The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-01-31
SOLDIER AND CLERGYMAN
Story of Daredevil Colonel Told by
Bishop Gailor.

| - - lSAN'CNt p''NO't SD1 ~ - e'1D 49,
able hand with his pen. The Bish
op was in the city the other day,
and the following comes from him.
1t starts ont like romance and
ends with vindication of certain
brave clergymen of the Bishop
church to which it seems quite I'M
intentional injustice was done in
an article on the late father Walsh
published in the Chattanooga
Times the morning after the death
of that good priest.
/ 1t was in the matter of the vel
low fever epidemic in Memphis
and the conduct of the clergymen
of that city that the error was
made. The Bishop will speak for
himself:
cat the battle of Perryville,
KY, Oct. 5, 1862" said ne, "a
Federal battery did such execu-
ton among the Confederates and
was handled with such audacity as
to provoke the dismounted cavalry
and the artillery under Gen.
Wheeler to a combined assault
upon it. After a fierce hail of
grape and canister the Confeder
ates charged up the hill where the
battery was IN position, and when
the leading men came within fifty
yards Of the guns it was discover
ed that every man belonging to
the battery had been killed or
wounded except the Colonel him
self, and he, a splendid looking
| fellow with reckless courage step
ped in front of his guns, put his
sword at parade rest, and shouted
out to the advancing Confederates:
Shoot and be done with it, The
Confederate officers we're SO thrill
ed with his heroism that they or
dered their men not to fire and
told the Yankee Colonel to get out
of the way. An eyewitness says
the dare devil saluted with his
sword, turned on his heel and
walked off as if on parade.
THAT night oil. Telfair Hodg
son, of WheeIer's staff, as he after
wards related it, discussed the he
roism of this Yankee around the
camp fire and found that he was
Col. Charles G. Parsons, one Of the
most gallant men in the Union
army, whose ability or daring had
already begun to attract attention
LII ulSu quarters.
"When the war ended Col. Hodg-
son entered the University Of the
Episcopal church and when he was
called to Trinity Church, Hoboken,
N. j., he found that his companion
in arms ecclesiastical in that same
place was the Rev. Charles 9. Par
sons, ex-Colonel of artillery and
rector of the Church of. the Holy
Innocents.
"Ten years afterwards DR.. Hodg-
son came to Tennessee and died as
the Vice Chancellor of the Univer-
sity of Sewanee in 1875. The Rev.
Mr.. Parsons became rector of St.
Lazarus church, Memphis, where
he won the hearts Of all people of
every creed and when the yellow
fever visited the city in 1878, stood
at his post with the old-time hero
ism and wen a martyrs death, sac
rifcing his life in love among the
people whom he, had fought for
four years and who to-day cherish
his memory in immortal honor.
I'm these dreadful years, 1878
and 1879, the clergy of the Epis-
copal church in Memphis showed
unsurpassed devotion. OF the five
priests in the city all had the fever
and two Of them died. Tbs Rev.
George c. Harris, Of ST. Mary's
Cathedral, was at deaths door for
two weeks. Five Of the sisters died.
The Rev. Louis Schuyler, of st.
Louis, volunteered and gave up
his life. 1t was time that tried |
mems souls, and we cankAeyer do
too much honor to those who did I
their duty Of all denominations.
THE Rev. Father Walsh, we all
revered, but it is an injustice to
him, as it is to the noble men and
e 4L+ ,f1J t;p,a who