found Captain Moore, another Captain (whose name I have forgotten, I am sorry to say), and twenty-eight or thirty men, who had been left on picket in the morning, with orders to follow the brigade as soon as relieved. Captain Moore said that my orders would relieve him, in the eyes of General Archer, for not obeying instructions to follow the brigade without delay, and went in at once and drove back the enemy's skirmishers, relieving the train of all annoyance. Generals Archer and Thomas arrived back with their brigades a few minutes later, but never fired a gun, Captain Moore's brilliant dash having accomplished all needed. If Colonel J. Thompson Brown was in command or firing there I did not know it, and Captain Stanard never mentioned it to me then or afterwards, and when Archer and Thomas came back I was the officer who reported the situation to them, as I think General Thomas, if alive, can confirm. Dear General Archer is dead. *Stanard and Thomas and Moore, I hope, alive and well.

WE clip the following from a private letter from a gallant Colonel who served in the Federal army, and has written a valuable history of his regiment:

"I take great pleasure in reading The Southern Historical Society Papers, and consider them invaluable. They show conclusively the great disparity of numbers, and the bravery and great sacrifices which the Southerners made in battling for their principles and for what they honestly consider were their rights. And I take a just pride, as an American citizen, a descendant on both sides of my parentage, of English stock, who came to this country about 1640, that the Southern army, composed almost entirely of Americans, were able, under the ablest American chieftains, to defeat so often the overwhelming hosts of the North, which were composed largely of foreigners to our soil; in fact, the majority were mercenaries whom large bounties induced to

*Major P. B. Stanard died several years ago at his residence at Goshen depot, Va., and a gallant spirit and high-toned gentleman was thus lost to Virginia. J. W. J.

enlist, while the stay-at-home patriots whose money bought them, body and boots, to go off and get killed instead of their own precious selves, said, let the war go on. The men that went from principle, as a rule, and who would fight, were those volunteers who sprang to arms at the first, without thought of pay or bounty. What was $11 per month to the men such as the Zouaves were composed of, many of whom left splendid positions? One of its captains was a retired merchant, worth at least $300,000. After a time we had every reason to be disgusted, to see how our army was used by the constant interference of vulgar politicians, and the wise men and advisers in Washington-the busybodies, who were always handicapping McClellan, and thwarting his plans, because he was a Democrat. Pardon me for this long letter."

EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS.

RENEWALS AND NEW SUBSCRIBERS have continued to come in; but we can make room on our list for more, and we beg our friends to help us, as many of them have done in the matter. And now would be an excellent time for those of our Annual members who propose to become Life members to do so.

AN ENDOWMENT for the Southern Historical Society, the principal of which shall be invested, and only the interest used in meeting current expenses, is what some of us have been long thinking of, hoping for, and planning. When we read of the splendid income with which many of the Historical Societies are enabled to carry on their work, and remember what we have been enabled to accomplish, while literally "living from hand to mouth," we are stirred up-not to envy our more fortunate brethren, or to covet their goods, but to long for the coming of some friend, or friends, who shall put us on a similar footing, and give us the mears of doing satisfactorily the grand work committed to our charge. We have all the time been straitened and embarrassed for lack of the means of properly prosecuting our work, and have constantly seen how we could enlarge our usefulness if we only had the money. But the times have seemed unpropitious for a movement to endow the Society, and we have struggled on, trying to bring our expenditures within the amount of our annual receipts. Our success thus far has been beyond the most sanguine expectations of our friends, and while many similar enterprises have failed, we have lived, and expect to live, even without an endowment. It is clear, however, to any one at all acquainted with our work, that we need, and ought to have, a larger annual income, and that the Society ought to be placed upon a firm financial basis, above the necessity of the rigid economy we are now forced to practice.

We believe that the time has come for a vigorous effort in this direction, and we are maturing certain plans which will test the feasibility of the enterprise. But, meantime, we submit several questions:

1. Is there not some one of large means and liberal mind who will just endow the Society at once, and be done with it? We see frequent notices of large donations to colleges, charitable institutions, &c., and always rejoice when men or women are wise enough to make such judicious use of their money. But we really do not know of a better investment that one of our rich men could make than to endow this Society, which, in the years to come, will hand down to posterity the true history of our Southern land—the true story of the deeds of her sons in Colonial, Revolutionary, and Confederate times.

And if some rich man wishes to build for himself a monument "more lasting than brass," we do not know how he can better do it than by linking his name with this Society, and having it handed down as the patron of this effort to vindicate the name and fame of our people, and preserve for the future historian the material for their history.

Do you know the man to do this for us!

2. Are there not those who will give us handsome sums, on condition that an ample endowment is raised? One friend has offered us $1,000, on condition that nine others would unite with him and make up ten thousand dollars. Who else will respond to this proposition; or who will make other propositions? We would be glad to have any suggestions on this matter. We must have an endowment. Who will help?

CAPTAIN POLK's reply to General Ruggles, in reference to the Concentration before Shiloh, came too late for this issue, but will appear next month.

LITERARY NOTICE.

Scribner and ST. NICHOLAS Continue to maintain their high character for literary taste, and interesting and valuable reading.

HEAD-QUARTERS LANE'S BRIGADE, September 16th, 1864.

Major,-I have the honor to report that after leaving the Wilderness battle-field on the afternoon of the 8th of May, my brigade marched continuously and rapidly until 2 o'clock on the morning of the 9th. At 6 o'clock A. M. we resumed our march, reached Spotsylvania courthouse about 12 M., and at once entrenched ou the left of the road leading to Fredericksburg-our right resting on the road. Next day we moved to the left and connected with Johnson's brigade, and subsequently occupied Johnson's position, our right resting at the salient beyond the brick-kiln. That night we moved very rapidly to the support of a part of Ewell's command, but not being needed, we were ordered back to our previous position. On the 11th we were ordered still further to the left. I did not like this position, and seeing that I could get a more commanding one, and at the same time shorten the line and

thereby connect with Steuart's brigade of Johnson's division, I threw four of my regiments forward, abandoning the old line of works with the exception of the part occupied by the Thirty-seventh regiment on the right. The Twenty-eighth formed close upon Steuart in the "Double Sap" which had been thrown up by Johnson's pioneer corps, with its right resting upon a boggy piece of ground. The Eighteenth entrenched itself on an elevated point on the opposite side of this boggy place, with its right resting on a swampy branch. The Seventh and Thirty-third regiments intrenched on the same line between the swampy branch and the left of the Thirty-seventh, the right of the Seventh resting on the Thirty-seventh, and the left of the Thirty-third on the branch. This new line of intrenchments, thrown up and occupied by the Seventh, Thirty-third and Eighteenth regiments, formed an exterior obtuse angle with the line occupied by the Thirty-seventh, and was nearly at right angles to an adardoned arm of the old works, which ran to the rear from the apex of this obtuse angle. I informed MajorGeneral Wilcox of what I had done, and it met with his approval. With Steuart close upon our left and Walker, of Heth's division, on our right, we occupied this position until the following morning.

About daybreak on the morning of the 12th, I was on the left of my line when the enemy penetrated Johnson's front. I ordered the Twenty-eighth regiment to hold its position until I was satisfied that the Yankees had struck Steuart and were making for our rear. I then ordered Colonel Spear to move his regiment by the right flank to the abandoned arm of the old works above referred to, but before I could withdraw this regiment, with the Eighteenth, Thirty-third and Seventh, to the point indicated, the enemy, under cover of the dense fog which prevailed at that time, struck us in the flank and rear, and succeeded in capturing some prisoners from the left of the Twenty-eighth and Eighteenth regiments. The Seventh and Thirty-third withdrew in order and formed as directed on the left of the Thirty-seventh, while the Eighteenth and Twenty-eighth, though thrown into some confusion, came up like brave men and formed on their left. Thus thrown back behind this arm of the old works, we could enfilade the new, which we had just left. In the best of spirits the brigade welcomed the furious assault, which soon followed, with prolonged cheers and death dealing volleys the unerring rifles of the Thirty-seventh and part of the Seventh thinning the ranks of the enemy in front, while the rest did good execution in rear. It is impossible for me to speak in too high terms of my command in repulsing this terrible attack of the enemymen could not fight better, nor officers behave more gallantly-the latter