This page has been validated.
270
Southern Historical Society Papers.
that was the important matter. He certainly was a lightning cavalier.
What struck me in him, besides his gallant and genial courtesy, was his professional esprit. He wanted to accomplish something useful and honorable to his country and himself upon laudable principle. He did: but how different was his grand career in arms from what he then anticipated!
General Joseph E. Johnston once said to me, in Abingdon, that "the lot of Polk, Jackson, and Stuart was more fortunate than that of their survivors." They, at least, escaped the horrors of the spurious peace of Appomattox.
Benj. Blake Minor.
Richmond, February 25, 1901.
