Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/343

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General Dabney H. Maury.
335


[From the Richmond, Va., Dispatch, January 14, 1900.]


DABNEY HERNDON MAURY.




Major-General C. S. Army—Patriot and Scholar.




SKETCH OF HIS HONORED CAREER.




A Veteran of Two Wars, Who Won Distinction in Both—Was the
Oldest Surviving Confederate Officer from Virginia.




Major-General Dabney Herndon Maury, the oldest Confederate officer of his rank in Virginia, died at 5 o'clock Thursday morning, January 11, 1900, at the home of his son, Mr. Dabney H. Maury, Jr., in Peoria, Ill., in the 78th year of his age.

General Maury had been in feeble health ever since going to Peoria from Richmond, a year ago. Last summer he was quite ill there, but his strong constitution enabled him to rally. Death came unexpectedly, as gently and as peacefully as a tender benediction, after a long life of active and honored usefulness.

General Maury's wife has been dead a number of years. He leaves a son, as above, who married Mary, daughter of the beloved Dr. James Brown McCaw, of Richmond, and two daughters one, "Rose" wife of Robert Pollard, residing in Houston, Texas, and the other, Mrs. Sue Mason Halsey wife of James M. Halsey, in Philadelphia.

These ladies are both distinguished as educators and are well-known contributors to periodical literature. The former gave essential assistance to her father in his publications. Among the relatives here are Mrs. Mathew F. Maury, wife of the distinguished naval officer and scientist; Mrs. James R. Werth, and Colonel Richard L. Maury and family.

The death of General Maury removes another of the Virginians of a type of other days. The story of his life reads much like romance, yet it is a story such as that of many Virginians the gentleman soldier, a character frequent in ante-bellum days, when the old Commonwealth was the first of all the States; when the army claimed so many of her noblest sons, and when Indian fighting gave army officers constant opportunity for adventures, which to-day sound like the inventions of the story-tellers.