The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-03

With my heart full of hope" I am
 Yours sincerely,
 Mary G. Pickens, state Director Children of confederacy.
 HISTORICAL.
 Conducted byMrs. Harvey Jones About . Famous War Song, .AII Quiet
 Along the Potomac Tonight"
 How 1t came to be written.
 "Yes, Fontaine was a most. remark able character" said General Charles F. Mattocis of Portland Maine. as he handed me package of letters and other data.
 "when I was q prisoner in the Con federates hands at Charleston, s. c. movement was started to exchange me for Fontaine, whom our troops had captured. Each of us held the rank of Major at the time. But the scheme mis- carried and he was exchanged for Ma jor Berry White. of Pennsylvania"
 This Fnan. Lamar Fontaine, contin- ued the Reneral. Ifs famous throughout the South for two things. It was he who in may 1S36, undertook the seem- ingly foolhardy. but nevertheless suc- cessful exploit of carrying a supply of purcussion caps from the Confederate General Loringss headquarters at Jack son, Miss. to the beleaguered General Pemberton. in Vicksburg, when that commander was entirely out of caps, and consequently could not fire gun.
 "Fon. afne. who then. as now, was Mississippian, had horses shot under him. and any quantity of bullets fired at him, making numerous holes in his clothes and equipage, besides other frtghtfui dangers in that terrible ex- perience .sHe is the hero of twenty-sev- en hard fought battles. and came out of the war minus leg, and bearing other evidences of his war experiences. He Is still living, (this was written many years ago) in his native State when, at the age of sixty, he. worked at his profession of surveyor and civil en- gineer.
 .The other things for which he is celebrated 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 rightly belongs.
 But it is not my purpose to go into the discussion of asquestion In which the public is little Interested. What do care for is the deeply interesting mar rative of wartime episode in eonnec- ton with the poem. as told in his recent correspondence with me. This is the story.
 It appears that not long after the first battle of Bu1I Run. in which Fon- taine, as private in Company K,s {the Burt Riffes) 18th Mississippi Regiment, took part, he was transferred to the &c., cond Virginia Cavalry. and at he time of which the narrative treats was doing picket duty first along the head of an island near the Seneca Falls on the Pe- tomac. Ths was on August 18th, one month after Bull Run. So many of the Confederates had gone home on fur- tough that the picketiines were thin be- Ing stretched over a vast extent of river- front, and what few men, comparative 'ly. were on the front had to do double duty. z
 It was here that Fohtaine and an- other private named Moore formed a close friendship. Moore was a mar ried man, and fairly idolized his wife and their two beautiful children. Moore and Fontaine were together, whether on picket or guard duty. They clung to each other. They bought little hand books of poems-Byron. Burns and oth- 1 ers--and together they would sit in l the cool shade of the trees or hanging rocks that lined the Potomac above the fall of Seneca, and read aloud to each other passages from. their favorite au- | thors.
 At this section of the two army lines l the picIxets on either side of the wa | ter, Federal and Confederate. had l CChiC LO QHQSTEIdflulnR ana AKItG- 1 ment that there should be no firing at each other while on picket duty; and 1 but for the treacherous violation of this contract by dastardly soldier the incident herewith related would not have occurred, and 'All Quet Along the Potomac tonight" would never have been penned. l give the story in Fontaine's own graphic words: we had to stand on a post six hours at a time. That night I took my stand at 6 o'clock and Moore retired to rest. The nights were chilly, and we usually kept some fire burning. There was a small spring of water close by, and a large fallen pine tree that used to sit on and rest at times after walking my best, and have frequently stop ped at the spring and bathed my face when the dreary monotony of the still night had a tendency to Hull me to sleep. As soon as I found that mid night had arrived, I stepped to the fire and threw on some pine knots, and reused Moorse to take my place.
 He rose slowly, picked up his gun, stepped to tho fire. and stretched him. self. as a sleepy soldier will. and gaped and yawned, and while his arms were extended, and his hands grasping the barrel of his gun, there was a flash across the river and the whiz of e bull let, and he sank to the earth. with a ApAo JGct dbONO HIS we VII LHc l6IL side, from which flowed a dark. crirn- son tide. Not e word, not a groan es- capped him.
 q removed his remains from near the flre where he had fallen. And as I did so my eyes fell on the telegraphie column of a newspaper, and it was headed. "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight
 And, oh how truthful it was! It was certainly all quiet with mo and with him whom loved as brother.
 T could not help shedding a tear, and my thoughts to his home, his wife and his children, and to the falsehood told by those whose guest Ihad been and whose treachery caused his death. and they grew bitter, and a demon of ven geance arose in my heart; which was not stilled until the white dove of peace had spread her many pinions over the whole face of the land and the bomb shell rolled across the sward like the play:hing of a child.