Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/259

 Tin III, ,0,1,1 Ant/1,. _;,]

he rode off laughing, and said: "It would make you too vain." He never told us, but we felt sure it was something good, and, if possible, we were more willing than ever to do just what Marse Robert wanted done.

I have written more then I intended, but I suppose you know when an old soldier gets to fighting his battles over, he is hard to stop.

Yours, &c.,

M. S. STRINGFELLOW, Co. A. Thirteenth Virginia Infantry, C. S. A.

MAJOR D. w. ANDERSON'S RELATION. Editor of The Times :

Will you allow another "Old Reb " space in your valuable paper to say a word or two about the " Bloody Angle," in addition to what has been said by General J. A. Walker and others ?

I claim the right to be heard on the grounds first, that I belonged to the Second (Jones') brigade, General Edward Johnson's division, and was present for duty on the i2th of May, 1864; second, on the eve of the preceding day, the iith of May, I was detailed by order of General Johnson, with a number of men (General Jones having been killed, as stated by General Walker, and Cotonel Witcher with his, the Twenty -first regiment, being detached to take charge of some strategic point) to serve as " field officer of the day," on that part of our lines occupied by Jones's brigade, with orders to place a sentinel on the works every ten paces, and to tell the regimental com- manders to allow their men " to sleep on their arms," the sentinels to give the alarm if the enemy advanced. One who has not been a soldier, with the responsibility of such a position, can scarcely appre- ciate its character. But with the true soldier it was the crushing weight of eleven great States, with their millions of women and children in their quiet homes, as well as the safety of an army that stood as a "wall of brass," in the defence of the God-given right of local self-government. Such was the sense of my responsibility on the night of the nth of May, 1864. I dared not close my eyes to sleep, but, standing there upon the border of my country, amid the gloom of that dark, misty night, could hear the drums of possibly a hundred regiments thundering " Yankee Doodle," mingled with