Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/23

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Knini tl- KiHimomi, VH., Time*, October 29, 1899.

IT WAS OBEDIENCE EVEN UNTO DEATH.

Grave in Hollywood Recalls a Story of Devotion to Duty.

CAME SOUTH TO FIGHT WITH US.

James H. Beers, of Connecticut, Who Fell at Chancellorsville Ran the Gauntlet When He Left Home Services for the Confederacy.

Within the last few days there has been placed over a low mound in my family lot in Hollywood, a simple granite marker bearing this inscription:

"JAMES H. BEERS,

OF CONNECTICUT,

WHO FELL AT CHANCELLORSVILLE

FIGHTING FOR VIRGINIA AND THE SOUTH,

MAY 3, 1863."

The erection of this modest stone not only marks the discharge of an obligation, richly merited and long deferred, but it also epito- mizes a life not unworthy of record and of remembrance. In the brief recital which follows, we shall endeavor to keep in mind that while the peace of death has, years agone, passed upon the chief actor in this strange story and probably also upon most of his rela- tives living when he died yet there may be others now living to whom the record of his life and death must needs be somewhat pain- ful; therefore, we will tell the story simply and quietly, as far as pos- sible, without the exaggeration of passion or prejudice.

When I first knew Mr. Beers he was an intelligent young me- chanic originally, I think, from Bridgeport, but at the time living in New Haven, Conn., where I was a college student, we both being members of a Bible class connected with a church of which my father, Rev. Joseph C. Stiles, was then pastor, and Mr. Gerard Hal- lock, of the New York Journal of Commerce, the most prominent member.

Shortly after my first acquaintance with Beers, Mr. Hallock be- came interested in him, being attracted by his regular attendance upon the services of the church and Bible class and his modest yet