Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/43

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 * 1 to the private >oldier of the Confederacy, of every branch of

rice, the glory that belongs to each. But the old cavalry com main It -rs t'nnn South Carolina are devoted to the history of their old commands, and Wade Hampton and M. C. Butler have each in turn placed chaplets of laurels upon the monument to the " Dragoons," and measured out to the survivors the full measures of credit due a command as faithful in life as were they in death to a cause where time honors alike memories of the living, and of the glorious dead. The winding up the affairs at the city of Fayetteville was hastened. Sherman with his 70,000 men halted until his pontoon bridge could be put down. On the I2th of March, suffering from a wound re- ceived at "Campbell's Mills," General Butler sent me with Private King of the " Maryland Line" to Raleigh, where I might be with my friend, Nat Butler, who was beloved by staff and couriers alike. Any man who has served on the cavalry headquarter staff can fully understand the kind relations existing between the general and his household. The tenderest sentiment exists a sympathy for chief and staff; for orderlies and couriers.

We found my wounded friend nicely quartered at Major Deve- reaux's house, with Captain James Butler and Edmund, General Butler's faithful body-sen-ant, at his side: I was so thankful that I was able to help nurse the wounded soldier boy. Dr. Warren, the surgeon, when asked by me what I should do, said: " Poor Nat is so low, but if you can keep him mad all the time we will pull him through." Major Devereaux's beautiful daughters, Miss Agnes and Miss Kate, would bring every delicacy they could think of, but from no hands save mine would he touch food. He died in the prime of his life, on the I2th day of April, 1877, at the Planter's Hotel, Au- gusta, Ga.

" No more shall the war cry sever,

Or the winding rivers be red; They banish our anger forever

When they laurel the graves of our dead. Under the sod and dew,

Waiting the judgment day, Love and tears for the blue,

Tears and love for the gray."

The above account is not what a general saw, but what was seen by an humble private soldier, and I regret to say, by him is very poorly described.