General M. P. Lowrey. 365
in her courts upon an equality with her own citizens. I know of what I speak, and my love of truth and sense of right forbid me to be silent on this point."
M. J. W. Washington, D. C., February \ 1889.
General M. P. Lowrey.*
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
RIPLEY, Miss., September 30, 1867.
Colonel CALHOUN BENHAM :
DEAR SIR This is the earliest day possible for me to com- mence the work that you requested at my hands, and even now I am waiting for some facts for which I have written to other parties, and which I hope to receive in a few days. I hope, however, that you will not be detained in your work on account of this delay, as such a book as you propose to write must not be hastily gotten up. For it is a matter of great importance that it be prepared with the greatest care, and be scrupulously correct ; as it will amply repay the labor required, and will not only be highly prized and extensively read by this generation, but will be read with interest by generations yet un- born. For want of all the material to give you, in that which I pro- pose to write, first I will give you a few facts in relation to my own history, for which you asked me. These will be brief, and such of them as you think proper to give to the world you will please give entirely in your own language, making no verbatim extracts from what I shall write.
I was born in McNairy county, Tennessee, the 3oth of December, 1828. My father died when I was a small boy, leaving my mother ( who yet survives) with a large family of children to raise, and with but little means. I was the youngest of five sons, all of whom are yet living. I had two sisters younger than myself, one of whom died in child- hood ; also four sisters older than myself. My mother was not able to give me a good education, and as the first resolution of any im-
- Furnished Mr. Joseph M. Brown, of Atlanta, Georgia, by Hon. L. H. Man-
gum, Washington, D. C. (who served on the staff of General P. R. Cleburnc, C. S. A.), and published in the Kennesaw Gazetted November 15, 1888.
