Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/198

186 day the pickets advanced with due caution, and at sunrise I was myself in Pleasant Hill, at the house of a kind lady, whose name I forget, whence General Banks left at eight o'clock of the evening before, as she told me. Very soon after I was waited on by a number of surgeons of the Federal army, who had been left in care of their wounded, who, after stating their orders, awaited my pleasure whether they would be held as prisoners of war or allowed to attend to their duties. My answer was of course to offer any assistance within the scope of our limited ability, and to refer the question of their status to the Commanding-General.

I thus show that Captain Burns' statement, of course made from hearsay, that these same surgeons received a flag of truce from the Confederates during that morning, is incorrect.

I do not propose to write up the battle of Pleasant Hill—only to correct positive inaccuracies.

, Ex-Brigadier-General C. S. A., Commanding First Division, Green's Cavalry Corps.

, January 29, 1880.

To the Editor of the News and Courier:

Your Columbia correspondent referred to the incident narrated here, telling the story as 'twas told to him, and inviting corrections. As such a deed should be recorded in the rigid simplicity of actual truth, I take the liberty of sending you for publication an accurate account of a transaction every feature of which is indelibly impressed upon my memory.

.

Richard Kirkland was the son of John Kirkland, an estimable citizen of Kershaw county, a plain, substantial farmer of the olden time. In 1861 he entered as a private Captain J. D. Kennedy's