gratulate the Department on securing an officer whose high character, wide acquaintance and intelligent zeal make him so emphatically the "right man in the right place," in the work of collecting and compiling Confederate papers.
Mr. Tasker has impressed us as being one of the finest clerks we ever met, one of the most accurate and systematic keepers of MSS., &c., with whom we ever met, and at the same time a high-toned, conscientious gentleman, who could never be prevailed on to alter, or allow to be altered, the dotting of an i or the crossing of a t of any document under his charge. We feel that the cause of truth will not suffer at his hands, and that the whole country is to be congratulated that he occupies his present position.
We have not written these things for the sake of an empty compliment to individuals; but in order to assure our friends that the "War Record" office is now under control and management which give assurance of fair play in both the compilation and the publication of the "official history of the war," and which should make all Confederates not ashamed of our heroic history ready and anxious to help the Department in supplying the missing links and ultimately publishing to the world the official data which will perpetuate the story of the glorious deeds which shed a lustre on the American name, and are the proud heritage of our whole country.
Courtesies to the Society have been received on several occasions from the "Atlantic Coast Line" (through their agent, Mr. Armistead, and Colonel Shaw, Superintendent of the Richmond and Petersburg railroad); from the Richmond and Danville railroad (through their President, Colonel Buford); and from the Richmond, York River and Chesapeake railroad (through their Superintendent, Colonel Douglas), for which we take pleasure in making our cordial acknowledgments. These courtesies are all the more appreciated as coming from true Confederate soldiers who sympathize in our work.
Correction.—General D. H. Maury is wrong in giving the name of his Winchester heroine. It is Miss Tillie Russell and not Lenie as reported by the General. I was wounded September 19th in the fight between Generals Early and Sheridan, and escaped in the afternoon of October 25th, 1864.
Overton, Albemarle county, Virginia.
