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CONFEDERATE NATIONAL MEMO

RIAL ASSOCIATION.

Lieut.-Gen. S. D. Lee, Commanding Department East of the Mississippi, United Confederate Veterans, issues general order No. 4:

COLUMBUS, MISS., January 15, 1895.

The Lieutenant General Commanding invites the attention of all Confederate Veterans to, and heartily commends the patriotic suggestions of Col. Charles Broadway Rouss, of New York citywho, in the war between the States, was a comrade in the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia-looking to the establishment and maintenance of a National Memorial Association, in and by which "to perpetuate the memories. of the glorious struggle of the South for Constitutional rights, to pay deserved tribute to the heroic deeds of their fallen comrades, to furnish an inspiring object lesson to their descendants, and to leave to posterity enduring proofs of the courage, loyalty and devotion to duty of the Confederate soldier."

For the erection of the necessary buildings and to provide an adequate fund for the permanent maintenance of the contemplated Memorial, it is estimated that the sum of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars will be necessary, to be raised as now outlined in the form of subscriptions to an incorporated body, with the stated capital and stipulated valuation of shares, under a Board of Administrators, charged with the organization and management of the Association, to be composed of the nine surviving Confederate officers of the highest rank, who, after organizing, will alone receive donations and subscriptions to the stock to be issued by them; and that none might be excluded from participation in the patriotic undertaking, it is contemplated that the PAR value of the stock be fixed at Ten Dollars PER share.

STATE OFFICERS TENNESSEE DIVISION CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.

It is the purpose of this general order to enlist interest at once in the proposed Memorial, and to urge upon the nine surviving ranking Confederate officers to meet at an early date, organize the Board of Administrators, and formulate the details of organization, so that the Veterans and their sympathizers ●verywhere will be placed in possession of the purpose, scope and extent of the movement, and be prepared to consider and perfect the uncompleted details of the work when they meet in Reunion at Houston, Texas, next April.

Let it be understood that the contemplated Memorial will in no wise antagonize, but rather supplement the existing Memorial organizations here and there throughout the late Confederate States.

As well said by Comrade Rouss: "The mementos

of the struggle of the South and the evidences of her glorious prowess in the field are scattered broadcast over the country. Should they not be collected and provision be made for their preservation as a rich inheritance for our children and a patriotic object lesson for generations to come?" To this eloquent appeal we believe the responsive answer of all true exConfederates will be, Yes! Then, as our ranks are being rapidly thinned by the Scythe of Time, let the comparatively few of us that remain at once take the matter in hand, and labor for the realization of the prophetic vision and joyous hope of the patriot orator-Senator Daniels, of Virginia-in the con summation of a completed Battle Abbey, in which the "figure of Jefferson Davis shall be the central object, and around which shall be grouped the heroic relics of the battles of the Confederacy, and the pictured faces and sculptured forms of the great and

true and brave men who fought them. An undying memorial of the people who fought their own battles in their own way, for their own liberty as they conceived it, for their own independence as they desired it, and who need give to the world no other reason why." E. T. SYKES,

Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff.

CARED FOR A SICK SOLDIER BOY.
MRS. ELLEN G. M'CORD, ALBERTVILLE, ALA.

One bright Sabbath morning in the early autumn. of 1864, two soldiers came to my well for water. One of them was an old man, and the other seemed a mere boy. Hood's army had left Atlanta and his soldiers had been passing by for two days. Some were riding and some were on foot. Old men and boys had been called out to defend their native State, but now the magazines had been blown up, Atlanta had fallen, and we were in the enemy's lines.

I was a widow then, with two small children, and a kind old lady, Mrs. Smith, who had lost husband, children and home by the war, lived with me.

I saw the two soldiers as they tarried at the well, and as I was going to see about dinner I stopped to speak to them. While the old man was talking to me, the boy said, "I will go out to the grove and lie down and rest a little while."

I saw that the boy was sick, and I told him to go with me to the house and I would prepare him a comfortable place to rest. He had neither coat nor blanket, only a dirty haversack.

When dinner was ready I invited them both to dine. The old soldier gladly accepted, but the sick boy could not eat.

After dinner the old man said: "Madam, we must go now." The boy tried to rise from the bed, but fell back, saying, "I can't go, I am so sick." I asked the old man to stay with his son until morning, as he might be able to go then.

"He is not my son," said the old soldier. "When we gave up Atlanta he was sent out with other sick soldiers from the hospital and the ambulance broke down, and I have helped him this far."

I sent for old Cage, an old family servant, to come and put clean clothes on the sick boy and then put him to bed. The next morning he could not rise at all. The old man bade me goodbye with many expressions of gratitude for shelter and food, leaving the sick boy in my care.

The railroad was torn up for miles and there was no hospital near, so I told the old soldier we would take care of the lad.

We called in a physician, who said he had the typhoid fever. I sat down by his bed and inquired where he lived and asked his name, but he could not tell me anything at all. He tried to collect his thoughts, but his mind wandered. For two weeks he knew nothing, but lay and muttered about shooting men, and sometimes he talked of people we supposed to be his friends at home. He was neither bright nor attractive, but we remembered that he was a soldier and felt that somewhere a mother longed to see her boy, so we nursed him through the long days and nights. The doctor attended faithfully, and he did not suffer for anything the neighbors.could do

for him. One day I carried the poor, dirty haversack to the washerwoman, and we opened it to find two small pieces of cornbread and two thin slices of bacon and a small rag of salt. Somehow the little rag of salt and the poor lunch caused me to shed the first tears I had given the sick soldier. We had made nice soups for him, but he could eat nothing.

One morning when I entered his room I noticed an expression of intelligence on his face. When I carried the medicine to his bed, he said, "How long have I been here, and where am I?"

I replied that he had been very sick and that we had been nursing him for two weeks.

To my inquiry as to where he lived and if his. parents were alive, he told me they lived in southern Alabama. He gave me their address and requested me to write to them and let them know where he was. I wrote to them and they answered, thanking me for attentions, but were too poor to come to him. Weeks passed by and the soldier boy grew strong and well and no Federal soldier had visited us, but we were in their lines; so one morning I told "Uncle Cage" to take the mules and wagon and a load of wheat below Griffin to some friends of mine for the enemy were foraging near us. The soldier asked me to let him

go on the wagon so he could go from Griffin on the cars home. I gave him a good suit of gray jeans clothes and some money to pay his fare home, aunt Smith gave him a great deal of good advice, and he bade us goodbye.

After a while there came a letter saying he was safe at home, but when the war ended he would come back and oversee the hands on the farm for me.

I never saw our soldier boy again, but I often feel glad that I helped to save the life of one Confederate soldier, and I pray God that he may be true in all the relations of life.

E. T. Hollis, Sharon, Tenn.: "I heartily and enthusiastically endorse the VETERAN, and look forward to its monthly coming with pleasure. The reading of it makes me both a better man and a better citizen; for the love and sympathy for my old comrades in arms, aroused in my heart by reading it, embraces very largely all mankind."

W. R. Bloomfield, editor of the "National Bivouac," writes of the VETERAN as follows: "We copy from it this month liberally, not only on account of the value of the articles, but that our boys might judge of its merits. We have received three copies, and read them with care, but cannot find a line that the most fastidious of the boys in blue could object to. This magazine will aid, as does this and other papers published in the interest of the old armies of the blue and the gray, to preserve much valuable unwritten history of the hard days of the war. The editor says: 'The VETERAN belongs to the South.' In this we take issue with him. It belongs to us of the North as does the Bivouac' to those of the South. This is, or should be, true of every paper published in the interest of the soldier, whether he wore the blue or the gray, provided they are edited in a broad and catholic spirit. The war is over. We fought brave men, and should now extend the olive branch to them, and they should feel kindly toward us.”

WORTHY ACTION BY MEMPHIS COMRADES.

Camp No. 18, U. C. V., has taken this important action: It has addressed a communication to Camps in Tennessee, requesting that their delegates meet in Memphis, and all go in a body to Houston, Texas, on the occasion of the Fifth Annual Reunion in April, 1895; and ask their authority to instruct them to arrange for Quarters for the Tennessee delegates, and also to secure a place for "Tennessee Headquarters." At the Reunion in Birmingham, the State had no stated headquarters; nor was there any conference between the different delegations, and therefore Tennessee had a Speaker for each Camp, while other States would speak through one delegate selected by all the Camps. The report adds:

There are strong reasons why Tennessee should be creditably represented at Houston. It is a fact that Tennessee and Texas are bound to each other more closely than any other States. Tennessee furnished more troops to free Texas from Mexico, and has sent more of her citizens there since the war between the States, than any other State. Of the 172 heroes who sacrificed their lives in the Alamo, over one hundred of them were Tennesseans. Sam Houston was a Tennessean. In fact the history of one belongs to the other. It is fitting, therefore, that we should make a good appearance on the occasion of the Reunion, and we urgently beg that you will send your delegates to meet in Memphis, and all go in a body to Houston, and let us have a banner inscribed, "TENNESSEE AND TEXAS."

We also request, that you signify your approval of securing a place for "Headquarters" for the State, as well as hotel accommodations for all who desire it. Dinkins, A. J. Vaughan, W. F. Taylor, and J. P. Young. The Committee is comprised of comrades Jas.

SKETCH OF THE ALAMO.

The story of the Alamo is the most awful on record, concerning the sacrifice of American soldiers. On the morning of March 6th, 1836, Santa Anna overpowered the gar.ison and put to death the occupants. It is briefly as follows:

ing his conquests all over Mexico, until Texas alone "During this time Santa Anna had been extendheld out against his power, and in favor of a Republic. Texas he now determined to conquer, and at the head of his victorious army, he rapidly marched to San Antonio. A detachment of his troops reached the heights of the Alamo overlooking the city on Febuary 22d, 1836, when Colonel W. B. Travis, with one hundred and forty-five effective men, retired to the Alamo.

Santa Anna's army arrived Febuary 22d, and he appeared next day bearing the red flag, which he dieplayed from the tower of the Cathedral in plain sight of the Alamo. He then sent a summons to the Texans to surrender, but was answered by a cannon shot. Colonel Travis secured eighty bushels of corn and twenty or thirty beeves that day. The second day was of a harmless bombardment

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Confederate Veteran.

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Colonel Travis sent out couriers for reinforcements, saying, "I shall never surrender or retreat."

On the third day Santa Anna moved his headquarters across the river, and made a personal reconnaissance. The Texans killed two of his party and wounded six others.

On the fourth day the Mexicans made an unsuccessful attempt to divert the water from the ditches which supplied the Alamo. That night the Texans burned some wooden bridges north of the garrison.

On the fifth, sixth, and seventh days the bombardment was continued without effect.

Eighth day-Thirty-two citizen soldiers from Gonzales reinforced them.

For eleven days the Mexicans continued the bombardment. but the Texans, being short of ammunition, seldom fired. When Colonel Travis, in despair, proposed to surrender to Santa Anna, pleading only for the pledge of mercy, his answer was: "You must surrender at discretion, without any guarantee, even of life, which traitors do not deserve." Santa Anna's excuse for this course was that it accorded with the will of the Mexican Congress.

Colonel Travis then announced to his companions their desperate situation, and, after declaring his determination to sell his life as dearly as possible, drew a line with his sword, and asked all who would do likewise to form on the line. With one exception they all fell into ranks, even Colonel Bowie, who was dying, had his cot carried to the line. The man who declined made his escape to the Mexicans.

Sunday morning the Mexican bugles sounded the fatal peal. With a rush like tigers the enemy dashed forward, but the heroic Texans, roused to their last duty, did so well that twice the brutal hosts of Santa Anna were hurled back defeated, only to be again forced forward by the sabres of the Mexican cavalry. This time Santa Anna himself urged forward his troops. General Castillion's division, after half an hour's desperate fighting, and after repeated repulses and unheard of losses, effected an entrance. in the upper part of the Alamo, in a sort of outwork, but the fighting had only begun. The doors and windows of the Alamo church were barricaded and guarded by bags of sand heaped up as high as a man's shoulders, and even on the roof were rows of sandbags, behind which the Texans fought as never man fought before-muzzle to muzzle, hand to hand. Each Texan rifle shot exhausted its force in successive bodies of Mexicans packed together like a wall of flesh. Muskets and rifles were clubbed, and bayonets and bowie knives never before wrought such fearful carnage.

The picture was indescribable in its sublime terrors. Each room in the building was the scene of a desperate struggle, the men driven to desperation, conscious that escape was impossible. They fought even when stricken down, and when dying still struggled to slay Mexicans. Colonel Bowie, whose name tells of his fearful knife and deeds, lay stark and stiff on a cot. One account of the death of Colonel Travis is that he was shot in the head with a rifle ball, just as he

was terribly enraged at th saying: "I want no prisor of soldiers, ordered them t nel Travis was first shot. across his breast, and stood his neck, when he fell head] vid Crockett fell at the first riddled with bullets. And

PASSED WITHOUT T

Miss Lucy R. Buck, Fron ing incident is, I think, ct served in your record of wa

Capt. Irving A. Buck was Cleburne's staff during the west, and was often entrust portant missions. A short Chickamauga, wishing to a the position of the enemy, Buck on a private reconn

reached the skirmish lines nooga. The night was ve federate picket, and the

He replied: "I am an of staff, and may pass without "How am I to know tha truth?" questioned the sent "Put out your hand and lar," answered Capt. Buck.

This ceremony being perfo ing satisfied, Capt. Buck pas

Years after that, Capt. Bu Baltimore, was conversing some friends in the lobby of ger standing by stepped forw

"Excuse me, but were yo Tennessee?"

Capt. Buck replied in the "Then you are the officer ish lines at Chattanooga tw of Chickamauga, and whom by feeling his bars. I fel same man as soon as I heard This is a remarkable case The experience and know not concur in the conduc yankee might have secured a federate officer. And yet, ho larly situated, be expected t of an army that he was not

thing would evidently have

and have him establish his in charge.

T. M. Murphree, Troy, Al reading the December issue o bution by our North Carolin the Battle of Sharnshuro

THE CRATER BATTLE, 30TH JULY, 1864.

Col. Geo. T. Rogers, now of Washington, D. C.:

Much has been said and written about that battle. Some bold truths of history, in a general way, have been recorded, but full, accurate details have never been given to print, because the participants who only know much of the matter from observation and experience have not been writing.

I was attached to "Mahone's Old Brigade." He commanded, really, a division at the time, and for many months before. The brigade was under the command of Col. W., afterward made a brigadier, being the oldest colonel of the army, and we had for several months before the Crater explosion been doing duty on the outside of the trenches with his com mand as flankers." We were engaged in protecting the main line of supply to Gen. Lee's Army, the Weldon Railroad, and rarely a week passed that we were not moved out to push off the attacking enemy or to re.ake and re-establish the broken line of the railroad of such vital importance. Many men had been lost, killed, and wounded in those oft-repeated conflicte, and, in truth, the command had been very nearly "frazzled out "-to use a vulgarism-and no recruits, having their choice, would enlist in it. command.

The brigade of five regiments could not always report for duty more than one thousand men, the casualties were so great and frequent. The worn-out command that had taken part in every skirmish, as we called them, on the railroad, was brought to notice a little after the Crater Battle because of its thin ranks, and was sent to take charge of the line between. the two rivers, James and Appomattox, that had been held by pickets-a recruting division of perhaps five thousand men. Yet it is a fact that that line was held by this thin brigade for months before the march to surrender. But when the mine explosion Bounded deep, low, and rumbling, as we read of earthquakes, on the 30th of July, 1864, the brigade was on the extreme right and three or four miles from the disaster, outside the trenches, except about one half of our regiment, the Sixth Virginia, that was on the picket line.

Just as the day began to dawn came that low, deep, quivering, ominous sound. I had stretched myself on a board, raised a little, under an old cart shed that had been bored and splintered again and again by the enemy's batteries in the front, on the right, and on the left, hoping that in the quiet, all along the line just then reigning, I might catch a short nap.

The thunderous explosion shook me from the board, and I leaped to my feet to find its cause.

The rumbling was yet to be heard; and knowing that mining and counter-mining had been going on, the cause was soon determined. In the course of an hour or more, a courier rode to brigade headquarters, and in a very few moments the order ran around to "fall in, fall in quietly, men; and under a guide we started for the scene of action and disaster by a circuitous and somewhat hidden approach, to avoid as much as possible the outlooks of the enemy.

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By a zigzag, covered way, pretty safe from shot, we drew up in front of the broken Confederate line. We entered the ravine to avoid observation-and for

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shelter-almost directly opposite the Crater proper. As we entered that natural ravine from the artificial zigzag way, we met the division commander, Gen. Mahone, who gave orders to each commanding officer of a regiment, as we passed, to move up the ravine about the front of his brigade. I was on the right, and, therefore, front of the brigade.

"And then, sir," was the General's order, "halt your right front, and move up and down the line, and give the order softly that no shot is to be fired until after the men are in the broken trenches. Fix your bayonets, and await the order to forward. Let your men understand that it is only forward,' and with cold steel."

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Let me say that such orders were not often given. They were not often necessary. We looked around and saw that there must be no failure. There was no second line, as the enemy thought, between them and the city of Petersburg; only some scattered artillery had been brought into position in the rear.

If we broke-failed to retake and re-establish the broken line-the enemy could march without strong check to the capture of the city. I was informed by the General, as I moved up the ravine, that a Georgia brigade would follow directly and form on my right, then an Alabama brigade would move to the right of Georgia, and in that way the whole broken line would be covered, recaptured, and re-established at one rush.

But alas! plans and purposes rarely go as designed. The enemy, who had held the line since 5:30 A.M., were very restless. The explosion was a success, and they were in possession of the line by a frontage of at least three or four brigades. Those then in the trenches, unfortunately for any final or lasting success, were negroes, and many of them were under fire for the first time. Several of those captured had been owned by white men of the adjoining county, and had been gathered from the fields in a recent Federal cavalry raid.

By whose order such an arrangement was made I do not venture to say. There was disagreement among the Federal authorities, and it was soon found that those colored troops were only ready for slaughter. They were led by white officers; one a colonel, held position on the right of the Crater, and in our front. He was a very gallant man, and used all the means at his command to induce his regiment to charge from the broken line he held to the heights in his front; but his gallaxt men, whom history tells us "fit nobly," were not ready or willing to follow him from those sheltering trenches. Yet how safe they were. There was a double line of ditch at least four feet deep, and as wide, with a heavy line of earthwork between them six to eight feet in height, and impenetrable to shot or shell. The front line, now their rear, was capped by heavy, thick sandbags, through the little ports of which our men had fired while in possession, and did again as soon as regained. We boys who had never fought "behind any dirt" thought it was "just splendid," yet rashness lost for us several men after the recapture.

But the efforts of the colonel referred to were of so energetic a character, and so great his encouragement by command and example, it was thought by our general, Mahone, that he might induce his men to charge. He seized his colors, sprang over the pro

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