Litchfield enquirer., 1860-12-27
LAST OF THE BUCKINGHAM REGIMENT l! A SAD STORY

The following brief and melancholy story illustrating the sweeping mortality that sometimes marks the soldiers history, is
 we are assured upon undoubted authority
 strictly true. It is one of those narratives which can be brought to the absolute test of truth. There are enough of living and reliable witnesses in the old county of Buck. |ingham, (Va to settle the question of the truth or fiction of the story of the fate ol the Buckingham Regiment and by the tes
 timony its main points are fully sustained The reader of to-day, who was born in the midst of peace, and has been reared in its sunshine and happiness, will see in this sto. ry vivid picture of some of the horrors of war, of which he had but faint concep
 ton horrors which cannot be exaggerated by the imagination, and which are ever re-
 minding us of the adage that |" Truth is stranger than Fiction" ...
 The bane of history is it's tendency to- wards coorless generalization its neglect of or contempt for those picturesque sud dramatic incidents in which human nature stands forth. warm, breathing, and with throbbing pulses. The historians lose sight of the hero in the crowd--the true material in the mass of "important facts"-and thus what is most illustrative and speaking, ei- ther disappears in the background, or is thrown aside altogether.
 Doubtless the difficulty of arriving at these dramatic incidents is one cause of this this neglect and thus, l think, it is the du- ty of every one to record what they learn, whether from tradition or other private sources. When the hour and the man ar rive, the material will then be awaiting the investigator and composer. However un-
 important and even trivial these brief incl
 dents may appear--however beneath the much-talked-of dignity of history, they can, not be considered by the truo investigator of the causes of events, unworthy of the notice of the grayest; great men and great events thus played their parts, and every new detail is an additional color in the great picture.
 What am about to relate is only a brief incident touching the "Last War; of 1872: but if it serve no other purpose, it will abundantly show the justice of tie few words hazarded upon the deficiency of our friends the historians. Oae of the most elegant of these, in his account of the do- ings of the infamous Cockburn on the Ches apeake, and the losses of the Nirginans, says A considerable English fleet was collected in the bay, near the capes, aud in Lynhayen lIarbor * To meet the emergency, large bodies of militia from the uopcr counties had been ordered down to the seaboard. Unused to the molaran ot the summer season im lorer Iuglaea, those brare men fell sick in numbers Hay ot them died in and neor Noqtolk, and Mt sicF Hst bore em appalling face" What is here geueralizetl- the simple fact stated--my brief relation will illustrate. The authority is lady of Warwick county, aud l shall present the slort story almost in her own words. It was as follows
 * *. *
 I once recolect hearing an old lady re- late all incident. which pictured to my mind the horrors of war more forclbly than all the histories l have ever read. She resided in the old county of New Kent, lying just below Richmond, and her father was the keeper, at that time, Of an ordinary upon main road rnnning east and west. Norfolk was beseiged by British fleet under the man who afterward permitted his brutal soldiers to inact such brutal outrages upon the defenseless women and children of the sea-board--the infamous Admiral CockbprE and volunteers from different portions of Virginia were focking to Craney Island, where the battle was afterward fought and the enemy defeated. The old lady said that these companies frequently halted at her fathers tavern on their way to the sea- rI ,npj,af from one hundred and fifty to two hundred of the finest looking men she had ever seen, thus stopped to feed and water their horses for the days journey. They said they were from Buckingham County, on their way to Craney Island, and boasted of their health and strength. They had heard, they said, that the low country had been called a graveyard, bnt they defed it or any climate to level such men as misunderstanding were proof against any such influences and had no fear either of the British or the chills and fevers. Having made these boasts with loud laughter and high spirits, they mounted their freshened horses and set forward again with ardor upon their journey to the sea- coast, burning to meet the enemy, and con fdent of their power to resist every hostile ipauence, whether in the shape of cannon balls or ague. The old lady heard no more of them for several weeks, and the incident of their stopping had almost passed from her recollection, when, as she sat one day at her fathers door, man upon horseback ap- peared upon the road, slowly advancing from the direction of Williamsburgh. As he came nearer she was struck by his feeble and emaciated appeayance-and indeed he scarcely seemed able to sit upon his horse. He was deadly pale, and bent in the sad dle, as though he would at any moment fall to the gronnd. When he came opposite. he checked his horse, and alighting with diff culty, dragged himself to the door of the tavern. Here pausing moment, and lean- ing upon the railing which ran around the porch, he seemed about to faint. He did not, however, but painfully tottering across the floor of the common room, he fell upon U bed beyond, where, for some time, he seemed so completely exhausted that be ceuld not utter word Every assistance was rendered him, ,and gradually his strength returned, and a: last, his'spcech
 ! His first words were so weak that they could scarcely be distinguished--but by de , grees his meaning was gathered. He beg ged the lady's pardon for lying upon he bed, and taid that he would not have dom so, had he been able to stand or even sit , Hc had made long journey--was com pletcly exhausted and almost dead from fe