Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/563

 A Sketch of Dehray's Tioenty-sixth Regiment. 553

mains, demanded them, with the consent of his family, and removed them with great pomp, to their city, where, ever since January, 1876, he lies ignored in an undertaker's vault, still begging for a grave.

An incident of the battle of Galveston, terribly illustrative of the horrors of civil strife, deserves to be mentioned. Major A. M, Lea, of the engineer corps, having reported for duty to General Magruder, at Virginia Point, on the eve of the attack, was instructed to accom- pany the General to Galveston. After the capture of the " Harriet Lane," in default of a naval officer. Major Lea was ordered to take charge of her. On entering the ship, among the dead and the wounded weltering in blood, unexpectedly and to his utter dismay, the Major beheld in the last throes of death, his son, Lieutenant Lea, executive officer of the ship, whom he had not heard of since the beginning of the war. The bodies of Lieutenant-Commander Wain- right, killed in the action, and of Lieutenant Lea, were buried in the Galveston cemetery with military and masonic honors, the Confede- rate father reading over his Federal son's grave the solemn funeral service of the Episcopal church. The witnesses of that heart-rend- ing scene never can forget it.

General Magruder' s success raised popular enthusiasm to the high- est pitch, and his call for more troops was responded to with alacrity. Debray's regiment and other troops were ordered to re-occupy Gal- veston, while an appeal to the planters, promptly complied with, brought to the island numerous gangs of negroes, who, under the supervision of their own overseers, worked diligently on new lortifica- tions, planned by the Commanding General. Colonel Debray having been assigned to the command of Galveston Island, Lieutenant-Colo- nel Myers remained in command of the regiment.

The blockade of Galveston, forcibly raised on the ist of January, was not resumed until the 13th of the same month, when seven gun- boats came to anchor at about three miles from the city, to which they prepared to pay their compliments. A shelling was opened and kept up for six hours, to which the garrison, having no artillery to reply, had to submit good humoredly. Strange as it may appear, although the Federals covered the whole city with their shells and solid shot, some of which reached the bay, there was no loss of life, and the in- jury to houses was trifling. It will be remembered that, in the eve- ning after the shelling, flashes of light were seen antl a rumbling noise resembling broadsides was heard from a distance westward ; then, after a few minutes, darkness and silince prevailed again. Many were the surmises upon this incident and several weeks intervened