Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/59

 The Fifteenth Virginia. 51

in Hagerstown, Md., the doors and windows of the houses being tilled with women and children, eager to see a live "rebel," a sol- dier left .the line and approached a group of boys on the sidewalk, appropriated a boy's hat, put his dilapidated covering on the boy's head, and returned to ranks amid the merriment of his comrades. Imagine the " rebel yell " that went up when a woman appeared with a pair of tongs, lifted.it from the pavement, where the boy had thrown it, and deposited it in the gutter.

Colonel Zeb. Vance, the gallant and witty North Carolinian, at the battle of Fredericksburg, where Jackson wanted to "drive them in the river," was taking his regiment through a dense thicket and undergrowth, where " ole hares" were plenty. It was when the fire was heaviest that the little things seemed paralyzed from fear. The boys were so busy picking up and bagging them that they almost forgot the enemy in their front. One "old lady," though, didn't lose her head, but took to the rear, and in passing Colonel Vance he put his sword under his arm, clapped his hands, and ex- claimed : " Go it, old Molly Cottontail! If 'twasn't for honor, I would be with you."

JAMES B. LACY,

Late Sergeant- Major i5th Virginia Infantry, Confederate States Volunteers, Army of Northern Virginia.