Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/159

 fitop K. /'/./,//. 151

One hundred and eighteen " sleep their last sleep; they have fought their last battle, and m> sound ran awake them to glory again."

A company that had 170 men, fought fifty-seven pitched battles. had eighty-three men killed, thirty-five to die after the war, and fifty-two, by no fault of theirs, left wondering how it was possible that they eseaped, surely deserve the credit of having tried to do their duty.

On the fourth Thursday in May, 1861, the ordinance of secession \\.i- ratified by the people of Virginia by 130,000 majority. It did not wait for that, but had been in the field for more than a month previous to said action. For four long years 500,000 of us, all told, on land and sea, fought more than three millions of soldiers, and absolutely wore ourselves out whipping them. We fought the good fight; we kept the faith are still keeping it and when the problems, anxieties, and disappointments that absorbed our energies shall con- cern us no more, and when we, too, shall have passed away, and those for whom we fought, bled, and died shall have succeeded us in the paths of life and duty, may it, oh may it, be said of us:

Their deeds shine brighter than the stars,

For daylight hides them never; Brave men are stars that never set,

They shine in Heaven forever.

JOSEPH H. SHEPHERD.

[From the Richmond Dispatch. May 3, 1896.]

GENERAL GEORGE E. PICKETT.

His Appointment to West Point A Letter from his Widow.

A Richmond friend of Mrs. General Pickett recently wrote to her, making an inquiry as to how her husband received his cadetship appointment. She answered that General Pickett was appointed by- Congressman John G. Stuart, of the Third Illinois District, and she explained that Mr. Lincoln induced Stuart to make the appointment. Mr. Lincoln was then associated in the practice of the law with young Pickett's uncle, Mr. Andrew Johnston, who was later of the firm of Johnston, Boulware and Williams, of Richmond. Mr. Johnston,