Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/251

Rh  of the soldiers of the South the causes may be traced, partly to disparity of numbers and resources, and partly to other serious disabilities of a different kind, which the loyalty of the armies to the and the forbearance of the people in their homes for the sake of "The Cause" have forbid all reference to or mention!

Innisfallen, October, 1898. 



Colonel John C. Shields, the commandant at old Camp Lee, furnishes the Dispatch with a most valuable article, giving the history of the camp from its establishment in the earliest days of the Confederacy, until the close of the war.

Colonel Shields was the editor of the Richmond Whig for a number of years, and among older newspaper men in Virginia, his name is very familiar. He was the founder of the Lynchburg Virginian, which was for many years one of the widely influential papers of the State. He stood in the front rank of Virginia journalists in his day, and some of his contributions to the historical data of early Virginia, especially the Valley, are very valuable.

Colonel Shields has for several years been retired from journalism, living with his family at his beautiful home in Rockbridge county, where he leads an ideal existence among his books, fruit trees, and flowers.

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