Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/344

 336 Southern Historical Society Papers.

scene like hungry vultures over a carcass, that the Federal horsemen, with sabres drawn, had to open a way for the hearse.) The members of the medical profession kept watch from this time till the funeral. Hundreds of his patients and friends came into the church to show their respect for his memory, and to drop a tear on his coffin. They kept coming all the next day, till the time for the funeral, though it was raining very hard. They brought wreathes and bouquets and crosses and crowns in such profusion, that the coffin was completely covered, sides and ends, as well as the top loving hands tacking them on.

" At the funeral the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, and thousands followed his remains to their last resting place. Thus passed from earth one of the truest, noblest men I have ever known one of the few of whom the world is not worthy."

Mrs. Wright and her desolated family soon passed into the Confed- erate lines. The Hon. Richard H. Baker, Jr., then representing Norfolk in the General Assembly of Virginia, offered the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted :

"Whereas, the arrival within Confederate lines of the distressed family of the deceased, establishes beyond question the newspaper announcement of the execution by Federal authorities, in obedience to the sentence of a military commission, of Dr. David M. Wright, in the city of Norfolk, on the 23d day of October, 1862; and whereas, it is fit and proper that Virginia should place upon permanent record her high appreciation of a son whose courage, zeal and devotion marked with blood the first effort to establish upon her soil an equality of races, and introduce into our midst the levelling dogmas of a false and pretended civilization; be it

" Resolved (by the General Assembly of Virginia): i. That in the death of Dr. Wright this Commonwealth recognizes another addi- tion to the long and illustrious catalogue of martyrs, whose stern in- flexible devotion to liberty have rendered historic the history of the people of the present struggle.

" 2. That, as the proudest tribute which Virginia can offer to his memory, she would earnestly invoke her children, whether in or be- yond the enemy's lines, to imitate his example and emulate his high resolve.

" 3. That the Governor of the State be requested to transmit a copy of this preamble and these resolutions to the family of the deceased,