of the Fourth Regiment January 1, 1865, and remained with it to Appomattox Courthouse. Left there with the cavalry and was paroled in Manchester, April 23, 1865."
Colonel Wooldridge's wound was a very serious one, and his leg was amputated above the knee.
Colonel Edward A. Palfrey, of the Confederate Adjutant-General's office, and now of New Orleans, La., informed Colonel Wooldridge's family that his commission as Brigadier-General was made out at the close of the war, and that he (Colonel Palfrey) had seen it, but the abrupt close of hostilities prevented its being sent.
The members of the gallant old regiment may be interested to know that some of the records of the organization are still extant.
Soon after the war the officer who had charge of them sent to Colonel Woolridge a box of the regimental papers. These papers were, I think, for a time in the hands of Captain Henry C. Lee, who, about 1875, proposed to write a history of the brigade, but as his purpose was not carried out, they were returned to Colonel Wooldridge. Of course they were highly prized and were preserved in what was believed to be a secure place; but unfortunately, mice got into the box, and did some damage. The poor Confederate ink, too, had somewhat faded.
After Colonel Wooldridge's death, his widow decided to give the papers to the Southern Historical Society, and I have no doubt they are now safely preserved among the archives of that association.
If my memory is not incorrect there were two complete rosters, one, I think, in 1863, and the other in 1864.
A memorandum found among Colonel Wooldridge's papers; but not written by him, of operations beginning at Mechanicsville, March 27th, and ending at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, has been published in one of the volumes of the Southern Historical Society papers.
