Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/230

 214 Southern Historical Society Papers.

away to his headquarters, a small cottage in the center of the town of luka.

" Going to the headquarters of General Price a little later, I said: 1 General, what shall I do with General Little's body ? '

" 'My Little, my Little; I've lost my Little,' was the reply, and the lines of sorrow were like furrows on his brow.

" 'General," I said, after a moment's hesitation, ' what shall I do with General Little's body?'

" 'My Little; I've lost my Little, my only Little.'

" I waited again, and once more tried: 'General Price, what shall I do with General Little's body? '

" 'My Little is gone; I've lost my Little.'

' ' That was the only reply I could get from General Price. He was almost crazed with grief, and I don't believe he knew what I was asking him.

"Going down the steps, I met Colonel Tom Sneed, the adjutant of General Price, and I asked him. He told me he would see Price and would come over to our headquarters after a while.

" It was about 10 o'clock at night when he came. They had held a consultation in the meantime, and had decided to retreat from luka. General Price wanted to fight, but General Hebert and the others said the death of Little had so completely demoralized the soldiery that they believed they would not fight with any spirit. So it was decided to retreat at daylight.

" 'General Little's body must be buried at once,' said General Price to me, coming over to our headquarters; 'for we retreat be- fore the dawn.'

" The soldiers dug a grave in the little garden just to the rear of our headquarters, and a few minutes before 12 midnight the saddest funeral train I ever witnessed in my life formed in line and moved to where the fresh earth had been rolled back.

" Each of us carried a lighted candle that flickered mournfully in the night air, and we gathered about the open grave as the rough coffin was lowered in the earth. Father Bannon, of St. Louis, the chaplain of the First Missouri brigade, stood at the head. Wright Schaumburg, afterwards the private secretary to Mayor Shakspeare, of this city, came next. Then we were all grouped around the sacred spot, each man with a lighted candle. There were Colonel Thomas Sneed, the adjutant to General Sterling Price; Lieutenant Peter Sangrain, of the army; John Kelly, a civil engineer; Colonel