National Republican., 1883-04-09
I1Err. Mr1Gs,s nEArn.
Alex. Hunter Reviews Mr.. Yeager's state-
nhent-what n Citizen OF Harrisonburg
Told MIR. Baldwin.
To the Editor.
HUNTERS ACCOUNT.

WAsH1NaToN, ID. c., April $50 the real
facts of the death of Lieut.. Meigs are doubted
and my historical reminiscence called tic-
tion have but told the tale as heard it q
thousand times, and in every respect IL was
corroborated by facts and actual proofs from
the people of the valley.
Martin has the misshapen and bat
tcred-that was taken out of his body, lying
on the mantelpiece at his home, n relic of the
encounter and that bullet came out of Lieut..
Meigs's pistol. The history of that fight has
never been questioned Gen. Wickham, vice
president of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway,
Mai. Scott. author of the Life of Mosby;"
Gen. Fitz Ice, and Gen. Beverley Robinson,
of Washington, can all substantiate every
particular of my account. Gen. William
Payne, of Warrenton, commander OF the
Black Horse cavalry. wrote, over his own sig
nature, a history of Martins encounter with
Meigs for the southern Historical Hdgdsine, and
IL differed in no wise from mine.
Mr.. Yeagcr dcnounces my statement for
two reasons One is that he saw Lieut.
Meigs short time before his DEATH and tho
other that IL is prepostcrous to imagine that
Lieut.. Meigs surrendered, with his two order
lies, to two men. Mr.. Yeager evidently never
saw actual service during the war, or rebel
either, except perhaps through spyglass.
Lieut.. Mcigs did not surrender. | don't call
sending bullet through his foes body sur
render He died unsurrendering and uncon-
quered. Again, this military critic laughs at
the idea of three men surrendering to two,
ignoring the fact that the three had
their pistols in their holsters, and were
all unprepared for any fighting, while
the two had them covered by their revolv-
ers. What would you, or /, or any
man do with pistol at our heads, held by
steady hand and with steady finger on tho
trigger, that would press the fateful piece OF
steel at the slightest hesitancy to surrender.
How often have n couple of road agents in the
western territories captured treasure bear
ing stage, guarded by a half a dozen brave
and fearless men, who threw up their hands
just because the road agents had the drop on
them2 There Is no argument on Gods earth
so potent rs q cooked revolver and IL is as
dangerous and deadly as If a whole battery of
artillery, loaded with round shot, shrapnel,
and grape were trained upon you. Ono man
with cooked pistol can spring suddenly out
from behind bush and capture half dozen
ninety-nine times out of u hundred. "Throw
up your hands. l kill the first man who re-
sists." Who will set tho eXamplep There
is no unity of will. Life is never so sweet
and death never so abhorrent as when his
skeleton hand reaches out to clutch us.
How many thousands of prisoners brave
men as ever lived-were captured by Mostly
Is q matter of record. 1t was rare. exceed
ingly rare, that any man or parties of SOL
diery would attempt resistance when caught,
as the union cavalry used to term il, with
their breeches down. Lieut.. Megs did the
only thing possible. Had he attempted an
open resistance he would have been killed
instantly, without a shadow of chance for
his life He practiced o desperate ruse. and
came near being successful. This war critic
asks Would Gen. Sheridan have issued the
order he did to burn every house for five
miles around had Lieut.. Meigs been slain in
fair combat2" Gen. Sheridan did not attempt
to find out Immediately upon receipt of tho
news of Lieut. Meigs death within the lines
he gave his historical order. This is mat
ter Of record. Calm eyed, impartial history
does not seek to palliate the act. Its
consequences were fearful; and Mosby, who
well knew the circumstances under which
Lieut.. Meigs was killed. gave orders to his
men to hang every soldier in blue who could
be identified by the citizens in the valley as
aiding or assisting in the burning of their
houses. Then began a system of reprisals
that it would be we'll to veil our eyes and for
get. Many, very many, brave and gallant
cavalrymen on both sides were hung or shot
as soon as captured. This, too, is q matter of
record.
The facts of Lieut.. Megs death have never
been questioned on the other side of the Poto-
mac 1t was as fair, as deadly contest as
ever old Froissart chronicles narrated.
There is no jealousy now between the pala-
dins of the two armies. They can appreciate
and estimate justly each others deeds. To-
gether the blue aud the gray might conquer
the world, and If there was a foreign war to-
day quarter of a million of the old veterans
who followed the southern cross through
thick and thin would be found fighting as
they know how to fight, beneath the stars
,,1 at.t,. nftn 4
Josh Martin rode the mare of Lieut.. Aieigs, a
splendid bay, and it was during the last year
of the war considered the finest animal in
Wickham's brigade.
Tho Martin boys, three in number, were
famous for their exploits They all belonged
to the Black Horse. Robert, the eldest, re-
ceived rifle presented by an English noble
man as being the bravest man in the confed-
crate army. Richard, the second brother,
carried the dispatch from Stonewall Jackson,
at Harper's Ferry, Sept. 16, 1862, to Lee, at
Sharpsburg, announcing the capture of the
place, and killed his thoroughbred in doing
so, and Josh, theryoungest is the survivor of
that deadly conflict in which he killed his
antagonist, and came SO near being killed
himself that it was only one of those seeming
miracles that he recovered. l am not narrat-
ing fiction, but naked, frozen facts. The
veracious signal officer undertakes to combat
my history by expressing his own disbelief
Ho has perfect right to do that; but when
he attempts to combat logic by not one par
ticle of evidence he slips up lamentably, and
shows one thing very clearly, that while he
may have been good signal officer he was
no soldier, or he would not talk about such
nonsense as brave man not surrendering
unless surrounded by twenty foeman, and il
being dishonorable to use any ruse in war,
except and solely in the matter of parole.
How many veterans of Grants army must
have smiled over his warlike conclusions L
don't know--every one probably who read it.
Beside Mr.. Yeager, Jomini was charlatan
and Vauban novice.
To those who can be convinced refer them
to the last number of the Philadelphia Weekly
Times, in an article written for the annals of
the war by that scholar and gallant soldier
Maj. Kyd Douglass, Of date April Z, 1883, who
says: "About that time Lieut.. Meigs, of
Sherdan's staff, was killed while scouting,
by confederate scout, and Gen. Sheridan
ordered all the houses within an area of five
miles to be burned as holocaust upon his
tomb"
close my case. ALEX HUNTER.
SHOT AT LONG RANGE.
WASHINGTON, d. C., April I'm 1872 the
writer was told by well-knOwn citizen of
Han. Nn hat Ia \ ..,,4