Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/326

 a gentle kindness, for never, no, never, while I breathe heaven's vital air, will I forget the incidents of that morning. With the diamond-pointed pen of gratitude they have been recorded upon the tablets of my memory, and there they will glow and glisten until with me "the silver cord is loosened and the golden bowl is broken."

Your affectionate son,

UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN.

Longstreet's Courier—Memorable Words of Confederate Leaders—A Time when they were Sorely Tried—What Might Have Been—The Part Played by Hood.

By WILLIAM YOUNGBLOOD, of Alabama. For many years I have thought of writing out for the public what I know of the battle of Gettysburg; but the political surroundings of myself and of him conspicuously interested have deterred me. To every one to whom I have ever told this incident of my soldier's life he has said that I ought to reduce it to writing and give it to the world or to the people of this country—that it might go into the archives. I have determined to tell the story in this way, every word of which is the truth, absolute and pure.

In June, 1863, Lee's army commenced the movement to Pennsylvania: I was then a private soldier in the Fifteenth Alabama Regiment, commanded by Colonel William C. Oates; our division crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at Ashby's Gap, and soon came to the Shenandoah River, where our Commander, General Hood, was sitting on his horse directing the crossing. I approached General Hood and asked for permission to take off my clothes before wading the river, but was told to go in—"No