Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/343

 The Crenshaw Battery. 337

lishing department of the Everett Waddey Company, of this city. EDITOR.]

At the suggestion of some of my old comrades I send for publi- cation my recollection of the part played by this battery in our late war.

ORGANIZATION.

On the i4th day of March, 1862, on the Basin bank, in the ware- house of William G. Crenshaw, assembled a number of young men, middled-aged men and boys, all eager to do duty for the State in her defence. Well do I remember the means resorted to by some (at that period none but those who had attained the age of eighteen years were eligible) that they might overcome what they in their patriotism believed to be unjust in not permitting them to take up arms and march to the front.

This meeting resulted in the selection of William G. Crenshaw as captain, James Ellett as first lieutenant, who gave up his life at the battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862; Charles Hobson as second lieutenant, who was, we believe, lost at sea, having been detached for special service, and A. B. Johnson as junior second lieutenant, with as bright a complement of non-commissioned officers as ever left Richmond namely, Thomas Graves, who was afterwards trans- ferred to another service; Thomas Ellett, who in time became its commander, and surrendered as such; Hollis, who afterwards became our first lieutenant; Allegre, one of the noblest and best of soldiers; Allen, there were two of them, Bill, who in time was promoted to the lieutenancy, and Ralph, another one of that jolly throng; and Robert Ellett, that noble boy who gave up his life for the cause, and then, too, that modest, whole-souled soldier, George Young, another victim of that unequal struggle, who lost his life at Jericho Ford during Grant's flank movement from the Wilderness to the south side of the James; also the Smith boys, Hugh afterwards lieutenant, and Clinton, another one of the invincibles, with the Ratcliffe brothers, Walter and Willie.

This is, I think, about the make-up of the Crenshaw Battery with about eighty men and boys, as we marched to Camp Lee, all in bright uniforms, to commence the actual duties of the soldier. And just here let me say that Captain Crenshaw will ever be remem- bered by the remaining few with the kindest of feeling for his thought- fulness in connection with the battery. Especially do we remember