Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/476

Rh they began the gallant record continued under Stephen D. Lee and Pettus. He was sent to Vicksburg with his brigade early in 1863, and ordered to Grand Gulf about the time that Grant landed at Bruinsburg. With nine companies, each, of the Twentieth, Twenty-third, Thirtieth and Thirty-first regiments, about 1,500 men, tired by a hasty march, he reached Port Gibson in time to participate in the battle of May 1st, where the brigade suffered a loss of 272 killed, wounded and captured. The fighting commenced at sunrise, and soon became warm and bloody. "A little before 8 o’clock," said Colonel Garrott in his report, "our brave and gallant commander, General Tracy, fell near the front line, pierced through the breast, and instantly died without uttering a word." His remains were sent to Macon, Ga., and there interred. Both Georgia and Alabama cherish his memory with pride. He was the type of an accomplished, knightly, Southern gentleman. His wife was a daughter of Capt. George Steele, of Madison county.

Major-General Jones M. Withers was born in Madison county, Ala., January 12, 1814. His father, John Withers, a native of Dinwiddie county, Va., was a planter and gentleman of culture. His mother was also a Virginia lady–Miss Jones, of Brunswick county. He attended the Greene academy in Huntsville, and at the age of seventeen was appointed, by President Jackson, a cadet at West Point. There he graduated, in 1835, as brevet second lieutenant, and served at Fort Leavenworth. In December of the same year he resigned and returned to his home; but he served, during the hostilities with the Creeks in 1836, on the staff of Maj.-Gen. Benjamin S. Patterson, in which capacity he went to Tuskegee to drill volunteers. On the arrival of General Jessup, he was transferred to the staff of that officer. When peace had been restored, he read law in Tuscaloosa, while acting as private secretary to Governor Clay. After being admitted to the bar