The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson Part 12

Fairfax and your daughters my heartfelt sympathy, for I know the depth of their grief. That G.o.d may give you and them strength to bear this great affliction is the earnest prayer of your early friend,

"'R. E. LEE.'

"'Dr. Orlando Fairfax.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: RANDOLPH FAIRFAX]

A son and two nephews of Hon. A. R. Boteler.

A son of Governor Gilmer, of Virginia.

S. H. Letcher, brother of War-Governor John Letcher.

Mercer Otey, graduate of Virginia Military Inst.i.tute and son of Bishop Otey, of Tennessee.

Launcelot M. Blackford, A. M., of University of Virginia, who became adjutant of the Twenty-sixth Virginia Infantry, and Superintendent of the Alexandria High School from the close of the war to the present time--forty-one years. He has said to the writer since the war that he cherished the fact of his having been a private in the Rockbridge Artillery with more pride than he felt in any honors he has since achieved.

Robert A. Gibson, of Petersburg, Virginia, now a bishop of Virginia.

Livingston Ma.s.sie, of Waynesboro, who became captain of another battery and was killed in General Early's battle of Winchester.

Hugh McGuire, of Winchester, brother of Dr. Hunter McGuire, medical director of Jackson's corps, whose gallantry won for him a captaincy in cavalry and lost him his life on the retreat to Appomattox.

Boyd Faulkner, of Martinsburg, son of Hon. Charles J. Faulkner.

Two Bartons from Winchester.

Two Maurys and three Minors from Charlottesville.

Other members of the company, of whom much that is interesting could be written, were Edgar and Eugene Alexander, of Moorefield, West Virginia, uncles of the auth.o.r.ess, Miss Mary Johnston. The first named lost an arm at Fredericksburg, the second had his thigh-bone broken at second Mana.s.sas.

William H. Bolling, of Petersburg, Virginia, the handsomest of eight handsome brothers and a most polished gentleman.

Holmes Boyd, of Winchester, now a distinguished lawyer of that city.

Daniel Blaine, of Williamsburg, since the war a Presbyterian divine.

Robert Frazer, of Culpeper, an accomplished scholar and prominent educator.

William L. Gilliam, of Powhatan County.

Campbell Heiskell, of Moorefield.

J. K. Hitner, who, though a native of Pennsylvania, fought through the war for the South.

William F. Johnston, of Rockbridge, a sterling man and soldier.

Edward Hyde, of Alexandria, an excellent artist, who devoted most of his time in camp to drawing sketches of army life. He has recently written me that his drawings were lost in a canoe in which he attempted to cross James River on his journey from Appomattox. Otherwise some of them would have appeared in this book.

Otho Kean, of Goochland County, Virginia.

John E. McCauley, of Rockbridge, sergeant of the battery.

William S. McClintic, now a prominent citizen of Missouri.

D. D. Magruder, of Frederick County, Virginia.

Littleton Macon, of Albemarle County, whose utterances became proverbial.

Frank Meade and Frank Nelson, of Albemarle County.

W. C. Gordon, of Lexington, Virginia.

Jefferson Ruffin, of Henrico.

J. M. Shoulder, of Rockbridge.

W. C. Stuart, of Lexington, Virginia.

Stevens M. Taylor, of Albemarle County, Virginia.

Charles M. Trueheart, now a physician in Galveston, Texas.

Thomas M. Wade, of Lexington, Virginia.

W. H. White, of Lexington, Virginia.

Calvin Wilson, of c.u.mberland County.

John Withrow, of Lexington, Virginia.

William M. Wilson, of Rockbridge, who went by the name of "Billy Zu.,"

abbreviated for zouave; and many other fine fellows, most of whom have long since "pa.s.sed over the river."

A. S. Whitt, gunner of the fourth piece, whose failure to throw a twenty-pound sh.e.l.l "within a hair's breadth and not miss" could be attributed only to defective ammunition.

In this company were all cla.s.ses of society and all grades of intelligence, from the most cultured scholars to the lowest degree of illiteracy. We had men who had formerly been gentlemen of leisure, lawyers, physicians, students of divinity, teachers, merchants, farmers and mechanics, ranging in age from boys of seventeen to matured men in the forties and from all parts of the South and several from Northern States, as well as Irish and Germans. At one camp-fire could be heard discussions on literature, philosophy, science, etc., and at another horse-talk. The tone of the company was decidedly moral, and there was comparatively little profanity. In addition to the services conducted by the chaplain of the battalion, Rev. Henry White, prayer-meetings were regularly held by the theological students. Then we had men that swore like troopers. "Irish Emmett," whose face was dotted with grains of powder imbedded under the skin, could growl out oaths through half-clenched teeth that chilled one's blood.

One man, Michael, a conscript from another county, a full-grown man, weighing perhaps one hundred and seventy-five pounds, was a chronic cry-baby; unfit for other service, he was a.s.signed a.s.sistant at the forge, and would lie with face to the ground and moan out, "I want to go home, I want to go home," and sob by the hour.

Another, a primitive man from the German forests, whose language was scarcely intelligible, lived entirely to himself and constructed his shelter of brush and leaves--as would a bear preparing to hibernate. In his ignorance of the use of an axe I saw him, in felling a tree, "throw"

it so that it fell on and killed a horse tied nearby. On seeing what he had done, his lamentation over the dying animal was pathetic.

As a school for the study of human nature, that afforded in the various conditions of army life is unsurpa.s.sed--a life in which danger, fatigue, hunger, etc., leave no room for dissimulation, and expose the good and bad in each individual to the knowledge of his a.s.sociates.

It sometimes fell to my lot to be on guard-duty with Tom Martin, an Irishman who was over forty-five and exempt from military service, but was soldiering for the love of it. Sometimes he was very taciturn and entirely absorbed with his short-stemmed pipe; at other times full of humor and entertaining. He gave me an account, one night while on post, of what he called his "great flank movement"--in other words, a visit to his home in Rockbridge without leave. After Doran, another Irishman, had been disabled at Malvern Hill and discharged from service, he became a sort of huckster for the battery and would make trips to and from Rockbridge with a wagon-load of boxes from our homes and also a supply of apple-brandy. While camped at Bunker Hill in the fall of 1862, shortly after Doran arrived with his load, Captain Poague, observing more than an ordinary degree of hilarity among some of the men, had the wagon searched, the brandy brought forth, confiscated, and emptied on the ground. Martin, greatly outraged at the illtreatment of a fellow-son of Erin, and still more so at the loss of so much good liquor, forthwith resolved to take his revenge on the Captain by taking "French leave."

To escape the vigilance of provost-guards and deserter-hunters, he made his way to the foothills of the North Mountain, and in the course of his journey stumbled on a still-house in one of its secluded glens. To the proprietor, who was making a run of apple-brandy, and who proved to be "a man after me own heart," Martin imparted his grievances. "I tould him," said he, "I hadn't a cint, but he poured me a tin chuck-full. With thanks in me eyes I turned off the whole of it, then kindled me pipe and stood close by the still. Ah! me lad, how the liquor wint through me! In thray minits I didn't care a domn for all the captins in old Stonewall's army!"

With various adventures he made his way home, returned to the company of his own accord, was wounded at Gettysburg, captured, and spent the remainder of war-time in prison.