Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 6.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[129] offering of love and patriotism from many fair ladies of your city. In July, 1861, this battery had taken its place under the knightly banner of Wade Hampton; and during the four years that followed, it shared the hardships and toils, the triumphs and disappointments of the immortal Army of Northern Virginia. When the end came in April, 1865, its survivors returned with one great consolation in defeat. They were conscious they had done their whole duty — to the last man and to the last hour of the great conflict.

The battery left South Carolina with Stepen D. Lee as its first commander, and after his promotion it fell to my lot to command it. During this latter period it became known in army orders, from convenience of designation, as “Hart's battery.” After the close of the campaign of 1864, the command devolved upon Captain E. L. Halsey, one of its first veterans from your old company, and a battle-trained lieutenant of the battery. It was not my fortune to remain with it to the end. During its eventful career, the guidon was borne by Louis Sherfesee, until his sterling worth and gallantry placed him in the line of promotion in the ordnance department.

Of its Lieutenants, Horsey, Hamilton, Marshall, Bamberg and Adams, and of its rank and file, I need only say that their record is known to you and to the State.

I have been commissioned by the surviving remnant of those faithful men to place in your hands, Captain Smyth, and that of your gallant old corps, this sacred relic of our past history. We know that it could not find worthier or more faithful guardians. We cannot give it away, for we want our children and grand-children to feel that they too have a property in the history of which it forms a part. It now being almost in a state of orphanage, and as you constitute its nearest kindred, we desire to constitute you its guardians in perpetuity. It comes to you in a direct line of descent as the parent of its organization. We beg that you guard it tenderly for the perils and privations it has witnessed, and the eventful histories it aided to accomplish. Woman's tears and prayers consecrated it to our cause. Brave men and faithful gave their lives a willing sacrifice in following it; and even its foemen knew and respected it. Tattered and torn by shot and shell, and bearing the stains of over one hundred battles, there is no stain of dishonor upon it.

Governor Hampton! Into your hands, in behalf of the Washington artillery, I now resign this emblem. [Governor Hampton here rose and was received with deafening applause.] It is fitting [continued Major Hart] that you should be the recipient of it for those who will be its future guardians. It is not unfamiliar to you. Its history is intimately interwoven with your military history. On every field where you commanded it had a place. Wherever you led it followed. I am sure, sir, that you can even say on behalf of those gallant artillerists who bore it, and of whom you were long the beloved chieftain, that in the hour of danger you often relied upon them; and that you never relied upon them in