The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-09-18

err when Captain Moore again called tC
me and said Colonel General Marina
duke desires me to tender to you the
services OF our surgeons and the use OF
our ambulance
In answer, | said In behalf of Gen.
Walker, | thank General Marmaduke
Tor his courtesy and gratefully accept
the use OF the ambulance, as we forded
:, the river on horseback and have no con-
veyance III which we can transport Gen.
Walkert to Little Rock, but we do not
are provided one
After his death and burial, address
ed the following note to General Marina
duke
"Gefaeydl j. s. Mu1n1aduke
"'General Walker, before his death.
i requested me to see you in person and
= assure you that before taking the last
1 sacrament he sincerely forgave you for
his death, and desired his friends and
relatives also. to forgive you and neither
/ to persecute nor prosecute you. You
/ Will readily understand, general, why
i take this method of conveying General
/ Walkers last message to you in prefer
| e11ce to a personal interview Ihave the
/ honor to be etc,
sssssss '''R. H. CROCKETT
II received no reply to this letter, and,
of course, expected none
Some years afterwards | met General
Marmaduke on an Arkansas steamboat
| We sat opposite to each other at the
breakfast table. Neither of us spoke,
although recognized him at once. At
ter the meal General Marlnaduke came
up to me and said: This is Colonel
Crockett?'
= Yes replied, and you are General
Marmaduke. | recognized you at the
breakfast table
8 Indeed, he said, and why did you
not speak to me?'
ut was our first meeting since the bat
tie at little Rock and | was not sure he
cared to recognize me and so | said: L
have made it a rule since the war, gene
raj, to accord those who out ranked Inc
in the army the privilege / accord to la
dies--that OF recognizing me first
we had pleasant conversation to-
gether until the steamboat approached
Pine Bluff. where | was to disembark
AS the boat whistled for the landing he
asked me to accompany him to the hur-
ricane roof. Colonel, feel very greatly
obliged to you and have wished to meet
and thank you in person.
IL answered: You surprise me, gene
raj | do not understand you. | know
of nothing | have done to place you un-
der the slightest obligation to me-
perhaps not he said, but | have
always heard that, in describing the I'M
Walker and myself, you have always
spoken of me in kindly terms
II concluded the interview with the
remark: General, your conduct on the
field of honor was irreprOachable, and
hope you think me incapable of misrep-
resenting you. | have rarely spoken of
the affair at all, but when doing so, have
simply been just to you, for which you
certainly owe me no thanks"
THAT may be- he said, but few men,
who loved his friends as you loved Gen
eral Walker, could rise above preju-
dice against the man who took his life
as you have done If can serve you in
any way please command me-
ut was our first and only meeting,
though | have often received assurances
from his friends of his kind feeling to-
ward me.
II desire to say, and right here, that
while l loved General Walker, as one
man rarely ever loved another, had the
highest respect for General Marmaduke
as a gallant soldier and chivalrous gem
tleman.n
Joseph T. Williams, Public Admins |
trator Of this county, was present at the
duel with the ambulance, by order of
GeneFal Marmaduke, and acting under
the Generals orders procured a feather
bed and placed it in the ambulance, and
helped to lay the wounded body of Gen
eral Walker on the bed and accompanied
the ambulance containing the wounded
general to Little Rock, where he died
from the wound received in the duel in
about s hours hereafter.-MissouT9 Ec-
cha2l0e.