Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/38

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38 Southern Historical Society Papers.

side, who fell pierced by eleven bayonet wounds, and of Lieutenant- Colonel John A. Bross, on the Federal side, who, attired in full uniform, fell riddled with bullets as he was conspicuously rallying his men for a forward move. What has been narrated to-night must be received only as a private soldier's individual impressions of the action, formed partly from personal knowledge and partly from in- formation obtained from others and believed to be authentic. If the story told has interested or contributed to a clearer understanding of how the battle was fbught and won, it will have served its purpose.

SKETCH OF THOMAS F. MARSHALL.

BY HENRY M. ROWLEY.

Kentucky has been prolific of men of genius great lawyers, great orators, great statesmen. Its annals can boast of a Clay, a Breckenridge, a Guthrie, a Crittenden. But we doubt whether the brightest period of its golden age of oratory can show a name that shown with greater lustre than that of the subject of this sketch. He was an orator of transcendent power, a lawyer of profound learn- ing and splendid ability, and a broad and philosophic statesman. It is seldom that we see a man, anywhere, who had won, as he had, the double fame, and worn the double wreath, of Murray and Chatham, of Dunning and Fox, of Erskine and Pitt, of William Pinkney and Rufus King, in one blended superiority.

Thomas Francis Marshall was born in the city of Frankfort, Ken- tucky, on the yth day of June, 1801; the same year in which his illustrious uncle, John Marshall, was appointed by President Adams Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. His early education was conducted by his mother, Mrs. Agatha Marshall, an excellent and cultured lady, till his twelfth year, when he entered a grammar school and commenced the study of the ancient languages. When about fourteen, his father, Dr. Louis Marshall, procured an accomplished classical scholar as teacher in his family. By this gen- tleman he was instructed in the Latin, Greek and French languages, and from him he also gained some knowledge of rhetoric, English literature and history. It may be interesting to know that Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge, Dr. Louis Green, once president of Danville College, Rev. John A. McClung, and many others since famous,