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for the pages of your hook.
You are welcome to make any use you choose of my testimony, though I might prefer somewhat to revise it, in case any portion of it should be quoted.
Believe me very fraternally and truly yours,
Dear Sir: I saw in a paper some days since that you were collecting materials for a book describing the religious history of the Army of Northern Virginia.
I send enclosed a tract which I wrote describing a very interesting work of grace that occurred in the division of artillery under
General Pendleton.
I am a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, and during the war had charge of a Church in
King George county, Virginia.
I made frequent visits to the army, and always found our noble men eager to hear the word of God explained, and on two or three occasions was gratified by seeing the truth take hold of many hearts.
But rarely in my life have I seen anything like the awakening at Camp Nineveh.
The
Captain K——referred to in the tract was
Captain Thomas J. Kirkpatrick, a lawyer of
Lynchburg, Virginia.
Praying that your important work, besides preserving a record of God's wonderful dealings with our army, may be a blessing to our deeply afflicted land, I remain,
Very truly yours,
A private from
Mississippi, by the name of
Galliard, was brought into the hospital at the
University from
first battle of Manassas with a terrible wound in the thigh and one in the chest.
From his first entrance into the hospital his manners were so polite and he exhibited so much patience that he soon got the name of the old gentleman; not that he was old really, but the sufferings of these poor fellows caused them frequently, when mere boys, to look like men in middle life.
Mr. Galliard steadily declined in health, and his attendants were comforted by finding that the prospect before him did not dismay or distress him, but that he was well prepared for it. When his end was approaching, a lady stood by his side, with a clergyman.
Being struck with the bright expression on his face, she remarked to the clergyman that she believed Christians frequently experienced a foretaste of heaven before death.
He heard but could not speak, and put out his hand, pressing hers most expressively.
Soon afterwards, recovering his speech, he said, with a bright look and cheerful voice, “ I'm almost over the river.”
Another, by the name of
Thomas, about whose spiritual condition a good many fears had been expressed, and who had been in an anxious state of mind, just before he expired clapped his hands and looked upwards with such evident joy that no one present doubted but that he had experienced at that moment acceptance with God.
‘
Rev. Mr. Duncan, of
Richmond, told us of his being called up at midnight to see a sick soldier, and finding him full of joy in the prospect of his release.
He said: “The first time I ever prayed was when I knelt on the battle-field of
Manassas and thanked God for having spared my life to see my mother again.
Now, I shall never see my mother in this life, but I shall soon see a little sister who has gone before me, and when called to my last account I shall make my report just as I would to my commander-in-chief, without fear, because I have an all-sufficient Saviour.”
Then he asked a young man who was his attendant to sing “Jesus, Saviour of my soul,” and when he came to the lines, “Cover my defenceless head with the shadow of Thy wing,” he repeated them and said, “O, how sweet!”
’
