Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/380

364 sanctified and glorified as it is by the blood and tears of the past, and wave it again in the air, and sing once more their old war songs?





I am indebted to my friend Captain Louis Zimmer, of the Ordnance Department, C. S. A., now of New York city, but a former comrade in F company, volunteers of Richmond, for the following memo. Some efficient and providential service by Captain Zimmer, in securing from New York at personal hazard, percussion caps, which were essential for use in the first battle of Manassas, is given under the caption "A Secret Service Episode," Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 14-18. Zimmer was entrusted by the "Advisory Council" of War, which in 1861 was composed of Governor John Letcher, Lieutenant-Governor Robert L. Montague (father of our present Executive), Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, State Senator Thomas S. Raymond (later of West Virginia), Colonel (later Major-General) Francis H. Smith, Superintendent Virginia Military Institute, Captain Robert B. Pegram, C. S. Navy, and perhaps others. The private secretary of Governor Letcher, Colonel S. Bassett French, acted as Secretary of the Board. Of the proceedings of this "Board" of War, so able in its constitutional personnel, and which would be so informatory as to early appointments, only those of the early months of 1861 are preserved 