Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/168

 160 Southern Historical Society Papers.

The Twelfth Georgia Infantry.

Papers, Chiefly Relating to That Command.

[With the following papers numbered 1-13, inclusive, the Editor has been favored by Dr. Francis T. Willis, now of Richmond, Va., late of Georgia.

They are from among papers left by his lamented son, Colonel Edward Willis, Twelfth Georgia Infantry.

This gallant and accomplished young officer was born August loth, 1840, in Washington, Ga. ; entered West Point Military Acad- emy in June, 1857; left there to accept a commission as second lieutenant in the First Georgia State Infantry, February ist, 1861 ; was appointed March 30th, 1861, second lieutenant Confederate States Army, and assigned to duty as recruiting officer at Fort Pulaski ; he subsequently served, with zeal and efficiency, as adju- tant of the Twelfth Georgia regiment of infantry ; as Captain and Chief of Staflf to General Edward Johnson ; as Acting Chief of Artillery on the Staff of General Thomas Jonathan ("Stonewall") Jackson, and, finally, as Colonel Commandant of the Twelfth Georgia Infantry. His ability and judgment commanded confidence, respect, and regard with superior and subordinate.

His heart was warmed with the ardor of the generous Southern clime ; he was nerved by a heritage of self-reliance and of affection- ate Providence ; he had all the pride of the inborn warrior ; he had been under martial training, which made him the more, a disciplina- rian.

Paramount to circumstance or education, he had intuition ; discre- tion.

In any environment he would have risen in a chosen profession. Nay, more, with the insight given by his written expressions, and verified in the sphere vouchsafed him — he was possessed with the impulse which would have made him useful to his kind in whatever arena he might have been cast.

During the winter of 1863-64, he was detached, with his command, by General Lee, in trusted service, in the Valley of Virginia. Of his conduct therein. Colonel Charles S. Venable, acting adjutant-general of the Army of Northern Virginia, wrote him, March 3d, 1864 : much gratified with your success and with the manner in which you have conducted your operations.*' In estimate further of the value
 * * * <* j^g [General Lee] directs me to say to you that he is