Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/20

 16 Southern Historical Society Papers.

TREES WHITTLED DOWN AT HORSESHOE.

Captain W. W. Old Gives a Graphic Account of This Memorable Engagement.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES.

Senator Daniel refers to War Record of Prominent Norfolk

Attorney.

A number of accounts by gallant participants in the sanguinary conflict variously termed the salient or Bloody Angle and the Horseshoe have appeared in previous volumes of the Southern His- torical Society Papers. It is referred to also by Col. Cutshaw in his admirable and graphic address, "The Battle near Spotsylvania Courthouse on May i8th, 1864," first delivered before the associa- tion of Richmond Howitzers, Dec. 14, 1905, and repeated before R. E. Lee Camp, No. i, C. V., Jan. 10, 1905. Col. Cutshaw who had not long before visited the scenes, enhanced the value of his narra- tion with diagrams of the sections. The republication in this]volume is amended by Captain Old. ED.

The following communication was published in the Times-Dis- patch, on Sunday, August 27, 1905, and with the correction of some typographical errors, hurriedly made by me, was republished in the Public Ledger, of Norfolk, Va., on August 30, 1905. As there still appeared some errors, I here give the communication as republished in the Public Ledger, with further corrections.

Captain W. W. Old, writing to the Richmond Times- Dispatch, contributes an interesting chapter to civil war history that will be read with interest here by his friends and by those who were asso- ciated with the stirring period about which he writes. As a preface to Captain Old's review of the tree incident at Bloody Angle, the Times- Dispatch published on Sunday a short reference to the cap- tain's war record by Senator Daniel. The entire contribution follows:

Captain William W. Old, the eminent lawyer, of Norfolk, Va., served as aide-de-camp of Major General Edward Johnson, and after