48 Southern Historical Society Papers.
comrades were set up against trees and given the farewell hand of fellowship, and never heard of again when a recollections of these sufferings comes back to me, and I think how much of them could have been avoided had Colonel Scott realized his duty as he looked on as " idle witness " at that forks-of-the-road point on July n, 1861, the tears drop down my cheek, and I feel that Colonel Scott was most grievously at fault. Let no one think for one moment that I impugn in the least degree the courage of Colonel Scott. That is not my purpose, for I never knew him, or anything of his personal characteristics. But I do say that Colonel Scott failed that day to realize what his duty was. He literally obeyed orders, when he should have realized and known by the intuition of a soldier, that his duty was to throw his orders to the winds and strike the enemy in his front and their rear and die, if need be, in saving the day.
In another communication at some convenient season, with the permission of the Dispatch, I will say more of Rich mountain and its consequences.
C. T. ALLEN, Formerly of Lunenburg county, Va,
[From the Richmond, Va , Dispatch, November 12, 1899.]
THE FIFTEENTH VIRGINIA.
Composed of Richmond, Henrico and Hanover Boys.
CAREER OF THIS GALLANT REGIMENT.
Incidents of the Capture of Harper's Ferry and the Bloody Battle of Sharpsburg- Colonel Vance and " Molly Cottontail."
I want to tell what I know about the part taken in the Sharpsburg campaign by the 15th Virginia Infantry, whose rifles cracked from Bethel to Appomattox.
There were eight companies in the regiment, organized and com- posed of men from Richmond and vicinity to-wit: Company A, Church Hill, city; Company B, Virginia Life Guard, city; Company C, Patrick Henry Rifles, Hanover; Company D, Old Dominion Guard, city; Company E, Ashland Grays, Hanover; Company G,
