by infantry. We were not more than twenty paces from them; and here I was shot through the hat and cartridge-box. I remember this, because at that time Billy and I were in advance of our line, and whenever we saw a Yankee rise to shoot, we shot him; and I desire to mention here that a braver or more noble boy was never created on earth than was Billy Webster. Everybody liked him. He was the flower and chivalry of our regiment. His record as a brave and noble boy will ever live in the hearts of his old comrades that served with him in Company H. He is up yonder now, and we shall meet again. In these memoirs I only tell what I saw myself, as every one ought to tell what he saw himself, and in this way the world will know the truth. Now, citizen, let me tell you what you never heard before, and that is this—there were many men with the rank and pay of General, who were not Generals; there were many men with the rank and pay of privates who would have honored and adorned the name of General. Now, I will state further that a private soldier was a private.
It mattered not how ignorant a Corporal might be, he was always right; it mattered not how intelligent the private might be (and so on up); the Sergeant was right over the Corporal, the Sergeant-major over the Sergeant, the Lieutenant over him, and the Captain over him, and the Major over him, and the Colonel over him, and the General over him, and so on up to Jeff Davis. You see, a private had no right to know anything, and that is why Generals did all the fighting, and that is to-day why Generals and Colonels and Captains are great men. They fought the battles of our country. The privates did not. The Generals risked their reputation, the private soldier his life. No one ever saw a private in battle. His history would never be written. It was the Generals that everybody saw charge such and such, with drawn sabre, his eyes flashing fire, his nostrils dilated, and his clarion voice ringing above the din of battle—"in a horn," over the left.
Bill Johns and Marsh Pinkard would have made Generals that would have distinguished themselves and been an honor to the country.
