Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/307

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Isaac R. Trimble Camp, U. C. V.
293

Thomas R. Hill, Color Sergeant Richard T. Knox, Mr. Patrick J. McKenna and Mr. William A. Glascock.

Major-General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble was the second oldest and the most distinguished Maryland officer in the Confederate States Army, conspicuously so under Generals Lee and Jackson. He lost a leg at Gettysburg while leading Pender's decimated division in support of Pickett's famous charge. He died in Baltimore in 1888, at the age of eighty-six years.

Major Cary, the new Camp Commander, had an exceptionally meritorious and gallant career in the Confederate army, serving upon the staffs of Generals R. E. Lee and J. E. Johnston. In 1861 he was volunteer aid to General Johnston, was promoted to Captain and Assistant Quartermaster and finally to Major and Quartermaster on General Lee's Staff.

In the late summer of 1861, going from Baltimore, as the escort and protector of his two brave and lovely sisters, the trio surprised the First Maryland Confederate Infantry, at Fairfax Station, Va., by a visit, the Misses Cary having with them three silk battle-flags, which thereupon were presented to Generals Johnston, Beauregard and Van Dorn, and the ladies were given a rousing reception by the regiment, under Colonel George H. Steuart. The little party had come through the Federal lines, despite the perils of detection and incarceration, and bullets, as well.

Following the Battle of First Manassas (July 21, 1861), Generals Beauregard and Johnston designed the new battle-flag, thereafter adopted and carried throughout the Confederate armies: Square, red field, with blue St. Andrew's cross, with thirteen white stars. Immediately, the Cary girls and helpers in Baltimore made the three flags, of finest silk, and themselves promptly carried them to the desired destination. At once their exploit made the Cary sisters famous in the South, where they remained during the war. One married a distinguished Confederate General, who, a few weeks thereafter, was killed in battle. She, too, is deceased. The other sister survives, and resides in Baltimore City, with her brother, Major Cary.

The Carys come of Virginia ancestry, remote and distinguished for the highest type of the culture and elegance characteristic of the South.