Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/547

 546 Southern Historical Society Papers.

charge of all the material for destroying bridges, blowing up locks, aqueducts, etc. I knew all his plans, what he intended to do and how he intended doing it, and I know that I never received any such instructions as those papers are said to contain. I also heard all the orders and instructions given to the balance of the officers of the command. Men cannot carry out orders they know nothing of. The Colonel's instructions were, that if we were successful in enter- ing the city, to take no life except in combat; to keep all prisoners safely guarded, but to treat them with respect; liberate all the Union prisoners, destroy the public buildings and government stores, and leave the city by way of the Peninsula.' "

Now, we have no harsh word for the father, who, in deep affliction at his sad fate, is defending the memory of a gifted and gallant son, and we pass by without comment many of the bitter things in the above quotation, and the still more bitter things in Rear- Admiral Dahlgren's book. But we shall show by the most incontrovertible proofs that these papers were not "forgeries," but were taken, in the exact form in which they were afterwards published, from the person of the fallen chieftain.

The question at once arises: If these papers were forgeries, who forged them ?

We first introduce a witness who was our college-mate at the University of Virginia in 1858-9, whom we knew afterwards as an earnest Christian, and then as a useful minister of the Gospel, and for whom we can vouch as every way worthy of credence. We refer to Mr. Edward W. Halbach, whose sworn affidavit was pub- lished years ago, and has never been impeached, and we give his statement in full as follows :

STATEMENT OF EDWARD W. HALBACH IN RELATION TO "THE DAHLGREN PAPERS."

" In the summer of 1863, I, Edward W. Halbach, was living at Stevensville, in King & Queen county, Virginia. I had already been exempted from military service on account of the condition of my health, and was now exempt as a schoolmaster having the requisite number of pupils. But feeling it my duty to do what I could to en- counter the raids of the enemy, I determined to form a company of my pupils between the ages of thirteen and seventeen years. My commission and papers prove that the company was formed, and accepted by the President for " Local Defence." A member of this