Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/222

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216 Soi/t/nr/i //ifitoriral Sori

turning to the officers you delivered a stirring address to this effect: (Here follows what Major Jones says General Mahonesaid.) " I do not profess to give your words, but your address and orders were given with such peculiar emphasis and under such impressive circumstances that the sentiments were indelibly inscribed on my mind. The whole management, the promptness, the vigor, the movements of eur troops, impressed me as being more like the im- petuous charges of the ' Old Guard ' of Napoleon than any battle I ever saw. It was certainly the quickest, most splendid and most complete of all of the actions made by troops with whom I had the honor to serve. You seemed that day to be ubiquitous, superintend- ing almost every detail in person."

A QUESTION OF ACCURACY.

If General Weisiger was right, Mr. W. W. Caldwell was mistaken when in his statement he said, " Mahone accompanied us out of the covered way, at the head of the column, almost by rny side, to our new position; and so was Colonel Stewart when in his statement he said: "As soon as the column halted on the ground from which the charge was to be made you came from the head of the column, di- rected me to have every man in line, and cautioned me to see that no one was left skulking in the covered way;" and so was Courier Jas. H. Blaktmore, "well known in the Army of Northern Virginia as one of the most gallant lads in the service," to quote Captain W. Gordon McCabe's words describing him, when, in his statement made in 1880, after having stated that the Virginia Brigade was formed by Captain Girardey under the direction of General Mahone along the line as decided by General Mahone and "was kept at its post with bayonets fixed and ready to charge," he said, "at this moment I could* not have been more than two feet from General Ma- hone, who was standing a short distance from and a little distance in advance of the line of our formation, and who was then awaiting the movements of the Georgia Brigade, emerging from the covered way;" and so was Captain Thomas P. Pollard, of Compiny B, of the I2th Virginia, when in his statement made in 1880, referring to the time at which the brigade fixed bayonets and lay down to await orders, he said: "At that time, if my memory serves me right, I saw Gen- eral M.thone in our immediate rear and close enough to give any com nind that might have been necessary; " and so was Lteuteai i John E. Laughton, Jr., of Company D, i2th Virginia, who com-