Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/226

 222 Southern Historical Society Papers.

witness his great grief over the condition of his beloved master. Sergeant Flournoy lived for a week in Chimborazo Hospital, con- scious to the last, able to recognize any one, but wholly unable to speak, and then calmly gave up his generous and patriotic spirit. My gallant cousin, Colonel G. A. Bull, of the Thirty-Fifth Georgia, was killed bravely cheering on his men.

My own beloved Captain Keeling gave up, as I have stated, his life during the battle. His clear, ringing voice I can hear now, calling to and inspiring the men on that memorable battle-field. In speaking of Captain Keeling I am but obeying an irresistible impulse of my heart. He was my friend, ever generous and kind to me. We marched and fought side by side, and on that woeful and never-to-be-forgotten day, the 3ist of May, 1862, amid the tempest of fire and hail of iron, he fell within a few feet of me, and his noble spirit winged its eternal flight to the land of the hereafter. Captain Keeling was born in Richmond, Va. His father, the Rev. Henry Keeling, D. D., was a noted Baptist minister, and for years editor of a church paper. He was a poet of no mean reputation. Captain Keeling' s education was received mainly at the Virginia Military Intitute.

Soon after his graduation, at the age of 19, the Mexican war having broken out, he was chosen ist lieutenant of a company of Virginia Infantry, and hastened to the scene of action. He com- manded his company and acted as adjutant for twenty-two months in the regiment in which General Early was major. When the Mexican war was over he adopted teaching as a profession, and for several years taught successfully in Alabama. Just before secession he moved to Tuskegee, and was there military instruc- tor in the Collegiate Institute. His career as a teacher was bril- liant and successful, while his genial disposition and engaging manners secured for him hosts of friends and admirers wherever he lived. In May, 1861, soon after hostilities had actually begun, in conjunction with Captain R. F. Ligon, Hon. David Clopton, Colonel Nick Gachet, Captain George Jones, Captain John H. Echols, Prof. J. F. Park and others, he raised the "Macon Con- federates," and on the 26th of that month left for Richmond, where his company was assigned to the I2th Alabama Regiment. While the battle of Manassas was raging, on the 2ist of July, the regiment took the cars for the scene of action, but, as stated in another place in this sketch, owing to the treachery of the con-