, .<;,,. 377
[From the New Orleans Picayune, April to, 1898.
DISTINGUISHED. DEAD
Of the Louisiana Division, Army of Northern Virginia.
This interesting address, containing important historical informa- tion, was read by Captain B. T. Walshe, President of the Benevo- lent Association of Louisiana Veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia, at the reunion of the Louisiana Veterans of the Army of Tennessee, April 6, 1898:
Mr. President and Veterans of the Army of Tennessee:
I feel that it is quite an undertaking for me to respond to the toast just proposed to the Army of Northern Virginia, and, indeed, nothing now said could add to the fame and glorious record of that army, commanded in whole or in part by those immortal heroes, the great soldiers, Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and our own Louisiana leaders, Generals Beauregard, Harry T. Hayes, Francis T. Nicholls, Dick Taylor, William E. Starke, Eugene Wag- gaman, Davidson B. Penn, Leroy Stafford, Zeb York, and others, too, all Louisianians, directly in command of the Louisiana troops in Virginia.
I speak more particularly now of the infantry of that army, but to those named should be added such splendid soldiers as Colonel J. B. Walton, the first, and Colonel B. F. Eshleman, the last commander of the famous battalion, the Washington Artillery, and of which the first four companies served in Virginia, and Captain Louis E. D'Aquin and Captain Charles W. Thompson, both of the Louisiana Guard Artillery, the first named killed while commanding his battery at Fredericksburg, and the latter also killed while in command at the second Winchester. These and others, many others, the names of whom I cannot now recall, have already joined the silent majority, excepting only four -Nicholls, York, Penn and Eshleman.
Mr. President, I will not attempt to speak of the record and the glories of that wonderful army, the Army of Northern Virginia. That record is made up, and is part of the history and the glory of the Confederates States, giving lustre and prominence to the soldiers of the South; and I cannot add to the immortal fame of our com-
