The Daily Dispatch: February 15, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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Capt. O. J. Wise.

The painful suspense of our community for some days as to the fate of this gallant young officer, was yesterday terminated by the sad intelligence of his death. The worthy leader of that band of heroes and of martyrs, the ‘"Richmond Blues,"’ has perished from the wounds he received while bravely defending his country, and all that is mortal of a valiant and immortal soldier will soon be consigned to its native dust. We have never met with a more chivalric and noble gentleman, and he was as modest and unassuming as he was fearless in spirit and brilliant in intellect. As editor of the Richmond Enquirer, he conducted that ancient and able journal with a vigor and dignity worthy its palmiest days. He made it at once a powerful and courteous vindicator of its political principles. and increased its time-honored reputation and influence. He was a gentleman of varied accomplishments, a fine scholar, an elegant linguist, and a chaste and pungent writer. In all manly qualities he would have adorned the brightest era that Virginia has ever seen. The brutal and malignant war which an infamous despot has waged against the South has not immolated a nobler sacrifice upon its bloody altar. In him his honored father has lost a son whose filial Devotion must have been more precious to him than all the glories of his great reputation, and the Commonwealth a child than whom none was more loyal, heroic, and true.

We may weep that the light of such a spirit has set in our earthly horizon, but we may rejoice that it rises in another firmament, to gladden a brighter and immoral sky.