264 Southern Historical Society Papers.
Maury makes abundantly evident. On the other hand, General Maury has an excellent record from the day he left West Point until the present time. In 1859 he compiled the tactics for mounted rifle- men, which for many years afterward were followed by the United States cavalry. A Virginian and a devoted Southerner, he took his place with his own people in a war that he had ho hand in pro- voking. After the surrender and the restoration of the imperiled Union he returned at once to peaceful pursuits, and, among other occupations, organized and conducted the Southern Historical So- ciety. Ten years later he gave to the national war records' office the vast and valuable collection of historical material which the society had accumulated. In 1879 General Maury set on foot the movement for the development and coherent organization of the militia of the country, and has ever since been one of the most active members of the executive committee of the National Guard Association of America.
In a word, General Maury is as devoted and patriotic a citizen and as genuine a representative of a class, to-day, as is his dis- tinguished correspondent, General Colby. He compressed into a single sentence the feeling of all the brave and honorable men, who, like him, fought in defence of their profound convictions when he wrote to General Colby and said : " When next we fight, General, it will be side by side."
It is pleasant and reassuring to read such letters as were inter- changed between these two gallant survivors of the war of thirty years ago. The return to General Maury of the tattered Confed- erate flag that floated over his headquarters constitutes only the ve- hicle for an utterance of sentiments that do honor to American man- hood. Such restorations have been frequent during the past twenty years, and in every instance they have been productive of the hap- piest results. They have brought out the fact that gallant men are very much alike in every quality that goes to make good citizens, and they show that the glory and perpetuity of the Union stand in no peril at the hands of those who took up arms for the Confed- eracy in 1 86 1.
WASHINGTON, D. C., December 18, 1891. General DABNEY H. MAURY, Richmond, Va.:
SIR: I present you herewith the Confederate flag, which, was taken April 12, 1865, at Mobile, Ala., on the surrender of that city to the
