Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/391

 Charge of Kemper's Brigade at Frazier's Farm. 391

that locality. General Lee rode Lucy Long for two years until, when in the lines around Petersburg, she got with foal, and he sent her to the rear, and once more mounted Traveller. She was stolen just before the close of the war, and after the surrender was found in the eastern part of the State, and Captain R. E. Lee brought her to Lexington to his father.

"Several years after General Lee's death, and possibly thirteen years ago, while running at large in the grounds in the rear of the University, by some unknown means Lucy Long got the leaders of her hind legs cut. She was henceforth of no service, and General Custis Lee got the late John Riplogle, the greatest horse lover in Rockbridge in his day, to take charge of her on his farm on Buffalo. On Mr. Riplogle' s death, a few years ago, she was turned over to the care of Mr. John R. Mackay, who lives in the same neighborhood, and there she is at this time.

" When purchased by General Stuart she was said to be five years old. She is probably now in her thirty-four year. She is thin in flesh, though her eye has not lost its wonted brightness and her health apparently is good. She eats dry food with difficulty, hence her present condition. During the grazing season she fattens on the soft grasses of the pasture."

[From the Statt.]

Charge of Kemper's Brigade at Frazier's Farm.

The following graphic description of one of the most brilliant feats of the war is from a little book entitled " Four Years a Soldier," by Hon. David E. Johnston (judge of a judicial circuit of West Vir- ginia), member of Company D, Seventh Virginia infantry, and after- wards sergeant-major of the regiment, and a splendid example of that noblest type of consummate manhood, the volunteer private Confederate soldier :

" When our brigade had cleared the woods, it entered, in a most confused state, an open field, at the farther side of which, some four hundred yards in front of us, was a Federal battery with heavy in- fantry supports. The shots from this battery had been ploughing and ploughing through the woods from which we advanced to the attack.

" So rapid had been our advance, that the men were not only badly