Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/58

 46 Southern Historical Society Papers.

field to watch the fight, for we were both wounded, but when Deer- ing fell, he drew my sword from its scabbard and dashed into the fight." The fierce charge of the Confederates seemed to give him assurance of victory, and even when the equal valor of the Federals made the issue doubtful, he looked on calmly, but when Deering fell he rushed into the conflict with what seemed a spirit of deathless devotion. He could do little execution, but on he rode past the forefront right into the ranks of the enemy. The Federal line gave way, but still, broken into squads and retreating into the woods, they continued to fight, and it was in the midst of one of these squads that Major Thomson was last seen.

Wm. Bronaugh, of Manchester, Va., then a private in Chew's Battery, helped to convey his body from the field, and said that his clothes were pierced with bullet holes, and that he was wounded in seven places. Before his death he had often expressed a wish to be buried by the side of Ashby. It was in accordance with this wish that his body was removed from Charlottesville and placed here.

And, here I may be pardoned for saying of him what was said of Hotspur, whom he much resembled, " That nothing in his life so much became him as his manner of leaving it." Nay, I will say more, that the devotional character of his death, enrolls his name among those who, both in tradition and history, have sown the seeds of national liberty. To die for one's country in the discharge of duty is glorious and yet it is a distinction shared in by the majority of those who sleep in Confederate graves but to deliberately lay down one's life as an offering on the altar of his country is what few have done, and their names embalmed in song and story still keep green in our memory, while their monumental marble has crumbled to dust.

At. the conclusion of the address the Friendship Band played "Dixie's Land." As soon as the crowd caught the old familiar air of "Dixie" there was an outburst of applause. The veterans' yell- ing and waving handkerchiefs, hats, lasted for several minutes.

Congressman Charles E. Hooker was then introduced, and was received with applause. He apologized for not having manuscript, saying it was a task for him to write since the loss of his arm. He appeared dressed in Confederate gray, as did the late General Early, who delivered the annual memorial address here in 1889.

An empty sleeve a remembrance of the Vicksburg seige was, as Captain Williams happily remarked in introducing him, the most