The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-23
A FAMOUS WAR SONG.
How "An Quiet Along the Potion &C"
Came TO be Written.

VI EOrJidnQ, Me-, as ne lanOe0 me pack
age Of letters and other data. when wa
a prisoner in the confederates' hands a
Charleston. S. c.. a movement was starte
to exchange me for Fontaine, wnom GU
troops had captured. Each of US held tn
rank of major at the time. But the schem
mlscarried, and he was exchanged for Maj
Harry White Of Pennsvlv Inia.
This man. Lamar Fontaine," continues
the general, lis famous through the south
for two things. IL was he who in 1868, IN
dertook the seemingly foOlhardy, but
nevertheless, successful, exploit of carrying
a supply Of percussion caps from the con
| jackson, Miss, to the beleagure1 Gen
Pemberton in Vicksburg, when that com
mander was entirely out of caps, aud, con
sequently, could not fire a gun.
| "Fontaine-who then, as now, was g
Mississippian-had horses shot under him,
and any quantity of bullets fired at him
making numerous holes in his clothes and
equipage, beside other frightful dangers in
| that ter ible experience. He is the hero OF
twenty-seven hard-fought battles. and came
| out of the war minus a leg and bearing
| other evidences of his war experiences. He
| is still living IN his native state, whera, at
the age of 60, he works hard at his profess
sion of surveyor and civil engineer.
THE other thing for which be is cele-
brated is as the real author of the popular
| war song, All Quiet Along the Potomac
| Tonight To be sure, that fact is disputed
but notice in a book of war songs recently
| published he is given the credit which to
him rightfully belongs
But it is not nv purpose to go into the
| discussion of a question in which the public
is little interested; what do care for is the
| deeply interesting narrative of wartime
| epis de IN connection with the poem, as told
afa tnft
These are the letters, Read them yourself"
Thank you, general" And
THIS Is THE STORY:
II appears that net long after the first
battle of Bull Run, in which Fontaine, as
private in Company K-the Burt Rifles
Eighteenth Mississippi regiment, took part,
he was transferred to the Second Virginia
| Cavalry, and at the time of which this mar
rative treats was doing picket duty just
above the head of an island near Seneca
Falls on the Potomac. This was in August,
1S6l--one month after Bull Run. So many
of the coufederates had gone home on fur
lough that the picket lines were thin, being
stretched over vast extent of river front,
anG what few men, compare lively, were on
the front had to do double duty.
1t was here that Fontai0e and another
private named Moore formed a close friend
ship. Moore was married man, and fairly
ldolized his wife and their two beautiful
young children. Moore and Foltaine were
together, whether on picket or guard duty.
They chung to each other. They ,ught
little handDooks of poems-Byron. Burns
and others-and together they would sit in
the cool shade Of t ees or HANGING r 1cks
That lined the Potomac above the Falls of
Seneca, and read aloud to each other pas
sages from their favorite authors.
At this section of the two army lines the
il atC on off hn- cid Of Nl.r i
and confederate, had come to an under
standing and agreement that there should
be no firing al each other while on picket
duty. And bu5 for a treacherous violation
of this contract by 4 dastardly soldier, the
incident herewith related would not have
occurred, and "All Quiet Along the Poto-
mac Tonight" would never have been
penned. give the story in Fontaine's own
graphic words:
we had to stand o post six hours at n
time. That night took my stand at 8.
aud Moore retired to rest. the nights were
chilly, and we usually kept some fire bum
ing. There was a small spring of water
close by, and large fallen pine tree tnat l
used TO sit on and rest at times, after walk
ing my beat, and have frequently stopped
at the spring and bathed my faco when tho
dreary inonotonv of tho still night had
tendency to lull me To sleen: AS soon as
found that midnight had arrived I stepped
TO the fire and threw on some pine kncts,
aud reused Moore to take my place.
HE rose slowly, picked up his gun,
stepped to the fire and stretched himself, as
sleepy soldier will, and CAPPED and yawued
and. while his arms were extended and his
hand G. asped the barrel of his gun, there
was flash across the river and tho whiz of
a bullet. and ne sank to the earth, with a
hole just above his eye on the left side, fl orr
%nlcn nov ed dark. crimson tide. Not
word, not grcan, escaped him.
81 REMOVED HIS REMAINS
from near the fire, where he had fallen.
And es did SO my Gays fell on the tele-
graphic cOlumu of q newspaper, and it was
headed, All Quiet Along the Potomac To-
night And, on, how truthful it wasl It
was certainly ali quiet with me, and with
MIN whom | loved as a brother
II could not help shedding a tear and my
thoughts reverted to his home, his wife and
his children, aud of tine false hood told bv
those whose guest | had been, and whose
treachery had caused his DEATH and they
grew bitter, and a demon of vengeance
arose in my heart, which WIS not stilled
until the white dove of peace had spread
her SNOWY pinions over the whole face of
the land and the bombshell rolled across the
sward the plaything of a Guild.
when morning dawned the words in
that newspaper were burned In my BRAIN
They rang in my ears, and were painted on
every scene that met my view. | put my
friends effects together-hls letters, sword.
hat all-and expressed them to his wife,
with true and perfect description of his
death. Aud VIII ID | stood beside his cold
form and gazed at his marble face and
glazed eyes in the unbroken silence of my
lonely watch | felt what few mortals ever
feel in this shadowy vale. [ penned the
outlines OF the poem then and there, but 1t
as they now appear, for the first were biting
and sarcastic. | read the crude copy to
Ord. Sergt. w. w. Williamson (who was O
fine critic and Lieuts. Graham and Depritt,
of my company, and Williamson suggested
that If | would only make it more pathetic.
instead of sarcastic, it would take better.
II did so, and on Aug. | had it COM
plete, as the poem now stands, and I read 1T
to my nessmates and received their highest
commentator. Igave them copies of the
original, and they recopied and sent them
home, and soon the whole regiment, brigade.
division and army We're In possession of 1t.
MY father, whom ] met shortly after
the completion of 1T, suggested that, instead
of STRAY picket l ought to say lone
picket. but l did not alter It, The ladies of
Leesburg, in Loudon c1uEty, Virginia, put
the words TO music, and used to sing them
for us long before they were printed l
gave one copy to Miss Eva Lee, and one
to Miss Hempstone. Also copy to John
NJ. Orr, who at the time was mayor of the
town I gave coDies IN ,napv Orbarc ,,,b,>so.