Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/308

 300 Southern Historical JSoriety

and as he now remembers it, the coldest winter and the deepest snow that he ever saw in the mountains of Virginia. At the beginning of this winter a Colonel Winston Fontaine, who was born and reared near Richmond, came to Pocahontas county, commissioned by the Confederate government to raise a regiment of mounted men. This gentleman was a grandson of Patrick Henry, and married Miss Mary Burrows, the daugh- ter of Dr. Burrows, the famous Baptist preacher of Richmond, who made such a reputation as chaplain among the Confede- rate soldiers. A Major Morgan accompanied Colonel Fon- taine as his adjutant. Mrs. Fontaine also accompanied her husband to Western Virginia and spent the entire winter in the home of the late Colonel Paul McNeil, of the Little Levels of Pocahontas county. This gentleman had represented Pocahon- tas county in the Constitutional Convention of 1861, and the writer is his youngest son. At this time I was. not an enlisted soldier, but was necessarily thrown a great deal of the time with Colonel Fontaine. I was seventeen years old, and Colonel Fon- taine was just the man a boy would admire. He was a brave, generous Christian gentleman, a fine shot and a classic scholar. My father required me to help feed and care for his live stock that winter. Colonel Fontaine succeeded beyond his expecta- tions in recruiting his regiment, and before the opening of spring he had a very respectable nucleus of a regiment of mounted men.

SPATS IN COLD WEATHER.

As the long, cold winter wore away, despite the snow and cold there were occasional spats between the outposts, in which the Confederates fully held their own, and notably on one occa- sion, when a large raiding party came from Beverley to cap- ture General Fontaine's force, the result of which was to leave fully one-third of their number.

One dark, rainy night, at my father's, about the 1st of April, 1863, from the noise we were apprised that some mounted men were approaching the house. On listening I heard the click of a saber. The first thought was that it was the Yankee cavalry, We fixed to defend ourselves as quickly as possible, but instead of shooting the strangers began to halloo, and then we knew