Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/489

 The Monument, at Munfordsville. 479

amounting in all to about 4500 men and ten guns, together with a large supply of Quartermaster and Commissary stores. At an early hour on the morning of Wednesday, the 17th of September, just twenty-two years ago to day, the Tenth Mississippi regiment, in re- turn for and in compliment of its gallant fight on the 14th, was marched in to receive the surrender of the troops and take possession of the forts. Our brave foes, who had been accorded very reasonable terms, were on the same day marched back to the lines of General Buell and paroled. Thus ended the battle and surrender of Mun- fordsville, which we have to-day gathered to recall, and to embalm in memory and perpetuate in marble the deeds of our heroes who fell in that rash, ill-advised and sacrificial fight — heroes as noble as ever gave their lives for "country or honor."

On our retreat from here the evening of the 14th, Colonel Smith was carried to a house in the neighborhood and left in charge of his body-servant Henry, the Sergeant Major, William French, and his brother-in-law. Captain Dodson, of his regiment, and lived until after the surrender on the 17th, his last thoughts reaching out for the wel- fare and concern of his men. His remains were temporarily interred near the scene of his death until the following March, when the lov- ing care of a sister and nephew, who, by permission of the authori- ties came through the lines and removed them to the admiring fellow- citizens of his adopted city, where they were finally deposited with honor and reverence. In the beautiful Cemetery at Jackson, Miss., can be seen a circular plot of ground surrounded by a tasteful iron railing, inclosing a Scotch granite shaft with the following inscrip- tion: "Erected to the memory of Colonel R. A. Smith, of the Tenth Mississippi regiment. Confederate States army, a native of Edinburgh, who fell mortally wounded in the battle of Munfordsville, Ky., Sep- tember 14, 1862, while gallantly leading in the charge. Aged twenty- six years. Erected by his fellow-citizens." In Dean cemetery, Edin- burg, Scotland, a similar monument with almost like inscription can be seen, which a brother's love erected as a tribute of his grief and reverence.

Having been first the color-bearer, then adjutant of his regiment by appointment of Colonel Smith, and at the time of his death a Cap- tain commanding a company under him, and from our entry into the service, personal and intimate friends, I am prepared to sympathize with that brother's grief, and to add that in my opinion the loss of that brave and intrepid soldier and true man was the greatest blow to the Mississippi troops of any that happened during the Kentucky