States. Having passed almost his whole life at the National Observatory at Washington, he was himself well-known to scores of navy officers. These circumstances, considered together with his position as Staff-officer of the General second in command of the army then at Vicksburg; the immediate, active, and persistent search made for him; the cordial interest evinced by General Grant, Admiral Porter, Captain Breeze, and other officers of the Federal Service, in the investigation thus made about his fate, combine to make the mystery which enshrouds it as extraordinary as it has been inexplicable; while the beautiful traits, the fine intellect, the excellent attainments, and the gallant yet gentle and polite bearing of the young man, invest it, to all who know him, with a peculiar and most painful sadness.
"His parents are now in the decline of life. Exiles from their homes, they are borne down by this mysterious sorrow. If there be any one living who knows facts relative to the time and manner of young John Maury's death, we beg such an one to make them known. Let not this cruel silence be longer kept."
This appeal was made by General Maury through the columns of the ' in 1867. It was immediately copied into many Southern papers, among others by the Mobile Advertiser and Register, which says:—
"We published a week ago an article from the Richmond Whig upon the subject of the mysterious disappearance, at Vicksburg, in January, 1863, of Lieutenant John Herndon Maury, of the Confederate Army, a son of Commodore M. F. Maury, at that time serving upon the staff of his relative, Major-General Dabney H. Maury.
"On the day when that article appeared—that is, on Sunday last—a stranger called at the office of this paper and stated that he had some information upon the subject of the mysterious disappearance of the young officer.
"This gentleman gave his name as W. H. Harris, of Louisiana, formerly in the Confederate service as a scout, under the orders of General Stephen D. Lee.
"None of the editorial corps of the Advertiser and Register were in when Mr. Harris called. A memorandum of the information given by him was hastily taken by one of the clerks of the office. It is very imperfect and unsatisfactory.
