Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-05-12
Mr.. and Mrs. Wilkins
Golden Wedding.


Golden Wedding) of my good friend
Tom Wilkins and his wife. A little
later l received letter from his hand
some, whole-souled, hospitable daughter
to come up, take supper with her, go
out to her fathers with her and tell
the good people of her fathers war
record. For while we did not belong
to the same regiment, he being in the
1lth and in the 18th, we were both IN
the Army of Northern Virginia, under
the immortal Lee, | could not resist
this invitation, as I greatly desire to
honor any of my old comrades by talk
ing of the part they played in the
brave old days of '6l and '65.
| arrived on the grounds early and
found a goodly crowd already as
sembled. among others my old comrade
Gus Mcdonald, who served with me IN
that grand old company known as
Company A. 10Th Miss" Tom was
in full feather, and bis wife is one OF
the handsomest old ladies l ever saw
right close to Sallie. had appointed
Tom as Major on my staff and asked
him why he had not gotten his uniform
so as to have worn it on this occasion.
But he said he had very few uniforms
during the war, and were he to have
worn the uniform like he did in the
war, he would have had to have kept
his face to the crowd all the time as
his pants were generally ventilated in
the back He was dressed up about as
well as | ever saw him, collar of his
shirt too small but tied with good
stout string, and he was as happy as II
he had on broadcloth. | think the war
must have helped Tom, for | don't
think he was ever very far away from
home before the war broke out, as he
told me his good wife was raised in a
half mile of him, and she said that she
rackoned it must have been three or
four miles from his house, and | said
"Of course you were all scnoolmates'
and she said "No." So suppose. Tom
never got out of his back yard, and /
really believe that the first pair Of
pants he ever wore WAS when he Went
to the army for as Bill Arp says,
"When calico strikes a boy he washes
his neck and ears and puts little per
fume on himself without being told. "
At any rate, he was not long in finding
her after the war, for they were mar
red the 10Th of May, '66, and as
Grandma used to say, "When Tom
married this good lady he certainly mao
on the Silver Slipper"
Tom had learned to forage during
the war. and as the Yankee govern
ment was taking all the cotton from
US, old Tom must have helped Uncle
Sam gather a little of it, having a
premonition that it would be long
time coming back to US, for although
he got home with the rest Of US IN
1861 with hardly shirt to his back
and no time to make crop, when he
married he dropped one hundred TWEEN
ty dollar gold pieces in his wife's lap
as a bridal present. Well l asked Tom
where he got in, but he said ! always
did ask too many questions anyway.
Tom and his brothers enlisted in the
spring of '6l and that company became
part of the famous llta Mississippi.
They received their baptism of fire at
First Manassas, ana was under fire
pretty much of the time until that
company was wiped out in the fatal
charge at Gettysburg. General
Stephen D. Lee wrote an article on the
Prairie Guards few years before his
death, and stated that out of twenty
nine men that reported for duty on
that fateful day, only one-John Nor
gan-of our county, answered the roll
call the next morning. The rest of
them were killed and wounded. The
wilkins immortalized themselves on
that day, for two Of them were shot
dead and Tom badly wounded.
This is the record chat any family
might be proud Of, and | have always
been so proud Of the record that the
Wilkins boys made, both in war and IN
peace, that when John Cayett got to
courting one of the Wilkins girls and
his auto broke down, | told him to
come and get mine, and never to give
up the drive, that / wanted him TO be
like the old Cumberland preacher we
had once, when holding protracted
meeting in the summer he would sing
OUT Don't fan the mourners, y
Tom Wilkins and his wife have done
great things for the country and srate,
for they have raised six boys and one
girl that are an honor to any county
and state in the Union, and any couple
who have done this, thereby establish
ing nucleus for one-half dozen excel
lent families, deserves well Of this
country. Madame de Stael once asked
the great Napoleon what woman de-
served the thanks of France the most,
and Napoleon replied; The woman
/