Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/186

 180 Southern Historical Society Papers.

May 2d, 1864, Sunday. A large number of the men and officers availed themselves of the opportunity of hearing our former Chap- lain, E. T. Winkler, D. D. The Citadel Square Baptist church was nearer full of gray coats than it had ever been before (or ever has been since). The presence of the men with whom he had served and who never ceased to love him, together with the certainty that he would never again look into the honest, war-worn faces of many of them, seemed to inspire the speaker. His last exhortation and words of love and advice were delivered with earnestness and eloquence.

May jo 1. We took the cars of the Northeastern Railroad for Wil- mington. Two companies of the Twenty-first were attached to my command and went with us. In passing through Williamsburg a few of the men, but, I am glad to say, in comparison with the number of absentees from other regiments, very few, could not be restrained from stopping at their homes to bid their families farewell. It would have been one of the very greatest pleasures of my life to have had it in my power to permit them all to say " good-bye " to loved ones, but duty forbade, and I felt compelled firmly to refuse every applica- tion for such indulgence. It was painful to refuse brave men permis- sion to look into their homes when passing in sight of the smoke from their own hearth-stones, around which wife and children were sitting talking of father and husband, not knowing that they were so near. Before we got beyond Marion Courthouse, we lost nearly all of the men constituting the two companies of the Twenty-first South Carolina volunteers. The men of the Twenty-fifth, in a very few days, saw the necessity of the stringency of the orders in relation to furloughs.

May 4th. We arrived at Wilmington and marched out of the city to a field outside of the lines, to the west or northwest of the race- course and went into camp. The Twenty-first regiment and Briga- dier-General Hagood and his staff had preceded us. The Twenty- first was encamped not far from us and nearer the city. The Twenty- seventh, Eleventh and Seventh battalion constituted the balance of the brigade, and were coming from Charleston as rapidly as transpor- tation could be furnished. The men of the Twenty- first and the few of the Twenty-fifth, who left us while on our way from Charleston, began to come in by the next day after our arrival here.

The brigade was moving to Virginia as rapidly as the Quarter- master's Department could furnish transportation. Some of the companies of the Twenty-first had already gone under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Dargan. Major Glover, with companies F,