trial this heroic young patriot displayed undaunted heroism, devoted zeal, and steadfast loyalty. He was captured in the early summer of 1864 at Lynchburg, Ohio, and taken to Camp Chase, where he was held until the close of the war.
Comrade Mahood was married in 1868 to Margaret J. Colman, of Deepwater. He was successful in his business life, having been engaged in mercantile business for nearly fifty years, until his death, and had been located in many places: Oak Hill, Deepwater. Berkeley, Victor, and Ansted, W. Va., towns near New River, where his energetic and industrious life was crowned with success. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and granddaughter.
FLORA ADAMS DARLING.
[The meed for the restoration of the union of our States is due no less to the tender charity of American womanhood than the fine nobility of American manhood. There never was a battle for which women did not suffer most, and a peace never followed that women did not most rejoice. The first to nurse the wounded and to soothe the dying soldier, they were the first to deck his grave with flowers. They were the first to organize for the relief of the destitute left stranded by the ebb of the bloody tide, the first to take a step and to make a mark to perpetuate the memory of the patriot. These prefatory remarks are most fitting in the tribute here made.]
Flora Adams Darling was born of New England parents, of one of the nation's most famous families, being a lineal descendant of John Quincy Adams. The wife of a Southern soldier, she was true to him in life and revered his memory dead. In her warm heart the South and North were wedded anew, and the best of her bright and beautiful life was almost passionately devoted to the restoration of mutual good feeling between Northern and Southern soldiers and the stirring of common pride in the bravery of the men of both sides.
MRS. FLORA ADAMS DARLING.
Flora Adams, the daughter of Harvey and Nancy Dustin Adams, was born in Lancaster, N. H., July 25, 1840; and died January 6, 1910, in New York City. She was married March 12, 1860, to Edward Irving Darling, only son of G. Irving and Marie Dumas La Fitte Darling, of Louisiana. Soon after her marriage Fort Sumter was fired on. Young Darling at once returned to the South, leaving his young bride behind. Not long thereafter he met Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, a member of President Davis's Cabinet, and through his influence obtained an appointment in the Confederate army. In one of the early engagements in the South Colonel Darling was wounded. Owing to the influence of the Adams family, it was arranged that Mrs. Darling be sent under a flag of truce through the Confederate lines. General Burnside was then in command of the Union forces on the south side of the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg, and General Lee on the north side of the river, or at Fredericksburg. Just before the great battle at Fredericksburg Mrs. Darling was received by General Lee and sent South to her husband. She nursed him through his illness, and subsequently devoted much time to nursing Confederate soldiers, her early prejudices against the South having become dissipated as soon as she knew the Southern people. Subsequent to this Colonel Darling was transferred to the blockade service, and on one occasion, when attempting to run the blockade of the Mississippi River with a vessel loaded with cotton bound for Bermuda, the vessel was fired on by the shore batteries of the Federal forces and was sunk, the gallant Darling going down with the vessel. When apprised of the fact of her husband's death, Mrs. Darling applied for the protection of a flag of truce that she might return to her parents in the North, which was arranged between Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury, commander of the Confederate forces at Mobile, Ala., and General Butler, commander of the Federal forces in New Orleans. Soon the flag of truce vessel arrived at Hitchcock's Landing, about six miles above New Orleans. Two hours thereafter a Federal sergeant boarded the vessel, demanded claimant's key to her trunk, and informed her that he had orders to seize her and her trunk, and showed an order from Gen. James A. Bourne, provost marshal, to that effect. Claimant was put in prison, where she remained eight days, when she managed to escape. Securing the assistance of the English consul and other influential friends, she was granted a parole, and in a few days thereafter she was sent on board the Baltic, an old government transport loaded with four hundred and six sick soldiers, and sent to New York. Her steamer trunk with its valuables was never recovered.
Soon after reaching her New England home Mrs. Darling hastened to Washington and laid before President Lincoln the fact of the unjust confiscation of her property. He had her case investigated and promised that amends and restitution should be made. The President's death prevented the carrying out of this just purpose. Her case was so seriously retarded that it took thirty-five years by eminent counsel through the courts and Congress before it was won and she was reimbursed. The case to many had become hopeless, but through the undaunted perseverance of her last attorney. Judge William B. Matthews, of Washington (a Virginian), who remained her devoted friend to the last of her lovely life, it was finally won. The hardships and incidental expense were great, and it came too late for the recipient to get much benefit from it.
Mrs. Darling loved the people of the South. Endowed with a brilliant intellect and blessed with a heart overflowing with affection, she never missed an opportunity, and many a one
