immediately after forming behind the houses. Lieutenant Colonel Fowle, of the Thirty-first North Carolina, passed by with a white flag, and stated that a surrender had been determined upon. My loss was three men killed and five wou.nded, two of whom have since died. I am happy to be able to report favor ably of the action of both officers and men. The enemy's loss, as learned from themselves, was between twenty and thirty. I marched my entire command, with very few ex ceptions, in good order back to your camp. I am, sir, very respectfully. Your obedient servant, WnAETON J. Geben, Lieut.-Col. Second N. C. Battalion. CoL. H. M. Shaw. NexTE. — In my report to Colonel Shaw, should have been stated the fact tliat I strenuously protested against surrender without a further effort to resume our original lines, pledg ing my command to hold the enemy's advance in check a [256] APPENDIX. reasonable time if he would come to our assistance with the other troops. This I certainly understood him to promise to do. A mistalcen sense of courtesy or delicacy to the officer in immediate command, to whom report was submitted, for bade its insertion at the time. Sure I am that the survivors of the gallant gentlemen who were present at that interview, and there were many, will avouch to the accuracy of the state ment. The Second North Carolina Battalion was in un broken line of battle with twenty thousand foemen advan cing, but hoping re-enforcement, when the white flag of sur render passed. In reply to my expressed purpose to double- quick it back to the transports with an eye to escape, the an swer came, "This island and all upon it has been surrendered. You will make the attempt on your peril of breach of terms." A little incident of juvenile heroism, surpassing that of "the boy on the burning deck," may not be o-ut of place. Whilst awaiting the enemy in force, a little lad scarce mid way in his teens, wallced down the front of the line, his right arm dangling at his side but still clutching his trusty double- barrel vrith his left. "Colonel," he said, "they have broken my arm. Can I go to the rear and let Dr. Patterson look after it ?" There was no more perturbation in his voice than if he had been asking or answering a question on parade. There was incipient hero there, and would that I knew him to-day. I'll stake my life that that boy has never proved recreant to past manhood duty, or gone back on early promise then made. There was the blm of the heroic, soon to fructify into fruitage, the crop of which the world had never seen and will never see again. The chance of securing reproduction can never recur. Heaven pity posterity in its inevitable dearth of such heroes. A few days after the surrender we were transferred to the steamer S. B. Spaulding with Fort Warren as objective point. But through the efforts of General Bumside, who impressed us then with his courtesy and soldierly treatment, as he did those who knew him after the war, imprisonment was changed into "parole." Fortunately for the Confederacy 17 [357] APPENDIX. later on, his reach of requisite for the chief command to which he was assigned against the greatest soldier of his age, fell something short. But better far than the reputation of a secMud-class commander, he bore "the grand old name of Gentleman." The writer is thus pleased to acknowledge more than one civility received at his hands, including an ex change of body servants, his and mine, the first being then confined at Richmond. Mine, Guilford Christmas, was with me before and during the war and has been with me ever since, a faithful servant and a true friend, once exchanged as said, and later escaping after a second capture. Had not racial interdict precluded his enlistment, the Confederacy would have had few more devoted servants, for his heart was in it. The disparity of force in this, the second great battle of the war, was too great to admit of hope for tiie weaker after the other side had secured a foothold. Col. Shaw gives his entire available force, exclusive of those in the water batteries at 1,434, rank and file, previous to the arrival of my own and Major Fry's commands. Loss 23 killed, 58 wounded, 62 missing. General Burnside puts his, not counting the gun boats, at 12,829, loss 264. To make the disparity the greater they were commanded by educated soldiers like Bumside, Foster, Parke and Reno. That inequality was a little too much so, even in those early days, when to paraphrase Harry of England, some did "think upon one pair of Southern legs did march five Yankees." Later on, and after better acquaintance, few objected to having the carrying capacity of those locomotors reduced to three or even two blue coats. Eight or ten to one was out of all reason. Some seven months after being paroled at Elizabeth City we were exchanged and the battalion ordered to rendezvous at Drewry's Bluff. Whilst in came there and attached to Colonel (later Gen eral) Daniel's brigade, a petition was set afoot looking to a re-organization. Although opposed to it on principle as cal culated to introduce politics into camp, and although from the peculiar constitution of this command, it could have [258] APPENDIX. been avoided, nevertheless, when it became obvious that such was the desire of a number of the officers, no obstruction was interposed on my part. The consequence was that I was superseded as commanding officer by Capt. W. H. Wheeler, who, however, resigned a few days thereafter, thus devolving the command on Major Andrews (promoted to Lieutenant- Colonel). Shortly after, about the first of January, 1863, the bri gade was ordered to Goldsboro, N. C, in anticipation of a forward move by the enemy. I went there at once to volun teer, but was told by General Daniel that I would be enrolled on his staff as a supernumerary or volunteer aide until some thing in the line should turn up. Thence, shortly after, the brigade was ordered to Kinston, where it remained until 17th of May, 1863, when it was moved upon the Rappahannock. Whilst in camp at Kinston we were, by General D. H. Hill's orders, moved down the right side of the Neuse, Petti- grew's brigade keeping abreast on the other with the object in view of taking New Bern by surprise. Daniel's advance, after reaching a point eiontiguous to that place, was subject to gun signal from the co-operating column upon capture of the gun boats on that side of the river. These, however, got up steam in time to prevent capture, and so the attempt fell through. General Hill next attempted the capture of Washington, which was represented as being short of provisions and sup plies. A battery. Fort Hill, was planted below the town to prevent relief by the gunboats. Whilst here Generals Hill, Daniel, Robertson and myself rode over to the fort to take in tiie situation. The gunboats were anchored some two or three miles off, just out of reach of our pop guns, and had kept up an incessant fusillade on the garrison for a day or two previous without doing any harm. Before, however, we had been in there fifteen minutes, I was knocked down by a ten-pound piece of shell. About the middle of June, 1863, our division, Rodes', broke camp at Hamilton's crossing, a few miles from Freder icksburg, and started, whither few knew, but many surmised. At the time the Second Battalion was attached to this superb [859] APPENDIX. brigade, it was composed of the Thirty-second, Forty-third, Forty-fifth and Fifty-third Regiments, which continued in tact until the end of the war. On arrival in Virginia it was assigned to Major-General R. E. Rodes' division, composed of the following other brigades, viz : Ramseur's North Caro lina, Iverson's North Carolina, and Dole's Georgia, and no better division was there in any army. Most fortunate were we in brigade and divisional commanders. Both Rodes and Daniel were bom soldiers, and both died on the field of battle in glorious discharge of duty. The eiivision was in Ewell's corps. On Daniel's death Bryan Grimes became his worthy successor and later on the successor of the lamented Rodes. At Brandy Station, on the . . . . ., became aware that a fight was going on in front Were hastily formed and moved forward to the point, upon nearing which General Lee in person met General Daniel and told him that he was to keep his command concealed under the brow of a hill except upon emergency, as it was a cavalry fight and he didn't wish the enemy to learn that he was on the move. Shortly after met the corpse of my old Colonel, Sol. Williams, being brought out on horseback by his brother-in-law. Lieutenant Pegram. He was shot through the forehead, and Pegram told us that Gen. B. F. Davis had just been killed on the other side by the self-same wound. He and I were classmates and close friends at West Point, and yet his death reached me without a pang of regret, for he was fighting under the wrong flag, being a Mississippi an. Gallant Sol. Williams had only been married a week or two to the daughter of Captain Pegram, who won lasting honor in the Confederate States Navy. Singular coincidence her cousin and another old classmate of mine. Gen. John Pegram, was killed in front of Petersburg after the same brief nup tials. He married the beautiful and brilliant Hettie Cary, of Baltimore. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart (another classmate), repulsed the enemy that day after a hard day's fight, although he had been taken by surprise in the moming. Lie too was killed later on in front of Richmond. Here let it be remarked, by way [260] APPENDIX. of parenthesis, that nine out of twelve of that glorious class (that of 1850), who espoused our side, were killed in battle-, all with one exception, wearing the insignia of General. Stuart, Pender, Gracie, Pegram, Deshler, Villipique, Mercer, Randall and one other whose name now escapes me. Was there ever a nobler holocaust of young herejes on the altar of patriotism, each thirty or thereabouts ? Generals Stephen D. Lee and Custis Lee are the sole survivors as far as I am able to ascertain. From Brandy the division moved on towards the Poto mac, passing through Front Royal, Winchester and Berry ville. At the last place came near capturing Brute Milroy and his entire force, but with the coward's instinct he saved his vile neck by precipitate flight. He was one of the three who were made infamously immortal by Confederate Execu tive m'andate that they were not to be accorded the rights of prisoners of war if captured. Beast Butler and Turchin, the barbarian, were the two others. Let the triumvirate of gold- laced felons stand pilloried where they were put, in the scorn of all true soldiers through all time to come, to teach would- be imitators that wars must henceforth be conducted by gen erous and humane rules instead of barbaric. Moving on through Martinsburg we forded the river at Williamsport and camped a couple of days at Hagerstown, Md. Thence on to Greencastle, Pa., where there was another halt for a day. Thence to Carlisle, where we took possession of the government barracks. The next day (Sunday) the flag pole, which had been cut down by the enemy, was replaced and the "Stars and Bars" wafted to the breeze. June 30th made an early start and a forced march to Heid elberg, eleven miles short of Gettysburg. The next moming, bright and early, started again. Had proceeded but a short distance when the opening guns of that momentous conflict fell upon the ear. On arrival were deployed in line of battle in a skirt of woods. The enemy at once began to shell us. General Daniel ordered the brigade to lie down until ready to advance. Whilst he and I were standing just in front of the Second Battalion holding our horses, a shell exploded in a [261] APPENDIX. few feet to the left, killing and wouneiing nine men. Prob ably no one missile occasioned more loss to life during the war. A little later the men were ordered to rise and ad vance. The enemy were some five or six hundred yards in front, and results showed had set a most deadly trap for us. When half way between our starting point and their line, were ordered to lie down whilst our guns in the rear played on their ranks. Then rose and charged to the brink of the deep cut of the railroad, beyond which at some hundred paces the enemy were drawn up in line. The men in their ardor slid dovra, the almost precipitous bank and attempted to scale the opposite, but to no effect. An enfilading battery to our right then opened, sweeping "the cut" with terrible effect. Suggesting to Colonel Brabble, the senior offieser, to face to the left and clear the gap, I scrambled to the top and got one shot at the advancing foe with a musket taken from a sick boy at the start, with whom my horse was left. Believe it was vrith effect, as it caused a pause in the line behind and delayed a down-pouring fire until we got out of that horrible hole. As soon as it was done the men who had behaved like veterans so far, became temporarily demor alized. Then it was that the soldier loomed up and plucked the fiower safely out of the nettle danger. Junius Daniel is the man referred to. In his stentorian tones, audible in command a quarter of a mile or more away, he ordered the men to halt and reform on him. This they did without re gard to' company or regimental formation almost to a man, advanced at once and inflicted a loss on the enemy, from all accounts greater than that which they had just sustained. A sublime picture of heroism that, on the part of commander and command. Just then I was knocked down by a wound in the head and had to go back to the field hospital. Here the scene was sickening in the extieme. By sundown, hundreds of wounded had arrived, and the horrid work of amputation was going briskly on. Here I pause to pay brief tribute to an unpreten tious hero who did his duty as grandly as any other on that bloody field, although his only weapons were scalpel, saw and bandage. Though Daniel's brigade had the largest wounded [362] APPENDIX. list of any other at Gettysburg, the surgical staff was some thing short that day. But there was one who was a host in himself. For three days and nights, with coat off and sleeves rolled up, I do not think Dr. Frank Patterson, my old surgeon, then brigade surgeon, relaxed in his bloody work of mercy haK an hour at a time. If he closed his eyes in sleep during that dread ordeal it escaped my obsei-vation, al though in thirty feet and full view of the operating table. "The glorious Fourth" was a fateful day, not only for that glorious army, but for the cause, for far away Vicks burg, the key of the Mississippi, had fallen. The retreat began in regular order on that day. Capt. Wm. R. Bond, of General Daniel's staff, now of Scotland Neck, likewise wounded, and myself, were assigned to a one- horse wagon driven by GuiKord. The wounded train was tacked on to a part of the ordnance. That night, having to pass through a long defile, it was subjected to an annoying fijc from above. Kilpatrick's division, having ridden ahead and taken position on each bank of the road. This doughty hero should have been cashiered for not capturing that entire train, for it was only guarded by two squadrons of cavalry. As it was, he only took some thirty or forty ambulances and ordnance wagons. Shortly after getting through the deep cut of the road our little mounted escort broke and went to the head of the train. An ordnance wagon loaded with old guns, took off one of our rear wheels in trying to pass, and before Bond and I could pick ourselves up, a dozen revolvers were bearing on us. It was then that volubility told. Guilford with a fiow of words unparalleled in his speech before or since convinced the gen tleman on horseback that, "we surrender, we are prisoners, for God's sake don't shoot." Believing that the entire ord nance train was lost and all lost with it, it is within bounds to say that his impromptu eloquence elicited but scant thanks from either of the two "prisoners." Thence were carried to the hospital at Frederick, from there to Fort McHenry, thence to Fort Delaware for a while and from there to Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, which con tinued to be the residence of most of the officers until near [363] APPENDIX. the surrender. My cartel was, I believe, the last one antece dent thereto. Many projects for wholesale escape had been formed during our imprisonment, but were always frustrated by some secret spy or cowardly informer. But to return to the 2nd North Carolina Battalion at Get tysburg. It fell short of a full regiment, and yet it's doubt ful whether any full regiment in that matchless army sus tained the loss in killed and wounded that it did. One hun dred and fifty-three is authenticated record. Perhaps it is better to give an excerpt from a letter received from Maj. H. A. London, later on A. A. G., of the brigade, bearing thereon. * * "The 2nd Battalion at Gettysburg had more men killed and wounded than any full regiment in Pickett's di vision. It's killed was 29 (including it's commander, Lieut Col. Andrews) and wounded 124. The 57th Virginia regi ment had 26 killed and 95 wounded, which was the heaviest mortality of any of Pickett's regiments. Maj. James Iredell, who took command after Andrews' death, was killed at Spott sylvania, where the battalion was nearly all captured, killed or wounded. I do not think any field officer commanded the battalion after Iredell's death. It remained with Daniel's brigade until the end, but I do not know it's number at Ap pomattox — a. mere handful, however. It was a noble band and shared fully in all the glory of Daniel's (afterwards Grimes') brigade. * * * Yours truly, H. A. London." It was not my proud privilege to command it in that dread baptism of blood. I was only a musket-bearer in it's ranks that day, but it did my heart none the less good to see how grandly the children of my nurture, knew how to die for cause and country. Whilst it has been shown above that I was no stickler for rank throughout the mighty struggle, I may nevertheless be pardoned for statement bearing on it. Only some six weeks before his death, ex-President Davis told me, in the presence of his wife and youngest daughter in his home at Beauvoir, that as soon as he heard of my return from prison he sent in my nomination to the Senate for a Bigadier General's commission, and presumed it had been con- finned. He supposed, however, that in the confusion of the last [364] APPENDIX. few days preceding the evacuation of Richmond, it had, like many other matters, been overlooked. This was subsequentiy confirmed in a letter from Mrs. Davis, with additional details. The incident is mentioned more in satisfaction of the good opinion of that grand man, the central figure of that historic epoch, than out of regard for an empty title, which per se is not valued at a pinch of snuff. Pertinent thereto, another statement is ventured which must be taken on faith, as he who made it is no longer in the flesh. On the road one day General Daniel told ine that just after the reorganization, the President asked him if he would not advise setting aside the election and restoring me to the command, as it was primarily an executive appointment instead of by election. Daniel's reply was, "Not to that (5om- mand, as the event however injudicious validates the change ; but I will me>st cheerfully recommend him for the first vacant regiment or brigade either at your disposal." WHARTON J. GREEN, First Lieut. Col. Commanding, 2nd Battalion. Address on General Robert Ransom, Delivered Before the Ladies Memorial Association, May 10, 1899. Ladies of the Memorial Association, Old Comrades and Friends : I thank you most cordially for the honor dond me to-day in bidding me to talk to you of my honored friend and kins man. Gen. Robert Ransom. This trust could doubtless have been confided to far abler hands. To none, however, surpassing him selected in love and admiration for this truly great soldier and upright gentleman. Sever years ago to-day the same duty devolved on me through the partiality of your sister society of Newbern, where he had lived and passed his closing hours. Hence, of necessity, I am forced to draw freely upon the address then delivered, even to literal reproduction of many parts. This has been rendered the more imperative by a severe and pro tracted case of the grippe almost ever since your summons [%5] APPENDIX. reached me. Hence, I crave allowance for all short-comings to-day, for I must draw on manuscript more than memory likewise. Here is the opening on that occasion: "Four years ago on this recurring anniversary," hallowed to patriotism and heroic memories, your orator was he whose eulogy by your bidding devolves on me to-day. He gave you graphic pic tures and panoramic of one of the grandest and most melo- dramic battles that history will be ever called on to record. Charles Lever, by common consent of military critics, has given in his great novel, O'Malley, the finest description of Waterloo ever published. Your townsman. General Ransom, portrayed on oejcasion referred to, the field of Fredericksburg, rivaling in pomp, panoply and numericals the other, in words scarce less befit ting. That he was a war actor the world knew. That he was a war artist his single effort proved. Such was Caesar, actor and artist. Where heroes pass the bourne, their people, if worthy to have heroes, ever pay them suitable tribute. Correlative thereto, the race that fails therein, rarely produces the gen uine article. No account is taken of the nickel-plated or "Brumage|nized" specimen, the mere throat-cutter on ex tended scale. Slavish barbarians can evolve such as these, as witness Genghis, Atilla, Alva and Tamerlane. But the true, genuine broad-gauged world-recognized hero is the almost ex clusive development of free born men and women. Great races and critical junctuises beget great men who adorn their epochs and honor humanity. Most prolific of all in such product was the seven hilled city on the Tiber, and long centuries later on, the littie island with wooden walls and her first great trans-oceanic off-shoot The>se races inherently great beyond all others in past and present times, raised brainy thinkers and brawny but gentie actors, who taught and illustrated how to govern others and the far higher lesson for free people, how to govern themselves. Such teacher and actor combined in one is the quintessence of god like heroism. [366] APPENDIX. Of such, where can higher type and more frequent be found in any era than in the Confeelerate armies? Take, forsooth, as highest illustration, Davis, Lee, and Sidney Johnston, our three ranking leaders. Triumvirate of Immortals, without flaw or speck! Individually never surpassed, collectively never equalled in any war by mortals waged in attiibute here outlined. Legitimate praise must needs sound fulsome to those who knew them not, and all panegyric tame to those who did. Genius coupled with gentleness, self-assertion with modest claim, loftiest ambition with humanity, flawless record with tempting opportunity, sublime faith with unflagging zeal, and every impulse subordinate to patriotic end, constituted fitness in the highest for highest command. Let it content us in defeat, my brothers, that the cause by them espoused will be gauged in history by their exalted standard. "Causa vic- trix placuit dels, sed victa Catoni." Observe in like connec tion Jackson, the superb, grandest lieutenant that ever cap tain had, and his brother Hill, cast in kindred mould; that stern infiexible brace of old Ironsides, who had implicit faith in Providence and Presbyterianism, dry powder and cold steel, and could not realize that soldiers could die before their time had come. It would seem that they had interpo lated another tenet in the articles of the church militant; namely, dying for cause and country and liberty is a no mean atonement for duties undone. Such has ever been a conquering creed for under-sized armies, deficient alike in numbers and resources. It made the camel driver of Mecca, the prophet, the law-giver, the master of the Eastern world. It made Huntingdon's brewer the most renowned and respected potentate of his time, and who ennobled as only one had done the kingly place he held. It enabled the adventurer, Cortez, with a few score followers, to subjugate a nation of millions. And so the embattled host, urged on faith in God and duty to man, is well nigh in vincible until by attrition annihilation follows. The eight thousand guns grounded at Appomattox is eternal proof of the dictum laid dovra. Brief retrospect of a few others of our typical heroes, and [367] APPENDIX. we pass on to the subject of our text. The entire roster could scarce be called between "the rising of the new moon and the going down of the same, at the end of its course," for from the modest President to the jocund drummer boy, it was an army of heroes. Take the two fighting parsons, for instance. Hear them at critical junctures in the hour of battle and you have the animus of those glorious legions. "Hold your position, General Cheatham, for it is the key of the line," exclaims Bishop General Polk a brief space be fore his lamented fall: "hold it though it cost every man in your command." "Can't promise, General," was the jocular retort, "since you've made me promise to give up cuss words. Since I have, these boys of mine don't fight a bit better than blue coats." "Speak to them to-day in your own emphatic way, Cheat ham, but hold your part of the line," was the parting in junction, or 'at least it was so reported. "Take good aim, my men, before pulling the lanyard," is the caution of the grave old artillerist, brother Pendleton, "and may the Lord have mercy on their souls." On this occasion for obvious reason we pass the most su perb infantry that the world has ever known or is likely ever to know. God bless them, they fought on the plane of demi gods and like demi-gods, and make our salaam to the cavalry. I give you a fancied review of our horse-back heroes in the mythic shades of Walhalla. There's Stuart, the noblest of the line of kings, whose name and blood he bears, replete with piety, patriotism and school-boy fun, who to well laid plans loved a fight for right as he did a frolic. If claim to kinship there was with Scot land's kings, the knightly Rupert, who towered above them all, must have been in lineal progenitor. Farewell, "Old Beauty" ; good-bye, "Jeb," old friend and classmate. And there rides one unskilled in schools and hence could never master the definition of the word defeat. His name is Forrest. By concensus of opinion of most approved military critics o£ neutral nations the grandest leader of horsemen in the annals of all antecedent times. A rough rider they say but by my troth courtly. His theory of war may be crude, [268] APPENDIX. but it has ever proved Napoleonic: "I malte it a point to fight the enemy wherever I find it and try and get the most men there first" Doff your cap Murat, Marshal of France and King of Naples, and discard your golden spurs and cockney feathers, for hence on you ride behind that untutored son of Genius. And there's Hampton, he hasn't forded the dark river yet. God grant the day be far distant; and hence to spare his blushes we must needs be chary of praise. But truly hath he ridden well unless universal report belie him. By birth right and by right of self-made good, no Bayard e'er bore prouder and more spotless front. Political ingratitude may hurl its puny shafts at such an one as did the little men in Lilliput, theirs at Captain Gul liver, but the muse of history has him enrolled amongst the world's foremost and most unselfish cavaliers. And there goes Wheeler, little fighting Joe. He tex>, was a marked hero in "the war between the States," and later on he came out as the hero of another war. Too big is he, little as he looks, for* the "standing army." He once wore a gray coat. And here is a pair of old "Web Foots" who must not be forgotten, although out of place in the "critter company." But that makes no odds. Doff hats, heroes, all of every arm, to the brace of old "Pirates," as they were insultingly dubbeei by that great power whose world-reaching commerce wilted at their mandate more effectually than did that of Spain at the bidding of their predecessors in patriotic piracy — Drake, Raleigh and Hawkins. Aye, hail, thrice hail "Alabama" and "Shenandoah !" Raphael^ Semmes and "Tar Heel" Waddell ! Such names as these almost make "piracy" respectable, as those just mentioned did "rebellion !" These old sea birds did swim in every sea, and lit them up with their pyrotechnics in their two little boats with a fancied broom for penant, despite the prohibitory veto of hostile navies. Yes, pull ashore, old "Tarpauliens," and ride with these old here>es who were bom on horseback. Brothers o'er the harbor, these be a few of our honored leaders. Soldiers all they were in high degree but more [269] APPENDIX. than mere soleiiers — ^gentiemen. We do not challenge compet itive claim, but defy detraction. In that galaxy of immortals, few won more enviable fame in suceicssive grade than did Robert Ransom. He was born and reared in Warren county. North Carolina, long anterior thereto and thence on until the war, the recognized home of refinement and hospitality. Her reputation in that regard extended far beyond State borders. Whilst there was perhaps more average wealth per capita than in any other county in the State, its posses sion was rarely accompanied by vulgar assumption. Educa tion, refinement and culture were unquestioned passports to every circle. It was the privilege of the speaker to have his lot cast amongst that generous people in middle boyhood, and thence on with interruptions to the present time ; and he hesi tates not to say that for the beautiful traits named, he has, after extended travel and close observation, never known the country community that surpassed if equalled it. Whilst, as said, there was wealth there for that day and a rural population. Bob Ransom was not one of the boys who was "born with a silver spoon in his mouth." Perhaps, as conducive to the proud name and fame he left, quite the reverse. His ancestors were of the very first who settled that part of our State and had lived in style, but open doors and open-handed welcome had reduced his ovra. and many collateral branches of his house to scant means of continuing that mode of living ; but still the latch string was ever on the outside of his father's dexir. To the credit of both be it said he and his illustrious brother Matt, who served four terms in the United States Senate, and prouder still, four years in the fight between the States and with a proud war record, and diplomatic besides, had to contribute by manual labor on the farm in intervals from desultory schooling, to main tain that unpretentious but hereditary hospitality. His father was Robert Ransom, Sr., and his mother Pris- cilla Whitaker by birth, likewise of the illustrious Carey stock. His graneifather, Seymour Ransom, married Birchett, the daughter of William Green, one of the most successful planters and remarkable men of the South. His paternal great-grand-father was James Ransom and his wife Priscilla, [270] APPENDIX. born Jones, the daughter of Edward Jones and his wife, Abigail Sugan. This last named was one of the most remarkable women of the last century or any preceding century, and is better known to her thousands, aye, tens of thousand descendants as "Grand-mother Cook." (Her second husband was named Cook.) She was a woman of marked traits of character, who left her impress upon succeeding generations of her posterity, and a more distinguished progeny than man or woman prob ably ever did whose death is within a century. Governors and law-makers and law consructers, soldiers and divines of high degree have through all that time been proud to claim that barefoot, unsophisticated pioneer girl as a most illus trious fountain-head of their stocks. Priscilla, her daughter, first married Colonel Macon and was the mother of North Carolina's most distinguished son, Nathaniel, of that name. It will thus be seen that General Ransom's great grand-father was the step-father of that inflexible old Roman, Nathaniel Macon, whose name is revered and honored wherever known. Mr. Macon was his great uncle through his paternal as he was likewise through his grand maternal side of the house, and most striking were their tiaits in common. Neither knew the virtue in the world policy; neither would have Neptune for his trident or Jove for his power to' thunder; neither would have relaxed in sense of duty to vrin the acclaim of others, in order to lead Senates or armies or to win the civic crown or supreme command. As Old Tom Carlyle might have expressed it, they were a brace of sturdy, duty-loving men, who could not be swayed or swerved from settled con viction of right by patronage from above or plaudit from below. Duty was the text of each through life ; his life, the sermon. General Ransom's preliminary education was obtained at the Warrenton Academy, necessitating a walk of three or four miles a day each way, not to speak of incidental exercise at home. His teacher was "old Bob Ezell," familiarly so known. A ripe scholar he was, who believeei in hickory and the high classics, and instilled the last by a free application of the first It was a cruel system, as I for one can feelingly [271] APPENDIX. certify, that under which we old boys of that day were in doctrinated in the "Humanities." Heaven save the mark! It may well be questioned, however, whether its entire sub version or substitution by the new fangled "fad" called moral suasion is conducive to a higher order of manhood. The proof is on the boys of the last and rising generation and others to follow to adduce. From the village school he was transferred to the United States Military Academy in 1846, and the tiansition was not a feather-bed by comparison. Four years later he left that nursery of heroes as a brevet second-lieutenant in the First Dragexins. His class standing was gex>d, ordinary only in the academic curriculum, but according to the old Scythian standard of liberal education there was none above him. "He knew how to ride, to shoot and to speak and to act the truth." None stood higher for these and other high qualities than did this modest gentleman, as I well know who entered the school as he was leaving it and know the name he left behind. By the way, he wrote me a long letter of advice before my matric ulation, such as an older brother might be supposed to have penned on the occasion to a younger. The gist of it as now recalled, was obedience to constituted authority as the basic and essential element of a military life ; regard for the rights of your fellows, coupled with a reasonable self-assertion of your ovra, and avoidance of all low dissipation. His branch of the service, the mounted, was stationed al most exclusively in the far west, in order to hold the Indians in check, at that day Constantly on the verge of outbreak when not in actual hostility. In that then remote quarter the next ten years of his life was almost continuously passed in hard but inglorious service. Nevertheless it was a fit school of preparation for the mighty struggle then impending. He had just attained in the line of promotion, a rapid rise to the coveted commission of Captain, having married his first wife in the meantime and had children bom to him. Then came the great political cloudburst of '61 and the four eventful years of carnage to follow. Gentlemen on the military and na val service from the South were reduced to choice of alterna tives — poverty and honor on one hand and assured pay and pe> [373] APPENDIX. sition and speedy promotion on the other ; or to state it in other and plainer terms, to elect and fight for or against their moth ers that bore them. To their eternal credit be it spoken, that in that test election and severe ordeal of true manhood, few wrongly voted and wrongly acted. Almost solidly their bal lot was, "poverty and unsullied honor." Some few there were who otherwise elected, and some of these did strike most hurt ful blow of all against their native section. Marbles and bronzes in their honor evince the victor's gratitude. Let us for sweet charity, throw the mantle over their name and fame and bury their nativity in oblivion. Bob Ransom, like a Carolinian of the olden time, the true gentleman and knightly soldier, came quick to call and laid his sabre, almost sole earthly possession, save his young wife and babies, upon the altar of his mother State. Chivalric Ellis, then on the brink of the grave, gave him the right hand of welcome and bade him raise the only regiment of horsemen then authorized. Never did he or any other Governor make more judicious selection. Never was trust more worthily executed. Never was there a more superb mounted regiment than the one he organized, equipped and carried from Ridgeway to Rich mond. It elicited unstinted praise from the martial President dovsm even to the mercenary contractor; and better still, aroused emulation and rivalry of similar commands from its own and sister States. In this last regard as exemplar, it was of untold service to the cause. To its first Colonel was that credit mainly due. And never was Colonel better sec onded than he in his immediate subordinates, Lawrence Baker and J. B. Gordon, both later on in command of his regiment, and later still general officers. Gordon died on the field of glory, and so Balcer too would have done if he hadn't had more life tenacity than nine cats combined, for he came out mangled, shattered and battered as few others did from that dread ordeal. God bless you, old "Sabreur" and friend and grant that you live to carry those glorious scars for many a year yet to come. Its first Colonel like Forrest, was bom an ideal cavalry man. He was one of the most superb horsemen that ever 18 [373] APPENDIX. vatdted into saddle, with the combined critical eyer of the trader and amateur in selection and the Bedouin's inherent love for the friend that bore him through trials and dangers whilst ever on tlie alert and lookout for these last. The post of danger was ever the coveted place of that model regiment, and the one by discerning generalship usu ally assigned it. Many and oft times have I heard grand old Llampton dilate in loving and admiring terms of its proved valor at critical juncture. Of all the daring deeds of that Preux Chevalier, I think he takes most pride in his night attack at Atlee's Station. With 306 men, 253 being of the First North Carolina Cavalry under command of Col. Wm. H. Cheek, and the remaining 53 of the Second North Care> lina, under Major Andrews, all Tar Heels, he attacked Kil patrick's entire division and caused it to retreat or rather stampede at the dead hour of night, after capturing a briga dier general and a tiain of other captives outnumbering the force he bed. I read a letter on the subject from General Hampton : Columbia, S. C, March 4th, 1892. My Dear Colonel: I am glad to learn that you are to deliver a eulogy on General Robert Ransom, for his charac ter and career refiected honor on North Carolina. It was mv gextd fortune to have the First North Carolina cavalry in my command during the larger part of the war, and I always attributed much of the efficiency of this noble regi ment to its first Colonel, afterwards the eiistinguished General Robert Ransom. To him was due in large measure those sol dierly qualities which won for his old regTment its high repu tation, a reputation it deserved, for in my opinion there was no finer body of men in the A. of N. Va., than those com posing the First North Carolina Cavalry. Of the many instances when this regiment distinguished itself I recall one, when in conjunction with a small detachment from the Sec ond North Carolina it performed a memorable achievement in the defeat of Kilpatrick on his raid, attempting to cap ture the city of Richmond. With only 250 men in its hanks under command of Colonel Creek, and with fifty men of [374] APPENDIX. the Second, we struck Kilpatrick's camp at 1 o'clock in the moming in a snow storm, after marching forty miles; cap tured more prisoners — representing five regiments — than our number, including the officers (»mmanding the brigade, and put to flight Kilpatiick's whole force of three brigades in which were 5,000 men. But on every field this regiment dis played conspicuous gallantry. Your State, which furnished so many gallant soldiers to the Confederacy, gave none who upheld her honor and refiected glory on our flag more bravely than did the First regiment of cavalry. I can never forget my old comrades who composed it. Peace to their dead and all honor to their living. Sincerely yours. Wade Hampton. When it is taken into account that Kilpatiick's purpose was a junction with Dahlgreen, the infamous, whose purpose was as proclaimed by papers found upon his base carcass the next day, after capturing our Capital and murdering the President and other high officials, to release the Federal pris oners and turn the city over to indiscriminate sack and pil lage and ultimate destruction, the importance of the victory will be better realized. The discomfiture of this hellish scheme was mainly due to the general in command, and the general who had organized and infused his spirit into that gallant regiment and made it adequate to the desperate under taking. But let its old commander speak for himself further on. Long before that. Colonel Ransom had been assigned to a brigade command and a little later on to a divisional. From the time of his first promotion to the end he was alternately in command of cavalry and infantry, thus proving his ver satility for command, and the great confidence reposed in him by the appointing power. November, 1861, whilst Colonel of the First Cavalry, he led successfully in the first encounter between the cavalry of the two armies. In the spring of 1862 he was promoted Brigadier-General for the special purpose of detailing him to organize the cavalry under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in the West, but New Bern having fallen, this purpose was [375] APPENDIX. abandoned, and he was ordered to Eastern North Carolina to hold the enemy in check and to maintain railroad communi cations. In June, 1862, he was assigned to the command of the North Carolina brigade of infantry, and was with Hohnes and Huger during the seven days fight, and at Malvern Hill his brigade made the last charge, and left some of its dead among the Federal guns. In the first Maryland campaign his brigade was a part of J. G. Walker's division, and was at the fall of Harper's Ferry and in the hard-fought battle of Sharpsburg. From the extreme right (September 17th), he was, at 9 a. m., double-quicked to the left centre, where the enemy had pene trated our lines. They were driven back, and three succes sive attacks in overwhelming force repulsed, and the position held until our army was withdrawn on the night of the 18th. That feat is all the more worthy of mention when it is taken into account that two gallant commands had been forced back when he came to' the rescue, and that his force was subjected to an artillery fire at canister range for several hours with out the chance of replying. At Fredericksburg he commanded Walker's old division (December 13, 1862), and "was in special charge of Mars' and Willis Hill," where the Federals suffered heavier than at any other part of the line. Here it was that Meagher's fa mous Irish brigade was almejst exterminated after various re peated charges to carry the position. Perhaps the lesson then received from the force in his front was the prompting im pulse of the generous tribute paid his foeman by that gallant son of Erin, Thomas Francis Meagher. In reply to a sere nade given him in Chicago after the war he was reported at the time to have used this language : "Now that they are pros trate, the question comes up, how shall we treat them? My answer is, with the utmost kindness, cordiality, generosity and magnanimity, for they deserve it. No people have ever dared as they did. No people have ever endured as they did. Aye, by the God of battles, no people have ever fought as they did. They have proven themselves the master revolu tionists of all history. To treat such people otherwise than indicated would be the quintessence of baseness, cowardice and pusilanimity." [276] APPENDIX. Had that magnanimous course prevailed, as it probably would had it been left to the decision of the true soldier ele ment of the North, the asperities and animosities of the war had long since been as effectually wiped out as have the earth works around your towns that the war called into being. But, alas, those "sons of thunder," mouthers, ranters and hot house politicians, who had a Falstaffian repugnanese to the villainous smell of saltpetie when they could get a whiff, and illustrate John Phoenix's sneer of "Soldiers in peace, citizens in war," had no notion of giving up their chief stexjk in trade. In January, 1863, he was ordered to North Carolina with a division to repulse a threatened attack on the W. & W. R. R. Here he remained in active service till May ensuing, when he was made Major-General and superseded Gen. D. H. Hill in the command of Richmond, when the latter was trans ferred to Bragg's army in the West. Here he remained about two months, when sickness compelled him to give up the command. In October, 1863, he was assigned to command in East Tennessee, and drove the enemy as far south as Knoxville, and in November had a brigade of cavalry, and then was ordered to Richmond "for other and distant service." It was the President's purpose to assign him to the command of the trans-Mississippi Department, and his nomination to a Lieu- tenant-Generalcy was sent in. But the threatened condition of affairs at Richmond, and the confidence reposed in him by the President induced a change in that arrangement, and he was assigned to the command, having for its object the defense and protection of the Confederate capital. How well that duty was performed is shovm by a manu script letter of Mr. Davis to him, from which I make a short extract: "You had been my main reliance for the defense of Richmond. You had shown both your gallantry and ca pacity before you were ordered to reinforce Beauregard for temporary service." This letter bears date of 19th of March, 1887, only two years before that immortal man left us. Only six weeks before his death I heard from his own lips strong confirmatory evidence of the high estimate in which he held General Ransom. This was fully shared by the devoted and [377] APPENDIX. gifted widow of our Chieftain. When compiling his biogra phy, she wrote me an urgent letter to try and induce Bob Ransom to go dovsm to Beauvoir and help her in the work. This unfortunately was out of his power to do. Apropos of those two men, the last time that I ever saw Gen. Robert Ransom was, I believe, in the summer of 1891, at the reunion of the old Confederate Veterans' Association at Wrightsville, at which he was the then President, and of which I had been the first. In consequence, I was bewked as the orator of the oejcasion, and took as my theme: "Our hero President with his jailor as concomitant." In that large crowd of honored old gray beards there was no more attentive listener present than their honored head. When my address was ended, he wasi the first to grasp my hand and to thank me, as he was pleased to phrase it, for a worthy tribute to one of the truly grand men that the world had known. Those who knew him who uttered it can appreciate the compliment, for he was one who never indulged in double-faced meaning. Do not mistake my friends, he was not alluding to the "concomitant," the key bearer, the riveter of fetters in that deplorable episode in our national history. No, he was not referring to the Promethean torturer, by classic tradition the vulture, by ornithologists the buzzard, "exulting in the glory of the night" over tiie agonies of a shackeled giant. A creature we are told of insatiable maw is that same bird with gorge of honors such as a real hero has no right to aspire beyond this gorgeous thing lexiks higher still. There must be a special grade, forsooth, up to this time filled by three or four world-recognized heroes re-created to fit his transcendent merits. Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon. Did Hudson Lowe reach the high command of the British army? Did "Simon the (K>bbler" ever grasp the Marshall's baton of France? No, he was not talking of such a thing, as this, but of an old man in gray down on the Mexico Gulf who had lately left us, weighed down by cruel usage and the cares of state. He had held the proudest and most difficult place ever held by mortal man, and filled it too. Aye, according to the Hon. Mr. Roebuck, in the House of Commons, filled it as none [278] APPENDIX. other on the then habited globe could have done. He was the head and front of the sublimest cause ever espoused by heroes at its death. He was the head and front of our of fending, or, at least, as a vicarious sacrifice, they fain would so have finished him, had the law and the world's opinion permitted. Despite the systematic tortures of this petty tyrant, he lived on for twenty years and died as his friends proclaimed him, and the discriminating world now proclaims him, "one of the grand men in the tides of time." His keeper, such by the accidency of circumstances or the restric tion in the field of selection, is given the pitiful power of degrading his own government in the vain endeavor to de grade the other by tyranny to its Chieftain. Pardon the emphasis of my English, oh friends, for it is my style under provocation, and is bound to come out when the artesian pres sure at the bottom gives the impulse. But to return. Besides checkmating raiders, he was as signed to special duty tmder General Beauregard to meet Butler's movement near Bermuda Hundred. He com manded the left wing and reptdsed the enemy's right. With him, as the General in command, there is every reason to be lieve that the battle below Drury's Bluff wmdd have been a crushing and an overwhelming defeat to Butler. In special orders the day after the fight. General Beauregard was pleased to compliment his divisional General in most eulo gistic terms. On the 10th of June, nearly a month later, in his report to the war office, he virtually unsays what was then published and animadverts on Generals Ransom and Whit ing. There be some who opine that the change of tone in the two documents as to the first was simply self explanatory, when the commanding General discovered that there was a feeling of general disappointment at general results that day obtained, and that he preferred for others to bear the respon sibility to shouldering it himself. So did not Robert Lee after Gettysburg. I beg to add here the following statement made in a re cent letter from that good soldier, that hard fighter, that de voted and faithful man. Gen. William Gaston Lewis: "I shall always believe that the order I received from Gen- [279] APPENDIX. eral Robert Ransom to forward and attack the enemy at double quick, saved Drury's Bluff and also Richmond." Be that as it may, there is no denying that the discrepancy of statement is very extraordinary, to say the least. Unfor tunately for him, it was not the first time that that redoubt able gentleman had had recourse to like tactics to extenuate his own incapacity in the hour of almost assured victory. Superiors, as well as subordinates, must undergo like criti cism when he needed a shield, as witness the President and the Senior General of the army. But to return to General Ransom. In June, 1864 he was assigned toi the command of Early's Cavalry in his movement to meet Hunter and was with him all through his march to the rear of Washington in July, 1864. He was taken sick and relieved August 15th, 1864, and was on leave until September of same year when he was sent as President of Court of Inquiry to investigate outrages reported to have been done on Morgan's last raid into Kentucky. In November, 1864, he was sent to the command of Charleston and surrounding country, which renewed sick ness ewmpelled him to give up shortly afterwards. Such is the brief outline or synopsis of the war record of Bob Ransom, and it is one that any man and his posterity might well be proud of. As adjunct to it, pardon a few ex tracts from a manuscript letter of his of December, 1883. It was written to one of his old soldiers and couriers. Professor Nat Allen, of Kingstree, S. C, who submitted a sketch for a magazine publication for his revision and correction. They are given as evidence of his high sense of honor, of truth and honesty, which would not permit him to profit by the partial mistaltes of a loving friend whilst at the same time he mod estly claims what he was justly entitled to. He writes: "In some respects you are mistaken. I did not supersede or relieve Sam Jones in S. W. Virginia and East Tennessee. I reported to him as a subordinate. You were right as to my doing the work and entirely independent of his directions, for he gave me none. I did not decline to go to the trans-Mississippi, but I did not suit politicians, and the pressure being so great around Richmond, was by the [280] APPENDIX. President's order assigned command at Richmond and De partment of Henrico. I stopped Butler. The affair at Rogersville was on the 6th of November, 1863. ... I took command of Farley's Cavalry at Lynchburg, Virginia, about the 18th or 19th of June, 1864. Disorganized as was this force, I made it do some good service. I got nearer to Wash ington, D. C, I believe, than did any other general officer of the Confederacy, going within less than a hundred yards of the works north of the city. In November, '64, I went to Charleston, S. C, and left there just after Christmas and was no more on duty. At Malvern Hill my brigade made the last charge and my men fell at the muzzles of the enemy's cannon. At Sharpsburg, 1 masked ( ?) the junction of Early and Hood, who fought out, and repulsed Sumner's and Hooker's attacks during the day. At Fredericksburg, with less than 5,000 men I repulsed the Federal attacks with a trifling loss to us, killing over 2,000 Federals. I think though, my best servi(» was in organizing the First North Carolina Cavalry, and in my work at Kinston, N. C, in the spring of '62, when I brought order out of chaos, after the fall of Newbern, and in my operations around Richmond in '64 (the spring), when with only a handful of men I pre vented the fall of the city against raids and Butler's attacks. I have been trying to get up data, but it seems a hopeless job, and I hate to write anything which will not be complete and convincing It does appear that I am for all my life to be at hard employment. Well, better wear out too quickly than rust out and linger too long. I return the paper, and if you can correct it satisfactorily and do justice to Brigadier-General W. E. Jones for his part at Rogersville, for you know he was in immediate command, I will as fully appreciate and recognize your kindness and friendship as a grateful man can. Be sure not to claim anything for me that is not justly mine. . . . Faithfully yours." Much of this letter, my friends, is repetition in the main, but it is given as confirmation of what was gleaned from other sources, for you who knew him well will affirm that "he would not claim anything for himself that is not justly his." [281] APPENDIX. And now, my friends, with a brief summary of character, we will close this too extended sketeh. Old Tom Carlyle hath pungently said in effect if not in words, that "none but earnest men do deeds worth chronicle." True for you, old Epigram, and here is an illustration. Bob Ransom was an earnest man. Convince his judgment and every fibre and impulse of his nature was sure to follow to make that judgment good. 'Tis needless to say to those who knew him, that conscience had first to be convinced. That done, and work or fight or pray, "he did his level best." I have told you as you knew before, that he was a follower true and tried of "the Southern Cross." Those who knew him only on the surface, little thought that there was an other "Cross" for which he strove within himself even more strenuously. I know it of observation in the dead hour of night, and have had it confirmed by tongue of one whose words with me is almost tantamount to either of the five senses, his old comrade in arms, the late Col. E. D. Hall; judging from his war diary he seemed never to have missed divine service when secular duties permitted his attendance. One entry is here inserted; April 8th, '64, "Last Day. Tried faithfully and piously to observe it." " So groan'd Sir Launcelot in remorseful pain. Not knowing he should die a holy man." Whilst few had higher regard for the good opinion of the discerning good, none held in more sovereign scorn the ephem eral popularity, for which small men strive as good supreme of earthly aspiration. Perhaps in him it was carried a frac tion too far, both in peace and war. His idea was that an approving conscience is essential to happiness. "The rest is but tinsel and gewgaw ;" so held Socrates, the philosopher, wisest of men. It may be a fallacious creed for worldly gain, but for eter nal give it me every time before that of the smiling, smirking time-server, now this, now that, all things to all men. It is essentially the faith of brave, high strung, straightforward, self-reliant natures, for sturdy independence and freedom from cant, duplicity, hypocrisy, and policy, the world has [283] APPENDIX. rarely seen Bob Ransom's match. He had an instinctive repugnance to anything that bore in slightest the semblance of unseemly claim, or cringe or fawn or untruth. Ladies and old comrades, I have tried to give you in my feeble way the limn and outline of a hero, one who reflected glory on his State and her cause as he did in our frail hu manity and as he would have done on the "Table round of Arthur and his chosen twelve." He was one of the 126,000 according to official count, that North Carolina sent to the front in those trying and telling times. Heroes all they were, except the exceptional few homesick gentlemen who could not get along on rather precarious camp fare with only for saltpetre for seasoning, and had to go home with or without leave, for "pies and things." Scratch the names of such off the roll, and we have an immortal roster left in very truth. Her contribution to the cause. North Carolina's I mean, was so overwhelmingly in excess of the others, that to spare the feel ings of the others we'll omit comparative figures. Suffice for purpose that no other State approximated her in soldiers, none surpassed her in gallant deeds, none equalled her in graves. I said that he was a unit of the 126,000 heroes, bar ring deserters, that are accredited to North Carolina. As times will not permit to call the roll and specify their deeds in detail, we must take a few of their typical leaders as illus trative of the men they led. Without the backing of these last they could never have risen to the proud grade of his toric front. It takes heroes to make heroes. 'Tis ever so. " Ye brave en masse who fall and pass to the leaden halls of death, There are palms for the few, but alas for you. Not a leaf from the victor's wreath.' Let it content us, brothers, duty well performed must needs be our meed and guerdon. What higher meed need men demand ? Here are a few of you who inscribed your names high on the historic scroll, and most of whom did die for cause espoused. I take at random George Anderson and Junius Daniel, Pender and Pettigrew, Grimes Branch and Bragg, Ramseur, Hoke and the other Ransom. Of course there are many glorious names omitted, but these will do as type and il lustration of that super-human army. [283] APPENDIX. After war's stern alarms were over, he settled down to the humble citizen and devoted the remnant of his well-spent life to the improvement of the water-ways on your coast. His unpretentious after life was in keeping with the glorious record that he had previously made. He lived and died a true soldier, a good citizen and an upright gentleman. With bowed heads and reverential mien and grateful hearts, we thank Thee, oh God of battles and Giver of all good and perfect gifts, that in the hour of supreme grief and disappointment and the generation of sorrows and trials that have followed, thou didst vouchsafe such a spotless cause and such unsullied champions to uphold it. Amen. West Point Then West Point Now. (A letter written by "Senex" to the Washington Post, February 3, 1901.) Brutality is a synonym for fun. So says the savage whilst gloating over the agonies of his victim. So thought and thinks Dante's demons in Inferno, as they pile on the fagots for fresh arrivals in that hope-left region. It passes belief that any, save creatures of this debased and abnormal type, could take delight in suffering, and, least of all, in those of their own kind. Recent developments, however, in our two "national nurseries" for soldiers and seamen forces the re luctant conclusion that innate propensity in the baser sort for inflicting pain when solely a one-sided game is not modi fied by fortuitous station or' a little superficial culture. The brutis'h instinct of the son of Aurelius, whose chief delight on the verge of manhood was to torture flies, naturally paved the way as his great fathers foresaw in his successor, to Com modus, "the execrable," torturer of men. As easy the trans ition from the torturer of "plebes" to the tyrant of peoples, when opportunity places it in his power. Eliminate the whole cowardly, detestable brood as fast as the vile nature is developed. Fifty years ago, says an old man, the older cadets would have a little harmless sport out of the newcomer by jest, gibe, or harmless boyish pranks, rarely, if ever, transcending the [384] APPENDIX. gentieman's bound of courage, decency, and inborn gentility. There was a tradition then, still current on "The Point," old Senex continues, which may have had much to do with put ting a curb on vulgar, upstart pretension. But to the story, be it purely ape>chryphal or mostly true, and the last is my diagnejsis, having ever believed that "the boy is father of the man." The tale is told as it was told at the time, half a cen tury ago. Back in the "twenties," so the tradition runneth, quoth "Senex," there came to the academy a stalwart son of Ken tucky, country bom and country bred was he, but high-strung and self-reliant. Modest and reserved he was by high home culture and gentlemanly instinct, but punctilious to a hair's breadth in questions involving his inherent rights. Of course the lad was unknown to fame. The world had never heard of him up to that day. It has heard of him ever since, and will continue to hear whilst fame has tongue and men have ears. On the night after his arrival he was waited upon by a visiting squad of soldier cadets on a little "fun" intent. Soon one of his visitors passed him the lie, for specific purpose of provoking excuse for ulterior proceedings. Lie got it, for the next moment he was in a recumbent position from a blow between the eyes. Of course, such an unheard of presump tion, a plebe striking an older cadet, could not be atoned except in blood. Such the predicate laid down by outiaged dignity, to which the offender was more than acquiescent. "Yes," was the cool reply, "I'll fight your whole posse in detail, in any way you may elect, if you will only promise 'fair play.' " With both sides so very accommodating, of course the pre liminaries were soon arranged. Place, Kosciusko's garden. Time, just after reveille in the moming. Weapons, muskets loaded with fifteen buck shot each. Distance, fifteen paces. One of the young gentlemen kindly voluntered to act as the plebe's second. They met according to agreement, and at the first fire the older classman fell. The younger pro- [385] APPENDIX. ceeded at once to reload his own gun with the deliberation and nonchalance of a juvenile rabbit hunter. "What are you doing, Plebe ?" Don't you see you have killed your man ?" exclaimed his "friend," in evident alarm. "Well, if he is dead, a little more killing won't do him any hurt," was the calm reply. "Wake up your dead friend and tell him for me he had better proceed to do what I am doing, for I'm resolved to have another shot or two before this funny party breaks up. Here are three honest cartridges, not fire crackers. Select one for your dead friend, and another for yourself. I will keep the third. All three as well as the one in my gun barrel are charged precisely alike. Of this you must take my word, but rest assured there's lead in each. Go and report what you have heard, and let me know the decision of yourself and friends." There was a hurried interchange of opinion in that mimic "council of war" wheii that plebe's mandate for a plebiscite became known. The story runs that the "dead man" evinced more vitality and a more pacific spirit than any other in that conclave of fun-seekers and merry-makers. They do say that after he came to life he talked with a fluency and volu bility until then dormant in advocacy of acquiescing in the bullheaded plebe's demands. They do say, too, that he had a most eloquent seconder in the late "second" of the second party of the second part. "What do you demand ?" was the answer brought back by the messenger. "An ample apology from each and all of you for your un- gentlemanly treatment, and a promise to abstain from such in the future." "I am authorized to say that such demand will be com plied with by all of us," was the prompt rejoinder. For once the hazers were hazed, and innate cruelty taught a lesson which was borne in mind for many a day thereafter. History tells of another plebe in the dim bygone who, single-handed, "held the bridge" against advancing hordes of normal brutality. Who will say that the incident men tioned deies not entitle the later plebe to kindred plane with that since held by "the brave Horatius ?" The sportsman's [386] APPENDIX. intuition on discharge told the boy that there was only a blank carti-idge in his gun, and missing his target, a pair of legs, at short range settled it beyond doubt, hence his resolve to try "phlebotomy" as a curative for cowardly practical jok ing. It has been seen how it worked. • It may be asked whence the obvious and aeimitted degen eracy in the tone and esprit de corps of the Military Academy of late years. "Fifty years ago," continued Senex, "the West Point corps of cadetis was the most tiuthful, chivalrous, high-toned body of young gentlemen that could be found in the world. Truth, courage, regard for the rights of others, especially the weaker — in a word, inborn and cultivated manhood — developed men, heroes, and gentlemen, surpassing for the time of its brief existence any other school that the world had known in that regard. In those halcyon days ; I had a cadet friend (one of many) to whom I was deeply attached until the incep tion of the war between the States, he espousing the Northern and I the Southern side of the great question at issue. The estrangement thus produced continued for many years there after, when by mutual consent we met again on the old tramp- ing-ground. War questions were, by tacit understanding, ignored, and we were in our middle manhood — ^boys again- roaming over familiar scenes and recalling old friends and incidents of the early manhexid days. He had been a ripe and ready scholar, and graduated near the head of his class and been a close student ever since. As a consequence, al most on emerging from the section room he had been called to fill one of the most important chairs in the academic staff, and he filled it creditably. In one of our turns about evening parade, I stopped and put this direct question to him : " 'Tell me, amigo mio' whether the same high sense of honor pervades that line that did in our day, when the slight est suspicion of prevarication or falsehood, even to avoid sus pension or dismissal, would consign the culprit to the cate gory of 'the dogs,' Anglice, 'social pariahs ?' "His answer follows, in effect : 'It grieves me, old fellow, to tell you no; so far from it, indeed, that a bare-faced lie [387] APPENDIX. on lesser inducement entails but littie loss of caste among his fellows.' " 'To what do you ascribe this woeful deterioration ?' was the next query. " 'Partly to the demoralizing results of war, but more to the loss of a typical sectional equipoise as counter-balance.' "Be his diagnosis of 'cause' correct or otherwise, never theless, conceding the predicate, and it is easy to account for the continued downward grade culminating in the abyss of infamy for the culprits now being developed." Macauley asserts that lying is common to all inferior races, and heaven-given to protect themselves against a superior race. If so it be, what more natural than the transition to the individual man of like base instinct from liar to torturer. The Hottentot, the Indian, and the "heathen Chinese" are masters of each accomplishment The man with a white hide rarely proves a laggard in any field of competition on which his ambition prompts him to enter. Fayetteville, N. C. W. J. G. A PAPER ON JEFFERSON DAVIS. An Address by Col. W. J. Green, Delivered to the Young People of Fayetteville on the Ninety- Fifth Birthday of the President of the Southern Confederacy — The Life and Character of the Great Leader Described by One who Knew Him WeU. The following address on President Jefferson Davis was delivered before the young people of Fayetteville on the nine ty-fifth anniversary of Mr. Davis' birthday, by Colonel Whar ton J. Green. It was published in the Fayetteville Observer by request of J. E. B. Stuart chapter Daughters of the Con federacy, and a copy has been sent to The Observer with a request for its reproduction in the columns of this paper. "My young friends, and old friends, too, pardon a few pref atory remarks, and I will tell you in brief why we are here to-day to honor the memory of ex-President Jefferson Davis, and to make it plain, you have only to be told what manner of man he was too that we honor him because he first honored us. He was an earnest man, and as old Tom Carlyle tolls us, no [388] APPENDIX. other kind of men ever achieve anything fit to live or worthy to survive in this world. He was a studious, a reflective, a God-fearing man, ever tenacious of his own rights and those of his people, but ever ready to concede as much to others, which constituted him a just man. He was a typical and representative man of a class embodying the grandest civili zation and most finished society that the world contained, now fast becoming extinct, and which when it does, the world can never know it's like again. Such was the "old South," which witlings of "the new" are prone to deride as having been deficient in "Push" and appreciation of material or commercial prosperity. Correct they are, for that class was so old fogy as to have a marked preference for sterling, old- fashioned gentility over the garish substitute that has come to the front under the effulgent new order of things subse quently. This man was an illustration of the first, the purse- proud aristocracy of the last. Like the old Greek, he did not know how to play the lute or dance the Pyrrhic (or the "german" either), but he knew how to make a small State great, for he was of a race that turned out men, "high- minded men," and not mere physical and intellectual dwarf- ings, or moneyed mountebanks. " 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey. Where wealth accumulates and men decay." He came of a race of modest mein, but assertive manhood, one that knew it's rights, and knowing, dared maintain. One that evolved heroes, sages, statesmen, and grandest of all gentlemen, in more prolific outcrop than any other of like time and count has ever done or will do, henceforth and for ever. I repeat, after mature deliberation and due reflection, and after being a close and untiring student of history through life, that this man, Jefferson Davis, flrst and only President of a short lived but immortal Republic, when his tory comes to be written, as it should be, will lexim up as one of the world's grandest characters, the peer of Aurelius, Washington and Lee (grandest triumvirate that the world has known). Can praise or appreciation go higher? From the day he mounted his pony, as a little lad of seven years 19 [289] APPENDIX. old to ride through three great States to matriculate in his first public boarding school, he showed the stuff that was in him. Thence on to the end of his glorious and most event ful life, if he ever fell short or proved derelict in any duty devolving upon him, after filling the highest positions under two great governments ; and one, the most trying and exact ing ever occupied by mortal man I cannot recall it. Did ever man go to render his final account with such a balance sheet as that before? If so, close historical research has failed to bring it under my eye. He was never over elated by success, and for near three score years, he had his full allowance of it, nor was he ever unduly depressed by "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," and in his declining years, he seemed to be a favorite target for the shafts of the fickle jade. He received the praise and plaudits of the impartial world with same sublime poise and 'equanimity,' that he did the gnat stings of a petty tyrant, whose chiefest delight was to inflict the torture that he could upon his helpless victim. See latent retort of scorn : " The man who dies by the adder's fang May have the crawler crushed, but feels no anger; 'Twas the worm's nature, and some men are worms In soul, more than the living things of tombs." This withering scorn of one of the immortal poets in speak ing of a low, base, depraved nature, might be supposed to have been his thought whilst undergoing the instinctive brutality of this crawling creature. And here comes in the reason for selecting this spot as the place of our meeting. On an invalid couch and within sound of my voice lies a noble sick lady. For over twenty years she has hardly left that bed of suffering for a day at a time. Her admiration and veneration for this world hero surpasses that of any that I have ever known, except my own. When refused and denied by his resplendent jailor the commonest necessaries and comforts of life, even down to a sufficiency of bedding, after that solace of an old soldier, his pipe, had been taken away from him, it occurred to this truly good woman that a thick, warm quilt might lessen his sufferings, and thereupon she made one and sent it to him post-haste. Her unpretentious life has been replete [290] APPENDIX. with beautifiti little benefactions and Christian charities, but none has reached the standard of this. I am prepared to be lieve on the glass of cold water basis that for this one good act alone, when she knocks at the golden gates, there will be but littie question of admission on the part of the gate-keeper. Never was gift more thankfully received, as evinced in his loving inquiries about the donor on the occasion of my last visit to him, six weeks before his death. Young ladies, if I had been born of your sex and hers I would rather have been the maker and giver of that bed-spread to that poor, suffering, but immortal man, than any Zenobia, Cleopatra or Semiramis who has figured in history. Hence, although I had about resolved never to try and speak in public again 5 nevertheless when her request catne for me to do so on this occasion, it wasn't in me to say nay. And so Mrs. Jessie K. Kyle is solely responsible for the infiiction you will undergo te>day. And yet mock-modesty does not forbid the remark that, in some respects few living men are better suited to the task. Few knew him better or longer, and none honored and revered him more in life and death. Truly can I say of him what I published of another in The Boston Herald, in a let ter virritten from Rome some five and forty years ago. It was the spontaneous outburst of a young patriot of demoniac fury about to burst over his own beloved land: "To-day we stood on the spot where stood the bridge defended by 'The Codes' in the brave days of Rome. Well do I recall the day, when as an unsophisticated country school boy I first perused the enchanting story, and I thought then, as I think now, that I would rather have been that bold plebian with naught to commend him of which we are aware, save a strong arm, a stout heart, and a free, unfettered spirit, backed by a pa- tiiotism paramount to every other consideration, than all of the Alexanders and Attilas, Totilas and Tamerlanes, Caes ars and Bonapartes, who have been the curse of their kind, combined and consolidated in one grand legitimate cut-throat. That was penned by a mere boy near a half a century bygone. Let him substitute the identity of another Horatius, another for tiie captain of the gate, a Ce>cles for a Codes (blind of one eye), or, to make it plain, Jefferson Davis for Horatius, and by my conscience I stick to what was then uttered. Yea, [291] APPENDIX. verily, rather be that frail, haK-blind man, the later on "Cap tain of the Gate," and "Holder of the Bridge," at times like his prototype of antiquity, almost single-handed, and ever with an "eye single" to his high and holy trust, than the whole aggregation of great captains only, who have reddened the earth solely for selfish aim and greed of gain. My last interviews with this superbest of men that I have ever known, and I am prepared to believe that the world has ever known, came on invitation to visit him, only six or eight weeks before he left us. Perhaps the invitation was not accepted by re turn of mail, and I didn't put in an appearance at "Beauvoir" as fast as steam wotdd take me. But such inference is im probable, and not true to the record. The three or four days passed in that charming abode are amongst the most delight ful in recall through a somewhat eventful life. The great man was there in his beautiful, simple, every-day domestic life, and so was his devoted wife, and loving and most lovable daughter, "Our Winnie," who bore before and thence on the proudest title ever worn by woman, save one, and wore i^ with honor and without reproach, a title transcending even that of queenly Cornelia, of "daughter of the Scipios and mother of the Graex^hi," her throne far outshining those of "Ind or Orme," or that of any other Oriental sultana or imperial princess of Rome, for whilst they might sit on one of ivory and gold "the Daughter of the Confederacy" had her's enshrined in the hearts of heroes and the wives and daughters of here>es. John Gordon, I thank you for the soubriquet, so worthily and appropriately besto'Wed on this fascinating young woman. Let none other ever carry it. In the welcome of this historic but unpretentious family, the head of which was a hero in three wars, and the architect or formulator of the most phenomenal republic of all times, were passed three of the happiest and best improved days of my life. From the worthiest of the disciples of the great Calhoun, a little teaching could but come to a would-be dis ciple of his, in our little daily talks. A single recital of one incident, to illustrate his wonderful nerve, power of endur ance and celerty of thought and grasp, is here reproduced: "After the Rifies had repulsed the attack of the Lancers, it [392] APPENDIX. soon became obvious that we would soon have to receive another charge in overwhelming force (Buena Vista), and I realized that a change of line of battle was all important. Shortiy after the necessary order was issued, and in process of execution, we came suddenly on a gulch or chasm, appa rently about fifteen or twenty feet across, and of about the same depth, and sides almost precipitous. There was no chance to flank it. in time for the occasion, and so it had to be crossed. I had to clear it en volt, a leap. Ordinarily, I would have had confidence in my mount to clear it, for he was of blood and mettie. But that day I had but one spur available. But crossed it had to be, so giving orders for the command to scramble down and up the side as best they could, I went back some fifty yards for purchase or' impetus, anei went for it at full tilt and cleared it in fine style. In the instant that I was in the air, I saw beneath a four-mule team with the driver in the agonies of death. A minute later, my men were crawling up \h.Q bank and we were soon in line and prepared to receive our visitors in a proper manner. The old soldier's face lit up with the fire of youth and old-time con flict as he told the story, and there was no brag or bravado in the recital. Behold the heroic man in the supreme mo ment of decision before taking that perilous vault on the success of which hinged the issue of the day and the fate of an army. This is the man whom scullions would fain de grade by the pusilanimous spite of expunging his name from national monuments and memorials, which owed their being to his patriotism and genius. A little illustiation to show the folly of puny and puerile spite to reverse the reading of history. One day, in strolling through the Dogeana, or Du cal Palace of Venice, I came into the famous gallery of por traits, containing the life likenesses of all the sovereign Ducal of those immortal "Sea Kings," all save one, which was an empty frame draped in black. On demanding the meaning of my guide, the reply came, "That panel, Senor, is the one for the best known (for, like you, every stranger asks this cause of the vacant space), and many think the most illus trious of the Dogeanic line, that is he who "tamed the Turk," and curbed Florence, Pisa, Genoa and Amalfi, not to name [393] APPENDIX. the new city on the straits with its imperial upstarts of the Palfeologi and Commeni stocks! The speaker was a Vene tian. Opposite thereto, in the Supreme Court room in Wash ington, are arranged with like precision as to detail all the Chief Justices of the United States of America, all save one, and yet some there be, and their name is not meagre, who hold and maintain that the aforesaid vacant frame lacks a suitable head in the chiefest of the justiciaries of the antecedent high- sounding cognomen. No! Roger B. Taney and Jefferson Davis are there to stay, as will that of the good old Venetian, Marino Faliero, despite party pique and partisan malevo lence, and the expunging chisel or wipeout brush ; they are there to stay. Pigmies all bear it in mind that it is an easy thing to do, to efface or obliterate figies of giants. Better let this kind alone, for your puny scaling ladders and expunging tools can never reach the tip of their beard. The last time that I was brought into contact with him was at his gorgeous funeral, all things considered, perhaps, the most imposing and impressive ever accorded to man, for it was a genuine outgush of feeling from the mighty concourse assembled, estimated as high as one hundred thousand, and everything was conducted in the plainest and simplest man ner, as he would have had it, for he loathed vulgar ostenta tion, as all truly great men do. The mighty procession fol lowed on foot from Virginia's historic capital to quiet Holly wood, where we laid him to rest, in, perhaps, the most beau tiful spot in its hallowed domains, overlooking the James from about its highest point. On the march and at the grave, the place of honor was accorded our delegation, just behinci the catafalque, and at the head of the grave. His lately penned letter in commendation of their State, written to the Fayetteville committee on the centennial occasion, called for no subordinate place. A brief space thereafter, and some of us helped to place the remains of his lovely, gifted, womanly daughter by his side. Her funeral fell but little short of his— and there they rest, this father and daughter, until the resurrection mom. Never higher type of the two has this world seen. Young gentiemen and ladies, their portraiture is given in brief to arouse imitation and emulation. Time [394] APPENDIX. forbids further elaboration. Boys, the're was a man, a com bination, such as we will never look upon his like again. You will find the study of his life and character and that of the cause which he embodied, and those of the patriotic heroes who helped to uphold his hands in the hours of trial, more useful and instructive reading than the fiashy trash with which the world is now inundated. Of this last class were such men as Lee, and Sidney Johnston, and Jackson and For rest, and Hampton, and Dick Taylor, and Stuart, and the Hills, and the Lees (Steve and Custis), and half a million of other grand, self-sacrificing, patriotic heroes, some few of whom still linger superflous on the stage, whilst the bulk of them have crossed over the river and are resting in the shade of the trees. Its good reading, young gentiemen. " Lives of great men all remind us. We can make our lives sublime. And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time." And, again, from a favorite old volume of long ago (Fes- tus), we read: "He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." All of this he did. And whilst in the quotation mood let me add another in conclusion. My wife found it in place in a little book of daily devotions the day we took the funeral train at Greensboro, May 30, 1893: "And thus this man died, leaving his death an example of a noble courage and a memorial of virtue, not only unto young men, but unto all his nation." (2 Macabees, 6tli chapter, 3d verse. ) Friends, one and all, let me urge you never to speak of him in the flippant style of New England South-haters as "Jeff Davis." It comes with bad grace from a Southern tongue. He was either President Davis, or plain, simple Mr. Davis. My young friends, this is the ninety-fifth birthday of one of the most remarkable men who figure in history, and whose name and fame should be held dear by every one of Southern birth, now, henceforth and forever. I have been asked, as said, by our dear friend, Mrs. Kyle, who lies on an invalid couch tiear-by, and who honors his [395] APPENDIX. memory almost as much as I do, to tell you a little of what I know of this tiuly gex)d and great man, for both he was, and therein lay his chiefest claim upon our regard. How few fill the bill and honor the "letter of credit" on posterity as he. A truly ge>od and a truly great man in combination ! Grand est sight to men or gods it is — a truly gex>d and a truly great man. The world, acjcording to common repute, has had five great captains by name and roster — Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Frederic, Napoleon. Great soldiers all they were, but not one of them could lay claim to the combination laid down of tiuly great and good. They lived and died before the days of Lee — the superb, the peerless soldier, who, by common consent of all competent militai-y critics, fills the sixth place, and the needed combination. He, too, my young friends, God be praised, was one of us. But I come not to talk to you of mere soldiers to-day, though no occupation is more worthy or praiseworthy, when followed in a righteous cause, in a righteous way and for the rights of man. No other wars or warriors can be held strictly excusable in the eye of God and men. God be eternally praised, ours was one of that sort, and no cause ever had grander soldiers or more of them in pro portion to opposing sides. Sidney Johnston, Lee and Jack son, with Davis as directing head, would sanctify, ennoble and glorify any cause left to the arbitrament of arms. Wc challenge any single war to match that immaculate quartette of immortals in chief command. Did any war ever have completer type of justification, not to speak of their great lieutenants down and through the rank and file, who knew how to die themselves and to teach others how to die for what they knew to be right? No, it is not of the Confederate army, but of the civic chief, without whose contriving and controlling head and directing hand, that almost invincible army as it sex>n came to be con sidered, could not have been kept afield or afoot for six months, and probably not for sixty days. And yet for four years, under his superb and matchless manipulation, it did and endured more than any other army has ever done, Greek, Roman or English not excepted. Of course, after the forma- [396] APPENDIX. tive crisis, it became a case of mutual dependence and sup port, the one on the other, the executive on the army, the army on the executive. Luckily for both and for the cause, neither rarely fell short in its allotted work. But it is chiefiy of the executive, or to be precise, of the presidency, and of him who filled it, that I propose to talk to you to-day. Great soldiers merely have been no rarity in the world, since wholesale throat-cutting first came into vogue. But great men, all- round men, have ever been and will ever continue to be more of a curiosity and a historic world wonder. The gTcat Marl borough, "Little Jack Churchill," was undoubtedly a great soldier, perhaps until Lee put in an appearance, the greatest of all the English speaking ones of the tribe, but who in the face of his time-serving, self-seeking instincts and prexilivities, and easy and ever-shifting political principles, and infidelity to faith and plighted word, would ever think of writing his name in the little book of truly great men. It was, I repeat, for the last named as a professional soldier to complete the combination, and stand forth for all time the model soldier and ideal man. Most fortunate he was in final development, in having for chief, one of kindred mould, and for cause one as immaculate as the untrodden snow. Both in unison were essential to the full make-up of the man. He could never have reached his full stature as commander of the "Tenth Legion" under Caesar, or of the "Rear Guard" on the great retreat (freely rendered, "panic") under Napoleon, because, forsooth, his judgment could not have relied on the captain, or his conscience on the cause in either case. But here there was the entente cordiale, the thorough accord all around. See the outeome the grandest outcrop of creation, Davis and Lee, the grandest brace of heroes that ever immortalized any ante cedent struggle between the sons of men. Are you not proud, young ladies and gentlemen, that you are of the same race and tribe with Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee? If not, you should set to work to correct the defects of neglected edu cation. But to the work in hand, let it be premised, that it was my proud privilege to know them both, and the one whom we are considering, intimately from my boyhood days to that of his death, as numerous letters from him can attest, [3971 APPENDIX. as well as the bequeathal of his inksand, most valued heirloom in my house. In that acquaintance began, ripened and con tinued to the end, is the secret of my love, admiration and hero-worship of the man. It has never flagged or grown dim mer, but on the contrary intensifies with each recurring year. My first acquaintance with him began during his first term in Congress, when he was a man of 37 years, and I a boy of fourteen. It is needless to say, there could be no great in timacy between two of our divergent ages, but, boarding at the same house, a Mrs. Potter's, I believe, on Pennsylvania avenue, near Sixth street, and our rooms contiguous. I being the only juvenile in the establishment, (the others being grave Senators and members of Congress,) I naturally saw much of him in his leisure hours. In fact, out of compliance with my father's request, who was his friend, but absent on busi ness, he kept a kind of casual supervisory outlook over me until I was consigned to my college, and he to the colonelcy of the First Mississippi Rifles, in the Mexican war, which he made immortal as well as himself by his superb management. At Buena Vista, it is generally conceded that he saved the day at more than one critical juncture. The general in com mand, sturdy old Zach Taylor, a little later on, lovingly dubbed "Old Rough and Ready," realized his obligation to him at once and although connected by closest family tie, had refused to extend him friendly greeting for many years anterior. A well authenticated story has it that without dis mounting after battle he rode over to the colonel's tent, who was lying on a pallet with a shattered fex>t. "Colonel Davis," he said, "will you deign to take my hand ?" Quick came the reply: "More gladly, general, than I ever did anything in my life." The reconciliation was complete. Girls, would you like a little love story in this connection ? Well, you shall have it. Shortly after the cadet was turned into a lieutenant, he was sent to the then northwest, to wear the gilt off his epaulets and spurs, and to help cateh Black Hawk, the fa mous Indian warrior, who was making things lively in those parts for the settlers. This was done, and the conquered In dians, including their chief, were prisoners under his care. He subsequently received the thanks of Black Hawk for his [398] APPENDIX. courtesy to the conquered. Quotation this last. Observe the difference accorded to prisoners, (though only barbarians), by a gentleman jailor and that received by himself from an in flated, upstart tyrant later on ? Having served a long proba tion as a prisoner of war myself, I was brought in touch with each class, and to draw the line of demarcation between the two, to honor the one and to loathe and despise the other. If it be a sin to put the systematic torturer of our "grand old man" in the contemptuous class, God help me, I can't help it, and perhaps I am not disposed to mal^e an over-strenuous effort in that direction. History tells us of many brutal keep ers of illustrious State prisoners. Few, if any there are, whose name and fame I covet less than that of one Simon-the- Cobbler, the torturer unto death of a little boy king, knovsm as the Dauphin, whose only crime was that he was the son of his father and mother, known in history as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were murdered by the insane mob government of that day. The question arose what was to be done with their poor little eight-year-old orphan, then de facto King of France. Murder him they could as they had his parents, but were afraid to for fear of intensifying the horror and indignation of all Europe, already at fever heat. So it was resolved to accomplish the same end by slow, de liberate, systematic cruelty and torture. But where could a creature so base be found as to carry out such a demoniac pur pose ? It was at that juncture, when true soldiers held back aghast, that this creature, more loathsome than a toad, or vampire, or devil fish, came for name, laterized, as soldier. Ye Powers! for a consideration he would undertake the job. He got it, yes, Simon-the-Cobbler was promoted to be the keeper of a King with the implied, if not expressed, condition, that he was, like the fabled vtdture of old, to feed on the vitals of his helpless victim until the vital spark was sped. He com plied with his part of the contract with scrupulous exacti tude! The fancy has sometimes come over me, what if you were reduced to the dread alternative of making choice between the Cobbler and another later on whose name, latinized, is Soldier. (Ye Powers eternal, what a travesty on nomencla- [399] APPENDIX. ture!) who gladly discharged the same villainous functions; which would you rather be of the two ? The question still re mains unsettled in my mind, notwithstanding the difference in proIninenc^e and pe>sition of the jailors. But to come back to our story: The post to which the young man was assigned was under the command of a bluff old colonel with a charming daughter, who he declared with military emphasis and intonation should never marry in the army. Now that was just what the young lady wanted to do, and what the lieutenant wanted to do likewise. But the colonel was incorrigible, and the young couple, being respect ers of parental authority and military mandate, were com pelled to put off the nuptial day until the obstacles could be removed or avoided. Two years later he resigned his com mission, and deeming now that all rational objection on the part of her fatiier was removed, he hurried to Louisville, met his sweetheart, and the twain, Jefferson Davis and Sarah Knox Taylor, were married at the house of the bride's aunt, a sister of her father, with other near relations on hand to sanction the event by their presence, in July, 1835. All the sensational stories about an elopement are purely fabulous and without foundation. Their married life and happiness was all t(X) short lived, for in tiiree short months he was a widower. She was a sister of the accomplished Lieutent-Gen- eral Dick Taylor, who, as a major-general in command, won one of the might-have-been decisive victories of the war, at Mansfield, but of which he or rather we were cheated, as at Bull Run and Shiloh and Murfresborough, but supernal in competency in command after the victories were won, and who afterwards wrote one of the most graphic and interesting books of the war yet penned — "Destruction and Reconstruc tion." The sequel of the story has been anticipated in the "make-up" interview between the two on the field of Buena Vista, the older giving a clincher to the renewed bond of friendship with the remark: "1 am convinced Jefferson, that Sarah was a better judge of men than her father." Each of them became a reluctant President later on, both preferring the camp to the cabinet. Their bond of union thence on to the end was that of father and son. [300] APPENDIX. On the 26th of February, 1845, Mr. Davis was married to his second wife, the gifted and accomplished Varina Howell, daughter of William Burr Howell, and grand-daughter of Governor Richard Llowell, of New Jersey, who still survives him, and has given us the finest and most complete life of her illustrious husband yet published and one of the model speci mens of biographical literature extant. President Polk tendered him the commission of brigadier- general in recognition of his services at Monterey and Buena Vista, which he respectfully declined, owing to the State's rights views and doubts as to the right of appointing power. "President Pierce, with whom he had been domesticated for a winter when they were both young (I think at Mrs. Pot- tei-'s,) in making up his cabinet in 1863, urged upon Mr. Davis the acceptance of the portfolio of war and he reluct antly took his place in the executive family March 4th, 1853. His conduct of the Department is a matter of public record. The army was judiciously but emphatically strengthened; the coast was more fully defended; the coast survey and geodetic observations were extended; and the fields of as tronomy, zoology, botany and meteorology were fully ex ploited. "He ordered the survey for the construction of the Pacific railway ; added to the fortifications of the New England and Pacific coasts; repressed Indian he)stilities, and provided for the more speedy transportation of guns and ammunition in case of need. He recommended national armories, urged the extension of the pension system to widows and orphans of soldiers and teK)k the initiatory measures for a retired list. "He also had charge of the enlargement of the national capitol by the addition of two wings to provide a new senate chamber and hall of representatives and the construction of a more imposing dome to the structure. "Under his administration the Washington aqueduct and Cabin John Bridge was built, the largest single span arch in the world. President Pierce's cabinet presents the only in stance in the history of a presidential administration in which no change was made in the personnel. Mr. Davis was re turned to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Mis- [301] APPENDIX. sissippi in 1857 and took his seat March 4th, immeeiiately on leaving the cabinet. On a visit to Boston he spoke at Faneuil Hall on October 12th, 1858, on the condition of the country and the dangers besetting it. He pleaded for the protection of the independence of the States for which New England and all the States fought, and for a strict construction of the constitution, framed and adopted by the founders. Such was this man. Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States. In a word, and take him all for all, he was in universal heroic attribute to the closest copy of the Immortal Roman that I have ever seen in life or in books. That he was a patrician, polished, cultured and re fined, goes without question. A soldier, orator, organizer, writer of highest type in combination, since Imperial Csesar passed, is my estimation of the man. Let some other nomi nate a worthier if he can. Add the highest attributes of self- negation, unselfishness and patriotic devotion to lifelong and unswerving principles, and some may think that the reputed first of men should take the second place in the computation." Address by Col. W. J. Green, January 19, 1905, Before the J. E. B. Stuart Chapter, U. D. C. Daughters of the Confederacy : At your bidding I am here to talk to you of two of the grandest men that the world has known. Nor can I imagine a more appropriate beginning than the opening words, on a similar occasion, of the most valued friend whom I have knovsm in life ; one whom I loved next to my father. What shall his title be ? State Governor, U. S. Senator, Lieutenant-General, or simply that inborn, ingrained, undeviating gentleman ? for each and all he was at times, and the last at all times. It is neeeiless to say that his name is Wade Hampton. It is culled from his eloquent ad dress delivered before the Society of Confederate Soldiers and sailors in Maryland on the 12th of October, 1871, on the Life and Character of General Robert E. Lee. Taken as a whole, it is one of the most exquisite eulogies that has ever fallen under my eye. Every word and utterance was felt to the core, for the two were of kindred soul, and twin brothers [303] APPENDIX. in loftiest patiiotism and sublime self-negation. Here is the excerpt alluded to with conjoint regret that time and exjcasion calls for any excerpt from that superb production instead of giving it entire: 'Whilst appreciating the compliment that brings me before you, it is with a profound sense of my in ability to 'rise to the height of this great argument,' that I assume the duty of your kindness has imposed ; nor would I venture to do so, comrades of the Confederate service, were it not that it seems to me no duty can be more sacred than that which bids every true man of the South, at all times, by all means, in all places, to pay homage to the character, and honor to the memory of our great leader. To myself, whose good fortune it was co follow that illustrious Chief from the beginning to the c'^ose of the marvelous career, which has placed his name by the side of those of the world's great est captains — who witnessed his grand magnanimity in the flush of his proudest triumphs — his sublime serenity in the hour of disaster — ^who was sustained by his constant faith in the justice of his cause, encouraged by his kindness, and hon ored by his friendship — this call to join in doing honor to his memory has the saucity and the tenderness that death alone can give. Once again and for the last time, I seem placed on duty in the service of my old commander, and the voice that summons me here, waking many of the proudest, though saddest emotions of my heart, comes from the tomb of him who, 'though dead, yet speaketh.' " Ladies: By the received verdict of recognized judges in such matters, the flve great captains of anthentic history, naming them in point of time, were: Alexander, Hannibal, Cajsar, Frederic, and Napoleon. Just precisely the number that there are fingers on the hand. But circumscribed as was the limit, it was held immune from intrusion of soldiers of inferior sort or minor degree until some forty years ago, when bolder iconexjlasts of our own great tongue made r(X)m by way of deposition for two of their ovsm unequalled race. 'The mad boy of Macedon,' and the almost equally mad Sage of Braden- burg were told by these to descend from their pedestals and make obeisance to Marlborough and Lea So it stands to day, and probably will continue for centuries to come. Quin- [303] APPENDIX. tette of the incarnate gods of war; here they are: Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, Churchill, Lee. But grand as they are, and as are the two called down, ye powers, how they pale be fore the courtly gentieman and unpretentious schex)lmaster of Lexington. Who would hesitate in the right of choice, as between him and Imperial Caesar ? Not I, forsooth. And so by my vote he stands the foremost man of recorded time, Paul alone excepted. Not that it is proposed to claim equality of plane in intel lectual development and varied achievement between him or any other and the phenomenal all-sided man of Rome; but it is a moot question, and ever will be, until true story of this glorious epoch is written, if written it ever will be; could even he, "noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times," have done as much under like dearth of men, money and munitions ? If not, then it is clear that Robert E. Lee is entitled to his new elevation into the exclusive five awarded him by a jury, composed of such as Wolseley, Freemantle, Chesney, Hencierson, and Long, whose claim to the proud title of Military Critics, is acknowledged around the world. See what the first two, who made the Pennsylvania campaign under him, for the avowed purpose of studying war under the greatest soldier of the age, have to say. General Lord Wolse ley, head of the English army, has this to say: "I would instance Caesar, Hannibal, Marlbourough, Napoleon and Gen eral Lee, as men who possessed what I regard as the highest development of military genius — men who combined with the strategic grasp of Von Moltke and the calm wisdom and just reasoning of Wellington, all the power of Marshal Bugeaud and of Souwaroff to inflame the imagination of their soldiers, and impart to them some of the fiery spirit of reckless daring which burned within their own breasts." One other excerpt from Col. Freemantle, commanding of ficer of the "Cold-stream Guards," the crack regiment of the English army of that day, must suffice in laudation of this incomparable hero and leader of heroes, the incarnation and embodiment of poetic Spain's fabled demigod, "the Cid Cam- peador," barring the latter's disregard of plighted truth, and proclivity to Treason, both of which were beyond his capacity. [304] APPENDIX. Quoting from a perusal, nearly forty years ante-date, and for which allowance must hence be made, this in effect, is what the gifted Englishman says of his cousin over the water: "He is the grandest and stateliest man that I have met in life, whether afoot or in the saddle, but especially the last. Se rious but not over solemn, his every glance anei utterance indi cates the soldier and the man of thought. Free from the minor faults and foibles of manhood, such as levity, drinking, swearing, smoking, chewing, etc., his bitterest enemies, of whom there are few, have never accused him of being addicted to any of the greater. "Can pen portraiture of a perfect char acter go further ? Ladies, you will pardon my introducing a little more quotation from illustrious contemporaries of our father land, bearing on the subject, and whose estimate is naturally free from bias and prejudice of participants in the mighty struggle of which he was the military head. Better such than my crude opinions, and better ten thousand times told, than the perverted, distorted, malicious and mendacious statements of so-called historians, God save the mark! have essayed to do through forty years of counterfeit peace, by a prostitution of their base talents to belittling him and his cause, a task which baffled about three millions of armed foe men, including John Pope and a gentleman down there, who shall be nameless, through four years that he was on the back of old "Traveller," and had attenuated legions within call. History forsooth of the United States of America ! None of the recent trashy stuff for my pe)sterity, if my interdict would prevent it. Better Munchausen, Jack, the Giant Killer, Aladdin and his lamp, and other such transparent History, to the nauseating fiction of post helium days, which sails under the counterfeit and fictitious title "History." No modern history of the United States for me and mine, until it is penned beyond the shadow of Bunker's Hill, and by impartial hand. The most veracious and reliable history of the American Revolution ever penned, as conceded by both sides in the struggle, was vsTitten by the Italian, Dr. Botta, who had never set foot in the New World. Let us of the South bide the coming of a second Botta to do the same for us, if no son of 30 [305] APPENDIX. the soil to the manner born, arises to essay the stupendous work, and carries' it out to a successful conclusion. Until tiiat day arrives, let the story be unwritten, if samples these be, or at least unre,ad by Southern youth through time and eter nity. Give us Munchausen in preference to mock heroics and mandacious statements, palmed off by lying knaves for ture recital. But to leave off digression. Professor George Long, one of the most profound scholars of his day, having an intense admiration for the great and good Aurelius, whom he seemed to regard as the most perfect of men, compiled and published the thoughts of his ideal hero. The book was hardly out of press, before it was pirated by a Northern publisher, and dedicated to a learned doctor pro fundus of that quarter by the name Emerson. The English author was naturally outraged by such unwarrantable impu dence, not to give it the less euphonic name of forgery, and ex presses his opinion in the prefatory of the ensuing edition, as here follows : "I have never dedicated a book to any man, and if I dedicated this, I should choose the man whose name seems to be most worthy to be joined to that of the Roman soldier and philosopher. I might dedicate the book to the successful general who is now President of the United States, with the hope that his integrity and justice will restore peace and happiness, so far as he can, to thejse unhappy States who have suffered so much from war and the unrelenting hostility of wicked men. But as the Roman poet says: " Victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni." And if I dedicated this little book to any man, I would dedicate it to him who led the Confederate armies against the powerful invader, and retired from an unequaled task de feated, but not dishonored ; to the noble Virginia soldier whose talents and virtues place him by the side of the best and wisest man who sat on the throne of the imperial Csesars." Observe another tribute from another English admirer, Philip Stanhope Worsley, a poet of no mean merit, with a stanza added to the cause : [306] APPENDIX. ,; " To General Lee, The most stainless of hving Commanders, And except in fortune, the greatest. This volume is presented With the writer's earnest sympathy, And respectful admiration." " Ah realm of tears ! — but let her bear This blazon to the end of time: No nation rose so white and fair, None fell so pure of crime. " The widow's moan, the orphan's wail. Come round thee ; but in truth be strong ; Eternal Right, though all else fail, Can never be made Wrong." It would seem to be a recognized fact that all truly great Captains require at least one lieutenant, or eioadjutor of kin dred calibre to assist in developing or carrying out the col- lossal conceptions of the originating brain. Caeesar had his in the legionary chief of the immortal "Tenth," Marlborough his in Eugene, Wallenstein in Tilly, Frederick his in Zlethen, Washington in Greene, Napoleon perhaps none of marked and supereminent degree, because forsooth, he insisted upon being both in one. Like Bottom the Weaver, he insisted on playing all parts in the play himself. If he had such, it was the heroic commander on the return from Moscow, when old Michael Ney, as chief of "The Rear Guard," was saving the remnants of a eiisorganized army left without a directing head. These undoubtedly were priceless coadjutors to generals in command. But how far short they fell to Lee's unmatched lieutenant, the unmatchable Jackson. The two seemed de signed for each other, and for the great occasion in which they were to act in respective role, so symmetrically were they adjusted each for his work. "Better it had been me than he," exclaims the great captain when he hears of the untimely fall of the other. "Not so, quoth the wounded hero, better a hun dred dead Jacksons than one Lee. I would have followed him blindfolded around the world." This showed the recip rocal tmst subsisting between the two, and never was there a grander alliance between Titanic spirits for the accomplish ment of a mutual grand purpose. In that little word "trust" lay the secret of this man's phenomenal, marvelous success. [307] APPENDIX. Coupled to his native war genius, he had implicit trust in the justice and integrity of his cause, and absolute trust and reliance on his two superiors, the one up yonder, the other dovm here. He likewise had implicit trust in himself and his invincible "foot cavalry," who returned it to overplus. With such a sublime combine of trust, not the God forsaken, unhallowed thing of later times, no wonder he accomplished almost mir acles. By good judges the grandest feat of the "little cor poral" was the overthrow on lake Garda of the two great armies in three consecutive days, each his numerical superior, having left his base around beleaguered Mantna virtually de pleted, in order to supply him with his little army for offen sive operations against the advancing hordes. The strategist of that day and of succeeeiing days has branded the conception madness; the result renders a different verdict, and pro nounces it sublime strategy. Be it which it may, it had it's replica on the banks of the Shenandoah, when the great lieu tenant caught up with his chief quartermaster. Banks, whose duty (enforced) was to supply his men with shoes, blankets, powder and provant, and himself with lemons. Gen. Dick Taylor says that he had an insatiate appetite for that acrid fruit and was always sucking one, when resting on a march, and toi supply himself with that tropical delicacy, the men were wont to say that he kept the commissary trains under constant contribution, or else in dread apprehension (be it understood, the enemy's commissariat.) But General Dick, in his appetite for epigrams or antithesis must sometimes be taken, 'cum grano,' for he intimates very broadly in his f aci- nating book that 'old Jack, was a crazy man. If so it be. President Davis might have plagiarized his brother President across the line of mark when told that his new and last ap pointee to chief command was a little too given to turning the little finger above his dexter. "If I only knew his brand of whiskey," quoth Abraham," I'd send a barrel to each of my commanding Generals." Mr. Davis might have said to his illustrious brother-in-law, on basis of insinuation, "I wish I knew the mandrake that incites such madness." His piety or rather sanctity amounted to almost austerity, [308] APPENDIX. such as is rarely seen in camps, or in cathedrals either. It im pressed his followers more forcibly than did 'old Noll's' his round-heads, for there could be no doubt of its sincerity. But to return to the comparison of results on Lake Garda and the Shenandoah, this must be said to the extra credit of the Corsican over the Predestinarian. The first had for an tagonists trained soldiers and supposed masters of strategy, such as Wurmser, Alvinzi,Davidovich and Prevara, whilst the other was pitted against militia captains and bombastic pre tenders, like Banks, Milroy, Fremont and Pope, in which last category must be excepted that sturdy old Irishman, Shields, who with odds of three to one in his favor, became the half hero of Kernstown, and might have been the whole one, had it not been for that insuperable stonewall in his way. Appropos of tiiat event : Shortly after the war, one of Jack son's old trexi'pers was called upon to introduce Gen. Shields to a Democratic audience in Missouri, which he did in the following neat, pithy and pointed style as "the countryman and political follower of one Jackson, a hero in three wars, a United States Senator from two or three States, and the man who came nearer whipping the other Jackson, whose surname is Stonewall, than any other man ever did, and he didn't do it by a d — ^n long sight" Pardon another anecdote which my old and honored friend. Hunter McGuire, his chief of the medical staff, gave me during one of our long talks about his idolized com mander. It is told simply to illustrate his sublime self- reliance, the predominant trait of all the greatest soldiers of all time. Said the Doctor : "I was riding with him on the re treat from Kernstown, which I felt sure had been decided on against his approval. Notwithstanding the great disparity of odds against us, both in hand and within reach, I had never seen his brow so lowering and with every indication of ill humor and discontent. After riding along in silence for awhile, he remarked : "I have just done a thing that I have never done before, and shall never do again. A council of war leaves the general in command saddled vrith all of the responsibility, but impotent to follow his matured convic tions, if a majority of the tribunal prefer a counter course. [309] APPENDIX. It was and is my belief that at the worst stage of the fight we had at worst an even chance, and, if successful, the results in our favor would have been incalculable." Some there be who think that for once, and on this e)ccasion, it will be the cause of regret for all time that he did not follow the example of his imperious and imperial prototype, when, wrapped up in his old gray overcoat around a camp fire, he would call for the opinions of his grizzled marshals at some grave junc ture, and, after hearing all, would drily remark: "Gentlemen your reasons are cogent, but whilst hearing them I have de cided on a plan of my own. The council is adjourned." His usually turned out the best. Ladies, you have in brief, my conception of the character of this brace of most remarkable men. Immaculate in mor ality and Christian charity, transcendent in genius and fit ness for the work they were called on to perform. There were two others of kindred type and lofty soul, who, taken in con nection with them, constitute the most superlative quartette of immortals that ever refiected undying lustre on the self same cause in the self-same epoch. Jefferson Davis and Sid ney Johnston are their names. Ladies, these four were typi cal of the race to which you belong, the cause which you revere. No wonder you are proud of your paternity, and of their unsullied escutcheon in the noblest, purest, sublimest of earthly struggles. No wonder you exult in the soubriquet you wear: 'Daughters of the Confederacy,' and of Confeder ate heroes, I doff my cap and salute you in all deference and humility for trying to keep alive the spark of sacred memor ies, which others of the sterner sex seem equally anxious to extinguish with frivolities, (suggesting). " You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet, Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone ? Of two such lessons, why forget The nobler and the manlier one? You have the letters Cadmus gave — Think ye he meant them for a slave? " It was a proud privilege to have been the countryman, the comrade, the follower (even in subordinate station) the friend of some of them, trivial honors though some might view them, which would not be exchanged for any commis- [310] APPENDIX. sion bearing Mr. Lincoln's signature, with all the subsequent honors aejcruing to the possessoi-. It was deemed a holy duty at the time, and has been so held religiously ever since. The epithet of traitor in "foro conscientiae" would more than neutralize such rewards in a Southern man for consenting to don a blue coat at such a time. There no like imputation at taching to those of Northern birth for preferring that color to the less pretentious gray. Daughters of the Confederacy, I rejoice exceedingly that the Chapter of my home town bears the name and emblazon of a much loved friend and classmate of my early manhood. J. E. B. Stuart, or as he was lovingly dubbeei by his intimates and associates, "Old Beauty," abbreviateei into "Bute Stuart," was a man of opposities, but of singularly lovable character. To begin with, like Jackson he was essentially of a religious cast of thought in those early days, though not pushing it to the ascetic or monastic extreme of the other, he was a devout member of the Episcopal church, and on one of our walks remarked in effect, that he considered "The Litany" the most beautiful and comprehensive invocation that could be devised, both for and against; in which opinion, I have since learned to concur. And yet, withal, he was so full of exuberance of spirits that he would fain at times break forth intO' a loud whoop, a lively song, or a mad dash on old Flirtation walk. Such he was, half boy and half man, during the three years of our acquaintance at the academy. In his last or graduating year, I had drifted off to the University of Virginia, in search of Law and Political Economy. But when my old friends on the Hudson were about to shake off the Cadet chrysalis for the butterfly toggery of the Lieuten ant, impulse got the better, and I rushed on to the old tenting ground to give the glorious heroes (soon to be) a parting hand-shake. Though I say it myself, never did returning brother receive more cordial greeting. As soon as parade was over, invitations poured in by word of mouth from al most every one of the dear old fellows, to share their room for the night. But "Old Bute" tex>k possession of me, march ed me off to his room, and then down to the "mess hall," and then back again. Perhaps old J. E. B. and Rogers, his room- [311] APPENDIX. mate, devoted the evening to their final examination, then only a week off, but I don't think they did. Perhaps "Old Bute" intended that blanket which he was spreading on the floor for me instead of somebody else; but I don't think he did, as he took it himself, leaving me no other alternative but to take his bed. Perhaps we did as school girls proverbially do, when they meet after a whole year of separation, and non interchange of confidences, went to bed and went to sleep, but such is not my recollection. True, we retired at "taps," but I will not vouch that "reveille" found us asleep. Daugh ters of the J. E. B. S. Chapter, what is your verdict based on personal experience and presumptive inference ? He next appears in the public eye as the capturer of that incarnate fiend Brown, at Llarper's Ferry, under orders of General Lee, and who was a little later on most justly hung, whilst his cowardly, skulking adherents, devoid of every ves tige of his one solitary redeeming tiait, have been ever since trying to raise to the plane of apotheosis or sainthood. More deserving the halter they. Before he was thirty, (to be precise 27), we see him the virtual Chief of Cavalry on the Confederate army in the east, and the acknowledged "Rupert" of that branch of the service. If claim of kinship there was between him and the Royal, ill starred, and not over creditable house of Scotland, as he ever maintained there was, let us trust that it was in direct descent from that heroic Bohemian, on the maternal side, (Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia,) and not through any son of Scotia who later on became the imported crown wearers of the sister kingdom. Be they cousins or not, these two had certain strong traits of character in common. Recklessly brave, jovial, light-hearted, debonnaire they were with kin dred capacity for cavalry command. Each was the world's recognized ideal of the born trooper. He was to us one of the stars of first magnitude in the resplendent galaxy, which they composed. Observe a few of the booted and spurred champions of that day : Forrest, Hampton, Van Dom, Rosser, Wheeler, Morgan, Bob Ransom, John Wharton, the two Fitz- hugh Lees, Ashby and others. Of course it is not proposed to place him or any other, in that or any antecedent war, on [313] APPENDIX. the same plane of equality with the first named, Bedford Forrest, grandest of horsemen. By common consent of friend and foeman alike, this phe nomenal man proved himself a natural bom leader of men, especially horsemen, and usually under most untoward condi tions and circumstances, from the beginning to the end of the struggle, fighting odds that none other fought, and without fail to successful finish, when in chief command, and vrith a roster of prisoners to his credit that none other could claim except "the great captain, himself," even "Old Marse Robert." There he stands, our matchless "king of the saddle, the saber and spur." God shrive and annoynte his glorious soul for sending more than his due proportion before the judgment seat up yonder. I repeat that, to my thinking, since the birth of his brother stable boy, Joachim Murat, later on Marshal of France, and King of Naples, and for a thou sand years anterior the world has not seen his prototype for the work that he was called on to discharge. Martinets may say in depreciation, that he was ill acquaint with "the 3chex>l of the soldier," to which may be added, or any other ; but where was the Master of Schools or of Arts that ever approached him in outreach of accomplishment ? Ladies, if some may urge, in derogation of these homely remarks, that I have been over-lavish in superlatives, be mine the reply, that it was an epoch of superlatives, of high and low degree, in actors, in plot, in development, and events. My effort has been to confine remark to the first or higher class, where) praise was legitimately due, and to ignore the other and leave it to other and more willing hand or tongue to discuss. Daughters of the Confederacy, of the J. E. B. Stuart Chap ter, (worthy sponsorial namesake to worthy Daughters), you have sincerest appreciation for the honor done me. I will close by requesting my friend, Mrs. Dr. MacRae, to give us in her own inimitable style that glorious camp song, which, owing to salt in the eye and frog in the throat, I have never been able to read aloud myself. "It was Stonewall Jackson's way." [313 J APPENDIX. Gettysburg Reminiscent — After a Hiatus of Forty Years. Fayetteville, July 15, 1903. (Begun as indicated by date: delayed by iUness.) Me. Editor: — I am just back from Gettysburg, where I went a week or two ago to try and locate to my own satisfac tion the lines of battle of the opposing armies, on the momen tous first day's fight. To carry out this purpose, I put in an appearance there two days in advance of the big day. Most fortunate was the combination of time and circumstance, as it enabled me to take in the field under as good pilotage as ever falls to the lot of pilgrim to that historic shrine, and no where is such more needeel. To make the tour, relying only on the vague recollection of a participant of forty years ante rior, or the usual parrotty verbiage of a professional guide, is like threading the labarynth without the ball of twine. On the train from Baltimore, I met my old classmate. General O. 0. Lloward, whom I had seen but once since we were at the military academy together, half a century by gone. Notwithstanding the tremendous issue that had been involved in the meantime, and which sheK>k the continent from centre to circumference, in which we saw duty from, opposing standpoints and took sides accordingly, he to rise to high fame and distinction, whilst I came out where I went in, owing to two years imprisonment, he met me with all the cordiality, not to say impressement of uninterrupted friend ship. It was illustration of an oft asserted iteration, that the spirit of class Camaraderie (as the French term it) was stronger in that school than in any other institution organized of man before or since. The bond of the Crusade was strong, and so is that of societies of cabalistic Greek letter in modern college, but neither reached the unstudied altitude of the standard there prevailing. Upon that highland Hudson cliff, nearly a hundred years anterior consecrated to Freedom, and the rights of man, were wont annually to assemble about one hundred young men, of all recognized rank, station and condition of life from every quarter, knowing nothing of each other, or of each other's antecedents, and nothing caring, [314] APPENDIX. simply content by touch and contact to let each one show what was in him. If the man, he was the recognized man, thence forth until he proved himself less than man. If a dog of currish instincts, he went to the dogs, and there he staid. Was ever aristocracy of grander type or conception! There was the son of the mechanic, the farmer, the mil lionaire, starting the race together, with no adventitious ad vantage or serious set-back, by reason of paternity or pedi gree. Such was the "West Point" of half a century bygone, where truth, fidelity to plight, good fellowship, good horse manship, good markmanship were taught and inculcated to a degree unknown to any school in Scythia of old or any school subsequent in or out of Scythia. Pardon the digression. We lived together in Arcadian simplicity and brotherly love, until the edict went forth, up and cut each others' throats. In ob- dience to unquestioning mandate it was done. The query came, how many of our fellows were killed on your side, Green? Nine out of twelve and all general officers, was the reply ; and how was it on your's, Howard ? Seven out of seventeen, was the answer. Sixteen out of an aggregate of twenty-nine surviving in 1861 was a no mean showing in a class that laid aside the academic shackles less than ten years anterior thereto. Noble fellows, and duty's liegemen they were, one and all. Rather a concession that, coming from one heretofore regarded as something of tacit mourner over historic results. How was it done? I do not know unless, perhaps, I was near recaptured, this time by kindness and courtesy on the revisit to that field. Certain it is, that my feelings were not wounded by harsh or jarring criticism, or the flippant, senseless use of terms, Rebel and Rebellion, ob noxious "to ears polite," when falling from the tongues of those who judiciously espoused the winning side, but disgust ing and doubly distilled when labialized by those of Southern birth. It was only used once by a Northern man in my pres ence, and then in a spirit of badinage : "Sit down here, you bloody old Reb, and let me see if you are the genuine article or only the counterfeit presentment." Such was the opening remark of Major-General Alex. S. Webb, who held the bloody angle against the bloodiest of all charges, fighting with mus- [315] APPENDIX. ket in hand until it was shattered by one of Alexander's shells, and with the fragments was Alexander Webb's crovnipiece. "Say, Sep, old boy, he continued, have you still got that shrug of the left shoulder ?" The title "Sep" was one tmiversally carried by all September matriculates. Howard and I were and are both "Seps," having entered on the same day, Sep tember 1st, 1850. On the night of July 1, 1903, on the steop of that Gettysburg hotel, there were three of us better entitled to carry the soubriquet, three "Septuagenarians," as I opine. But strictly this could not apply to Webb, as he entered in June the year succeeding, and was almost the baby of his class. Howard was the senior, being, I believe, a graduate of Dartmouth, and the close contestant of Custis Lee for first honor at West Point. It was his gex>d fortune to be the first of his grade to arrive at that littie village at critical juncture, when armies were concentrating from all points. He found Reynolds in command, who was shortiy afterwards killed, thus devolving the chief command on himself during the first day's fight, until Slocum came up about sundovsnu, by whom he was by rank superseded. Judging from a dispassionate standpoint at this late day, the impartial critic must ascribe to Howard's temporary command on that momentous first day, especially in grasping the importance of Cemetery Hill and Little Round-top, and holding possession of that pivotal point until adequate reinforcements came up, the only credit that Meade can legitimately claim, and the highest ascribed to him by competent critics of his own side, of having made the three days' fight a drawn battle. It was under his guid ance and description that I enjoyed the exceptional privilege of passing my two days in review, forty years afterwards, with mingled feelings of admiration for heroism, never surpassed, if ever equalleei by contending sides on any field before, not to speak of a twinge of irrepressible sadness on account of those saddest words ever uttered by tongue or pen : "the might have been." Let others sing peans to victory, necessitating the overthrow of their life cherished cause and convictions. I for one have not yet attained to that sublime stage of philo sophic consolation, or, to put it stronger, exultation. Does [316] APPENDIX. latter day patriotism enjoin, or hypocrisy sanction, such con cession ? Just after supper I was waited on by the committee of ar rangements, with invitation from General Howard to ride with him and General Huidekoper, the two orators of the second day (Thursday) during my sojourn. It is needless to add, the courtesy was thankfully accepted, the committee promising to give "Guilford," my body servant, who was captured with me in the ordnance and wounded train on the retreat, and was in my service anterior and has been ever since, a seat with the driver. The two Generals had each given a good right arm as contribution to their cause and con victions, and I was rather shaky in the "underpinnings," ow ing to a return ten-pound compliment, which makes pedes- tiianism inconvenient in the rheumaticky stages of existence, but which is now degraded to the base use of holding my library door open, somewhat suggestive that of : " Imperious Ctesar, dead, and turned to clay. Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." The first place we went to, was what might be termed "Howard's eyrie," which, with the aid of some half dozen flights of steep stairs to reach it, gives perhaps the best view of the tovsm and surrounding country that can be had. To scale those dizzy heights as he had done forty years and a day, preceding, for the sinister purpose of watching our com ing in, and systematic spreadouts, was what I was called upon to do last Wednesday morning a week ago. There was no excuse, holdback or other get out, from that invitation, for it was a special treat given in my honor, and had I not besides just made a trip of five huneired miles to take (in) that pretty little borough ? And yet candor compels the ad mission, that I would have vastly preferred being one of Pen der's (another classmate) immortals, making that ascent, a part of the time under glorious old Isaac Trimble, to trusting a pair of three-score and ten legs up that fearful flight. Was amply compensated, however, after getting down, for apart from the historic information imparted by my distinguished guide, it was one of the finest panoramic views that I have ever seen. [317] APPENDIX. On resuming the drive. General Howard remarked, now, gentlemen, we will first go to where Daniel's brigade, the one to which Green was attached, first put in an appearance on their forced march from Heidlersburg that moming, and where it suffered such tremendous loss at "the Deep Cut," a littie later on. Captain Zeigler, will you please direct the driver ? This was addressed to the fourth party of our make up, a true gentieman, as I take him to be, a zealous soldier on the side which he deemed to be right, and perhaps, from close study and systematic research, one of the most reliable local guides there to be found. We were soon spinning along to that point over the finest road that I have ever seen, find ing out as progress was made that all others in that vicinage were of kindred kind. The United States is of a surety the king of road-builders in and about national graveyards, since old Rome gave up the business on a grander scale. Apropos, I had an old kinsman, once upon a time, who was not un known in his own State, or in all the States surrounding. VVhen the bill for an appropriation to what was knoven as "The National Road," running from Cumberland to Terre Haute, was passed or pending, with every assurance of pas sage, Mr. Macon arose from his seat in the Senate, and pro ceeded to preach "The Funeral of the Constitution." His text being, that road building was extra constitutional, and that with this little shovel full of dirt for beginning on that line, the road was open to endless extension. Some there be still living who still think that that old "Strict-Construction- ist" was not such an egregious ass as the new school of India- rubber expansionists would have the world believe. During the drive, numerous statues and mementoes to de parted valor were passed in transient review ; some goe>d, others indifferent, but mostly belonging to neither category, but all remindful, in reversal, of the old Roman "lex non scripta" : "Build no monuments to commemorate civil strife, or to remind posterity of bloody intestine collision." A wise as well as a valorous race was the outcrop of the Tiber she- wolf. Let not the vanquished in later "internals" make wry face or call in question the wisdom of reversal of that effete and antiquated aphorism or dictum. [.318] APPENDIX. Crossing a littie bridge, the carriage was stopped and the inquiry made: "Sep, do you recognize the locality?" Of course I did, for it was "Deep-Cut," where Daniel's brigade sustained heavier loss in twenty minutes than did any other brigade during the day; adding, "there's another spot that I recall, that grove on the little eminence to our left, for it was there, while the command was undergoing desultory shelling in a prone or recumbent position, previous to the order to advance, that a chance missile exploded almost under the nose of the Second Battalion, and just behind where General Daniel and I were holding our horses. It was, perhaps, the most disastrous single shot fired during the war. Thirteen men were killed or wounded by that detonation." To that came reply, that won't do, old fellow, for in such a battie (naming it) you all sent us it's companion piece, which killed and disabled twenty-nine of ours. "By the way, you recollect my brigadier, June Daniel, whom many think was hardly second to any one that his State has sent forth ?" "Yes, was the reply, I recall him, but had lost sight of identity." Here, Sep., is where our "mutual friend. General Huide koper," then Colonel of the 150th Pennsylvania, was wounded, although winning promotion thereby. "There is where Archer's little brigade, having got beyond support and too far in our domain, was taken in. Off to our left there is where Gordon entered the field." And so in desultory talk pertinent to the occasion, we drove on towards the National Cemetery, but did not then enter. Howard has, as all true soldiers and the world at large has, a most exalted opinion of General Lee, both as a soldier and a man, although hardly disposed to concede with Wolseley, Henderson and other world recognized military critics of recent date, that his name is entitled to a place on the roster of the five greatest captains of authentic history. "Perhaps," he continued, "you are not aware of the reason why we did not intercept your retreat between this and the Potomac, as all judges say ought to have been done, and thus and then end the war." Why wasn't it done? Well, here's the reason: General had the ear and confidence of Meade to a degree that [319] APPENDIX. none other had. He also had a blind admiration and confi dence in Lee, as man and soldier, not surpassed by any in his great army. When the question of pursuit was under dis cussion during the night of the third day, and we were almost a unit in favor of it, with eye to interception before the river could be reached, the commander, of course, being noncom mittal until a full expression was reached, then General interposed : "Do I understand you to say. General Meade, that you have reliable information that General Lee has reported to his government, that whilst his loss has been fearful he is still in condition to repulse assault, come from what quarter it may ? Then, my counsel is, let him severely alone, for I know the man, and know that he would not pre varicate even at this critical juncture to save his life, or the cause of his espousal, which he values far more highly." The point was carried, and we didn't try to cut off the re treat. Was ever higher compliment paid to the integrity of man, by either friend or foeman? On reaching the most observant or observable point on Cemetery Hill, which proved to be a veritable cemetery to the Confederates and their cause in the outeome of the most heroic onslaught in history, assumptively claimed by one State as a close monopoly, to the exclusion or ignoring of another that kept step on that (x^casion, or to be entirely accu rate, showed pace to all others, we alighted to have mapped out the historic or the possibilic. That point over yonder (designating it) is where General Lee stood during the as sault. There is where Sickles was in line when ordered to fall back, which order he deferred obeying until he could communicate with Meade. That big iron book is the ex treme point that your advance reached — "Little Round Top" • — which was confessedly the key to the situation; that little hillock to the left, which we will put off attacking until after dinner, or until tomorrow, as General H. and I have func tions to discharge this afternewn in connection with an un veiling. On the way back to town remark was made on the large iron tablets, which denote the positions held by different Confederate commands at various stages. As indicators of position, I expressed my preference for these to the legion of [330] APPENDIX. bronze warriors who stood mute and unresponsive sentinels on every hand, and Howard said, so did he. These are apparentiy about six or eight feet square, with raised letters in same metal, giving name of brigade and regimental conformation of it at particular juncture. For the idea and other important data, from the Southern stand point J\[ajor W. M. Robbins, of our State, and the Southern representative on the Battiefield Commission, is chiefly en titled to the credit. The drive back to dinner was along "Confederate Avenue," in front of which Colonel Alexander planted his guns, "and most judiciously planted they were," added Howard. By the way, was query, how many guns were there altogether in that terrific duel, the like of which the world has never heard ? "To the best of my calculation," was the reply, "you all had 225, and I think we had about 100 more." Lying in a field hospital, a mile or so to the rear, my estimate was that there were five or six reports to the second. That would be about 300 to the minute, and 20,000 to the hour. Luckily for both sides, they were nothing like as destructive as the two we were telling about. After dinner we drove out to the unveiling of John Burns' statue, one of the best, by the way, judged artistically, that I casually took in, just finished by his State to an old burgher who insisted on achieving fame by being killed the first day "in resisting the insolent in vader," according to one of the speakers. The thought ob truded on one of his auditors of a few score hecatombs of patriot heroes, or rather hundreds, who died across the river yonder to like purpose and intent, who for monumental shaft or storied urn had to be content with a soldier's gra,ve for "resisting the insolent invader." Much depends, quoth the lion in the fable, on which side makes the statue. In the early part of that night, whilst sitting in front of the hotel. General Howard came up and saiei that Aleck Webb was up at his hotel, and expressed a desire to see me, but was unable to walk so far, and requested that I would go up and see him. The preliminaries of our interview are already inserted. We three old boys continued our talk until nearly midnight with a crowd of interested listeners 31 [331] APPENDIX. standing around. We talked of old friends of half a cen tury bygone, many of whom had made historic names in the interim. Webb and Jimmy Whistler, who has since died, the recognized artist of the world, were reexignized contest ants for first place in old Bob Weir's class of drawing. Nat urally there was no love lost between them, for one football was t(x> small for two Alexanders. I told of Jimmy's room and mine being opposite and that when he was not immersed in a novel, as was usually the case when not cartooning it, he was interrupting the serious studies of Black and Green with novelistic recitals of the Court of the Romanoffs, where his boyhood was largely spent, his father being one of the pet American engineers of that day whom the Czar had dravm. around him. His neighbors thought that "the little Billee of Trilby" could grind out romance when not reading it, dear, fascinating little fellow that he was. "Make him tell you, Webb, two pretty little stories that he gave me today about General Lee and my dear old friend, Archy Gracie, which I am going to introduce in my address in Texas next week." Of course insistence led to violations of rule laid down by him of Avon, never to repeat. Here are the two stories, such as they are : One day in ranks, Gracie, who was my file follower, kept stepping on my heels, regardless of protest. Finally, my pa tience, like Mr. Acres' courage had all oozed out, not at the tips of my fingers but the tips of my toes, and I promised him a licking as soon as ranks were broken, which I proceeded to administer con amore. In the midst of the fun old P. de Janon had to- rush up and separate us, demanding my name, which I declined to give, walking off to the barracks. Gracie gave his, but, like the true gentieman that he was, refused to give mine, remarking in emphatic tone that he was no in former. Poor fellow, he got eight extra tours of guard duty for fighting on parade ground, whilst I, for the time, went scot free, but only until the superintendent. Col. R. E. Lee, got to his office the next morning, when I tex> put in an ap pearance. "Colonel," was the opening remark, "Mr. Gracie was reported for fighting on the parade yesterday, whilst tiie man he was fighting goes unreported." "Well, sir ?" "Colo [333] APPENDIX. nel, isn't it a hard case that after getting the worst of the fight he should have to undergo all of the penalty, whilst the other fellow escapes altogether?" "Well, sir; I presume that you are the 'other fellow.' " "Yes, sir, I am, and what ever punishment is meted out to Mr. Gracie I insist upon the same for myself." With that sweet, benignant smile of his, which, once seen, could never be forgotten, he replied, "No, sir, neither of you will suffer for this offence. Try and live together in peae3e and harmony hereafter." And we did, thanks to the judicious peacemaker, who interviewed "the other fellow" right afterwards. "That's a good one, Sep, but old Archy was not to blame for making free with your heels, for you know he was knock- kneed. Now for the other." "WeU, here it is, by well au thenticated report: "During the last days at Petersburg, when General Grant was getting to be over affectionate in his hug on 'Marse liobert,' news reached the old man that something out of routine was going on in front of Grade's line. Thereupon he mounted 'Traveller" to do a little scouting on his own hook. Hitching 'Traveller' en perdu, for fear of his getting hurt, with field glass in hand, he climbed the parapet and began his observations and mental notes, whilst the suppli cation arose all up and down the line: 'Come down, General Lee, for God Almighty's sake come down' ; for well they knew what such exposure to the sharpshooters beyond im plied. Deaf to their importunities, he remained there, poised, with glass to his eye, until the Brigadier brought him down. Placing himself between the great man and the sharpshooters, he stood with callous mien and folded arms as the order came quick and'sharp, 'Get down. General Gracie, get down.' To which came the saucy reply, 'After you. General Lee.' They came down together. Heroic man, he was only anticipating his hero-fate a few brief days before it came." As Webb was engaged on State work, it was a source of regret all around that he couldn't be vrith us in our drive the next day. I hear that he is now at the head of the largest educational institution in New York City, Columia College [323] APPENDIX. alone excepted. His father was the great journalist. Gen. J. Watson Webb. Passing over much of the ground traversed yesterday, but more deliberately for more careful inspection, we came at last to the base of "Littie Round Top," where, alighting, we proceed upward on foot. Just below and to the right, my attention was called to a field of immense boulders extend ing some distance each way. "Say, Sep, don't you think you all would have a rough trip over that in an assault, even if there had been no field pieces above?" I should say so. "Well, we had to get a battery over it and up tiiere to inter cept your expected arrival, a battie of Cyclops, truly. Come up here to the summit, and see the spot where our dear old classmate, Steve Weed, who was in command, was done for, and where Lieutenant Hazlitt, in command of the battery, was struck dead whilst stooping over him to receive his dying orders." Such was the tenor of conversation and observa tion during the two days' drive. The most interesting and artistic memento was the beautiful monument, "To Peace," near the entrance to the cemetery, which is the crowning jewel to art and sentiment in that dread Necropolis. Next to it, in merit, are the equestrian statues to Hancock and Meade, and the standing one to Warren, at least so they struck me. Such is a brief glimpse of brief revisit to that greatest of all battlefields. It is not intended to be purely descriptive. The guide books do that. Regretting inability to stay longer, and especially to hear Howard's speech that afternoon, which reads the best on the other side that I have ever seen, I took the 4 p. m. train for home, where I arrived two days later. When we took the wounded and ordnance train forty years ago, it took about twenty-two months to make the trip, as we were intercepted by tiain wreckers, who wouldn't let us keep on. Yours truly, Whaeton J. Geeen. [324] APPENDIX. Memorial Address in Honor of Mrs. Davis, Delivered at the Request of J. E. B. Stuart Chapter, U. D. C, by Colonel Wharton J. Green. Ladies of the U. D. C, I thank you for being permitted to lay my littie sprig of immortelle on the bier of this trans- cendant woman. It was my proud privilege to have known her, and her immortal husband, through more than half a century, and to have loved and honored them both through out that protracted acquaintance. A better idea of my ap- predation of their great merit can best be given by a brief recital of that acquaintance, illustrated by a few homely inci dents and recollections, supplemented by an article that ap peared yesterday in the Observer, and which is now given: Colonel Green and the Late Mrs. Davis. Fayetteville, N. C, October 18, 1906. Editor Observer, Fayetteville, N. C. Deae Sie: — I send you herewith my contribution to the long list of telegrams of condolence, which are being pub lished on the occasion of Mrs. Davis' obsequies. Sure I am that none that has gone forward is more genuine in heartfelt sympathy, for it was my proud privilege to know and love, and, as I flatter myself, to have been loved by her and her immortal husband for over half a century, as numerous let ters, mementoes and keepsakes abundantly attest; and I hesi tate not to say that, taken together, they were the most extra ordinary married couple, intellectually and in other exalted attributes, that it has been my blessed prerogative to have known. Blessed are we amongst the shortrlived nations of the earth, or the long-lived either, to have had our national autonomy illustrated by such an official head in connubio. Aurelius, worthiest of monarchs that the world has known, was mated to Faustina, but this was a perfect couple in all regards. Yours sincerely, W. J. Geeen. [325] APPENDIX. Fayetteville, N. C, October 18, 1906. To Mrs. J. Addison Hayes, Hotel Majestic, New York. Please accept our heartfelt sympathy, part of which is re tained for ourselves, for she was my honored friend through m'any years, as was your glorious father through half a cen tury to the end. Whaeton J. Geeen. My acquaintance with her began in 1853 or 1854, whilst Mr. Davis was Secretary of War in President Pierce's Cabi net, and has continued ever since. That with her illustiious husband, some nine or ten years anterior, during his first term in Congress, whilst I, a lad in my teens, was left under his quasi supervisory control at the same boarding house. During his continuance in that cabinet, confessedly the strongest that the government has ever known, as, after Mr. Calhoun, he was the ablest head of the war office, she shone resplendent as the head and front of cultured and refined Washington society. And so she did too in that of the other capital, as first lady in the land, when I took tea at the Con federate White House in the closing days of the great up heaval, if "Yupon" could be called Bohea, or Okra seed Mocha. But be it what it might, right sure I am that Mad ame de Maintenon never decanted her costly beverages to the Grande Monarque and his satiated Court with more superb grace than did this inborn bom queen her homely substitutes, bom of necessity, to struggling and starving patriots. And so it was at beautiful "Beauvoir," when forced to dispense a liberal hospitality, ill suited to their meagre means. In very truth she would have shone resplendent in any circle and under all circumstances. Culture and refinement was her inborn nature, as it was her mated lord's, and ever appa rent. Again, I repeat, my friends, let us be thankful that we had such representatives as these and kindred spirits to embellish the most glorious cause that ever enlisted the prowess of man, even if lost. And what shall I say of their peerless daughter, our Winnie, who wears the proudest title that woman ever bore, save one ? Here is what I said to her mother during one of our morning drives along the coast: "Madam, you ought to be a proud woman, with such a hus- [326] APPENDIX. band and such a daughter. I wish that I was the father of a son of suitable age, with all of the reputed perfections of Crichton and Bayard combinled, that I might express him down here as a candidate for your son-in-law." She was pleased to say that she would like the alliance. Shortly after the close of the war, whilst our immortal Chieftain was undergoing all the tortures that could be de vised by that brace of petty, pompous tyrants, Stanton and Miles, in a damp, dank, loathsome dungeon, I chanced to be at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans when she arrived and took rooms for herself and little ones at the St. James Hotel. The term brace, which imports a pair, was em ployed. Respect for a certain high office, which he then filled by the aewjidency of murder, and regard for a noble State, which enjoyed the equivocal honor of his nativity, de ters completing the triumvirate of infamy by giving his name, but who, holding the restraining power, was to say the least acquiescent and permissory to the brutality of the others. It was at this juncture that, naturally assuming she was wanting for the comforts of life, I requested her nephew, General Joe Davis, to wait on her at once and place my purse unreservedly at her disposal. He brought courteous reply, and over ample thanks, but adding that she hoped that with the strictest economy she trusted to be able to weather the storm, but continuing, tell the dear fellow that, if at . any time hereafter I lack for bread, I'll know where to make a call. She forgot to do it. Speech of Hon. Wharton J. Green, of North Carolina, in the House of Representatives, Monday, April 21, 1884. The House having under consideration the motion of Mr. Beach, to suspend the rules and adopt the resolution, submitted by the Select Committee on the Public Health, regarding the adulteration of food and drugs — Me. Geeen said: Me. Speakee: It is a political axiom that the obligations of government and governed are correlative or reciprocal, protection being the duty of the first; support of the last. [337] APPENDIX. Protection is the end and aim of all government, be it patri archal, monarchical, aristocratic, or democratic; be it abso lute or constitutional. For that end primarily is all govern ment devised. Against foreign foe and domestic force, against invasion from without and mob violence within, against open assault and covert design ; to that extent at least will all concede that the government is bound to the governed. In return therefor the protected class, the mass, the people, yield obedience and support; in war their personal prowress to resist aggression, in peace and war the requisite percentage of their goods and chattels or yearly accretions, in one way or another, to maintain the organism so established. Admit the predicate, and none dare gainsay it, and the question naturally arises, where do the protective functions of Govern ment cease ? Are these exhausted when armed invading col umns are beaten back, or mobs dispersed, or murderers, rav- ishers, burglars, house-burners, and the like caught and pun ished ? These undoubtedly are the most palpable and glaring duties of the agent or factor knovra. as the Government. The right of demand, however, ceases not here. Immunity from the depredations of law-breakers of every sort and designa tion is at least their implied right by terms of "original com pact." I purpose to push the claim advanced to its legitimate con clusion and to arraign the counterfeiters and adulterators of meat, drink, and medicine as one of the most criminal of the criminal classes, and hence meet and fitting one for the eye of the law and the heavy hand of the law. If the proposition is, as I maintain, self-evident, then I repeat the people have the right to demand protection against their nefarious practices, covert, cowardly, and false, no less than from predatory bands on land or sea, against bandit or pirate. Does not well authenticated suspicion, almost tantamount to fn'oof, if circumstantial evidence is ever proof, justify the sweeping allegation which will follow? If not, and I fail to make it so appear, then set me down as slanderer and the objects of my anathemas as spotless lambs most unjustly and unrighteously arraigned. Now for the premise of what I propose to prove under [338] APPENDIX. penalty to the extent of which it is here susceptible of proof. If concurrent testimony and widespread accusation through the public prints be not the offspring of pure diabolism; if chemical analysis be not a snare ; and if dire effects traceable to sinister causes be not a delusion, I charge and maintain that the whole field of dietetics and medicinals, of articles that we daily eat and drink and take as doctor's stuff, teems with adulteration, noxious or innoxious as the case may be. but hurtfid as a rule. Mr. Speaker, if this be so, it surely appertains to us to in quire into the evil and remedy to. devise. If, in spite of uni versal attaint, it be not so, it is due to the manufacturer, com pounder, and consumer alike that the negative be authorita tively established. The unfortunate whelp that has the cry of "mad dog" raised at his heels might as well be dead ; and he who is bit ten by such a one had better be, even though the poor cur be innocent of the charge. Abstract justice would enjoin that hydrophobia be established or disproved for the mutual bene fit of dog and man alike. A like regard for justice would enjoin that his brother cur of our conformation and purveyor of our diet, who is pointed at as poisoner, should have like opportunity to establish innocence. It is your right, Mr. Speaker, and mine, as his alleged victims, that he be required to do it Yes, sir ; metaphor aside, if cause there be for this whole sale arraignment, and cause for one I thinlr there be, it is your right and mine, and that of every man who voted for and against us, to have the thing inquired into. If the charge be established against manufacturer or compounder of killing off innocent people by thousands and tens of thousands by slow process and homeophathic doses, wherein has he the advantage over his brother scoundrel, who prefers active agencies and larger measure to remove some hateel rival or ambitious foe, as did the Borgias and others of the vile accursed class, through the medium of Belladonna, oi arsenic, or of ratsbane ? For one, I hold the last less culpable. They killed by units, these by thousands. Better, a thousand times better, [339] APPENDIX. the allopathic dose administered by a Madame Brinvilliers, to the graduated modicums of the abominable drugs which enter into our daily food, and protract the life in misery of the victims by thousands, as said, through one or two or twenty years as may be. We will probably be met at the threshold of investigation oy the hackneyed cry of "sumptuary laws." Sir, no one holds in utter detestation laws of the class named more than I. But why, I demand, shotdd those against slow insidious poisoning be so classed more than the others, aimed against the deadly drugs when give for sinister and specific object? Yes, sir; I go further and maintain that it is within our province to prevent the admixture of spurious, base, or bad ingredients in our daily food, and have it palmed off upon an unsuspecting world as a better article even if harmless in effect If it is our right, then when poison enters it follows, as the night the day, it is our duty. Sir, the vile practice of adulteration engendered by sordid greeci of gain is, I re peat, now so universal and widespread that it is the merest chance, be your grocer who he may, that you can obtain any genuine edible article, if diabolic science will permit it to be counterfeited to advantage. Sugar, flour, sirups, baking-pow ders, pepper, spices, brandy, whisky, vinegar, wines, teas, pickles, preserves, ground coffee, canned goods, mustard, lard, butter, table oil, curry, and a host of other articles of every-day life too numerous to mention, all fall to a consider able extent under my sweeping accusation and desired inter dict. We buy them, laiowing that they are probably spu rious. But what alternative have we except to restrict ourselves to old-fashioned hog and hominy of our own raising, or imitate that would-be heroic idiot. Dr. Tanner. Surely, Mr. Speaker, there must be some adequate remedy for this crying evil, this monstrous crime. That remedy, I repeat it, is ours to devise. If we are encountered by constitutional objection, then give us an amendment to that India-rubber document that will compass the aim designed. The Constitution of the land ought to be able to protect the physical constitutions of its citizens against the machinations of demons disguised [330] APPENDIX. as men. State enactments are utterly inadequate to suppress the evil. We have laws, and stringent ones they are, impos ing suitable and adequate penalties upon counterfeiters of the coin and currency of the country. Are there any against counterfeiting articles of diet, drink, and medicine? If so, sir, the brazen effrontery vrith which they are disregarded proves their total inadequacy. In Heaven's name, why are not the two at least of parity ? Can any hold that the last is crime of minor grade ?' Who will say that he who stamps and passes off little bite of baser metal than the standard bullion to put into your pockets is guilty of greater wrong than he who prepares and sells you base and (counterfeit compounds, not to say deadly, to put into your stomach ? Possibly the reason for imposing penal ties in the one case and neglect to do so in the other is that our ancestors ejould not realize that human cupidity could prompt such depravity as trifling with the health, well-being, and very existence of myriads of their fellow-men. Just as the Romans had no special punishment for parri cide. Just as our old English progenitors had no special pen alty for that most cowardly and repulsive of all known crimes, the taking of life by deadly drugs, until in a very late reign (one of the last Henrys, I believe) the crime was proven and special penalty thenceforth imposed to "fit that vile Italian crime which hath lately entered into these realms." The culprit was to be boiled to death in oil. Meet punishment that and fitting for all the vile, accursed class, whether the agency employed be the famous, or, rather, in famous, "Aqua Tofana," or "Elixir of St Nicholas," which could be gauged to do its hellish work in a day, a week, a month, or a year, or the slower poisons of our day, which enter into our daily food and permits its millions of victims to live out nearly their allotted span, but with impaired con stitutions, both mental and physical, for years before their end. Mr. Speaker, were the adulterated substance sold entirely harmless but of inferior merit or virtue to that which it pur ports to be, it would still be a fraud, and should as such be punished. But when baleful and deadly ingredients enter [331] APPENDIX. into the composition, capital felony should be its status in the list of crimes, and the oil cauldron the bath in which the vile miscreant, be he manufacturer, manipulator, or expert, should be required to lave his sordid soul. If any one within the compass of my voice doubts the ex tent and enormity of the evil complained of let him go to any first-class grocery in this town, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, and attempt to make out a bill of goods with the guarantee of purity attached. Though he stand with golden ducats or silver dollars in his hand to settle upon com pliance, I prophesy that the bill will not be filled without abatement of proviso. If these middle-men, or rather first purchasers, honest as a class as I concede them to be, and as a class bitterly opposed to the necessity which exists of sell ing the counterfeit commodities, will not sign the "bill of health" required, is it not prima facie evidence that their cargo is taint and not entitled to pratique j in other words, that it is an unwholesome and sickly lot ?' Mr. Speaker, I had occasion some two years ago to lay in a supply of commissary stores for those in my employ, and told my grocer in a neighboring city I desired a pure article of sirup. His reply was, "You can not get it here, nor do I believe you can in or out of the city;" and so with numbers of other articles. When the item of sugar on my list was reached he was equally honest and candid. "We can sell you a pure article of sugar," quoth he, "provided you take the granulated. Nothing else will we guarantee." "And why the granulated?" The reply was pert and to the point: "Because refiners and doctorers have not yet been able to counterfeit it to paying profit." This, Mr. Speaker, is a sample of the coloquy on that occa sion. Did the vendor fall in my esteem or would he have done so in yours on account of the admissions made?' No, sir; his candor stamped him an honest man; but it placed tiie brand of knave, swindler, and scoundrel on him from whom he purchased, assuming that he bought at the fountain- head or of him who made, compounded, or prepared the nox ious stuffs. Probably every gentleman on this floor knows what steatite or soapstone is. If not, I will state that it is a [333] APPENDIX. soft, calcareous, easily cut rock, but probably surpassing any other in weight and density. Presumptively therefore not the most digestible article of diet known. True, as we are told, it is eaten by the natives of the Sene gal, the Oronoco, and New Caledonia. But, I opine, sir, that it is under the spur of dire necessity and not from choice, and that these poor creatures, but one degree above the ape or the Digger Indian, would much prefer that his muf fins, biscuits, or doughnuts had for basis rye, wheat, corn, or buckwheat, or even the favorite cereal of "Old Caledonia," which, according to old Sam Johnson, "is eaten in England by horses and in Scotland by men." Now, sir, what would be your inference, if told by the proprietor of one of these saponaceous quarries, as I have been, that he finds a ready sale for all the "soapstone fiour" that he can grind? And who are your customers ? Chiefly commercial millers and sugar refiners. Mine, sir, was that the information tallied with what I had previously seen in print, that the vile stuff enters largely into our tea,, coffee, toddy, sweetmeats, and daily bread. Sir, it behooves those who hear to ponder well. Steatite may be an excellent lining for stoves. I doubt its coequal fitness for stomachs. "Hot biscuit for breal^fast," "light bread for sup per" was wont to gladden my heart in younger days, for in the house of an honored uncle who raised me "com bread" as a rule was the staple staff of life. Think you that biscuit for breakfast or light bread for supper (Heaven save the mark, how could it have been made light?) would have been as palatable as ash-cake or johnny if one of the descendants of old Job's comforters had kindly volunteered the information that they were to be made out of nice white soapstone flour instead of the glorious golden grain grown on the broad acres around me ? Will men, grown-up men, lavwnakers, be less alive to their corporeal well-being and that of those who made them such and confidingly intrusted their well-being into their hands? In licensing this monstrous wrong, as we permissively do, wherein have we the advantage of the toad as regards the reasoning faculty ? I have been told that that creature, [333] APPENDIX. esthetically, intellectually, and as a mold of form one of the very lowest of the low order of batrachia, will eat his fill of leaden shot, when thrown to him one by one, until by excess of artificial weight he is utterly unable to move. "Miserable creature !" was my involuntary exclamation, "how does he manage to digest them?" "Oh," replied my juvenile informant, "he doesn't disgust 'em at all . We takes him by the left hind leg and holds him up, and all of the shot runs out of his mouth." Blessed batrachian, that can eat even lead with impunity, and disgorge the overweight through the co-operative agency of a hoodlum, a scientist, or other experimentalist. Miserable, besotted bipeds, who will persist in breaking bread, and eating it, too, knowing full well that it is of the leaden sort, and that they have no kind, considerate hoodlum to relieve them by the left-hind-leg process. In the late war, Mr. Speaker, the men who wore the soap- stone-color coat did bake and break and eat the bread whereof I speak, a simple admixture of flour and water, and ofttimes not half cooked at that. But, thanks to short rations, long marches, hard work, and easy conscience they managed to worry it through, and would have done it in my opinion though 50 per cent, of their scant haneiful of flour had been soapstone, sawdust, or brick-dust either. But, sir, this should not embolden us to hope for like im munity. The digestive organism of the ostrich, the alligator, the Confederate soldier, and the anaconda is an exclusive prerogative, a close monoply, and does not appertain to all the sons of Adam alike. Give us, then, a little more starch and less steatite, more gluten and less glucose or crude glass. Our New England friends, Mr. Speaker, have the word "sharp," somewhat analagous to our Southern one of "smart," to qualify the possessor of "ways that are dark" and means that are doubtful, which, tiiough not exactiy beyond the pale of the law, are nevertheless beyond that attaching to the standard of a well-recognized morality. He who sells you sanded sugar, glucose sirup for the genuine article, soapstone or plaster-of-paris flour, cocoanut-shell black pepper, or red- lead cayenne is doubtless "sharp," "cute," "smart," and is [334] APPENDIX. bound to turn his penny (honest or otherwise is immaterial to him) ; but, sir, he is none the less a cold-blooded, calculating knave and scoundrel, and should be made amenable to the law. "Tell me not of the patiiotism of such," exclaimed the impassioned Burke, in speaking of a far more honorable class, "his desk is his altar, his ledger is his Bible, and his gold is his god." Mr. Speaker, under the operation of our delectable revenue laws, as at present enforced, there are grievous penalties attaching to illicit distillation, as many of the poor moun taineers in my poor State know full well to their cost. Now, sir, I opine tiiat if the restrictions on distillation, inclueiing tax on the legitimate article and pains and penalties on the illicit or "moonshine," were removed altogether, and these makers of a pure article of whisky and brandy left as free as their fathers were in that regard, and the same punish ments doubled or quadrupled meted out to the compounders of the poisonous stuffs engendered by the tricks of chemistry, the cause of morality and the sanitary cause, not to say the cause of liberty and sobriety, would be materially subserved thereby. Let me give you an instance in proof. When a younger man than I am today by many years I passed some weeks in Bonnie Scotland. I had heard before getting there that the breechless sons of the Lothians were not averse to a wee drop of "rock and rye," and not overparticular if the rock was left out, and faith, Mr. Speaker, observations convinced me that they had not been slandered. Why, sir, one-half of the average potations, judging from what I saw, and assuming that it was a national average, would in this _ country, in a single year, more than double the victims of drink mania and cram to repletion our inebriate asylums. And yet no such dire effect was visible there ; mania a potu, like spinal menin gitis, was literally unknown. Expressing my surprise to a friend in Edinburgh at the marked difference in capacity of absorption between the den izens of the two countries, I asked the cause. Sir, I was not aud am not satisfied with the explanation he vouchsafed. It vv-as, as recollected, that the volume of pyroligneous acid [335] APPENDIX. evolved from peat smoke had a purifying effect upon the liquid distilled. That may be science, but it is not sense. My explanation is simply pure whisky. The Highlaneimen of Scotland in that day, like the highlandmen of North Cai^ olina in ours, were not up to the tricks and devices of devilish science. They made an honest article of whisky, drank it, and lived out their allotted span a brave, hardy, simple race on their bleak, free mountain-sides. Like cause would produce like effect in our own midst Now, Mr. Speaker, coming back to our mutton, compel the nefarious manufacturer or compounder to drink his own vile decoctions with a slight additional infusion of fusil oil, to be administered by the public executioner, and bury his ac cursed secret with him, and, mark the prediction, delirium tremens and other resulting effects, such as wife-beating and kindred brutality, misery, and murder, will very materially diminish as the c[uality improves. What is true of distilled spirits is none the less so of beer and other malt liquors, wines, and cordials; for as enormous as the profits are in both cases, they are not sufficient to sat isfy these rapacious ghouls. The beer-maker is as little con tent with those resulting from accredited hops as the basis as is the whisky or brandy maker with him from honest rye, corn, wheat, or fruits. It is said that the highest encomium that an Irishman can pay his poteen when, with the charac teristic hospitality of his race, he sets it before his guest, is the trite remark : "The divil a penny of rivenue has it paid the Queen." But he who clinks canakins with honest Pat has the satis faction of feeling that while Her Majesty's money-bags may thereby weigh less than they ought nevertheless the devil a drop of vile chemicals or doctor's stuff has entered into its composition. So, believing, Mr. Speaker, if I were snake-bit ten in blessed St. Patrick's land I would vastly prefer the only recognized antidote on such occasions (and efficacious I know it to be by personal experience in a Robeson County swamp) to be of the unpaid- tax quality to the so-called honest tax-paid stuff stretched out by the infusion of strychnine and other deadly drugs. Let casuists determine which is the [336] APPENDIX. most meretricious, the man who makes the first or the govern ment which permits the last to be made. It is safe to assume, Mr. Speaker, that were the question put to the leadii^- medical men of the country a large major ity of them would decide that the alarming increase of late years in nervous, cerebral, and kidney diseases is direQtly traceable to the cause assigned, namely, adulterated drinks of all kinds, including vinous, malt and distilled. Is not insan ity fearfully on the increase, as evidenced by the overcrowded bedlams of the land and the mania for self-destruction ? Then seek for reason why, and find it, too, no less in poisoned bev erage than in the growing passion for wild speculation. In view of the statements made and facts alleged, all of which are susceptible of proof, I ask, and ask with due delib eration, might not the philanthropist better subserve the cause of humanity by directing the batteries of his denunciation from alcoholic drinks per se to the adulteration of them; by advocating purity instead of prohibition ? I have thus, Mr. Speaker, briefly adverted to abuses falling under the general head of meat and drink adulteration. The witnesses upon whom it is relied to sustain allegation will appear in appendix. But, sir, the field is too extensive, proofs too voluminous, if pr(K)f be needed where criminality stands confessed, to permit my going into further detail under this head of my subject. But I were derelict to my subject, my constituents, and myself did I close without some allusion to like vicious practice in the make-up of medicine ; for, sir, human deprav ity, with utter disregard of human life, has even dared invade the sacred predncts of the pharmacopeEia, to lift the tops of the mystic jars on shelves arranged, and to infuse base sub- staneje in their portentous ejontents, where oft the difference of a feather's weight may involve the mortal life of immor tal men. Medical skill is impotent to act and powerless to grapple with fell disease in critical juncture, because by base admixture with medicinals it is at loss to know what measure to prescribe to compass end desired. I broadly, boleily make the charge and challenge the re futal of investigation. A distinguished physician told me 32 [337] APPENDIX. some years since, in a neighboring city, that probably more deaths resulted directly and indirectly from that source than would from disease if left to itself; and that he made it an inflexible rule never to prescribe medicines unless he was well acquainted with the commercial and moral character of the dmggist who was to supply them. If such is the state of the case in a great city, what chance is there of obtaining pure drug's in village shops and country stores ? Mr. Speaker, this branch of my subject is certainly one demanding most instant and efficacious remedy at our hands. Of all men in the world the chemist and wholesale druggist has least occasion and excuse for tampering with his wares. His profits are enormous when confined to legitimate chan nels. I do not propose, Mr. Speaker, to take down and look into each separate jar on the shelves of the Constitution amender ; am not sufficiently deep in science for that; but I do intend to look into one — and judge the rest by inference. I see before me "sulphate of quinia." That means in our vernacular "quinine," qui-nine, or quin-in, as folks prefer to call it. "Jesuit's bark" is the staple from which it is com pounded, and the introduction of which to the European world entitles the Society of Loyola to the everlasting grati tude of a sinful and suffering world. It is today, in the world's conception, almost as indispensable an article to man's welfare as bread or meat or drink. I have heard that out on the raging Wabash or in the Arkansas bottom, where the musical mosquito delighteth to hum and to make his home, where the ague shaketh the sons of men, they would willingly swap, pound for ounce, blood for Jesuit's bark in its etherealized state, known as quinine. Now, sir, a short time back, a Demexiratic House of Repre sentatives, recognizing the indispensable necessity of this light but costly white powder, erased it from the list of the thousand or two other protected articles and put it on the free-list, and the whole country arose and called that Con gress blessed. Quinine fell from five or six dollars an ounce to $1.50 nominally. But, sir, I opine the reduction in price is more fictitious than real. The quinine of today is not as [338] APPENDIX. a rule the quinine of former times. Then it was bitter — deucedly bitter — and there was no horrid apprehension of morphia or other deaeUy drug left in the mind as afterdap. Today it is far different, for although not exactly a confec tion or sweetmeat, it has nevertheless so far laid aside its acerbity as to suggest the thought, a la Mrs. Toodles, what a convenient thing a stomach-pump is to have in the house when one is taking white powders* Now, sir, I ask why the change in its taste, which is so perceptible as to be the subject of general remark? Is it that the bark of the cinchona tree is losing its natural proper ties, or is it that less expensive barks and other substances are worked in with it to increase bulk and weight, and thus make up for the falling off in price? It would be an interesting investigation if the question were submitted to a special committee of medical experts. The cinchona is doubtless to-day what it was when Pizarro's followers first found it, and so is red oak or willow. Almost every leading government in Eui'ope has stringent laws against adulteration. Of these England has perhaps the most perfect and complete system, arid yet it is only of yesterday's growth. Less than thirty years ago Dr. tfohn Postgate, a country physician, seeing the abuses perpetiated by adulterators of every class, took the matter in hand and after years of persistent effort, beginning with only one sup porter in Parliament, Mr. Scholefield, and with all the large manufacturers and dealers in Great Britain hounding and denouncing him, succeeded at last in having his ideas adopted as embodied in the adulteration acts of the last decade. As a public benefactor he will rank in the history of his country as the peer of Jenner, Stevenson, Arkwright, and Davy; for food adulteration is virtually wiped out so far as it affects English palates and constitutions. But what com pounders are forbidden to sell at home they can readily mar ket abroad. For is it not obvious that as long as they are debarred a home market by repressory edicts they will nat urally export their base counterfeits to our own more tolerant shores ? Eliminate the foreign supply of poisoned and pois onous foods, and forbid the sale of "home manufactured" [339] APPENDIX. stuffs of kindred class in the District of Columbia and where- ever dse the strong arm of the Federal Government will reach, and a most important step in the work of their eradica tion and extermination will have been accomplished. Mr. Speaker, my remarks as originally prepared after a careful investigation of the subject contemplated a broader field of inquiry and ultimate repression than that embraced in the bill under consideration. They were intended to sus tain my bill, or rather resolution, introduced early in the session, authorizing the Committee of Public Health to in quire into the truth or falsity of the alleged abuses in this regard, and to suggest what legislation should be had for their eradication — a simple inquiry into damning allegations, with an eye to a simple recommendation of remedy. It ro ceived, I believe, the unanimous approval of that honorable committee, and they and I were alike at loss when, during my absence at the death-bed of a loved and honored relative, it was killed by a majority of one on the floor of this House. My unavoidable absence on that occasion will be one of the regrets of my life. In conclusion I now propose, Mr. Speaker, to introduce the witnesses and to adduce the proofs upon which it is in tended to rely to sustain the sweeping allegations made. These will appear in the form of appendix in the Record. If they seem to any to take more space than is usually accorded in that diurnal history of our doings to any abstract question let the importance of the subject and the ignorance and in difference which prevail regarding it stand me in justifica tion and excuse. As bulky as it vrill appear, it is not a tithe of what might be adduced from these and other high author ities in support of the existence of the evils charged and the necessity for remedial relief. Let us hearken to tiieir warn ing and give that relief to the fullest extent of our constitu tional powers. As transcendently important as I believe it to be, I would not have this House go one step beyond to ac complish the end in view under "the general welfare" clause. [340] APPENDIX. APPENDIX. Some thirty years ago the London Lancet, the leading med ical and surgical journal of the world, owing to the repeated exposures of Dr. Postgate, determineei to employ at its ovra expense one of the best analytical chemists of the age to in vestigate the subject For that purpose Dr. Hassall, a man of national reputation and fellow of a dozen learned societies, was selected. He devoted several years to the work and col lated his researches in a large sized volume. His book con stituted the basis of subsequent Parliamentary investigation, which gives it quasi-official character. From it will be found below copious extracts bearing upon a few of the me>st glaring abuses: During the course of the last six years the author has examined minutely and scrupulously, microscopically and chemically, over 3,000 samples of the principal articles of consumption, as well as many drugs; and aa the one great result of this somewhat extended experience, he affirms that some short time back there were few articles of consumption the adulteration of which was practicable, and which, at the same time, could be rendered profitable, which were not extensively subjected to adulteration. ******** Dr. Normandy, one of the highest authorities of the age, concludes his evidence before the parliamentary committee with this remark: "Adulteration is a widespread evil which has invaded every branch of commerce; everything which can be mixed or adulterated or debased in any way is debased." ******** The subjoined table contains not only the names of the substances used in adulteration possessing more or less injurious properties, but also the names of the articles in which they have been discovered. It will be perceived that the number of injurious substances thus employed is very great. Injurious substances actually detected in adulterated articles of con sumption. SUBSTANCES. Cooculus indicus Arsenic of copper, emeral green, or Scheele's green. Sulphate of copper or blue vitriol, and acetate of copper or verdi gris. Carbonate of copper or verditer . . . ARTICLES. Beer, rum. Colored sugar confectionery. Pickles, bottled fruits, and vege tables, preserves, dried and crya- talized fruits. Colored sugar, confectionery and tea. [341] APPENDIX. Injurious substances actually detected in adulterated articles, etc. — Continued. SUBSTANCES. The three chromates of lead. . . . Red oxide of lead Red ferruginous earths, as Vene tian red, bole Armenian, red and yellow ochers, umber, etc. Carbonate of lead Plumbago or black lead Bisulphuret of mercury or cinna bar. Sulphate of iron Sulphate of copper Cayenne Gamboge Chromates of potash The three false Brunswick greens, being mixtures of the chromates of lead and indigo, or Prussian blue. Oxychlorides of copper or true Brunswick greens. Orpiment or sulphuret of arseni- cum. Ferrocyanide of iron or Prussian blue. Antwerp blue or Prussian blue and chalk. Indigo Ultramarine Artificial ultramarine Hydrated sulphate of lime, miner al white, or plaster of Paris. Alum Sulphuric acid Bronze powders or alloys of cop per and zinc. Custard powders, sugar, confec tionery, tea, and snuil. Cayerme, curry-powder. Red sauces, as shrimp, lobster, an chovy, and tomato sauces, and in potted meats and fish, cocoa, chicory, anchovies, annatto, cheese, tea, and snuff, etc. Sugar, confectionery. In certain black and Li teas. Cayenne, sugar, confectionery. Redried tea, and in beer. Bread, rarely; aimatto. Gin, rum, ginger, and mustard. Sugar confectionery. Tea and snuff. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Sugar confectionery. Flour, bread, sugar confectionery. Bread and flour. Vinegar, gin. Sugar confectionery. These discle>sures, be it recollected, were made nearly thirty years ago, and when food-poisoning was but yet in its infancy. It was long anterior to the day when tallow and suet supplanted legitimate and normal butter by me)st abnor mal and disgusting prexjess; or gluce>se, canosugax, or seiores of other improvements had been made upon the reejognized timohonored processes of our fathers. In this, as in other things, the world has moved since tiien. [342] APPENDIX. II. Dr. Hassall concludes his general introduction on the sub ject of food adulteration in the following pertinent and im pressive words: Legislation on the subject is required — First. For the protection of the public health. The evidence given before the parliamentary committee on adulteration proves that the deadliest poisons are daily resorted to for purposes oi adulteration, to the injury of the health aud the destruction of the lives of thousands. There is scarcely a poisonous pigment known in these islands which are not thus employed. Second. For the protection of the revenue. This will be readily ac knowledged when it is known that nearly half the national revenue is derived from taxes on food and beverages. It has already been shown that not long since adulteration was rife, and it still exists to a large extent in nearly all articles of consumption, both solid and fluid, and including even those under the supervision of the excise. Third. In the interests of the honest merchant and trader. The up right trader is placed in a most trying and unfair position in conse quence of adulteration. He is exposed to the most ruinous and un scrupulous competition; too often he is undersold, and his business thus taken from him. It is therefore to the interest of the honest trader that effective legislation should take place, and not only is it to his interest, but we can state that it is his most anxious desire that adulter ation should be abolished. In advocating the suppression of adultera tion we are, therefore, advocating the rights and interests of all honor able traders. Fourth. For the sake of the consumer. That the consumer is exten sively robbed through adulteration, sometimes of his health, but always of his money, is unquestionable. It is, however, the poor man, the laborer and the artisan, who is the most extensively defrauded; for occupied early and late with his daily labor, often in debt with those with whom he deals, he has no time or power to help himself in the matter, and if he had the time he still would require the requisite knowledge. The subject of adulteration, therefore, while it concerns all classes, is eminently a poor man's question; the extent to which he is cheated through adulteration is really enormous. Fifth. On the ground of public morality. Adulteration involves de ception, dishonesty, fraud, and robbery, and since adulteration is so prevalent, so equally must these vices prevail to the serious detriment of public morality and to the injury of the character of the whole nation for probity in the eyes of the world. We repeat, then, that some prompt, active, and efficient legislative interference is demanded for the sake of public morality and the character of this country among the nations of the world. Hassall's adulteration of food. From an examination of this table it appears: 1. That of the thirty-four coffees, thirty-one were adulterated. 2. That chicory was present in thirty-one of the samples. 3. Roasted corn in twelve. 4. Beans and potato flour, each in one sample. [343] APPENDIX. 5. That in sixteen cases the adulteration consisted of chicory only. 6. That in the remaining fifteen samples the adulteration consisted of chicory and either roasted corn, beans, or potatoes. 7. That in many instances the quantity of coffee present was very small; while in others it formed not more than one-fifth, fourth, third, half, and so on of the whole article. We are satisfied that the gross aggregate of the adulterations detected did not amount to less than one-third of the entire bulk of the quantity purchased. ******** Speaking of the articles used in the adulteration of tea, the author says : "The principal of these substances are Dutch pink, rose pink, logwood, tumeric, carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, steatite, soapstone or silicate of magnesia, chromate of lead, the chromates of potash, ferro cyanide of iron, indigo, carbonate of copper, acetate of (Wpper, arsenic of copper." ******** Thus it has been shown that exhausted tea-leaves are sometimes made up with gum, etc., and resold to the public as genuine black tea, and, when artificially colored and glazed, even as green tea. That the substances employed in the coloring are in many cases very much more objectionable and injurious than those used by the Chinese, being sometimes highly poisonous. ******** Out of seventy-two samples of brown sugar, as procured at different shops, subjected to examination, fragments of sugar-cane were present in all but one. These were usually so small that they were visible only by the aid of the microscope. Sporules and filaments of fungus were present in nearly all the sugars. The aeari were present in sixty-nine of the samples, and in many in very considerable quantities. Grape sugar was detected in all the sugars. Four of the sugars contained proportions of starch so considerable as to lead to the inference that they were adulterated. Eleven other samples of brown sugar, as imported from the East and West Indies, furnished nearly similar results. Two only could be re garded as pure and fit for human consumption. *'* * * * * * * Concerning Bread. — We have already referred, to some extent, to the adulteration of bread with water. Bread naturally contains a large quantity of water, estimated at sixty-six parts in every one hundred and fifty of bread, sixteen of these only being natural to the flour, but is frequently made to contain greater amounts. One principal means by which this is effected is by the addition of rice or rice-flour to bread; this, swelling up, absorbs much more water than wheat flour. Potatoes used in any quantity probably have, to some extent, the same effect. In the introduction of rice, then, into bread there is a double evil: first, a substance is put into the bread which does not possess nearly so much nourishment as wheat flour ; and, second, by its means a larger quantity of another substance is absorbed by the bread, and which has no nour ishing properties whatever. While wheat flour seldom contains less and often much more than 12 per cent of gluten, rice has only about 7 per cent of that nutritious substance, and potatoes are equally deficient in gluten. [344] APPENDIX. The public, then, in judging of the quality of bread by its color, by its whiteness, commits a most serious mistake; there is little or no connec tion between color and quality; In fact, very generally, the whitest breads are the most adulterated. The public, therefore, should lose no time in correcting its judgment on this point. Again, the mistaken taste of the public for very white bread, which, be it known, cannot be obtained even from the finest and best flour except by the use of alum or some other substance similar in its operation, tends to the serious injury of the bread in another way. After proving that alum enters injuriously in almost all bought bread, he adds: Further, alum is very apt to disorder the stomach and to occasion acidity and dyspepsia. Vinegar. — The principal adulterations of vinegar are with water, sul phuric acid, and burnt sugar, and sometimes with acid substances, as chillies and grains of paradise, and also with pyroligneous or acetic acids. The water is added to increase the hulk, sulphuric acid and acid sub stances to make it pungent, and burnt sugar to restore the color lost by dilution. Vinegar is not unfrequently contaminated with arsenic, this being introduced through the sulphuric acid used in its adulteration. A mixture of muriatic acid and soda has been used in bread, and I have seen muriatic acid containing a very fearful quantity of arsenic. The following evidence in regard to the use of corrosive sublimate was given by Mr. Gray before the parliamentary committee: "Corrosive sublimate has been used for years and years in some houses, and not a cask has gone out without a certain proportion of corrosive sublimate." "Chairman. Do you believe that corrosive sublimate was mixed with the vinegar in injurious proportions?" "I do; it was done to give strength to the vinegar. When the D. W. and O. V. have been used the corrosive sublimate is put into it to give it a tartness again in the mouth." Chairman. "Are these technical expressions in the trade — 0. V. for oil of vitriol, and D. W. for distilled water?" "Just so. Corrosive sublimate is called 'the doctor.' " White or distilled vinegar, as it is called, is usually made with water and acetic acid, what is sold is rarely distilled at all. ******* That nineteen out of twenty of the vinegars submitted to analysis, poor as they were, yet owed a portion of their acidity to sulphuric acid the amount of which varied in the different samples from 38 to 252 in the 1,000 grains, the largest quantity of this acid being detected in the vinegars in which the red cabbages were pickled. That in the whole of the sixteen different pickles analyzed for copper that poisonous metal was discovered in various amounts. On the adulterations of cayenne. — Of twenty-eight samples of cayenne submitted to microscopic and chemical examination no less than twenty- four were adulterated, and four only were genuine. Twenty-two con tained mineral coloring matter. In thirteen cases this consisted of red lead, which was present in very [345] APPENDIX. considerable quantities, while in the remaining seven samples it was some red ferruginous earth, Venetian red, or red ocher. Vermillion nr sulpheret of mercury was present in one of this cayennes. Six of the cayennes consisted of a mixture of ground rice, turmeric, and cayenne colored, with either red lead, Vermillion, red, or ocher. Six of the cayennes contained large quantities of salt, sometimes alone, but mostly combined with rice and ijhe red earths or red lead. One of the samples was adulterated with a large quantity of the husk of white mustard seed. Lastly. Two were adulterated with rice, and were colored in addi tion, the one with red lead, and the other with a red ferruginous earth. The object of the use of red lead and other red coloring matters is two fold: first, to conceal other adulterations, and second, to preserve the color of the ca-jenne, as when exposed to the light for any time it usually loses part of the bright red color which it at first possesses, and therefore it becomes deteriorated in the eyes of the purchaser. The red lead, etc., added does not of course preserve the color of the cayenne, but simply supplies the place of that which it loses in consequence of exposure. Salt is employed for the same purpose. This substance has a remark able effect in bringing out the color of the cayenne. It is, however, also used to increase its weight. The adulteration of cayenne with such substances as red lead and mercury is doubtless highly prejudicial to health. It has been stated that colic and parlysis have both been produced by the use of cayenne containing red lead. The salts of lead and mercury are characterized by the circumstance that they are apt to accumulate in the system, and finally to produce symptoms of a very serious nature. Thus no matter how small the quan tity of mercury or lead introduced each day, the system is sure in the end, although it be slowly and insidiously, to be brought under the in fluence of these poisons, and to become seriously affected. The quantity of red lead introduced into the system in adulterated cayenne is, how ever, by no means inconsiderable. III. [From Chambers's Encyelopeedia.] ADULTERATION. The adulteration of iood of almost every kind is unfortunately so common a custom that our limited space will merely allow of our no ticing a few of the leading points in regard to it. Wheat flour is not infrequently adulterated with one or more of the following substances: flour of beans, Indian corn, rye, or rice, potato- starch, alum, chalk, carbonate of magnesia, bone-dust, plaster-of-paris, sand, clay, etc. The organic matters — the inferior flours and starch — do little or no serious harm. Most of the inorganic matters are positively injurious, and of these, alum (one of the commonest adulterations) is the worst. The beneficial action of wheat-flour on the system is in part due to the large quantity of soluble phosphates which it contains. When alum is added these phosphates uniting with the alumina of the alum and forming an insoluble compound, the beneficial effect of the soluble phosphates is thus lost. Coffee, in its powdered form, is not merely largely adulterated with chicory, but additionally with roasted grain, roots, acorns, saw-dust ex- [346] APPENDIX. hausted tan (termed croata), coffina (the seeds of a Turkish plant), burnt sugar, and (worst of all) baked horses' and bullocks' liver. In the Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society for April, 1856, there is an excellent report by Messrs. Graham, Stenhouse, and Campbell on the mode of detecting vegetable substances mixed with coffee. Even whole roasted coffee is not safe from adulteration, a patent having been ac tually taken out to mold chicory into the form of coffee-berries. Cocoa and chocolate are adulterated with flour, potato-starch, sugar, clarified mutton-suet, and various mineral substances, such as chalk, plaster-of-paris, red earth, red ocher, and venetial earth, the last three being used as coloring matter. Vinegar is adulterated with water, sulphuric acid, and sometimes with chillies, grains of paradise, and pyroligneous acid. It appears from evi dence taken before the parliamentary committee on adulterations that arsenic and corrosive sublimate are no uncommon ingredients in vinegar. In coneetion with vinegar we may place pickles. Dr. Hassall analyzed sixteen different pickles for copper, and discovered that poisonous metal, more or less, abundantly in all of them; "in three, in a very considerable quantity; in one, in highly deleterious amount; and in two, in poisonous amount." Preserved fruits and vegetables, especially gooseberries, rhubarb, green gages, and olives, are often also contaminated largely with copper. In these cases the copper, if in considerable quantity, may be easily detected by placing a piece of polished iron or steel in the suspected liquid for twenty-four hours, to which we previously add a few drops of nitric acid. The copper will be deposited on the iron. Or ammonia may be added to the fluid in which the pickles or fruit were lying, when, if copper is present, a blue tint is developed. We should be suspicious of all pickles, olives, preserved gooseberries, etc., with a particularly bright-green tint. Milk is usually believed to be liable to numerous adulterations, such as flour, chalk, mashed brains, etc. It appears, however, from Dr. Has sall's researches on London milk, that as a general rule, water is the only adulteration. The results of the examinations of twenty-six sam ples were that twelve were genuine, and that fourteen were adulterated, the adulteration consisting principally in the addition of water, the per centages of which varied from 10 to 50 per cent, or one-half water. If space permitted we might extend the list of alimentary substances liable to adulteration to a much greater length. Beer is adulterated in many ways. Burned sugar (caramel) is added to give color; cocculus, indicus to supply an intoxicating agent which will give an appearance of strength to the beer ; quassia, to impart bitter ness in place of hops ; grains of paradise and cayenne pepper, to commun icate pungency; coriander and caraway seeds, to yield flavor; liquorice, treacle, and honey to supply color and consistence. To stale beer there is sometimes added green vitriol ( sulphate of iron ) or alum and common salt, which when agitated with the beer communicate a fine cauli flower head. IV. [Report of select parliamentary committee, 1855-1856, upon inquiry into the adulteration of food, from the Westminster Review, volume 91, page 195.] In the process of their investigations they examined some sixty wit nesses, who gave answers to near eight thousand questions, all of them [347] APPENDIX. tending more or less distinctly and directly to prove that the practice ot adulteration was very prevalent and most injurious in its effects upon the health, morality, and prosperity of the country. Upward of thirty of the witnesses were physicans, surgeons, analytical chemists, and drug gists, and the remainder were gentlemen who occupied responsible posi tions in the fiscal and sanitary departments of government, of persons acquainted with the manufacture and sale of the larger proportion of such commodities as are in most general use. ******* Though the witnesses differed both as to the extent to which adultera tion is carried on and as to its nature and effects, your committee can not avoid the conclusion that adulteration widely prevails, though under circumstances of very various character. As regards foreign products, some arrive in this country in an adulterated condition, while others are adulterated by the English dealer. Other commodities again, the pro duce of this country, are shown to be in an adulterated state when pass ing into the hands of the dealer, while others undergo adulteration by the dealers themselves. "Not only is the public health thus exposed to danger and pecuniary fraud committed on the whole community, but the public morality is tainted and the high commercial character of this country seriously low ered both at home and in the eyes of foreign countries. Though very many refuse under every temptation to falsify the quality of their wares, there are unfortunately large numbers, who, though reluctantly prac ticing deception, yield to the pernicious contagion of example or to the hard pressure of competition forced upon them by their less scrupulous neighbors." And then they proceed to give the following summary: "Without entering into voluminous details of the evidence taken, your committee would enumerate the many articles which have been proved to be more or less commonly adulterated. These are: Arrowroot, adul terated with potato and other starches; bread, with potatoes, plaster of Paris, alum, and sulphate of copper; bottled fruits and vegetables, with certain salts of copper; coffee, with chicory, roasted wheat, beans, and mangel-wurzel; chicory, with roasted wheat, carrots, sawdust and Vene tian red; cocoa, with arrowroot, potato-flour, sugar, chicory, and some ferriginous red earth; cayenne and ground rice, mustard, husk, etc.; alcohol, with red lead; lard, with potato-flour, mutton suet, carbonate of soda, and caustic lime; mustard, with wheat flour and turmeric; mar malade, with apples and turnips; porter and stout (though sent out in a pure state from the brewers ) , with water, sugar, treacle, salt, alum, cocculus indicus, grains of paradise, nux vomica, and sulphuric acid; pickles and preserves, with salts of copper; snuJff, with various chro matics, red lead, lime, and powdered glass; tobacco, with water, sugar, rhubarb, and treacle; vinegar, with water, sugar, and sulphuric acid; jalap, with powdered wood; opium, with poppy capsules, wheat-flour, powdered wood, and sand ; scammony, with wheat-flour, chalk, resin, and sand; confectionery, with plaster of Paris and other similar ingredients, colored with various pigments of a highly poisonous nature; and acid drops purporting to be compounded of jargonelle, pear, ribston, pippin, lemon, etc., with essential oils contaiiung prussic acid and other dan gerous ingredients." [348] APPENDIX. V. [Extracts from English statutes bearing on the subject, 11th August, 1875.] Whereas, it is desirable that the acts now in force relative to the adulteration of food should be repealed and that the law requiring the sale of food and drugs in a pure and genuine state should be amended: Be it therefore enacted, etc. « * * Sec. 2. The term "food" shall include every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs and water. The term "drugs" shall in clude medicine for internal or external use. Sec. 3. No person shall mix, color, stain, or powder, or order or permit any other person to mix, color, stain, or powder, any article of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health, with intent that the same may be sold in that state; and no person shall sell any such article so mixed, colored, stained, or pow dered, under a penalty in each case not exceeding £50 for the flrst offense; every offense after a conviction for a first offense shall be a mis demeanor for which the person shall, on conviction, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months, with hard labor. Sec. 4. No person shall, except for the purpose of compounding, as hereinafter described, mix, color, stain, or powder any drug with any ingredient or material so as to affect injuriously the quality of such drug with intent that the same may be sold in that State, and no person shall sell any such drug so mixed, colored, strained, or powdered under the same penalty in each case, respectively, as in the preceding section for a first and subsequent offense. ******* Sec. 6. No person shall sell to the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded by such purchaser, under a penalty not exceeding £20, etc. Sec. 7. jNo person shall sell any compounded article of food or com pounded drug, which is not composed of ingredients in accordance with the demands of the purchaser, under a, penalty not exceeding £20. (Glen's Law of Public Health, 38 and 39 Victoria, chapter 63.) You will thus see, Mr. Speaker, the estimation in which the offense is held by our cousins across the water. It is meet tiiat the two great Anglo-Saxon nationalities should profit, each by the teaching of the other. May not the younger profit by the lesson here laid down by the elder ? I have letters, Mr. Speaker, from some of the leading grocers and druggists of the country, offering to come on and testify before a properly accredited committee at their own expense, to give, cause, and adduce proof why like legislation is imperatively demanded on Capitol Hill. Let them be heard for our sake, if not for theirs. [849] YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01290 5288