Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/289

 The Twelfth Alabama Infantry. 285

other quarters. The churches, too, are used. It has been a vic- tory bought at a fearful cost to them, if it be a victory at all.

Surgeons Cromwell and Love, of North Carolina, and Sur- geons T. J. Weatherly, of the 6th Alabama, and Robert Hardy, of the 3rd Alabama, were left in charge of our wounded. Captain Hewlett and I were moved to a well ventilated room on the sec- ond floor and placed on a comfortable mattress. A short time after an elegant lady came in to see us, and inquired from what State we hailed. I replied, ''Alabama," whereupon she said she had lost a favorite cousin, a captain in an Alabama regiment, killed at Seven Pines. He proved to be Captain Keeling of my company, and the good woman, Mrs. Mary Greenhow Lee (now of Baltimore), proposed to take us under her special care, and to have us carried to a private house where we would be better pro- vided for. We gladly consented, and, after a brief absence, she returned with some litters, borne by negroes, who still remained faithful to their owners, despite the corrupting influence of the Yankees, and were carried to the law office once used by Hon. James M. Mason, our Minister to England, and his able partner, Mr. Clark. The office was on Main street, near Fort Hill, so- called from the remains of an old fort erected there in the days of the British General Braddock, and near the residence of Mr. Clark and his amiable daughter, Mrs. Susan P. Jones. Mrs. Jones sent us some delicacies, and made us a brief visit. I suffered much from my wound to-day. A party of Confederates, perhaps a hundred, marched by the office, under guard, on their way to some Northern prison. The sight was a painful one.

Major Lambeth, Lieutenant W. H. Hearne, Sergeant Lines and private Watkins, of the i4th North Carolina, were brought to the office and quartered with us. Captain Frost, of the 4th Georgia, from West Point, Ga., died of his wounds in hospital. The ladies gave him the kindest attention.

Yankees are continually passing our door, and frequently stop and gaze curiously and impertinently at us, and ask rude, tantaliz- ing questions. They do not wait to be invited in, but stalk in noisily and roughly. Their conversation is coarse and insulting.

We have many conflicting and unreliable rumors of Early's move- ments. Six families, iii the vicinity of the office, have agreed to alternately furnish us with our daily meals. They are those of Mrs. Susan Peyton Jones, Mrs. J. N. Swartzwelder, Mrs. Burwell, Mrs.