Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1868-09-23
AN OLD VIRGINIA HERO.
VIRGINIA AFTER THE WAR.
GENERAL LEE AND NORTHERN DOUGH-
FACES.
A VIRGINIAN's Talk.
4 VIRGINIAN's Talk.
A TALK WITH PORTE CRAYoN.

Springs to see the most Intelligent
Southern man Of my acquaintance, the
Onion General and Aide-de Camp,
David Hunter Strother, cousin of Gen
1eral David Hunter, but better known
~ his aoraase de eoynqe OF Porte
Grayon." He is fifty years of age,
singular looking man, with Polish
face and struggling white beard, vet
svith two young children around his
feet, the youngest bnt II few months
old. He has a keen scintiliant eve, II
sristly body, pretty well einaciated and
wearied out in the war, and his eyes
have suffered by drawing upon the
shining surface of box wood SO that he
has given up all work but writing and
|sketching upon paper.
The history of this man is in many
senses singular. He belongs to one of
the oldest and most eminent families
Iof Virginia. His mother was Hun
ter, of Martinsburg his father u Colo
mel in the old army of the United
States. Around him by marriage and
fellowship the leading rebels of Virginia
grew up-the Masons; Randolps, Lees,
Curtises, Pendletons. Old Colonel
Strother, repairing to Berkeley Springs
Tor his health, erected there one of the
largest hotels in America. Prior to
that time the springs were used for a
sort of invalid camp meeting every year,
invalids repairing there with covered
wagons, tents, or sheltered by bush
hnts. In this way Lord Fairfax, Wash
ington, Charles Carroll. and most of
the Revolutionary people, drank and
bathed in the waters, and here Mrs.
Washington and the Baroness de Reid
esel occupied adjoining huts while
Yorktown surrendered.
Old Colonel Strother, small, imper-
alive, indurated man, held, by his per-
sonal influence, the county of Morgan
to the Union. He was past eighty years
old his influence extended across the
North Mountain into the Valley Of
Virginia, and he became so obnoxious
10 the rebels that they arrested him
md dragged him to Winchester. His
I-0wn cousin, Angus Mcdonald, put him
in prison pen, exposed to the rain
and vapors of the night, but there the
old soldier harangued the rebel volun-
teers until they became uneasy, like
their officers, and the latter brought
him to trial on the charge of treason.
Colonel Strother's friends were very
solicitous for his safety, and stirred
themselves, with rebel connivance, to
get together the most favorable testi
mony in his defence.
The witnesses, one after another,
deposed that they knew Colonel
Strother very well that he was good
Virginian, charitable man, no Adolf
ZIONIST, etc.
The old man, disdaining to be so re-
presented, though at the price of his
safety, and cried:
A''You know nothing of my sentiments
Sir, if you wish to know my opinions
Ito the Judge, I will give them to you,
signed with my name and sealed with
my seal. How dare you arraign good
citizen of the United States before this
mob tribunal I call this process trea-
son I call you traitor And if l had
the power, I would hang you on the
public galiows.''
The court took a speedy way of get
ting rid of this old trooper, and he was
permitted to go home. But there was
Stonewall Jackson plundering his house;
there the young men whom he had
helped to christen and taught to shoot
the rifle, Wanting their treason. Old
Colonel Strother laid down in shame
and died. His daughter put his body
in a hearse and followed it alone, with
single carriage, across the mountains
to Martinsburg, where she buried him
among his fathers.
Meantime "Porte Crayon" was in the
Union lines, Aide-de-C Camp to McClel-
Ian, to Banks, to Hunter. He guided
the Army of the Union to Antietam.
His services cover all the Atlantic and
Gulf Slope, from Lake Pontchartrain
to the Susquehanna. After the war he
was Secretary to Governor Pierrepont
of Virginia. Then he came to the vii
lage of Bath to rest andpursue in pleas
ant competence his studies and draw
ings.
It was there that / found him, hap
pier than he has ever been, but done
with active life. The hotel is still in.
tact, and Hospitality kept by Porte
| CrayOnS DfOJner-1n-laW. IL Is SUN IIe
favorite resort for New Orleans, Wash
ington and Baltimore people, and many
Northern men are building cottages
there.
VIRGINIA SuLLEN.
I found 'sPorte Crayon" in his Ii
brary, his early oil paintings surround
ing the room, and scattered among his
books were sketches of the John Brow
raid, the most valuable "reminiscences
extant of that border warfare. Hi
library is perhaps the most perfect il
Virginia, in its colonial and local Stat
collections. He is the most conscien
tious designer in the country, but no
so exquisite, perhaps, as barley, bu
barley long ago resigned individualisr
for commerce, and he has made for