Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/217

 Battle of Bethd. 201

A COINCIDENCE.

The soldier killed on the Confederate side was young Henry L. Wyatt, and he was the first soldier killed in a pitched battle on the southern side. Thirty-five years after seeing young Wyatt lying mortally wounded on the battle-field, I was walking through the Soldiers' Section of Hollywood Cemetery, in the suburbs of Rich- mond, and came across a wooden headboard that had rotted down and fallen with the blank side up. I turned it over with my foot and discovered that it had been over this soldier's grave, as I read his name, date of death, and regiment to which he belonged.

Behind the chimney of a house on the field, where he had taken shelter, I came across one of Duryea's red-breeches Zouaves, cold in death, killed by an artillery shot that had passed through the house and chimney that shielded him, thus proving that there is no safe place on a battle-field.

NORTHERN SENTIMENT.

After the battle there was a great clamor for the removal of Butler, the New York Tribune declaring that the President would show his wisdom by making peace with the Southern Confederacy at once if he was not willing to send generals into Virginia who were "up to their work," while the Herald sustained Butler "as evidently the right man in the right place."

The Charleston Courier about the same time stated that a letter had been received in that city saying that a great reaction had taken place among the capitalists of New York and Boston, and that peti- tions were being circulated to be laid before Congress asking the peaceful recognition of the Southern Confederacy and the establish- ment of amicable relations by treaties ; the speedy closing of the war, or else New York and Boston would be ruined cities.

BECAME FAMOUS.

Among the participants in this battle who afterwards became famous were:

Captain Kilpatrick, on the Federal side, as a cavalry general.

Colonel Hill, on the Confederate side, as a lieutenant-general.

General Butler, on the Federal, as a major-general, who was " bottled up " at Bermuda Hundred at the beginning of the siege of Petersburg.

Major George W. Randolph, who commanded the Confederate artillery, as Secretary of War of the Confederate States.