A most original and graphic writer, delineating the
battle of Waterloo, remarked: ‘Here a general of division fell; near by, brigades with their commanders perished; soon the grand old Imperial Guard, that had never known defeat, hurled its front ranks into a yawning chasm of earth that its rear might pass over to meet, upon the fixed bayonets of the hollow squares of
Wellington, a no less certain fate.
And all this, why?
A cowboy said to a general on one bright Sunday morning: “Sire, take this road.”
’
Blucher, seventy-three years old, fired with the spirit of war and revenge, falling from his horse, but mounting again with the alacrity of youth, presses upon the scene, while
Wellington prays that he or night would come.
Waterloo was won by the accident of a well-directed route.
Malvern Hill was doubtless a drawn battle because the
Quaker road was misunderstood.
It was a fearful ordeal to pass from under the cover of the hills that fringed the Crew field, and face the enemy.
I could easily give you examples of personal valor and heroism unsurpassed in war. Of many such, probably none exceeded the gallantry of
Captain Martin, of the 53rd Virginia Infantry,
Armistead's brigade.
And
Thomas Fletcher Harwood, of Co. K (
Charles City Southern Guard), color-bearer in his regiment, who lost a leg there, and is today one of the many maimed survivors of that fight, has a record in the archives at
Washington that will carry his name to the latest posterity.
A century hence the Daughters of the Confederacy will be establishing their right to membership upon these records, as many of
Virginia's fair daughters to-day are building their claims upon the imperfectly kept records of our Revolutionary fathers.
