Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/345

 General Junius Daniel. 345

who declined, saying " you can keep your generals ; I can get along with my colonels."

From this time until he received his commission as brigadier- general he served under three department commanders, each of whom urged his promotion, and failing to effect it refused to turn his com- mand over to general officers. He organized several brigades, and commanded one of them several months as senior colonel, and when it was rumored that one was to be taken from him, he did not com- plain of the Government, but said : " I would certainly dislike to give up the command of these troops after having the trouble of training them and having become so attached to them. I don't seek the distinction of rank for position merely, for if the war were to close to-morrow the offer of the highest could not induce me to re- main in the army. I have other obligations to fulfil, but whilst the war lasts, here in the field I will be found. My whole soul is in the cause, and my life is at my country's service. If the Government does not choose to give me command of my brigade, I will stick to my regiment and make no complaint."

His command was on the extreme right of our line at Malvern Hill, and was exposed to a very demoralizing fire for some time. Some cavalry thrown into confusion was retreating in haste, and in- volved several pieces of artillery. Colonel Daniel threw a regiment across the road, halted a piece of artillery, put it in charge of an officer, and ordered him to fire upon all who did not halt. While thus engaged his horse was shot under him, and he narrowly escaped with his life.

He was commissioned brigadier-general in September, 1862, and was assigned the Thirty-second regiment, commanded by Brabble, who perished amid the wild glare of battle at Spotsylvania ; the Forty-third by Kenan, wounded and captured at Gettysburg, but restored to us, and here to-day, thank God, to gladden these melan- choly days by his delicious presence ; the Forty-fifth by Morehead, who lingered and died at Martinsburg, West Virginia, ministered unto by the saintly and heroic women, who carried the standard of the Confederacy in their hands and the cross of heaven in their pre- cious hearts (afterwards by Boyd, wounded and captured upon the tempestuous slopes of Gettysburg, exchanged to die, near Hanover, in tylay, 1864) ; the Fifty-third by Owen, whose heroic soul went up to God from the summit of the mountain at Snicker's Gap ; the Second North Carolina battalion by Andrews, who was shot to death amid the angry shouting of hosts at Gettysburg.