[214]
to climb a pole his order would have been obeyed, even at the risk of death.
E. M. Redd does not disclose the name of the man from Company G who, he says, climbed the pole.
I know that modesty forbids him. He was as true and as brave a soldier as there was in the service.
He may have gone up half a dozen poles that night, so far as I know; but I did not see him. The writer says ‘Captain Newton took his whole company down to the railroad.’
That may have been so, but this member was not with it. He only had the first set of fours, if I remember aright, when I went with him. I could have mentioned many of the incidents that E. M. Redd mentioned, but it would have made my article too long.
I should be very much pleased, Mr. Editor, if you would publish this communication, for I dislike very much that any member of my old company should think I would cast any reflection upon him, or withhold from him any measure of praise to which he is entitled.
Yours respectfully,
J. Churchill Cooke, Company G, Fourth Virginia Cavalry.
