COMING HOME FROM GREENSBORO, N. C.

B. L. RIDLEY'S JOURNAL.-Continued.

Tuesday, May 9, 1865.-Have halted here at Cherokee Iron Works, in Spartanburg District, South Carolina, to have mules shod and clothes washed. Works extensive on Broad River, which, after receiving the Pacolette a few miles below, is navigable for flat boats to Columbia, 110 miles distant. We are fishing and bathing and will our journey pursue to-morrow.

Had the war lasted a few weeks longer, the staff, by special act of Confederate Congress, would have been promoted. Lieutenant General's Aides would have been Lieutenant, Colonel and Major. Well, Caruthers Stewart and I have lost that glory. The staff was not in the line of promotion, hence Congress, on account of the efficiency of this arm of the service, was endeavoring to recognize it. I often reflect how I got picked up on this staff duty. As a private in Company F, Ward's Regiment, Morgan's Cavalry, I caught the enemy's fire at and over my line, but horrors! instead of being far enough in the rear to escape minies, I have found that the staff had to go where the fighting was, in a battle and out, and take the fire, crossfire and enfilades at the whole corps, and was always a target for batteries and sharpshooters. But with the military courtesy of being called a grade higher than our real rank, the staff (whose loss quadrupled any other branch) had to content itself.

May 10.-Left camp this morning at seven, and have traveled twenty miles, having crossed Thickelty Creek and Pacolette River. We have passed within a few miles of the Cowpens, a notable place in the history of the old Revolution as the locality of a bloody battle between Gen'l. Morgan and Col. Tarleton; also passed the scene of another battle field on Pacolette River-believe it was Eutaw Springs, but may be mistaken. We passed through Spartanburg and are now in Union District, ten miles west of Unionville. The road is full of returning soldiers. Feed is scarce, but the people are very kind to us. A Mr. Jones invited Maj. Lauderdale and my father to breakfast with him a half mile off. Some one tried to steal a mule last night, but we were on the alert. A fellow came to our camp, and by false pretenses got a bunch of spun thread from us, promising to bring corn, but he decamped and we never heard of him again. Our circulating medium, cotton yarns, tobacco, and hams, is about to give out. But as Jacob Faithful in one of Marryatt's novels used to say:

"Life's a river, and man is a boat,
That over its surface is destined to float;
But joy is a cargo so easily stored,

That he is a fool who takes sorrow on board." May 11.-Have traveled twenty-five miles today; camped on the east bank of Tiger River. The country is sterile, and the contrast with Tennessee lands is striking. Road jammed with soldiers. Expected to meet Gen. Stewart at Cross Anchor, but found he had passed on with his corps, though our informant said he had disbanded them.

May 12. Are now in camp at Laurens Court.

House, South Carolina. Stop at two o'c broken wheel repaired.

May 13. Have traveled rapidly tosmooth road, and are now seventeen Laurens' Court House at half-past one. hasty memorandum on the south bank o River, Puckett's Ferry. Whilst we are was rumored at Lawrenceville, and t rife all along the way, that Bob Lincol Andrew Johnson at Washington. A had seen a gentleman who informed was reported in the Knoxville Whig a gusta Chronicle. Don't believe it, yet ed now to believe anything." Have al other rumor that a French fleet is in s mington. Don't I wish that President get on it! Mr. Puckett's ferryman say dent Davis, with his Cabinet, crossed t on Monday, May 1st, and also his esc Division, together with Vaughn's B East Tennessee. President is in good cort was disbanded at Washington, Ga Cabinet meeting was held there in a ba Have found a returning soldier of Vaug who says there are forty or fifty Yanke ville Court House, a few miles ahead o we will probably fall in with them Have not seen one since the surrend twenty-two miles from Abbeville. P Ninety Six, a place which has becom

from the fact that it was a station duri lution for the British, and the surroun of Laurens and Abbeville being disti Tories. The British General Cruger it, when Greene attempted once unsu It was at this place tha Kosciusko, who afterward became Dict and filled so large a place in Europea rected the siege for Gen'l. Greene. after traveling twenty-five miles.

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May 14. Passed through Coke miles from Abbeville, a village dist its excellent schools. Passed Abbe past twelve; the town full of soldie friend, John Young, of McMinnvill near being hanged by Andrew Joh ville, charged with being a spy. wagon train had stopped one mile town for the purpose of avoiding route for Washington, Ga. We have leading across Savannah River at Bar Yankees occupy Washington, hence we will go directly after crossing renton, thence to Sparta. Gen'l. St ward a courier to say that he was in to wait for him. Courier missed u Washington, we suppose. Have pit miles south of Abbeville.

May 15.-Have decided to wait; a Stewart's son back to meet him. curred in camp last night. Mr. Hill who is one of our company, lost his poor soldier, and the loss is severe to ant Stewart and his brother Alphons and bring no tidings of the Gener trouble, not knowing what to do, b

the morning. I went back to Abbeville last night and got a supply of commissary stores, bacon, hams, flour, salt, sugar, etc. Camped near Mr. Tolmand's.

May 16.-Returned from the village last night, where I saw twelve Yankees, who looked scared. Their mission, I hear, is to take charge of the commissary stores there: also heard that the Yankees had captured President Davis on his Mississippi tour. The rumor is pretty well authenticated, therefore I mention it. Our faithful man Jim gave us a poor breakfast this morning-the coffee and biscuit were both badly prepared; but he said he was all the time "thinking of his wife and how she would receive him." He promised next time to put more beans and less water in the coffee-pot. And now as I am about to leave South Carolina, and strike for the Georgia shore, I must give my impression of it. The rivers first attracted me. Their beautiful names, the Saluda, the Enoree, the Congaree, the Wateree, the Pacolette. The people clever, high-toned, warm-hearted. On going from Augusta, through South Carolina to get to Smithfield, our first headquarters was at the house of a good old farmer near Edgefield, next at the house of Governor Pickens of Newberry. He had a young wife, and said that he ordered fired at Sumter the first gun of the war. We then stopped at Ex-Gov. Gist's after crossing the Enoree. At Chester, we stopped at the house of a prominent lawyer. It was in Chester that we were highly entertained by a party of elegant ladies, and during the evening Maj. Porter, of Cheatham's Staff, entertained us with fine singing. We stop with all classes and they treat us well. If a soldier wants royal treatment, go to the good liver; the rich man's, is not generally the place to get it. I like South Carolina-the land of Rutledge, of Calhoun and of Hayne, in the days that are gone, and of the Rhetts, the Pickens, the Gists, the Hamptons, and the Prestons of today. When I look over this old land, I wonder at the changes to come. Slavery is dead, and a new system, social and political, is staring us in the face. The system of labor deranged-ole massa and ole missus cannot be re-educated. "The little old log cabin in the lane" must give way before the sun of a new idea. The generation of negroes growing up will fall back into a state of laziness and improvidence, and the generation of whites, all on an equality in the poverty line, must meet the crisis of events. No more can we linger with the old love; we must try to gain the respect of the new. So:

"Look forward, toil onward, and when in the end
Well merited honors you've won,

Be proud that your claim to the prize did not lie
In being a somebody's son."

L. C. Martin, editor of the Loudon County Record, who was of the Tennessee Press excursion to Cumberland Island, and to "Light Horse Harry" Lee's grave, comments upon the trip and sends an editorial from his paper in which he gives this story from his father-in-law, O. S. Crandall, now living at Loudon, but who served the Union cause in a Minnesota regiment:

On the day of the fight, Mr. Crandall was stationed in the trenches on Allatoona mountain, with 2,000 other Union soldiers. Across the track at the foot of the mountain was located a large railroad wood-shed filled with provision for the federal army. About three o'clock, after the battle was over, a soldier was seen emerging from the Confederate lines. In his hand he bore aloft a blazing pine knot torch. He started for the provision house with the intention of firing it. He had hardly got in sight when 2,000 Union soldiers opened fire on him, as he was in full view of them. On, on he went, with his flaming torch, until he had traversed about 1,500 feet, and was within a few rods of the provision house, when he fell dead beside the track. He was a member of Gen. French's command. He was about thirty or thirty-five years of age. The second day after the battle, Mr. Crandall assisted in making a box coffin and in burying him on the spot where he fell. The bravery and daring of this soldier in facing death in order to burn the provision house commanded the attention and respect of the thousands of Union soldiers who saw him, and they gave him a special burial.

tion to the Forrest Monument Fund. Afterwards it was suggested to continue the company of Confederate Veterans, and later on by-laws were adopted and the company was reorganized. Under its by-laws no one will be admitted to its ranks unless he be a member of the local Confederate Bivouac, so that his Confederate record shall be unquestioned. When the Inter-State Drill at Memphis was planned the Veteran Chickasaw Guards took the first step and appointed a committee to confer with a similar committee from the Confederate Veteran company. This joint committee made up the progamme for the big drill, which, through the aid of certain of our prominent business men, was most successfully carried out, even to the satisfaction of the visiting military.

The officers of Company A. Confederate Veterans, of Memphis, are Capt. W. W. Carnes, First Lieut. Kellar Anderson, Second Lieut. Jas. Dinkins and Junior Second Lieut. Edward Bourne. The organization and drilling of this uniformed company of Confederate Veterans excited new interest among war veterans who had not heretofore united with our local organization, and greatly added to the membership of the "Confederate Historical Society" of Memphis, which is Bivouac No. 18 in our State Association of Confederate Soldiers and Camp No. 28 United Confederate Veterans.

NOT MUCH DANGER FROM CONFEDERATES.

Capt. W. W. Carnes, of Memphis, was asked whether these are the only Confederates that have been so organized, and he replied:

"No other veteran companies have engaged in a drill since the war. I have been associated with the military all the time, and know of n oorganization of

CAPTAIN W. W. CARNES.

a company of veterans till ours was made for the purpose stated. If there was any veteran company in existence at the North (as I have heard it stated), there has been no appearance of such company in any drill contest. The ages of our company range from fifty to fifty-six years-two or three of them a shade under fifty. The oldest members drilled as 'spry' as the youngest-and all say they were benefited by the exercise."

MISSING.

In the cool sweet hush of a wooded nook,

Where the May buds sprinkle the green old sward,
And the winds, and the birds and the limpid brook,
Murmur their dreams with a drowsy sound,
Who lies so still in the plushy moss,

With his pale cheek pressed on a breezy pillow,
Couched where the light and the shadows cross,
Thro' the flickering fringe of the willow?
Who lies, alas!

So still, so chill in the whispering grass?
A soldier, clad in the zouave dress,

A bright-haired man, with his lips apart, One hand thrown up o'er his frank, dead face, And the other clutching his pulseless heart, Lies there in the shadow, cool and dim;

His musket swept by a trailing bough, With a careless grace in his quiet limbs, And a wound on his manly brow:

A wound, alas!

Whence the warm blood dripped on the quiet grass.
The violets peer from their dusky beds,
With a tearful dew in their great pure eyes;
The lilies quiver their shining heads,
Their pale lips full of sad surprise;
And the lizard darts thro' the glistening fern,
And the squirrel rustles the branches hoary,
Strange birds fly out with a cry, to bathe
Their wings in the sunset glory;
While the shadows pass
O'er the quiet face and the dewy grass.
God pity the bride who waits at home,
With her lily cheeks and her violet eyes,
Dreaming the sweet old dream of love,

While her lover is walking in Paradise:
God strengthen her heart as the days go by,
And the long dreary nights of her vigil follow.
No bird, no moon, nor a whispering wind,
May breathe the tale of the hollow;

Alas! Alas!

The secret is safe with the woodland grass.

The above lines were written just after the battle of Seven Pines, being suggested by the report of the missing after that battle. Can any one give the name of the author?

Rev. John R. Deering, now of Harrodsburg, Ky., ever faithful as he was steadfastly valiant in our great struggle, adds a note with subscription:

Comrade J. D. Sprake is a good man and true. He had never seen a copy of the VETERAN before the one I showed him, although he lives near a city and in one of our best counties. Whose fault is it? Mr. Sprake belonged to the Eighth Kentucky (Col. Ray S. Cluke's) Cavalry. Perhaps you never knew just such a soldier as Sprake. He was ready, cheerful, brave, efficient, and very handy with a gun, although he had only one hand. Some men were willing to get out of the army when they had lost a hand; but Sprake had lost his before he enlisted I want him to read the VETERAN the rest of his day

FINANCES OF THE C. V. A. OF KENTUCKY.

The following statement was furnished promptly after the publication referred to by Gen. John Boyd:

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100

I thank you for the very complimentary notice of the Confederate Veteran Association of Kentucky. Pardon me for asking you to correct a probable typographical error in your figures. The report shows that we have received since the organization of the Association the sum of ten thousand and seventy and dollars, ($10,070,42), and not one. thousand and seventy dollars ($1,070, as printed. While the balance in cash shows only $183,44, the body of the report shows that we have invested in bonds bearing 6 per cent. interest the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars ($3,500.00). We have expended some three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) in caring for the living and in burying the Confederate dead. A merciful God has certainly blessed the efforts and guided the hands of those who have given many hours of toil to build up this Association. my humble efforts have been in any way conducive to these results, I ascribe to that same good Father all praise. To the Confederate Veteran Association of Kentucky, and to the camps composing the Kentucky Division, for their kindness in honoring me with the highest office in their gift. I have only feelings of the deepest gratitude.

If

GEN. CUSTER'S TRIBUTE TO THE CONQUERED FOE. -Speaking of Custer's charge on the evening of the sixth of April, '65, and its repulse, the closing of the Federal lines around the Confederates, and the last conflict at Sailors Creek, a Union soldier states:

"Every cloud has its silver lining. The next morning, after a refreshing slumber on the sweetest of all beds the bare ground--we were again marshalled in line, and down that line came General Custer, his yellow hair and boyish face well-known to all of us. Near the center of the line he turned to his band, and ordered it to play "Dixie." As the marvelous strains of that Confederate war song floated in liquid sweetness around us and over us, we broke into tumultuous cheering. General Custer waved his hat, and a thousand gallant soldiers in blue dashed their caps in the air.”

Such was General Custer in the presence of a conquered foe. Here might the artist have found his inspiration for "Custer's last rally," and the Southern poet who wrote,

"The nations of the earth shall know,
That love, not hate, alone can glow
In soldier hearts by valor tried,
On many a field, and this our pride."

Since publishing in the May VETERAN that Rev. P. T. Martin was the possessor of the first parole given by Brig.-Gen. E. S. Canby, at Gainesville, Ala., dated May 11, 1865, information has been received from J. H. Womack, of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., that his parole was dated on the tenth, so he has the precedence. W. W. Harrison, of Gainesville, Ala., reports that his parole is dated the eleventh, and marked No. 1."

A BATTLE CALL TO KENTUC MARY WALKER MERIWETHE

Arouse thee, Kentucky! the graves of thy
Are pressed by the foot of the foe.
Has terror or avarice smothered the fires
That were wont in thy bosom to glow?
Arise! shall the voice of Virginia in vain
Call aloud to the child of her pride?
Thou shouldst rush like a storm over mou
To conquer or die at her side.
Alas! shall the rifles thy forefathers bor
Hang rusted and cold in their place?
Has the spirit that kindled their bosoms
Forever deserted their race?

Awake! there is scorn in the beautiful ef
Of thy maidens and mothers and wives
"Have we given," they ask with indignan

"To cowards our loves and our lives?"
Awake and redeem us! Arise in your m
Or forfeit to manhood the claim.
The arm that refuses to strike for the rig
Let it wither and perish in shame.

And he who would hasten to cringe and
At the feet of the ruthless invader,
A spirit so base it were flattery to call
A craven, a serf, or a traitor!

This copy is made from the origina The author was a Virginian by birth Capt. Darwin Bell, of Christian coun a brave and gallant soldier.

The Camp at Cleveland Tenn. org ciously. The officers are:

Dr. S. H. Day, Commander; J. G. Hayes, and J. R. Taylor, Lieut. Com: Shugart, Adjutant; J. V. Jordan, Q Dr. J. C. C. Garner, Surgeon; Dr. I Chaplain; G. B. Hayes, Officer of t Wilson, Treasurer; C. Appison, Se W. F. Barrett, Vidette; James Epper geant; W. H. Russell and Jas. Culton,

The Memorial Committee are: Judge John B. Hoyle, Hon. John David Sullins, Dr. Garner, and Capt.

The wives, widows, and daughte rades are co-operating for the genera purposes of such organizations.

Gen. Fitzhugh Lee at the Chicago "The country seems to be safe to myself surrounded on every side by t United States. I had a similar exp thirty years ago (laughter) at the i Appomattox, and I remember sleep after I had received my parole betw generals of the United States army. so safe for many of the preceeding flanks were well protected. (Conti and applause.) History in a measur To-night the mayor of what he tern city in the world-it is evident he ha Richmond, Va.-sits here quietly, ing his cigar, between two rebellious of cavalry, Wade Hampton and Fitz he is not afraid." (Laughter.)