The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-09-08
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DEER PARK JOTTINGS.

:
of West Virginia, l am again seated
in our sanctum on the bright sixth
day of September scribbling to your
many readers, and l feel sure you,
and many of your readers, will par
don Inc if give you items of my
observations in visiting and attending
a reunion of the "McNeill Rough
Riders,' at the old historic town of
Romney, on the south branch of the
Potomac, made famous by fight be-
tween Major Mcdonald, of the G. S.
A, and General Lew Wallace, of the
U. S. A., in the early days of the war,
and when we say war, all know what
war we mean.
Suffice this as preface and l will
give ''jottings by the way" on this,
| to me, the most joyful of all the re-
unions we have had since 1898. On
Monday, the Goth of August, we at
! tended the q. \. r. reunion at Noun
! tain Lake Park, and was favored
with that mastery address of Jahu
Dewitt Miller, at II o'clock a. m, on
"Our Country" and at , p. Ill. an
audience of at least five thousand
was held with delight, drinking in
every word that fell from the lips of
that genius of war, the gallant Jack
Crawford, the unlettered poet scout
of the wild and wcoly west. An at
tempt to even give synopsis is i'm
possible.
At 430 / started to meet No. 40, so
as to reach Keyser, where a comrade
was waiting with a team to convey
me to his own beautiful home on
Patterson Greek, some eleven miles
southeast from Keyser, and at 8
o'clock p. III. a hearty greeting
awaited us at this hospitable home,
and the lady who presides over this
home was young miss of some six
teen summers, when we, as Mcneil
Roughs, was often entertained by her
good mother and father on the South
Branch Valley, in Hardy county, Vir-
ginia, and this noble woman is now
the wife of this same comrade, Mr..
James w. Cunningham, of Company
F, Seventh Regiment, Rosser's Brig
ade. To speak of this joyous meeting
after almost forty years, is more than
| can do in a short sketch to a news
paper, but suffice it to say and that
from the lips of this grand matrOn,
the mother of two marly boys and
one lovely daughter, that was the
first of that spartan band that she
loved to speak of to her husband as
her soldier boys, l should be the
first to visit her in all the years that
has passed since those terrible days
of strife and bloodshed.
From here this same kind friend,
mine host, took me to Romney, stop
ping on the night of the Both at the
home of my comrade, Mr.. George H.
johnson, on the South Branch, and
there greeted by his wife, and she the
sister of the lamented Captain George
Sheets, of the famous Ashby's Cav
airy. Then again across the river to
the home of my warm personal
| friend, Nj. Frank Turley After a
hearty shaking of hands with the
lady of this house, who l knew as a
girl, we wended our way down the
river over the same road that |, as
one of sixty-four men, had escorted
Generals Crook and Kelly, together
with Major Melvin, of Kelly's staff,
on the morning of the 21st of Febru-
airy, 1S64-forty years ago the 21st of
next February.
Time as it has fitted away could
not be realized that this was the first
time since that memorable morning
that l had passed over this, to me, of
all our daring raids, was the most
impressed on my memory. But
weary you, suffice it to say. At Rom
ney we met twenty-five of our old
boys and many other comrades who
wore the gray and some who wore the
blue, and there in the old Hampshire
Court House we had love feast that
can't be described. Next day, the
LIST inst. we went to Burlington, in
Mineral county, and joined the Con-
federate camp of all the old soldiers
of both armies in reunion that will
live in history, for there we met
Major Hunter OF General John b.
Gordon's staff, who is employed by
the government in gathering Stats
tics on the part of the south for the
purpose of writing an unbiased his
tory of the Civil War, and he and
others gave us grand addresses.
Major Hunter paid eulogies on Nc
Neill's command, and said the cap
ture referred to was one of the most
daring exploits of any war in the his
tory of the world, and was followed
by many of the comrades of the diff
ferent commands, and a closing adj
dress by Hon. Thomas R. Carscadden,
of Keyser, who paid tribute to the