Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/88

 82 Southern Historical Society Papers.

they were asked how they liked soldiering. "Oh, very well, very well indeed," they said. "It has one great advantage over rail- roading: 'tis not nearly so dangerous. " We think these battles 01 the 29th and 3<Dth of August disabused their minds of such an erron- eous belief. They were among the most obstinately and stubbornly contested of the war, and on one occasion at least, our men, when their ammunition was exhausted, hurled rocks and stones at their opponents. The losses were heavy, and many valuable lives were sacrificed if any distinction can be made where nearly all were alike useful to their country.

On freedom's battle-ground they died; Fame's loudest trump shall proudly tell How bravely fought how nobly fell.

B. M. PARHAM.

[From the New Orleans States. November, 1895.]

"I AM DYING, EGYPT, DYING," AND ITS AUTHOR.

A TOUCHING INCIDENT OF THE WAR.

Colonel Douglass West's Recollection of the Death of Lytle. The Popular Version.

The States is in receipt of the following letter of inquiry from Mr. Joseph G. Fiveash. of the Norfolk (Va.) Public Ledger. The clip- ping referred to in the letter is from the Norfolk Virginian, and is as follows:

Our neighbor, the Virginian, in its issue of this morning, speak- ing of the authorship of the poem " Antony and Cleopatra," says:

Quite an animated discussion is going on among certain news- papers concerning the time when this poem was written, but it is generally believed that the Maysville (O. ) Republic's statement is correct. That paper says that General William H. Lytle had the manuscript on his person when the Confederates came across his body on the field of Chickamauga. The belief has obtained that General Lytle wrote the poem at Cincinnati before the war, but its condition when found on his person at Chickamauga showed that he composed it at odd hours in the camp.