Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/161

 Shaft to Historic Old Portsmouth Artillery. 153

live to get there, now tell me." He whispered: " Tell my wife I died for my country and her."

Then becoming- unconscious, I left him. with a detail of men. He died about 8 o'clock that night, and next morning we wrapped his body in a tent fly and buried him under a tree in the field with Masonic rites.

While we were engaged in the ceremonies, the owner of the farm joined us, and said: "This shall be a sacred spot: I will put a fence around it to protect it."

Soon after we were ordered to retreat to the Virginia side of the Potomac; we then disinterred the body, put it in an ambulance in charge of Keith Parker and John W. Snow, who brought it over the river and buried it on the farm of Mr. Levi Mohler, the father of Mrs. Arthur Wilson, of this city. There it remained until it was brought home and reinterred in our Oak Grove Cemetery, where the Portsmouth Light Artillery Monument Association has set a granite marker to tell the spot where the ashes of the brave soldier rest. *

The battle of Sharpsburg took place on the i6th and lyth of September, 1862. The artillery organization was reduced in men and horse to such an extent that on the second of October General Lee instructed General Wm. N. Pendleton to submit a plan for reorganization, which he did, and it was approved and made effec- tual in special orders No. 200: Headquarters, Army Northern Virginia, October 4, 1862. * * * VII. The three companies of Major Saunders' Battalion will be formed into two. The officers of Thompson's Battery (late Grimes') are relieved from duty with the company, and the men will be distributed by Major Saunders between Moorman's and Huger's batteries.

There were seventy- two batteries in the army and eighteen were consolidated, leaving fifty- four organizations. This order was pro- mulgated to our company at Winchester, and aroused great indig- nation among the men, and almost insubordination was manifested; but I advised them to consider the matter soberly and not to dis- grace themselves; that I would seek a personal interview with General Lee to see if he would revoke it. I immediately rode to his headquarters, and after dismounting, met Colonel Chilton, and asked him if General Lee was in ? He said yes, and just at that time General Lee came out of his tent. I walked up to him with his order in my hand, saluted him which he returned, then intro-