Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/41

 Confederate Gold. 29

Bloomfield Academy, near the University of Virginia, under his brother, Prof. William LeRoy Broun, now a distinguished edu- cator residing at Auburn, Ala. Fie studied law at the Univer- sity during 1859 and i860, and in the fall of the latter year en- tered the practice with his brother, Maj. T. L. Broun, at Charleston, Kanawha county. At that place, previous to the war, he became a member of the Kanawha Rifles, under Capt. George S. Patton, and in December, while using one of the flintlock muskets with which the company were equipped, was badly crippled in the left arm by the explosion of the piece. For this reason he was not mustered in with the company in the spring of 1861, but in July of that year he accompanied his brother and a force of Boone and Logan county volunteers up the Big Coal river, meeting Gen. Wise at White Sulphur Springs. Subsequently he was appointed by Gen. Wise captain and assistant quartermaster of the Third Wise Legion, which upon the reorganization under Gen. Lee, became the Sixtieth regiment, Virginia infantry. In December following he accom- panied the regiment, under Gen. Lee's command, to Pocotaligo, S. C. In May, 1862, the regiment was with the army of Gen. J. E. Johnston before Richmond, but in June Capt. Broun was again ordered to South Carolina and stationed at Georgetown. Remaining in this department, he was transferred, in 1864, to Augusta, Ga., v.diere he remained until early in the spring of 1865, when he was ordered to report in person to the quarter- master at Richmond. Starting upon the journey, notwithstand- ing the interference of Gen. Sherman with safe and comfortable travel at that time, he proceeded in company with IMaj. Hill, a wounded Georgia soldier, in a wagon drawn by mules, until he reached Abbeville, where he learned the fate of Richmond, the surrender of Lee and the assassination of President Lincoln. Near this point President Davis had arrived, escorted by a bodv of mounted Kentuckians and Tennesseeans, chiefly Duke's. Vaughan's and Dibrell's brigades, with whom Capt Broun and Maj. Hill turned back to Georgia. Quartermaster-General Law- ton placed Capt Broun in charge of the specie wagon train, and