Among them was Colonel (afterwards Governor) F. W. M. Holliday. During the war there were seven dwelling houses on that square and six of them furnished soldiers to the Confederate States Army. The only males who did not enlist were boys under sixteen and men over fifty years of age.
Holmes A. Conrad and H. Tucker Conrad, the only sons of Mr. David Holmes Conrad, of Martinsburg (now West Virginia), and nephews of Mr. Robert Y. Conrad, belonged to the Martinsburg Company (D) of the Second Virginia Regiment,. Stonewall Brigade. The two brothers were killed by the same volley at the battle of First Manassas. Major Robert W. Hunter, now Secretary of Confederate Records, was a lieutenant in that company and adjutant of the regiment. One of the lieutenants of the company was Peyton R. Harrison, a first cousin of the Conrad boys and brother-in-law of Major Hunter.
Owing to a misapprehension of orders, the left of the regiment fell back and got into some confusion; but as soon as the mistake was discovered the officers tried and succeeded in rallying the men. Lieutenant Harrison was shot down; two of his men undertook to lift him up and take him to the rear. He said: "Lay me down; you can do nothing for me, I am not afraid to die. Rally to the charge," and in a few minutes was dead.
The remains of the two Conrad boys and of Lieutenant Harrison were taken to Martinsburg, and reached there after sundown, and were buried by moonlight. At that time the people of the Shenandoah Valley had not been accustomed to war and its horrors, and the death of these three men made a great impression on the citizens of Martinsburg.
A party who was present at the burial says: "We buried them with their cousin. Captain Peyton R. Harrison, together in one tomb.
"By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
Our lanterns dimly burning.' "
Winchester, Va., March, 1908.
