Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/162

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154

George Pickett, who never planted a thorn in any one's life, or took from it one blossom, sleeps alongside of his soldiers.

I have written in haste, and so have said more than I had thought to, the recording of one memory reviving another. And now with cordial greeting and my best love to you and to my people, and to Pickett' s men everywhere,

I am yours faithfully, always,

LA SALLE CORBELL PICKETT. (Mrs. General Pickett.)

GENERAL GRANT'S CENSOR.

Rawlins Warned Him That He Must Stop Drinking.

A Galena, 111., special says: Thousands of persons from this and adjoining States met in Galena to-day to honor the memory of Gen- eral Grant, and to take part in the reunion of the survivors of the 1 2th Illinois Regiment. The reunion was held in the court-house room, where thirty-five years ago Captain Grant presided when Co. F, of the 1 2th, organized.

After listening to several brief addresses, the veterans adjourned to Turner Hall, where the formal exercises were held. General John C. Black, of Chicago, delivered the principal address. It was an eloquent eulogy of General Grant as soldier and statesman. He held that the greatest achievement of his career was the signing of the treaty of Washington, which had rendered war between the United States and Great Britain almost impossible, and which, Gen- eral Black, predicted, would be followed by international arbitration under America's lead.

RAWLINS' WARNING TO GRANT.

H. D. Estabrook, of Chicago, read at the banquet to-night a letter from General John A. Rawlins to General Grant, written during the siege of Vicksburg, which, it was said, had never appeared before, and of the existence of which very few knew. The original is in the possession of a citizen of Galena. The letter is dated: "Before Vicksburg, Miss., June 6, 1863, i o'clock A. M.," and reads:

' ' The great solicitude I feel for the safety of this army leads me to mention what I hoped never again to do the subject of your drink-