Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 31.djvu/214

 206 Southern Historical Society Papers.

their language. The wounds and hardships he had endured during the war, however, had left their mark upon him, the exposure and privations of long marches, the discomforts of camp life and the sufferings of his long confinement in prison, had weakened his system and sown in him the seeds of disease, and so in 1880 he was com- pelled to abandon the active practive of law, and retired to his farm near Tye river, in Nelson county, in the hope that his health would improve. This hope was not to be realized, and in spite of the ministrations of the best medical talent in the country, he grew steadily worse.

He was a splendid rider, and a most enthusiastic sportsman and fisherman, and much of his time at " Fern Moss," as his place was called, was spent in the open air. In the summer months he would sit for hours on the river bank, fishing, and as he was as skillful as he was enthusiastic, he rarely failed to bring home substantial evidence that he had not been unsuccessful. He was even fonder, perhaps, of hunting than he was of fishing, as he was an excellent shot, and during the hunting season he gave much time to this sport, generally shooting from horseback, which he did with such accuracy as to rarely fail in bringing down his bird.

In the fall of 1882 he went to Philadelphia where he spent several weeks under the treatment of the eminent physician, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and upon his return home was apparently much improved. He caught cold, however, shortly after getting home, while attend- ing church, and in his weak condition pneumonia set in, and other complications, which caused his death.

On the ist of January, 1883, in the 47th year of his age, sur- rounded by the faithful circle of his loved ones, the end came in per- fect peace. He had ever been a steadfast Christian, and now when the time came for him to meet the last great enemy, he met him as he had ever met an enemy, with calm front and unshaken courage, and went out into the great beyond, murmuring the grand old hymn, " Just as I am."

His funeral services were conducted at St. Paul's Church, Lynch- burg, of which he had at one time been a vestryman, by Rev. T. M. Carson, the rector (who spoke of him with great feeling and ap- preciation), assisted by Rev. E. S. Gregory, of Epiphany Church, who had long been a faithful friend of his and of his family. The interment took place at Spring Hill cemetery, where he rests in the family section, and hard by are the remains of his two little daugh- ters, Carrie and Julia, who followed him to the grave in August of