The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-02
CHAPTER XIII CONTINUED.

A~ II
 a~an.e .. H.. winterof 1se3-4.
 -There was a sound of revelry by night
 And Beygium's capital had gathered
 then
 Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
 The lamps shone OCT fair women and
 brave men,"
 Byron's celebrated verses picturing the ball at Brusseils on the night be- fore the battle of Waterloo had it's counterpart in the festivities that LOOK place in and near Orange C. H., during fhe three winter months of 1S63-4, and continued without interruption down 10 the very moment when in the early days of May Lees forces broke camp and marched a few miles away down to the dreadful battle field of the Will derness Never at any time since we had been cheered in 1861 on our way to Richmond had our army, at least that part of it to which the Sth Aiaba- ma belonged, seen so much of lovely women as during this winter. For months. and even years. in camp and on the march we had dreamed of rud- dy cheeks, of soft voices and of bright eyes like those that now bea-ed a welcome to us; and here they were, everywhere for miles around orange c H. the Willises the Caves, the Bulls, the Jones, the Pairos the Taliaferros, and others Never were more charming women than t.4ese some of them refu- gees from Baltimore and elsewhere, but most of them Virginia girls; and never did even such women have more en- thusiasttc admirers. Our officers had music at their command, the girls could furnish spacious mansions and night after night did we chase the glowing hours with flying feet" It may seem strange to the civilian that there should have been so much gaiety, when danger was so imminent. We knew the sit- uatlon. A list of casualties up to that time among the officers of the Sth Ala bama, made up in camp at Orange c. H.. showed that the complement of fighting officers in the regiment (4 to a company, an adjutant, and three field ofEicersl being altogether only A. the casualties among our officers had been AT, viz. 19 killed, 2T wounded and one dead of disease, We knew too that the blockade was shutting us in, that with us recruiting was practically at an end, that the North was increasing it's vastly superior armies from both natives and foreigners, and that we alone must stand between these armies and the capital of the Confectionery. And yet, sensible as we were of the dangers that confronted us. the days flew by, with many of us at least, as uaGrr1Ay as any we can count HI all lhS checkered calendar of the past Pos sibly dance In those days was all the naerrier because of the feeling that it might be the last--the dance of death. It was only few days before the Wilderness battles began when grim old Jubal Early, looking on with an elderly lady friend as a lot of young officers were gliding gaily over floor with their happy partners, said to her: Madam, if you have any message to send to the next world, you may give 1t to one of these young men, and he'll deliver 1t in a few weeks"
 The sth Alabama was hutted in a wood about one and one-half miles from Orange c. H., near the house Of old Captain Cave, who had two lovely daughters. The writer was to ride as the knight of one of Captain Caves daughters, Mss Nina, at a tournament which was to take place in A F. Hills Corps (ours) on the 1st of May. IL turned out that I was not to attend the tourney, because the Sth on the day before was sent to the front to strengthen our outposts; but Miss Nina had already, in compliment to her knight, presented to the regiment a tassel and two beautiful pennants for It's flag. On the pennants, one red, and the other white, were printed the names of the principal battles in which the regiment had been engaged The history of these pennants I digress here to tell of, as 1t shows how curiously incidents of the long-ago often con front us in the present In 1896, the writer was spending a few days at the Chamberlin Hotel at Old Point Com fort, Va, and John A Browne, for mer member of Co. ID" Sth Alabama who had married a Virginia girl, and was now a resident of Suffolk, Va. where he had risen to prominence came over to see him. Browne had with him the identical tassel and pen nants Miss Cave had given me at Or ange c. II. These pennants had fallen into his hands. when the men of thu regiment tore up the flag at Appomat' OK rather than surrender 1t as will bt hereafter related. When called Browne's attention to the fact that these pennants had been given to me by Miss Cave he left it for me to de- eide whether they belonged to him ol to me I felt bound to decide in hi' favor on the ground that he had se' cured them and had so long had them in possession. He thanked me heartily