to be piloted to Nance's Shop. Arriving there, he inquired how far it was to Bradley's Store, near the church, and learning that the distance was nearly the same as from the starting to his objective point, he asked why he had not carried him the nearest way; the guide, a blunt, plain man, replied: "You told me to bring you to Nance's Shop, and I have done so." The neighborhood road was not laid down. The general made no inquiries of his obedient guide, and lost five miles in his line of march. The same difficulties as to roads have attended armies in older and more open and cultivated countries than Eastern Virginia, and have been the instruments of winning or losing many battles.

MALVERN HILL AND WATERLOO.

A most original and graphic writer, delineating the battle of Waterloo, remarked: "Here a general of division fell; near by, brigades with their commanders perished; soon the grand old Imperial Guard, that had never known defeat, hurled its front ranks into a yawning chasm of earth that its rear might pass over to meet, upon the fixed bayonets of the hollow squares of Wellington, a no less certain fate. And all this, why? A cowboy said to a general on one bright Sunday morning: 'Sire, take this road." Blucher, seventy-three years old, fired with the spirit of war and revenge, falling from his horse, but mounting again with the alacrity of youth, presses upon the scene, while Wellington prays that he or night would come. Waterloo was won by the accident of a well-directed route. Malvern Hill was doubtless a drawn battle because the Quaker road was misunderstood.

It was a fearful ordeal to pass from under the cover of the hills that fringed the Crew field, and face the enemy. I could easily give you examples of personal valor and heroism unsurpassed in war. Of many such, probably none exceeded the gallantry of Captain Martin, of the 53rd Virginia Infantry, Armistead's brigade. And Thomas Fletcher Harwood, of Co. K (Charles City Southern Guard), color-bearer in his regiment, who lost a leg there, and is today one of the many maimed survivors of that fight, has a record in the archives at Washington that will carry his name to the latest posterity. A century hence the Daughters of the Confederacy will be establishing their right to membership upon these records, as many of Virginia's fair daughters to-day are building their claims upon the imperfectly kept records of our Revolutionary fathers.

CHARLES CITY CAVALRY.

In the carefully written and full report of General Magruder, he refers to the Charles City Cavalry as follows:

"The brave and devoted troopers of the Charles City Cavalry were on this, as on all other occasions, distinguished for the promptness, intrepidity, and intelligence with which they discharged their important duties; and to their chivalric and enterprising lieutenant, Hill Carter, Jr., I owe a public acknowledment of the great services he has rendered his country on every occasion which has presented itself."

It may not be inappropriate to remark that this company, to which General Magruder refers, lost the first man killed in battle in the war; for Samuel W. Pryor had been killed in a skirmish below Bethel church, the Confederate line, and was sleeping in his family burying ground in Charles City county, before Wyatt fell at Big Bethel in June, 1861. It also lost about the last man killed in the war; for its gallant first lieutenant, William H. Harwood, who had passed through every cavalry fight of his command, and been engaged in as many hand-to-hand encounters as any man in the service, fell pierced through by a cannon ball, in the desperate charge on General Gregg's brigade, the day before the surrender at Appomattox. Benjamin H. Harrison was captain of this company at Malvern Hill. Magruder thus refers to him:

"The noble, accomplished, and gallant Harrison, commander of the Charles City Troop, uniting his own exertions with mine, rallied regiment after regiment, and leading one of them to the front, fell, pierced with seven wounds, near the enemy's batteries."

This worthy member of one of Virginia's historic families, was a close kinsman of the Benjamin Harrison of 1774, who, when the storms of revolution were gathering, stood at Jefferson's right hand, as Partrick Henry stood at his left, to make the voice of Virginia heard in behalf of self-government. He was a resident of that section of Virginia from whose soil sprang three men who became Presidents of the United States. He possessed in the highest degree all those heroic and lovable traits of character that endeared him to his men. One of them, closer to him than many, had the day before, while resting at Timberlake's Store, tried to dissuade him from rash exposure of his life. But a noble and dauntless spirit impelled him, when it was not required nor expected of him, to lead

the advance infantry regiments, and die, as Armistead died afterwards on the heights of Gettysburg, hard by the enemy's artillery.

The calmness and composure of the citizens of this city through all the, trying days previous to and during the conflict was never exceeded in the history of any people, not even in Rome when in the forum were sold the very fields on which the victorious Carthagenians were camped. From the files of the Dispatch of that time, I quote as follows:

"A distinguished lawyer, whose age prevented him being in the field, exclaimed to a friend when the battle (Malvern Hill) was raging: 'I am proud of Richmond. I am proud of I am proud of my fellow-citizens. I could never have believed it possible for human beings to behave so admirably as they have done to-day. From my soul I am proud of them.'

In the issue of this paper of the 3d of of July, we find the following notices:

Major John Stewart Walker, former captain of the Virginia Life Guards, was killed on Tuesday. He was a gallant officer, and one of our best and most influential citizens. Ellis Munford, son of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, also fell mortally wounded."

There also, you will find a long list of the killed and wounded, and notices of the work in the hospitals, and tributes to the noble women in this city, ministering angels of charity then as now.

The sons they had sent forth with the Roman matron's injunction were returning upon their shields. In habiliaments of mourning they visited the hospitals, ministering to the Southern youths who, far from home and friends, were suffering and dying. The unshaken faith of the noble women of the South upheld and prolonged the heroic struggle for constitutional rights, while their cheerful sacrifices in their isolated homes, providing for and teaching their little children and praying for the absent husband and father, oftentimes with no protector save the faithful slaves who watched over the defenceless homes, furnishes the most unique and striking example of devotion to duty the world has ever known. The descendants of such women will rehabilitate a land impoverished by war and afflicted with unjust and discriminating legislation. When under the guiding hand of Providence her vexed problems are settled and she enters once more upon a career of prosperity, another monument will crown one of the hills of this consecrated city, erected by the sons of veterans and dedicated to the noble women of the South.

[From the Sunday News, Charleston, S. C., July 25, 1897.]

THE SLAUGHTER AT PETERSBURG, JUNE 18, 1864.

There was no Fighting Around Petersburg in 1863.

Some Interesting Personal Reminiscences of the Fatal Day, and those which Immediately Preceded and Succeeded it, by Judge Wm. M. Thomas, then an Officer of Rion's

Battalion in Hagood's Brigade.

To the Editor of the Sunday News:

In your issue of Sunday, the 18th July, Mr. Marcus B. Alley, of the Maine Artillery during the late war between the States, gives a history of the Federal attack upon the lines at Petersburg on June 18, 1864. He writes it as 1863, but that was a mistake. There was no fighting around Petersburg in 1863, and all with whom I have conversed agree that 1864 is correct. Otherwise his description. from the Federal standpoint is in accord with my recollection.

As this was a bloody and remarkable battle, and no account of it has been written for several years, you will, I hope, allow me to give the Confederate version of the battle. Even the Federal official reports have been strangely reticent concering the operations of the 18th of June, 1864, and of the two days preceding that day. General Grant, in his report, says that he ordered General G. W. Smith to advance, and for three days finding no progress had been made, he went himself to the front. This is all he says; General B. F. Butler, who had been bottled up, as Grant said, across the Appomattox, a stone's throw from a part of this battlefield, and who crossed it to see Grant, retaliated the bottling up assertion by alleging that Grant was drunk on this occasion.

Some time ago a new element to me, was introduced into our Confederate version, and I wrote to General Hagood the accompanying version, so as to recall his attention to the facts. In reply he wrote me he was glad to get it; that no report of the same had ever before reached him. Colonel Rion, who usually made these reports, was wounded on the 19th of June, and was subsequently for some weeks in the hospital, so that no official report from him could have been made. It will thus be seen that from both sides the official accounts

of the battle have been meagre, and that a Confederate statement should supplement the Federal account of Mr. Alley.

HAGOOD'S BRIGADE.

The Confederate lines attacked at that time were held by Hagood's South Carolina Brigade, and were those to the north of Petersburg, commencing at the Appomattox river on the west, and extending eastwardly across the Charles City dirt road and railroad north of and alongside of Hare's Race Course to the salient on the lines held by Colquitt's brigade. Hagood's, Colquitt's and Clingman's brigades comprised Hoke's division. Clingman's brigade did not come up until the 19th. The extreme west of the line was held by a Virginia battery on the banks of the Appomattox, and from there to the Charles City dirt road were the 11th, 21st, 27th and 25th regiments. Between the dirt road and railroad was a fort, and to the east of the railroad was another fort. These forts were held by the 7th battalion, under Major James H. Rion. Colonel Nelson was absent, and did not return until the 19th. He was killed five days afterwards, on nearly the same field. From Rion's forts to Colquitt's salient there was a short gap. The forts were somewhat nearer to the Federal lines than the salient, but when on the 19th the forts were abandoned and new lines established south of Hare's Race Course, in the old canal, then the gap was closed and Colquitt's salient became nearer the Federal lines. Beyond Colquitt's salient to the east the lines ran to the salient, variously called Pegram's (who occupied it on the 18th of June), Elliott's (who there fought the mine fight in August) and Gracie's (who held it after the mine fight). None of these, however, were engaged on the 18th of June.

The attack of the Federals commenced on the 16th. From the Virginia battery, on the banks of the Appomattox, to the Colquitt salient, the Confederate lines were there held by General Wise's Virginia brigade and the Virginia reserves. The Federals came across the James river and advanced on Petersburg by the Charles City roads. They swept across Wise's lines, leaving no Confederate position occupied except that of the Virginia battery at the Appomattox. From that point to Colquitt's salient, the Confederate lines remained undefended until late in the evening and during the night, when they were re-occupied by the arrival of reinforcements of Hagood's brigade.