Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/122

 118 Southern Historical Society Papers.

off the field. I was shot through the throat, through the shoulder and through the arm. And I to-day wear six scars from wounds then received, scars more prized by me than all the ribbons and jewelled decorations of the kingly grant. When Moses P. Young and James H. Robinson came to my relief I delivered to them what was my first and what I then regarded my last and dying re- quest, for I then thought the wound through my throat must soon prove mortal. It was in these words which I have ever since borne freshly in memory: "Tell my friends at home that I did my duty." These words expressed all that was in me at that moment friends they express all that is in my life. Well do I remember that supreme moment, how I was without fear, and was perfectly willing to die to die the death of the patriot, and how then came upon me the tender thought of home and of home friends, and all my earthly aspirations concentrated into the one wish that my memory might be kindly linked to the recognition that I gave my life honorably and bravely in duty to myself, to my country and to my God.

GETTYSBURG PICKETT'S CHARGE.

You command me to renew an inexpressible sorrow, and to speak of those things of which we were a part.

It is now nearly thirty years since there died away on the plains of Appomattox the sound of musketry and the roar of artillery. Then and there closed a struggle as heroic as ever was made by a brave and patriotic people for home government and home nation- ality. The tragic story of that great struggle has ever since been to me as a sealed, sacred book. I have never had the heart to open it. I knew that within its lids there were annals that sur- passed the annals of all past times, in the intelligent, profound, and all-absorbing patriotism of our people in the unselfish and untiring devotion of an entire population to a sacred cause and in the brilliancy and prowess of arms which have shed an imperishable glory and honor on the people of this Southland. Yet there was such an ending to such great deeds! The heart of this great people, broken with sorrow, has watered with its tears those bril- liant annals until every page shows the signs of a nation's grief.