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to move as rapidly as possible to Hanover Junction and protect the bridges over the North Anna river.
Accordingly, relieving the cadets, he started immediately for Staunton, and on the morning of May 20th arrived at Hanover Junction in time to save the bridges and protect the railroad.
The celerity with which he had moved, and the thoroughness with which he had accomplished the purpose to which he was assigned, evoked the greatest applause throughout all Virginia.
When, a few days later, the army of General Lee, falling back from Spottsylvania Court House, reached Hanover Junction, Breckinridge not only received in person the hearty thanks of that great commander, but whenever he came within the presence of the veterans of that grand army of Virginia, he was received with the most enthusiastic cheers, which rang down the lines until the sound faded out of hearing.
They all knew what it meant and never tired in the ovation.
And surely nature has rarely fashioned a man more calculated to inspire enthusiasm or evoke applause from his fellow men. Of a presence and manly bearing which even in the sober garb of a civilian would excite the admiration and attract the attention of the veriest stranger, in the uniform of an officer and superbly mounted as he always was, he was the very embodiment of manly grace coupled with intellectual force.
Besides, his name was familiar as a household word to every man and woman of the South.
After brilliant service in Congress from the home of Clay, whose mantle had descended with a blessing upon his shoulders, and whose eulogium he had fittingly pronounced in Congress, he had been chosen Vice-President at an age when he was barely eligible.
Serving his term he had gone from the chair of the presiding officer to a seat for a full term in the Senate, after leading the forlorn hope as the choice of the Southern people for President.
To these civic honors had succeeded a brilliant service in the army, where he proved his merit at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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