Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/316

 308 Southern Historical Society Papers.

to meet the advancing foe, was one red-haired soldier who had lost both hat and shoes, but was advancing with the same alacrity as his comrades who had been more fortunate in preserving these valuable articles of dress. Miss Sally Scruggs, then a young lady, radiant with the enthusiasm of the occasion, was standing upon the wall of the front yard of what was then the residence of Mr. H. I. Brown, at the south corner of Fifth and Church streets, together with a great many other ladies. She was wearing a Confederate broad-brimmed straw hat of her own make, trimmed with all the colors which could be raked from the discarded finery of the past. Seeing the gallant fellow passing without a hat, she tore her own from her head and threw it to him. He caught it, tied it over his auburn locks, raised his musket to a present arms, and the brigade cheered as long as they \\ ere in sight.

The writer has taken much pains to gather from eye-witnesses in- cidents of these eventful days in the history of our city, but with little success. It is astonishing how few people took note, or, if they did, can narrate the small incidents which would be so interesting to the present generation. The main and patent facts they remember well, but the official reports and newspapers preserve them to us very accurately. What is wanted, and what is the prime aim of this paper, is the preservation of those traditional facts which give a reality to history which historic papers cannot impart, Little aid has been rendered in this respect, though many letters have been written ask- ing it, and many personal applications made to those who might, with a little trouble, have reproduced from memory many of those incidents so essential to the personal interest of such a sketch as this.

Among the facts which have been preserved, it is pleasant to tell of another soldier whose subsequent career was one in which every citizen took pride. Young W. C. Folkes, the son of our late much respected member of the legislature from this city, Ed. J. Folkes, was at home disabled by a wound which had carried away one of his legs. Though far from recovered, he seized his crutch and a musket and started out to the lines, taking with him our townsman, Mr. E. C. Hamner, then not sixteen years old. The two marched out to the furthermost line, and there did a soldier's duty under fire all day. Young Folkes, after the war, studied law at the University of Vir- ginia and then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he soon rose to the front rank in his profession, and, while yet a young man, was elevated to the Supreme bench of the State, where, after a few years