Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1065

Rh with Lee and Jackson, Longstreet, Pickett and Armistead, and the miseries of life as a prisoner of war. No one is better qualified to tell the story from the standpoint of a private, and these "Recollections" are intensely interesting and of real historical value. A few lines may well be quoted here to illustrate one phase of the Confederate soldier's life, quite as important to him as the clash of arms, but not so often treated of: "I arrived home on the 15th of June, to find my wife on the verge of the grave. My little children did not know me and wondered what right I had there, but, as their mother made no objection, I remained and I have been there ever since. Those little boys and that little girl are now married, and I have numerous grandchildren. My wife suffered all that it was possible for a woman to suffer and live. I found her health broken, with eyes impaired from constant sewing to obtain bread for her children. We are now growing old, and, looking back and remembering all our trials, the friends that are gone, we can say that both of us were honest in our opinions. 'That we believed then that we were right, and that we believe now that we were right then.'"

Lieutenant R. Byrd Lewis, a distinguished cavalry officer of the army of Northern Virginia, now residing at Washington, D. C., is a native of Virginia, born in Westmoreland county in 1842. He was reared in his native county and attended William and Mary college in the years 1859 and 1860. Among the spirited youth who sprang to arms at the call of the State, in April, 1861, he tendered his services for the defense of the commonwealth and became a member of Braxton's artillery. At first enrolled as a corporal, he was promoted second sergeant in July, 1861, and served with this command until April, 1862, meanwhile participating in artillery actions on Potomac Creek, at the time the Pawnee came down the river, and at Fredericksburg, early in 1862. In April he re-enlisted as a private in Company C of the Ninth Virginia cavalry, was promoted sergeant a week later, and in January, 1864, was commissioned lieutenant, in which rank he served during the remainder of the war. With the cavalry command he participated in numerous battles of importance and many affairs of less fame, but of no less daring and adventurous character. He took part in the battle of Cold Harbor of 1862, and in the subsequent Manassas campaign, was one of the daring troopers who raided General Pope's headquarters at Catlett's Station and refreshed themselves from the table set for the general's supper. In the Maryland campaign he was in action at Boonsboro and Sharpsburg, and, on the return to Virginia, fought near Shepherdstown, where he was wounded in the right ankle. Disabled for a time, he rejoined his command in November, 1862, and was soon engaged in a skirmish near Leedstown, where, while leading a cavalry charge at night, he found himself between two fires and in a storm of bullets. Fourteen balls passed through his coat and six pierced his body. Four of these balls were removed by the surgeons, in whose hands he remained for some time. However, in the spring of 1863, he was on duty again, not missing much campaigning, and on June 9th was in the fight at Brandy Station and subsequently at Middleburg (where his horse was killed under him), at Upperville, at Hagerstown, Md., during Stuart's raid, at Barbour house, near Brandy station, on the