Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1872-11-22

have looked leniently upon the hand
some American soldier. At latter
time he was riding with General Scott
down the long street of Iturbide; Gen.
Garnett joined them, and Magruder
drew little back for his superiors to
confer together; white puff of smoke
curled out from an open window, a
sudden report speedily followed, and
Garnettand horse fell hard and bloody.
Announce ball, intended for Scott, had
broken Garnett's thigh and killed his
charger. Fearing another fire Magru-
der galloped to the side of his chief
and covered his body with his own.-
The old mans eyes never dropped nor
his voice changed an intonation.-
"How long will it take you to batter
down that house?" he spoke CURLY to
Lieutenant Magruder, pointing with
"a sweep of his finger to the one near
est, and from which the bullet came.
can hour by the watch, General -
"Then open fire at point-blank range,
and leave not one stone upon another. D
twas done, and we'll done, and those
who saw Magruder soonest afterwards
noticed that he had another bar on his
epaulettes; he had been made cap
tain. War was his element, the bivou-
&C his delight, and the battle his per-
feet happiness. Besides, prodigal,
fashionable, foolishly brave sometimes,
a spendthrift, generous, true friend
and staunch comrade, the surrender
of Appomattox made him an aged man
in his prime, and wrinkled his features,
which had before resisted all the at
tacks of time.
One who wandered far and long
with him in other lands, in sweet sun.
shiny weather, relates how, from Vera
Cruz to Chapultepec, he went with
Magruder all over the battlefelds OF
the Mexican war. The light came
back to his eyes and the fire to his face
when telling of Contreras and Chere-
busco, and Perote, and Molino del Rev,
and the Belen Gate, and Chapultepec
and the City of Mexico. His talk was
never ended ofScott and Twiggs, Wool
and Worth, Smith and Pillow, Taylor
and Quitman, and all the young sub
ordinates who afterwards played such
bloody parts in the greatest of Ameri-
can dramas. Of Mcclellan he told
this incident among a thousand: ."The
fire from the hill Of Chapultepec was
terrible. Fifty pieces of heavy artillery
were massed against my four-gun bat
terry at point blank range, and in the
valley below regiment of lancers were
forming for a charge. Our fire had
been slackened, and the men were lying
down. A young man sat beside one
of the guns, amusing himself with
picking up pebbles and shooting them
out from his hand. The lancers came
nearer; I called to the young officer
whom had noticed, and he sprang
up, saluting. "Your name ?" 'Lieu-
tenant George B. Mcclellan" every
well, Lieutenant; take command ofone
of these guns and disperse those Ian
GERS" The gunners rushed to their
pieces. All the great cannons about
Chapultepec went to roaring. The
battle began anew. Worth was sweep
ing up the activity. The lancers were
routed, and the next | saw of McClel-
Ian he was smoking cigarette in the
palace of Santa Anna, his face as black
as a powder keg, and an ugly wound
in his arm.''
What a book his life would make in
the hands of some men! He once in
tended to write an autobiography
Whether it was begun or not we do
not know-most certainly it was never
finished.
The brave, fond heart is pulseless
now. The form of the stalwart SOL
dier is dust in its far away grave
The laurels that he gathered and wore
so well are faded and gone. Back
from the unknown land no voice will
come to tell of what rank he takes in
the spectral columns, closed up and ST.
lent, waiting the resurrection day.
Yet God deals gently with a soldier.
When he is brave, and noble, and cour-
teous, and merciful, he has those attri-
butes, which assimilate heaven, and,
therefore, he is fore-ordained to happi-
ness after death. 1t may be late in
coming; the bivouacs are right cold
and dreary, we know, for some, but
after the night the morning, and after
the Judgment day the New Jerusalem.
The Way Horace Solaces Himself
The following characteristic edito-
rial article appeared in the Tribune
just after the late election: